The Second World War saw the construction of vast numbers of camps to house prisoners of war, and among the chaos emerged some truly remarkable amazing escape attempts. From daring tunnel digs beneath theatres to scaling snowy peaks, each story showcases the ingenuity, courage, and sheer will of those who refused to stay confined.

Amazing Escape Highlights

10 French Prisoners Record Escape Attempts

Oflag 17-A was a German prisoner‑of‑war camp in Austria, which housed 5,000 inmates—mostly French officers, plus a few hundred Poles. For some reason, imprisoning thousands of individuals smart and cunning enough to be promoted to a high rank within the same, confined space didn’t raise any alarm bells for the Germans. The French immediately put together an escape committee, deciding that they should smuggle a camera into the camp, piece by piece, in sausages, to document the escape.

Entirely in secret and risking their lives, the prisoners filmed around 30 minutes of video detailing life in the camp as well as their actual escape attempt. The main tunnel was underneath the theater which the guards had let the inmates build. Decorated with branches, obscuring the guards’ view, and close to the fence, the tunnel was finally made possible when the International Red Cross demanded that the prisoners be given shovels to dig trenches for air‑raid protection. On September 17, 1943, the tunnel was finished, 90 meters (300 ft) long and emerging just a few meters from the fence. On the same night, a group escaped and with the disappearance going unnoticed, another group went out the next night. The largest breakout in World War II, 132 men escaped, although 126 of them were recaptured. Only two escapees were known to have made it home.

9 Italian Prisoner Escapes To Climb Mount Kenya

Felice Benuzzi was a member of the Italian Colonial Service in Addis Ababa when he was arrested by the British. Camp 354, in Nanyuki, 160 kilometers (100 mi) north of Nairobi, Kenya, sat at the foot of Mount Kenya and was “home” to 10,000 prisoners of war, mostly civilians. Benuzzi described life in the camp as tedious and decided to live life on the edge, beginning with this escape.

Benuzzi planned to get out of the camp, climb Mount Kenya, and then (with nowhere else to go) return to his bunk at Camp 354. Leaving a note to tell the British that he would return, Felice and two other prisoners that he’d recruited for the climb snuck out of the camp. Avoiding both the British and the wildlife, including bull elephants, the group began their dangerous trek to Mount Kenya, with only the makeshift supplies they could assemble in the camp. Once there, they climbed one of the most dangerous mountains of the time, ascending to 5,000 meters (16,300 ft), the third‑highest peak of Mount Kenya and taller than any peak of the Alps. Oxygen levels are only half of what they are at sea level. They raised a makeshift flag and walked back down the mountain. After achieving what seems impossible, the group braved death once again to sneak back into the camp. Felice Benuzzi survived the war and later wrote a book about his adventure.

8 German Prisoner Builds Hot Air Balloon

Karl Rabe, a crew member aboard the German U‑Boat 35, was captured and imprisoned in Lethbridge Internment Camp, Canada, when his vessel was attacked on November 29, 1939. Despite being imprisoned on a whole different continent from home, Karl made at least four escape attempts during his time at Lethbridge. On one attempt, he snuck out of the camp hospital while still under the effect of drugs and, barefooted, walked all that night and the next day in the snow in an attempt to reach the then‑neutral USA before being caught.

In his most famous escape attempt, Rabe managed to assemble a hot air balloon in the camp. Using sleeping bags as fabric, Rabe sewed together a 7 × 3 meter (24 × 10 ft) balloon by hand. Unfortunately, he failed to get off the ground, since he didn’t realize that his heating gas was actually heavier than air.

7 The Only Successful Mass Escape From Japanese Prison

Second Lieutenant Sam Grashio of the US Air Force was based in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded on December 8, 1941. Captured during the defense of Luzon on April 9, 1942, the defenders began the Bataan Death March to their internment camps, during which thousands died. Survivors reached Camp O’Donnell, where they were imprisoned and, in many cases, starved to death.

In October 1942, those judged to be fit to work (only 1,000 of the original 75,000 captured, including Sam) were sent to Davao on the southern island of Mindanao and forced into manual labor. By April 1943, only half of the workers were still able to physically work on a regular basis. After three months of planning, Sam Grashio, along with nine other Americans and two Filipino convicts, made an escape by jolting into the jungle to leave the horrendous conditions behind them. With the Filipinos as guides, the group waded through swamp and jungle for three days. Eventually, they met a group of Filipino guerrillas, led by an American, Wendell Fertig. Even after their ordeal on the death march, the group worked with the guerrillas for several months, collecting intelligence which they traded with the Australians for a submarine ride to friendlier territory.

6 German Escapes Canada And Makes His Way Home

Franz von Werra was a Luftwaffe flying ace credited with eight aerial victories and five aircraft destroyed on the ground. On September 5, 1940, von Werra was shot down in England and captured. On October 7 and December 20, 1940, von Werra twice tried to escape and was recaptured both times. One of these attempts involved jumping out of a window on a moving train. After the second attempt, Franz was transferred to a camp in Canada, with the Allies thinking that the Atlantic Ocean would be enough to stop his escape attempts.

The next month, on January 21, 1941, von Werra escaped for the last time. He managed to cross the border to the USA, where he traveled on to Mexico, South America, and Spain to make his final leg of the journey to Germany, arriving on April 18, 1941. As early as July 1941, Franz was spotted on the eastern front, claiming 13 victories and later dying in a training accident on October 25, 1941. He is remembered as the only German prisoner of war held by the British to escape and return home during the war, having crossed a continent and an ocean to do so.

5 German Escapes And Tutors The Dalai Lama

Heinrich Harrer, a climber and German national, was in India on an expedition when the war broke out. As a young but experienced climber, Harrer was one of the fastest downhill skiers in the world and had easily secured his position on the expedition. The British, fearing the threat of spies, rounded up German and Austrian nationals in India at the outbreak of war, with Harrer and his expedition being sent to Dehradun camp.

Though it later became apparent that Harrer had been a member of the SS, it is believed that he was in India as a non‑combatant. After several attempts, Harrer managed to escape the camp with a fellow prisoner in 1944. Surrounded by Allied forces, they took the only escape route that they could, finding a yak and making a 20‑month journey across the Tibetan plateau, in freezing weather, to neutral Tibet. Finally arriving in Lhasa on January 15, 1946, the war was over but the two decided to stay. Harrer became a government employee, eventually becoming the tutor of the 14‑year‑old Dalai Lama.

4 Brit Escapes 200 Times To Meet German Lover

Horace Greasley, a British soldier caught during the retreat to Dunkirk, was imprisoned in Lamsdorf Camp, Poland. What made Horace an amazingly interesting person was not the fact that he stood face‑to‑face with SS leader Heinrich Himmler and demanded prisoners be given better rations. It’s due to the fact that he escaped and returned to his camp more than 200 times for the purpose of getting lucky.

At Lamsdorf, which was attached to a quarry, Greasley met the daughter of the director of the marble quarry, Rosa. Part Jewish, she was hiding her secret by working as an interpreter for the camp. In late 1940, Greasley was transferred to Freiwaldau Camp, an annex of Auschwitz, 65 kilometers (40 mi) away from Rosa. This didn’t stop Horace, who, on more than 200 occasions, broke out of the camp (being so far away from freedom, it had less security) and met with Rosa. Throughout their relationship, Rosa helped Horace to smuggle food and radio parts into the camp.

3 Scot Survives Alps And Starvation To Escape

Johnnie Matheson, of the 51st Highland Division, was captured in Northern France when St. Valery fell to the Germans. He was forced to march, along with thousands of others, across France and into Germany. As a prison laborer in Central Germany, he worked daily from 2:45 AM to 7:00 PM. On his fourth escape attempt, Johnnie nearly made it to Switzerland until he was faced with swimming a river, something he hadn’t been taught in basic training. Recaptured by the Gestapo, the Scot had his fingernails removed and was thrown into solitary confinement 200 steps underground.

When he was eventually moved to a hotel and assigned to work at a factory, Johnnie, now fluent in German, convinced the owner to provide him with supplies for an escape. In June 1944, prisoners were marched into the Alps with the belief that they were to be killed. Two days into the march, Matheson hid in a ditch. After days of walking and now only 38 kilograms (84 lb) in weight, Johnnie was found by an American patrol. With the war still raging, he fought with the Americans for months to the Czech border and eventually on to Prague. After peace was declared, he was given a requisitioned BMW and £1,000 to find his way home.

2 German Escapes And Lives As An American

Reinhold Wilhelm Pabel arrived at a US POW camp in Norfolk, Virginia, in January 1944, after being captured. Able to speak English, Reinhold claimed that he was putting on a play and secured a white shirt and blue dye for his prison pants after being transferred to Camp Washington.

On September 10, 1945, Pabel put on his civilian clothing, crawled under the fence and, after briefly hiding in a bush, walked down the highway . . . in full view of the camp . . . to freedom. With only $10.20 in his pocket from selling his medals and equipment, Reinhold hitchhiked his way to Chicago, changed his identity to Phillip Brick and applied for a social security only 10 days after escaping. Getting various jobs as a dishwasher, in a bowling alley, and at the Chicago Tribune newspaper, the fugitive paid his income tax six months after escaping. On March 9, 1953, the FBI, who had Reinhold on their wanted list, tracked him to a bookstore that he now owned. Despite legal and financial support from friends, he was deported to Germany (or what was left of it) along with the American woman he had married and the children they had together. They were allowed to return the next year.

1 Brit With No Legs Makes Multiple Escape Attempts

Douglas Bader was one of the RAF’s finest pilots, with 23 victories. On August 9, 1941, he suffered a mid‑air collision over Le Touquet, France. Descending toward Earth, Bader was captured when his parachute hit the ground. Upon his capture, the Germans were shocked to learn that this ace had no legs, having lost both in an accident, and with both of his prosthetics being lost in the crash.

Taken to a hospital in St. Omer, Douglas made his first escape attempt as soon as one of his legs was returned to him, though his bedsheet rope and one leg only got him as far as a local farm before being recaptured. The Germans and especially the Luftwaffe, rather impressed by the no‑legged pilot, managed to convince the British to send a replacement for Bader’s lost leg via airdrop. Moved to Stalag Luft VIIIB, Bader and four other prisoners made an escape attempt, but they were caught out by a Luftwaffe pilot who had found Douglas missing after going to visit him. The Germans, rather embarrassed that they kept losing a man with no legs, eventually moved him to Colditz Castle, the place for “problem” prisoners. Despite this, Bader continued to make escape attempts until the Castle was liberated.

World War II was a cataclysm of fire and steel, but hidden in its shadows were a series of bizarre WWII covert operations—kidnap and assassination schemes that could have reshaped the world.

Bizarre WWII Plots Unveiled

10 A Chocolate Bomb For Churchill

Only the most twisted minds could turn something as innocent as chocolate into a weapon of terror. In 1943 the Nazis fabricated bombs that looked exactly like ordinary chocolate bars and plotted to slip them into the dining room where Winston Churchill and his cabinet met for their infamous war‑councils. British intelligence caught wind of the scheme, alerted Lord Victor Rothschild, and he promptly commissioned an artist to sketch the deadly sweets. Those sketches were plastered across the UK, urging citizens to report any suspicious‑looking confectionery. The plan was foiled, Churchill survived, and the Nazis were denied their sugary triumph.

9 Putting The Pope Away

Even the Vatican wasn’t safe from Nazi ambition. Pope Pius XII, who had begun to chide Hitler’s regime, found himself on the hit‑list in 1943. SS General Karl Wolff was ordered to launch Operation Rabat – a daring raid in which commandos disguised as Italian soldiers would storm the Vatican at night, seize the Pope, and then be “saved” by regular troops who would turn on the disguised assassins, killing the Pope in the ensuing chaos. If he somehow survived, the plan called for his transport to Germany under the pretext of “security.” Wolff defied the order, warned the Vatican, and the rapid Allied advance forced the Germans to abandon Rome, scrapping the plot.

8 The Plan To Stop Japan From Surrendering

A group of hot‑headed Japanese officers, led by Major Kenji Hatanaka, tried to sabotage the broadcast of Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech in August 1945. They feared surrender would erase Japan’s identity and enslave its people. The night before the historic address, Hatanaka and his mutineers stormed the Imperial Palace, searching for the recorded speech. They hoped other officers would rally to their cause, but senior commanders had already signaled support for the Emperor’s decision. The mutineers failed to locate the tape, were persuaded to stand down, and Hatanaka committed seppuku just an hour before the speech finally aired.

7 Hijacking Hitler’s Plane

Hitler’s many assassination attempts are well‑known, but the British once dreamed of kidnapping the Fuhrer himself. In 1941 a man calling himself Kiroff, who claimed to be the brother‑in‑law of Hitler’s pilot SS officer Hans Baur, warned British officials in Sofia that Baur intended to defect and fly Hitler to the UK. The Royal Air Force readied a landing strip in Kent and set March 25, 1941 as the rendez‑vous date. The expected flight never materialised – Baur never showed up – and Hitler continued his reign of terror for another four years.

6 Rubbing Out Rommel

The Desert Fox was the target of two British sabotage missions. The first, Operation Flipper (November 1941), dispatched 28 elite SAS commandos via submarines to land on the Libyan coast near Rommel’s headquarters. The raid was a fiasco – Rommel was nowhere to be found, and only two commandos escaped alive. The second attempt, Operation Gaff (1944), sent SAS parachutists onto a villa that housed Rommel after D‑Day. By then the general had already been injured in a strafing run and was being moved to a hospital, unintentionally sparing him from the British plot.

5 A Nazi King Of England

Prince Edward, the former King Edward VII who abdicated in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, became a tempting pawn for Hitler. Operation Willi (1940) was the Nazi scheme to either persuade the Duke of Windsor to broker peace with Britain or, if that failed, to kidnap him and install him as a puppet monarch in a conquered UK. German planners even drafted a plan to force‑kidnap the duke. British intelligence, wary of the possibility, whisked the former king and his wife to a diplomatic posting in the Bahamas, keeping him far from any Nazi influence.

4 Murdering MacArthur

Though it unfolded after the war, the plot to kill General Douglas MacArthur in May 1946 could have sparked a new global conflict. Led by former secret police officer and kamikaze pilot Hideo Tokayama, conspirators planned to poison MacArthur at his Tokyo headquarters on May 1 and blame the act on Communists slated to rally nearby for Labor Day. The scheme unraveled when Tokayama poisoned a fellow conspirator, who survived and tipped off authorities. MacArthur, ever the picture‑perfect hero, declined extra security, but the failed attempt still sent shockwaves through a war‑torn Japan.

3 Assassinating Stalin

Stalin wasn’t immune to assassination plots either. In January 1939, Japanese agents, in collaboration with the Germans, tried to smuggle Russian‑born assassins into Stalin’s Sochi resort. The infiltrators were all killed while attempting to cross the border. Later, in 1944, Operation Zeppelin saw two German assassins parachuted behind enemy lines near Moscow with the mission to infiltrate the Kremlin and kill Stalin. Their plan collapsed when a guard at a checkpoint noticed their uniforms remained oddly dry in the rain, leading to their capture.

2 Crashing Chiang Kai‑Shek’s Plane

Allied rivalries sometimes turned deadly. General Joseph Stilwell, frustrated with Chinese leader Chiang Kai‑Shek’s perceived lack of effort against Japan, allegedly received orders to arrange Chiang’s assassination. The plan called for sabotaging a plane that Chiang and his wife would use on an Indian tour, with two unwitting American officers riding along to make the crash look accidental. For reasons never disclosed, Stilwell never received the go‑signal, and the plot was never executed.

1 Bumping Off The Big Three

Operation Long Jump allegedly aimed to assassinate the Allied “Big Three” – Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin – during the 1943 Tehran conference. Soviet intelligence claimed to have uncovered the scheme, leading to debate over its authenticity. The plot, allegedly overseen by SS commando Otto Skorzeny (who also led the rescue of Mussolini), would have required navigating a maze of 3,000 Soviet agents protecting the leaders. Skorzeny later insisted the mission was impossible due to lack of on‑the‑ground intelligence, and the operation never materialised.

When you sang the classic “50 Nifty United States” in school, you probably never imagined how many oddball projects tried to add a few more names—here are 10 failed attempts to create new US states, each with its own dramatic tale.

10 Failed Attempts to Create New US States

10. The State Of Franklin

War‑time expenses hit the newborn United States hard, and the first fiscal nightmare after independence was a mountain of debt. In 1784, North Carolina tried to trim its budget by handing over a massive 29 million‑acre wilderness to the federal government, hoping the sale would pad the treasury.

The western settlers who suddenly found themselves under federal control were terrified the land might be sold to a foreign power. Isolated from the state’s political hubs and feeling abandoned, they grew restless, convinced the distant government didn’t understand their daily struggles.

On August 23, 1784 the four western counties—Sullivan, Spencer, Washington and Greene—voted unanimously to break away from North Carolina and form their own state. They sent a petition to Philadelphia, the nation’s capital, asking for admission under the name Frankland, later altered to Franklin in a hopeful bid to enlist Benjamin Franklin’s support.

Although seven states voted in favor, the motion fell just short of the two‑thirds majority required. Undeterred, the Frankliners ran the area like an independent nation: courts opened in Greenville, officials were appointed, and a barter economy flourished (the governor’s salary was a thousand deer hides a year). By 1788 North Carolina reclaimed the territory, arrested the Franklin governor, and after a brief rescue attempt the leaders conceded. In 1789 they rejoined North Carolina, and the region eventually became the core of Tennessee.

9. The State Of McDonald

Every year Missouri rolls out its Family Vacationland Map without much fanfare, until 1961 when the Missouri State Highway Commission accidentally left McDonald County off the printed pages. Nestled in the state’s far‑southwest corner, McDonald County boasted tourist hotspots that would have suffered from the omission.

Incensed by the oversight, the county’s leaders voted to secede, forming a makeshift government. They organized a militia, stopped every car entering the county, and issued special tourist visas to non‑residents. The fledgling entity even printed its own postage stamps, which today are prized by collectors.

Missouri Supreme Court Justice Mary Russell drove down to negotiate peace. In a heartfelt address she pleaded, “We need McDonald County in this state. You are so very important, you are a beautiful county.” When a local asked if McDonald was back on the map, Russell affirmed it, and the brief rebellion fizzled, leaving the county firmly back within Missouri.

8. The Watauga Association

Before the Revolution even began, a handful of settlers along the Watauga River forged a semi‑autonomous community in what is now Tennessee. In 1772 they settled on land technically belonging to the Cherokee nation, beyond North Carolina’s official borders.

The British Crown ordered the settlers to return, but they negotiated a ten‑year lease with the Cherokee instead. They then drafted a compact, electing five magistrates to govern. Though never formally declaring independence from Britain, the Watauga Association operated outside any colonial authority, making it the first non‑Native American self‑governing body on the continent and the holder of North America’s earliest written constitution.

The fledgling government attracted the ire of the British, yet the empire was slow to react. During the early months of the Revolutionary War the Association fielded its own militia. When the Cherokee, now allied with the British, threatened the settlement, the colonists petitioned North Carolina for protection, ultimately folding back into the state’s jurisdiction.

7. Rough And Ready, California

History’s most impulsive decisions often happen after a few too many drinks, and the miners of Rough and Ready, California were no exception. Fed up with a new federal mining tax, the mostly Wisconsin‑born townsfolk gathered on April 7, 1850 and proclaimed themselves an independent republic, vowing to “form peacefully, if we can, and forcibly, if we must, THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF ROUGH AND READY!”

The self‑declared nation abolished mining taxes and lived in a brief golden age. Yet three months later, on July 4, the patriotic fervor of Independence Day swept the community, and they re‑joined California. Rumor has it that nearby Nevada City saloons refused service to “foreigners,” nudging the miners back into the Union’s fold.

6. Deseret

The early Latter‑Day Saints faced relentless persecution, being driven from Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa before finally settling in the Salt Lake Valley. In 1849, Brigham Young sent a petition to Washington asking for statehood under the grand name Deseret—a term meaning “honeybee” from the Book of Mormon.

The proposed Deseret would have spanned present‑day Nevada, Utah, large swaths of Arizona, and portions of California, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon. Washington‑era politicians balked at the Mormons’ practice of polygamy and feared the massive theocratic state might become a slave‑friendly stronghold.

While Congress debated, the Mormon community formed its own assembly and enacted laws as the State of Deseret for a year. In 1850 the compromise arrived: Millard Fillmore appointed Brigham Young governor of the much smaller Utah Territory, quelling the push for Deseret. Utah eventually achieved statehood in 1896.

5. Jefferson Territory

In 1855 Kansas carved out Arapahoe County, a sprawling jurisdiction that covered most of modern Colorado. The county, named for the Arapahoe tribe, was largely ignored by the Kansas government, which was preoccupied with the violent “Bleeding Kansas” conflict.

When the 1858 Pikes Peak Gold Rush flooded the area with hopeful miners, frustration boiled over. The settlers declared an illegal territorial government called Jefferson Territory, operating autonomously for 16 months while the nation’s attention remained on the looming Civil War.

4. Nataqua Territory

The mid‑19th‑century West was a patchwork of boomtowns and shifting borders, and the tiny hamlet of Susanville in California’s Honey Lake Valley found itself stuck between California and Utah. Neither jurisdiction appealed, and the residents dreaded being ruled by Salt Lake’s Mormon hierarchy.

To solve the dilemma, locals proclaimed the Nataqua Territory, encompassing roughly a quarter of present‑day Nevada and parts of California. Ironically, a cartographic blunder left Susanville outside the new borders, sparking confusion.

When Nevada was later carved out of western Utah, both California and Nevada claimed Susanville, resulting in double taxation and a two‑year “Sagebrush War.” The conflict ended amicably after a tense standoff when a Californian posse besieged Governor Peter Roop’s cabin; a leg wound and a shared drink led to a cease‑fire, and Nataqua was absorbed into Lassen County, California.

3. The Trans‑Oconee Republic

Elijah Clarke, a Revolutionary War hero from Georgia, felt betrayed by the 1790 Treaty of New York, which forced Georgia to cede western lands back to the Creek tribe. Furious, Clarke raised an army intended for an invasion of Spanish Florida, but the plan collapsed.

Undeterred, Clarke turned his troops toward the reclaimed Creek lands, establishing the Trans‑Oconee Republic and building a chain of forts to protect the fledgling nation.

President George Washington warned Georgia’s Governor George Mathews that an independent republic threatened the young United States. Mathews’ half‑hearted proclamation fell on deaf ears until fellow Georgian George Walton, a signer of the Declaration, demonstrated the illegality of Clarke’s move. Public opinion shifted, Mathews raised 1,200 militiamen, and the promise of amnesty convinced Clarke’s supporters to abandon the cause, ending the republic’s brief existence.

2. The State Of Scott

While the South’s secession is often painted as unanimous, many poor white farmers in places like Scott County, Tennessee, opposed the move. Lacking slaves and wealth, they resisted Tennessee’s June 4, 1861 decision to leave the Union.

Future President Andrew Johnson delivered a fiery speech at Huntsville, prompting residents to proclaim the “Free and Independent State of Scott,” formally seceding from Tennessee and re‑joining the Union.

The fledgling state sparked a bitter guerrilla war as Confederate irregulars tried to regain control. Scott County remained de facto independent for over a century, finally petitioning to re‑enter Tennessee in 1986. The state‑of‑Scott era officially ended with the county’s acceptance as Tennessee’s 95th county.

1. Beaver Island

Amid the many failed statehood bids, one succeeded in an unexpected way: James Strang’s self‑styled monarchy on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. After a botched law career, Strang embraced Mormonism in 1844 and, following Joseph Smith’s assassination, claimed to be the rightful successor.

Strang’s charismatic letter attracted followers who sailed to Beaver Island, establishing a theocratic kingdom of roughly 3,000 adherents. He expelled dissenters, consolidating absolute control over the island.

Under Strang, the island saw rapid development: forests were cleared, roads built, and the settlement “civilized.” He also turned to piracy, using small schooners to burn sawmills, rob craftsmen, and force conversions.

Despite his tyrannical streak, Strang’s regime was surprisingly progressive—women and Black citizens could hold office. However, personal vendettas brewed, most notably with Thomas Bedford, whom Strang had flogged for marital infidelity.

Bedford eventually led a posse that assassinated Strang in 1858. The monarchy collapsed, many followers fled, and the island’s original residents reclaimed it. Yet a small group of about 300 still regard Strang as the true heir to Joseph Smith.

Geoffrey earned seven liberal‑arts degrees that earned him nothing. Follow him on Twitter as he attempts a career in comedy and reflects on his missteps.

10 crazy attempts have surfaced throughout history where nations tried to turn ordinary soldiers into literal living explosives. Suicide bombing is synonymous with terrorists today, but it hasn’t always been that way. It used to be the mainstay of standing armies and was extensively used by the Axis powers during World War II. The kamikaze of Japan are a well‑known example, where pilots were trained to ram their airplanes into Allied ships. Below is a countdown of the most outlandish schemes ever devised.

10 Kaiten

The kaiten were the underwater version of the Japanese kamikaze airplanes. Like the airplanes, the pilots were expected to ram their torpedo submarines into enemy ships, killing the pilot and destroying the ship. Work started on the kaiten in February 1944, and a prototype was deployed in July the same year.

The kaiten was more of a torpedo than a submarine. It was even powered by a torpedo engine. The pilot was only there to guide it to its target. The first prototypes allowed the pilots to escape as the torpedo moved closer to its target. However, most pilots were not interested in escaping. Later versions did not even allow them to do so.

A kaiten pilot had two opportunities to hit his target. If he lost the second opportunity, he was expected to blow himself and the torpedo up. The kaiten’s inability to dive deep underwater was its greatest limitation, since it made it vulnerable to Allied attacks. Some missed their targets, and others did not explode even when they hit their targets.

The Japanese navy did manage to successfully deploy kaiten against US ships, however. The USS Underhill was a notable casualty. It sank on July 24, 1945, after it was attacked by six kaiten. Japan suspended kaiten attacks a week before it surrendered.

9 Fieseler Fi 103R

During World War II, Britain found itself at the receiving end of the infamous V‑1 flying bombs fired from Nazi Germany territory. The V‑1 attacks were as successful as they were scary. But they would have never been as scary as the Fieseler Fi 103R, the manned version of the V‑1.

By 1944, Germany was already losing the war and had started getting some crazy ideas. Someone thought it would be cool if they could launch manned missiles from bombers. The German high command bought the idea but thought it would be cooler if they just put a person inside a rocket. The V‑1 was already successful, so it became the vehicle of choice.

The pilot was not originally expected to die in the attack. He would just aim the Fi 103R at the target and bail out before it hit. However, this would have been impossible, since the escape would have interfered with the workings of the aircraft.

However, unlike the V‑1, the Fi 103R would not be targeted at British cities. The V‑1 was handling that already. Instead, the Fi 103R would have been aimed at Allied ships in the English Channel. Germany produced almost 200 Fieseler Fi 103R’s during the war. Fortunately for the Allies, the Nazis never deployed any, since the German high command was not really interested in the weapon.

8 Proxy Bombings

While Islamist terrorist groups today will brainwash people with their ideologies before ordering them into bomb‑strapped vehicles, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) used a more terrible and cowardly tactic during its decades‑long war with the British government.

The IRA targeted people with links to the British government. Holding their families hostage, the IRA ordered their victims to drive bomb‑laden vehicles into British targets. The bombings were deadly and controversial. Sometimes, the driver only had moments to escape from the vehicle before it exploded. But they weren’t always that lucky.

One notable victim of the IRA’s cowardice was Patsy Gillespie. In June 1990, he was forced to drive his wife’s vehicle—which had been rigged with bombs—to the police barracks in which he worked as a cook. He did, and the IRA left his family alone … for a while. Four months later, they returned and ordered Patsy to drive another bomb‑laden vehicle to a military checkpoint. Patsy died in the explosion alongside five soldiers.

7 Maiale

The maiale (Italian for “pig”) was a manned torpedo manufactured in Italy during World II. Work started on the torpedo in 1935 over concerns that the Italian navy was surrounded by the British and French ships in the Mediterranean Sea. World War II broke out in 1939. The same year, Italy deployed the first maiale in the Mediterranean.

The 5‑meter‑long (16 ft) maiale was armed with either a 300‑kilogram (662 lb) warhead or two 150‑kilogram (331 lb) warheads. Two crewmen rode the torpedo into the English and French harbors. Once under enemy ships, the crew detached the front part of the torpedo, which contained the actual warhead, attached it under the enemy ship, and escaped before it exploded.

The maiale’s first deployment ended in failure. One was destroyed by an aircraft, and the other retreated after it was shot at. The maiale later found success in December 1941, when it sank two British battleships and a tanker in Alexandria, Egypt. However, the crew were captured before they could escape.

The maiale remained in Italian service and was extensively used against British ships and Allied merchant ships until Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943. While it was a success, it was difficult to operate and was prone to sinking into the water. This is why it was called “The Pig.” Many torpedoes were lost during tests.

6 Yokosuka MXY‑7 Ohka

The Yokosuka MXY‑7 Ohka was one of the infamous Japanese kamikaze airplanes. It was as deadly as it was feared. For a start, it was rocket‑powered, which was unusual. The majority of airplanes used by the Allies were driven by propeller engines.

The idea was simple. Once an Allied invasion was detected, Mitsubishi G4M2e bombers transported and released swarms of Ohkas toward the advancing Allied force. The Ohkas dived toward the enemy. Once they got close enough, the pilot fired the rocket engines, causing the deadly aircraft to speed toward their targets.

The Ohka’s first combat deployment ended in disaster when all 16 bombers transporting them to the target were attacked and destroyed. Some bombers managed to release some Ohkas, but they were far away from their target. While Japan later found success with the Ohka and even used them against US ships, they were taken out of production because the bigger G4M2e bombers were vulnerable to Allied attacks.

5 Sonderkommando Elbe

Sonderkommando Elbe was a special group of Luftwaffe (Nazi Germany air force) pilots trained to ram their airplanes into Allied aircraft. As we mentioned earlier, the tide changed toward the end of World II, with Germany on the losing side, and the Germans had been getting crazy ideas. One was the Fieseler Fi 103R. Another was removing all weapons and armor from aircraft and ordering the pilots to ram them into Allied planes.

The idea ended up worsening Germany’s situation. While Germany had better airplanes than the Allies, it did not have enough. The Germans didn’t have enough pilots or fuel, either. Turning their aircraft into manned missiles only reduced the number of planes and pilots at their disposal. While the pilots were expected to bail out of their airplanes before they crashed, it would not have been easy.

Germany’s idea of ramming airplanes into the Allies was not very successful in combat. While the airplanes destroyed some Allied bombers, Germany lost more aircraft than the Allies. Besides, the Allies quickly and easily replaced their airplanes, while the Germans could not so readily replace theirs, further worsening the situation of the Luftwaffe.

4 Bomi

The Bomi is straight out of the United States. Its name means “Bomber‑Missile.” It was developed during the Cold War, at a time when the US and Russia were only concerned with developing new technologies to deliver nuclear warheads into the other’s territory.

Bell Aircraft Corporation came up with the idea. They thought a pilot guiding an intercontinental ballistic missile into Moscow would be a good idea. The missile was divided into two compartments with a crew of three. A two‑man crew manned the rear compartment and were responsible for launching the missile from base.

The rear compartment detached in midair and returned to base, while the third crewman in the forward compartment flew into space before gliding into Moscow. The pilot would aim the missile toward the target before bailing out. This idea of bailing out sounds ludicrous, since the pilot would most likely have remained in the range of the 18.14‑kilogram (4,000 lb) nuclear warhead.

The US Air Force later dumped the idea because the missile could not reach Moscow. Besides, the US government was only interested in delivering nuclear weapons into Russia with either bombers or missiles, not with a hybrid of both.

3 Fukuryu

The Fukuryu (Lurking Dragons) were the Japanese versions of today’s suicide bombers during World II. The soldiers conscripted into the unit were armed with bamboo canes with 15‑kilogram (33 lb) bombs at the ends. The divers would sneak into enemy harbors and attach the bamboo canes to ships. The resulting explosion would kill the divers and damage or sink the ships.

Interestingly, the divers were more likely to die before they could strap the bombs to the ships. This was due to their unorthodox means of maintaining an oxygen supply. They connected their helmets to a tank containing caustic lye. The air they breathed out went into the tank, where it mixed with the lye to form oxygen, which they breathed in again. The idea was to breathe the clean air in through the nose and to exhale into a tube that led to the lye tank.

Messing up this specific breathing pattern could quickly lead to unconsciousness. About 50 divers died during training after inhaling the lye. Sometimes, water entered the tank, turning the lye into a deadly gas. It was also normal for divers to get stuck in seaweed. Survivors who never detonated their bombs were no better. Many suffered respiratory issues and brain damage.

2 Shinyo

At this point, we can all agree that the Japanese were so determined to stop the Allies from invading their territory that they used suicide attacks as a regular combat tactic. The shinyo (“sea quake”) boats were another suicide weapon deployed by the Japanese. They were modified torpedo boats containing deadly explosives.

Two types of shinyo boats were developed. The first, which was designed for the navy, was rammed into enemy ships, killing the pilot and causing extensive damage to the ship. The other, which was developed for the army, was used to drop depth charges around the enemy ship before fleeing. The pilot was not supposed to die in the attack, though they sometimes did because the boats were not fast enough to vacate the area before the depth charges exploded.

1 Marder

The marder was a small one‑man submarine built in Nazi Germany. The submarine was not supposed to kill the operator even though it often did. It was an improved version of a similar submarine, the neger. The marder solved some of the neger’s problems, including its inability to remain underwater.

However, the marder was not really better than the neger it was supposed to replace. While it could dive underwater, it could not do so beyond 30 meters (100 ft). For safety reasons, it usually remained between 13.7 and 15.2 meters (45–50 ft) below the water. Anything deeper was suicide.

Both submarines carried one torpedo, which the pilot fired before fleeing the area. However, fleeing after firing the torpedo was difficult in both designs. While the marder was successfully used against Allied ships, it was still listed as an unsuccessful weapon since one third of the pilots died during missions.

Welcome to a whirlwind tour of 10 insane attempts to bend, twist, and outright rewrite the past. From contested war atrocities to daring constitutional reinterpretations, each story shows how powerful interests can reshape collective memory—sometimes with astonishing audacity.

10 Insane Attempts Overview

10 Nanking Massacre Denial

Between December 1937 and March 1938, the city of Nanking endured a horror that defies simple description. Historians estimate that between a quarter‑million and three‑hundred‑thousand souls—many women and children—were brutally killed, beaten, raped, or forced to watch the slaughter of loved ones. Yet a segment of Japanese scholars argues that the tragedy has been exaggerated, insisting it was merely the routine carnage of war.

The broader conflict between Japan and China had already erupted earlier in 1937, and by December Nanking was caught in what New York Times correspondent Tillman Durdin called one of the “great atrocities of modern times.” Even Nazi generals condemned the bloodshed. Decades later, Japan has still resisted a full admission or apology for these events.

In 1999, Iris Chang was on the brink of publishing The Rape of Nanking when her American publisher, bowing to Japanese pressure, pulled the book. Chang refused to water down the manuscript. Documentary filmmakers Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, who visited Japan in 2006, observed that denial ranges from claims of propaganda inflation to outright denial that the massacre ever happened. At the Yasukuni Shrine museum, Nanking is conspicuously absent, and some assert that Japan was forced into World War II by the United States to rescue America from the Great Depression. Survivors forced into Japan’s infamous “comfort stations” were later promised an apology in 1993, yet debate continues over whether that apology should be rescinded.

9 The Waffen SS And The HIAG

Heinrich Himmler founded the Waffen SS in 1939, expanding it from four divisions to over twenty, and ultimately enlisting more than half a million men. As a branch of the Nazi apparatus, its members were exempt from many civilian and military laws. After the war, a bizarre movement emerged to recast the Waffen SS as heroic, despite its designation as a “criminal organization” and its members as “war criminals” at The Hague.

German political parties and certain newspapers began to portray Waffen SS veterans as victims of mistaken identity, confusing them with the Gestapo. The Mutual Help Association, known as HIAG, was created to support these veterans and sanitize their wartime record.

Scholars in Bielefeld accused HIAG of fabricating documents. Many of its members faced war‑crime trials, yet HIAG claimed to represent two million veterans—a gross overstatement of the actual twenty‑thousand. This inflated claim earned it substantial political influence in post‑war Germany.

HIAG persuaded new German leaders that the Waffen SS had renounced Nazism and selflessly embraced a pariah role. Their narrative suggested reformation, but researchers discovered the motive was pension money. In 1953, HIAG staged a solstice parade featuring the anthem “This Is the Guard That Adolf Hitler Loves.” The organization finally dissolved in 1992.

8 The American Civil War And Slavery

Ask most people why the United States fought a civil war, and they’ll likely say it was over the legality of slavery. Yet many Southern schools still teach that the conflict centered on states’ rights and constitutional disputes. A 2011 Pew Research poll found roughly half of respondents believed the war was about constitutional law rather than slavery.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), founded in 1894, became a powerful organization that not only preserved cemeteries and historic sites but also promoted a glorified image of the Confederate soldier. Their literature portrayed the Confederacy as noble, even publishing Mildred Lewis Rutherford’s book The Truths of History, which claimed Lincoln was intellectually weak, the South aimed to free slaves, and the Ku Klux Klan acted as a peacekeeping force.

When the federal government took on education, Southern textbooks were written by former Confederate officials, embedding a narrative that ridiculed anyone suggesting the war was about slavery. Those who challenged this version faced social ostracism, unemployment, and blackballing. The campaign’s success is evident: in 2010, South Carolinians celebrated a Secession Ball marking the 150th anniversary of their state’s departure from the Union, honoring the men who defended their homes against Northern aggression.

7 The Black Legend

Spain’s history is riddled with dark chapters—from the Inquisition to the brutal conquests of the New World. Yet some argue that the negative portrayal, known as the “Black Legend,” is a deliberate smear. In 1914, Julian Juderías coined the term, claiming that anti‑Spanish propaganda, especially from Italy, sought to erase Spain’s cultural achievements.

The controversy dates back to Bartolomé de las Casas’s 1550s treatise A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, which exposed colonial atrocities. Although initially circulated, Philip II banned the work, and as Spain’s power waned, the narrative shifted to portray the book as exaggerated propaganda.
By the early 17th century, the treatise resurfaced but was denounced as a vile exaggeration intended to please rival powers. German commentators even suggested that Spain’s darker complexion and mixed heritage with Jews and Moors fueled the vilification.

Thus, the Black Legend narrative portrays Spanish cruelty as inflated, while its defenders argue that the stories are products of jealous nations seeking to tarnish Spain’s legacy.

6 The Battle Of Agincourt

Conventional history celebrates Henry V’s triumph at Agincourt, where the English supposedly vanquished a French force five to one. Shakespeare immortalized the victory with the phrase “band of brothers.” Yet a joint British‑French research team re‑examined the battle, questioning the long‑held belief in the odds.

All scholars agree Henry V landed in France on 14 August 1445, allied with the Burgundians, and led a disease‑ridden army across the Somme. However, Anne Curry of Southampton University and her colleagues scrutinized tax rolls, military rosters, wage ledgers, ship logs, and casualty lists. Their analysis suggested the English were only outnumbered two to one, or perhaps even evenly matched, contrary to the dramatic five to one ratio.

Regardless of the true numbers, Agincourt was a bloody affair. Henry V likely emphasized exaggerated odds to boost morale at home and justify the massive loss of life, turning the battle into a symbol of English martial prowess rather than a grim tragedy.

5 The Pink Swastika

The Nazis despised homosexuality, especially among men, and enacted severe persecution. In 1933, stormtroopers burned thousands of books from Berlin’s Institute for Sexual Science. Convicted gay men were marked with pink triangles in concentration camps.

Conservative Christian authors Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams, in their 1995 book The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, claim the Nazi founders were “masculine‑oriented homosexuals” who concealed their preferences while targeting “effeminate” gay men. They argue the party was formed in gay bars, that the infamous salute originated from a German scouting movement, and that the Hitler Youth functioned as “Homo Youth,” indoctrinating the “right” kind of gay.

Lively and Abrams further allege that every Nazi symbol—from SS lightning bolts to camp insignia—had occult gay roots, and that Nazi legislation advanced an antigay agenda. Lively later helped craft Uganda’s 2014 anti‑homosexuality bill, often dubbed the “kill the gays” bill.

4 Cambodian Genocide Denial

The Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror left Cambodia scarred, yet some Western scholars, including Noam Chomsky, downplayed the atrocities. In June 2013, opposition leader Kem Sokha claimed the horrors—and the bodies—in the Tuol Sleng prison were fabricated by Vietnam, a claim he later denied, saying his words were taken out of context.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who defected to Vietnam before the 1979 overthrow, responded by pushing a law criminalizing genocide denial, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. He asserted that anyone denying the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal regime must be punished, though critics suspect political motives.

The law reflects a broader effort to cement a narrative of victimhood and resist revisionist claims, even as some accuse the government of leveraging history for contemporary power.

3 Japanese Society For History Textbook Reform

Beyond Nanking, Japan’s Society for History Textbook Reform emerged in the 1990s, demanding the removal of any portrayal of Japan as an aggressor during World War II. They argue that such depictions undermine national pride and that Japanese ancestors deserve respect.

The group’s pamphlet details why history must be rewritten, claiming Japan was unfairly burdened with guilt and that many alleged “victims” actually inflicted the atrocities on themselves. They even contest a widely circulated mural showing a Japanese soldier torturing a captive, insisting the depicted breast‑cutting was a Chinese cultural practice, not a Japanese crime.

Japanese textbooks undergo rigorous Ministry of Education screening. Historian Saburō Ienaga sued the ministry in 1965 for forcing him to omit dark subjects like air raids. After three lawsuits spanning three decades, the Supreme Court upheld the ministry’s authority to screen, though it mandated inclusion of some darker content. The final ruling arrived in 1997.

2 Denial Of The Holodomor

The Holodomor—”death by hunger”—ravaged Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, claiming up to 25,000 lives daily as Stalin’s policies confiscated homes, farms, livestock, and basic supplies. Victims faced execution, exile to Siberia, and severe travel restrictions; even mentioning the famine could land one in jail.

Soviet officials dismissed the famine as propaganda or mass delusion, keeping the world in the dark. Only after a few survivors escaped did eyewitness accounts surface, but they were initially dismissed. In 1983, Western scholars revisited the tragedy, yet denial persisted, sparking debate over whether the famine was a deliberate attack or a policy failure.

American historian James Mace compiled extensive evidence in 1988, forcing scholars to confront the reality. The Holodomor finally entered mainstream historiography after Ukraine’s 1991 independence, though denialist narratives linger.

1 The Economic Motivation Behind The Constitution

In An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, Columbia professor Charles Beard argued that the Founding Fathers were self‑interested elites. He claimed the Constitution was crafted by wealthy landowners who sought to recoup Revolutionary investments through strong tax provisions.

Beard, a friend of Woodrow Wilson, saw the Constitution as a vehicle for the rich to secure their fortunes. However, 1950s historian Forrest McDonald gathered data on the framers and found no correlation between personal wealth and support for the Constitution, debunking Beard’s thesis.

Beard’s data contained inaccuracies; many men he accused of selfish motives were either not affluent or amassed wealth after ratification. His narrative gained traction as a tool for progressive reform, suggesting the Constitution’s creation was a ploy to redistribute wealth. Yet subsequent research exposed his agenda, showing his claims were largely unfounded.

Thus, Beard’s attempt to rewrite constitutional history almost succeeded, only to be dismantled by rigorous scholarly scrutiny.

10 people who have stared death in the eye and lived know that the line between life and loss can be razor‑thin. Suicide is an epidemic that we tend to think of as a modern thing. While suicide rates have gotten worse in the US^[1] and are projected to get worse in developing countries, humans have been taking their own lives for about as long as we’ve had the tools and knowledge to do so. It’s a tragic event for all parties involved, especially the friends and family of the person who passed on, leaving tens, hundreds, thousands, or, in the case of some recent celebrity suicides, millions of people with slews of questions, with panic, and with fear. Suicide forces us to think of our own mortality and the fragility of our own mental state—just how vulnerable are we to a bout of depression or life taking a wrong turn on us, leaving us with what, at least perceptively, feels like nothing worth living for?

10 people who survived a gunshot to the head and lived

10 Oleg Shegeda

In January 2018, a woman named Svetlana Shedega was found shot dead, and a man named Oleg Shegeda was found critically wounded in St. Louis, Missouri.^[2] Police were called when neighbors heard gunshot sounds coming from the apartment. Upon their arrival, they entered the apartment to discover Svetlana lying dead on the floor with several gunshot wounds and Oleg with one single gunshot wound and a gun in his hand.

The police took Oleg to the hospital to be treated for his injuries. Svetlana was 67 years old at the time of her death, and the two had lived in the apartment for 20 years. Oleg Shedega would be officially charged a week later with the murder of Svetlana Shedega.

9 Cameron Underwood

Cameron Underwood would be 26 years old when he would finally receive a new face in 2018 after he shot himself in the head in 2016.^[3] He was extremely fortunate in that his face was restored relatively quickly with surgery. Most patients have to wait longer to receive face transplants, leading to severe emotional trauma, such as the depression which stems from social criticism and feeling guilty.

Cameron spent months in the hospital after he attempted to end his own life with a gun, an act which removed most of his jaw, all but one of his teeth, and basically the bottom half of his face, on the night of June 26, 2016. He was fed through tubes and covered up to his eyes, which remained. Like all too many who commit or attempt suicide, Cameron had been battling severe depression and the resultant alcoholism, which hurt significantly more than it helped. But in the end, Cameron Underwood received the opportunity of a lifetime, the opportunity to smile again, when doctors completely rebuilt his entire face, giving him a new jaw, teeth, and everything else that had been damaged by the gunshot.

Today, Cameron is outspoken about his experience and tells about how he’s completely different from who he once was. Sometimes, through a failed suicide attempt, people can find a new appreciation for life.

8 Daniel Von Bargen

For many of us, it’s hard to fathom why someone like Daniel von Bargen would attempt to take his own life—he was a former actor on the hit television show Seinfeld and the movie Super Troopers, but this Hollywood star would end up turning a gun on himself and pulling the trigger back in 2012.

Shortly after he raised the gun to his temple and fired, 911 operators received a call about a man who had been shot—amazingly, the call was placed by von Bargen, moments after he’d shot himself.^[4] Even more insane, von Bargen was coherent and capable of holding a conversation with the operator while he awaited the arrival of emergency services.

The actor then went on to explain to the operator that he’d been suffering from diabetes for years and was supposed to have several toes amputated but didn’t want to go through with it. He said, “I’ve shot myself in the head . . . and I need help.” Then, when prompted, the actor explained that he had shot himself in the temple. Sadly, Daniel von Bargen died in 2015 from complications arising from his diabetes.

7 David Parnell

Featured on radio shows and television and making appearances as a public speaker, David Parnell is the last person you’d expect has survived a self‑inflicted gunshot wound. He’s married and has fathered seven children and travels the world to engage live audiences to tell his story.^[5] In 2003, after an extremely long history of drug abuse that had spanned 23 years, David’s wife Amy had had enough of his antics and decided to leave him—for David, this was his world collapsing around him.

David then took his SKS assault rifle, placed it beneath his chin, and pulled the trigger. But rather than the bullet traveling through his brain and exiting through the top of his skull, killing him in an instant like David had planned, the bullet exited through the front of his skull between his eyes, breaking almost every single bone in his face. But David had been high on meth at the time and didn’t even fall unconscious. He sat on the floor while Amy called emergency services, holding two halves of his split head together, and was actually capable of speaking, telling everyone how sorry he was for what he’d done.

This wasn’t actually David’s first attempt, but it would prove to be his last. Three years prior, David hanged himself, but after he had fallen unconscious, someone found him and cut him down. He now tells his story and of the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, being featured all over the world on Internet sites, in interviews, and in public speaking engagements to let people know where such radically poor life choices can ultimately lead in hopes of saving a few lives from experiencing the agony that he has—or worse.

6 Katie Stubblefield

Katie Stubblefield was only 18 years old when her boyfriend broke up with her in 2015, leading to an event that would dramatically change her life forever. That’s when Katie took a gun, put it to her face, and pulled the trigger. Every part of her face, from her mouth to her nose, her sinus cavities, and her eyes, were all damaged in the blast. And like Cameron Underwood, Katie would receive a face transplant through the hard efforts of surgeons. The same surgeon worked on both Katie and Cameron.

She had taken her brother Robert’s hunting rifle in an attempt to take her own life, one that went horribly wrong. The shot didn’t kill her but left her horribly disfigured, and the photos from the events following are striking.^[6] But ultimately, Katie would receive her new face and then have to deal with the adjustment period of returning to as close to a normal life as she could manage. She is, however, extremely fortunate, as only 40 procedures like Katie’s had been done at the time that hers was, and of all the facial damage the surgeons had worked on prior, Katie’s was the most severe. These are the miracles of modern medicine.

5 Victor Sibson

The case of Victor Sibson is one of the most tragic stories of survival out there. Sibson was a young man of only 21 years old when he shot himself in the head after a night of drinking on April 19, 2017. Even more tragic than such a young man attempting to take his own life and failing is that his 22‑year‑old girlfriend was present at the time and attempted to stop him, but he was able to discharge the firearm anyway. The bullet from Sibson’s gun traveled through his head and into the chest of his girlfriend, Brittany‑Mae Haag, after entering through her armpit that sat beneath her raised hand.

Police and paramedic services arrived at the scene to find both laying on the floor with bullet holes. Victor had an exit wound through the top of his head, and both were rapidly dying. Medical teams were able to save Victor’s life, but Brittany‑Mae died from the critical injuries to her internal organs, telling them with her last breaths what had happened—that Victor had shot himself purposely and her accidentally.

Victor Sibson would go on to be charged in the death of Brittany‑Mae Haag and turned himself in to stand trial. He was formally charged with murder in the second degree.

4 Bed Bath & Beyond

In 2011, another man would survive a self‑inflicted gunshot wound to the head and live to tell about it when he attempted suicide in the highly public parking lot of a Bed Bath & Beyond in Portsmouth, Maine.^[8] Police initially responded to a suspicious shooting and found the man but thought that someone else had actually pulled the trigger. Upon investigation, they quickly determined that the man himself had decided to take his own life in a highly public place—and failed.

He was taken to the hospital and survived. It’s unknown why the man chose the Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot, but it definitely goes down in history as one of the most unusual places to attempt a suicide.

3 Lance Paulson

It would be over a year before Lance Paulson would finally start the process of standing trial for his crime: the murder of his longtime friend Steve Gagnon, who was 50 years old at the time of the shooting.^[9] The incident took place in April 2017 El Cerrito, California, a city on the east side of the San Francisco Bay.

Apparently, there was a financial dispute which caused the event in which Paulson, then 51, drew a gun and shot Gagnon and then turned the gun on himself in an attempt to end his own life. He was rushed to the hospital, and no one thought he would make it, but Paulson survived. It would take a full month to heal from his injuries, though charges were officially brought against him within 72 hours of his arrest, per state law.

The district attorney alleged that the motive behind the murder and attempted suicide was a $20,000 debt, and witnesses testified that this was the case, by Paulson’s own admission. Two lives were completely ruined over money.

2 Cody Mark Patrick

Cody Mark Patrick was an American traveling abroad, a tourist in Cambodia, when he made an attempt on his own life in 2008. Police found drugs in the tourist’s hotel room, though they declined to say which kind, after the man went to a shooting range in the Ang Snuol district of the Kandal province of the country.^[10]

The 33‑year‑old man walked into the gun range, purchased ten bullets, fired off seven of them, and then discharged the eighth round into his own head. He was treated for his injuries at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, where he would survive. As there are no laws against attempted suicide in Cambodia, Patrick would not be brought up on charges of attempted suicide for the event. In some countries, such as Nigeria, merely attempting suicide is a crime.

1 Erik Kramer

Erik Kramer is a former NFL football player for the Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, and San Diego Chargers in the United States and also played for the Calgary Stampeders in Canada. He, too, would go on to attempt suicide himself, proving further that fame, status, and wealth don’t always exempt people from the cold, hard facts of life that can sometimes lead them to try to take their own lives.^[11]

Kramer had it all planned out to the last detail back in 2015. He had been suffering from severe depression as the result of the recent overdose death of his son, written a suicide note to those closest to him, and dropped off his children. He then proceeded to shoot himself in the head. But miraculously, Erik Kramer survived.

When police and ambulances arrived, they noted that he had a non‑life‑threatening gunshot wound and took him to the hospital. Erik Kramer would be another person who went on to tell his story of depression and survival, giving interviews and spreading his tale of sadness, suicide attempt, and hope.

When you hear the phrase 10 strange attempts you might picture sci‑fi gadgets or wild conspiracy theories, but the reality is far stranger. Over the past century, governments, researchers, and even a few curious bureaucrats have tried every conceivable trick to sniff out homosexuality – often with dubious science and even more dubious ethics. Below, we rank the most outlandish schemes, from Cold‑War Senate panels to modern AI facial‑recognition experiments.

10 The Hoey Committee’s Investigative Techniques

In 1950, a group of the nation’s most polished minds were gathered into a Senate task force known as the Hoey Committee. Their explicit mission: ferret out the covert presence of gay men lurking within the United States.

The committee quickly discovered that the job was not as straightforward as they had imagined. Senator Margaret Smith, during a briefing with leading medical experts, asked in frustration, “Is there no quick test, like an X‑ray, that can reveal these individuals?”

The surgeon general, however, had to explain that homosexuality does not leave any trace on an X‑ray. While some physicians rambled about sexuality being “complicated” and “fluid,” they refused to hand over any miraculous scanning device that would cause every gay man in America to glow with a neon red aura.

After two years of painstaking research, the Hoey Committee claimed to have identified several unmistakable hallmarks of gay men: they were typically unmarried, they “seldom refuse to talk about themselves,” and they displayed what the committee described as “prissy habits.”

Armed with these criteria, the committee instituted a sprawling system for tracking, marginalizing, and ultimately destroying the lives of gay men, often driving them to tragic ends.

In their final report, they warned that homosexuality was contagious: “One homosexual can pollute a government office.”

9 The Canadian Government’s Fruit Machine

Just north of the United States, Canadian officials were busy engineering a massive contraption they believed could pinpoint any gay man. Dubbed the “Fruit Machine,” this 1960s invention was as mysterious as its name, and the government offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who could prove its efficacy.

The device was described by witnesses as looking like something ripped straight out of a science‑fiction novel: a hulking apparatus bristling with cameras, steel girders, and a screen that intermittently displayed gay pornography.

When a suspect was summoned, an official would say, “We have evidence you may be homosexual. What do you have to say about that?” If the individual denied the accusation, the Fruit Machine became the arbiter.

Subjects were strapped in and forced to watch a series of mundane pictures, interspersed now and then with explicit gay porn. Researchers recorded pulse, skin responses, breathing patterns, and pupil dilation throughout the session.

If a participant’s pupils widened at the sight of gay porn, the machine interpreted this as sexual arousal – though critics noted that the reaction could just as easily be due to darkness, surprise, or nothing at all. In practice, the Fruit Machine proved wildly ineffective.

Nevertheless, the Canadian government remained cautious. Even though the device failed to deliver reliable results, anyone who “failed” the test was compelled to resign, ostensibly protecting the nation from the imagined menace of openly gay citizens walking its streets.

8 The US Park Police’s Pervert Records

The United States Park Police were assigned a special role in the nation’s crusade against perceived homosexual infiltration. After receiving intelligence that gay men favored parks for cruising, a dedicated task force was assembled.

Officers were dramatically increased in number, tasked with monitoring park facilities and, in particular, “sex perverts.” The prevailing belief was that public parks served as popular rendezvous spots for gay men, necessitating vigilant surveillance.

One squad of Park Police spent twelve exhaustive hours, from dusk until dawn, watching the bathroom at Lafayette Park and betting on whether each visitor was gay. Their congressional report declared, “I do not believe a half‑dozen legitimate persons go in there to answer Nature’s call.”

Thanks to this relentless observation, the government concluded that anyone using a public park bathroom could be presumed homosexual. The policy was taken seriously enough that a CIA employee was dismissed after being spotted “changing around the men’s room in Lafayette Park.”

7 J. Edgar Hoover’s Sex Deviates Program

J. Edgar Hoover personally championed the FBI’s “Sex Deviates” program, shifting the bureau’s focus away from organized crime and terrorism and onto what he deemed the true threat: gay men infiltrating government.

Under Hoover’s directive, any individual accused of concealing a homosexual orientation was immediately reported to the chief of investigations. The FBI then deployed its full arsenal—surveillance of homes, monitoring of favorite bars and restaurants, and psychological profiling—to uncover patterns indicative of gayness.

Agents would sometimes intervene early, apprehending suspects while they lingered near notorious park restrooms. The most diligent operatives waited until they could capture “acts of perversion” on camera before moving in.

Hoover’s obsession was so intense that rumors suggest he occasionally turned up at gay orgies himself, a grim illustration of how the perceived contagion of homosexuality was believed to “cough” on even the most powerful figures.

6 The Gulf Cooperation Council Homosexuality Test

The hunt for a surefire gay‑detecting method did not stop with the Cold War; it traveled far beyond the West. In 2013, Kuwait’s director of public health, Yousuf Mindkar, announced a sweeping plan to bolster the nation’s gaydar.

Mindkar vowed to introduce stricter measures that would help the country spot gay individuals, stating, “We will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays.” His proposal called for a revision of visa rules, requiring doctors to certify every incoming traveler as heterosexual before granting entry.

The specifics of how physicians would conduct such a test were never clarified, but Mindkar insisted it would be a simple procedure, confident that any doctor worldwide could identify the “physical markings” of homosexuality.

International backlash forced Mindkar to retreat. FIFA expressed concerns that his policy could bar fans from attending the 2022 World Cup, and critics in the United States argued the plan would prevent anyone who simply enjoyed soccer from entering Kuwait, effectively barring a whole demographic.

5 The Malaysian Guide To Spotting A Gay

In 2018, Malaysia’s tabloid Sinar Harian published a checklist purporting to teach readers how to identify gay men. The article claimed that certain observable traits could betray a man’s sexual orientation.

According to the checklist, gay men typically sport beards, favor branded clothing, stay close to family, and frequent gyms. However, once inside the gym, the article warned, the gay male would rarely exercise; instead, he would stare longingly at other men, his eyes lighting up whenever a handsome physique appeared.

The piece also addressed lesbians, asserting that they displayed “venomous attitudes toward men” while being open and carefree around women. It claimed lesbians would hold hands and hug each other openly, yet harbored a deep disdain for men, deriving any joy they felt from belittling the opposite sex.

4 The Scientific Study Into Gay Faces

In 2008, researchers Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady at Tufts University tackled a long‑standing question: do gay people possess distinct facial characteristics that set them apart?

The team photographed both heterosexual and homosexual participants, meticulously stripping away variables such as hairstyle by Photoshop‑removing hair and placing every face against a uniform white backdrop. This left only cheekbones, eyebrows, and other subtle features for analysis.

When a separate group of 90 observers were shown these stripped‑down images and asked to guess each subject’s orientation, the participants reportedly identified gay faces more often than not, leading the researchers to claim that a “gay face” does indeed exist, even if observers are unaware of it.

3 Stanford University’s Gaydar Machine

In 2017, Stanford professor Michael Kosinski pushed the gay‑detecting frontier further by creating a machine he called a “gaydar.” He and co‑author Yilun Wang fed a facial‑recognition algorithm 75,000 online dating profiles, sorting them into “gay” and “straight” categories.

The AI was trained to spot recurring patterns in what the researchers termed “gay facial features.” To test its prowess, they pitted the program against human judges, asking each to identify whether a photo belonged to a gay or straight person.

Humans performed only marginally better than a coin flip, while the algorithm correctly labeled gay men 81 % of the time and lesbians 74 % of the time—though its accuracy dropped sharply when applied to non‑dating‑app photos.

Thus, Kosinski’s machine proved effective at detecting sexuality when subjects deliberately presented themselves in a way that highlighted gay cues, but it faltered with ordinary, uncurated images.

2 The Attempt To Isolate The Gay Gene

During the 2015 American Society of Human Genetics conference, UC researcher Tuck Ngun announced a breakthrough: he claimed to have isolated a “gay gene.”

Ngun’s study focused on 37 pairs of identical male twins, where one brother identified as gay and the other as straight. He reported five DNA methylation marks that he believed signaled homosexuality.

However, the broader scientific community quickly pointed out flaws. By scanning 6,000 methylation sites across only 37 twin pairs, the study was statistically destined to find spurious patterns. Moreover, the purported “gay gene” appeared in only 67 % of the gay participants, casting doubt on its reliability.

1 Penile Plethysmograph

One of the more enduring devices touted as a gaydar is the penile plethysmograph, a tool still used in certain scientific contexts today. The Czechoslovakian army once employed it to verify whether men claiming exemption from the draft on the grounds of homosexuality were being truthful.

The procedure involves affixing a slender metal strip to the penis, then exposing the subject to a series of gay pornographic clips while measuring the organ’s engorgement. The device records how erect the participant becomes in response to each image.

While there are certainly simpler ways to gauge someone’s sexual orientation—such as noting that a researcher who obsessively measures penile responses might themselves be gay—the plethysmograph has persisted in research circles.

Proponents claim it is the most accurate test available, boasting a 32 % success rate in correctly identifying a man’s sexual preferences—making it, statistically, no better than flipping a coin, but still the most “proven” method on record.

10 Strange Attempts Overview

The quest for a reliable, real‑life gaydar has produced a parade of bizarre, ethically questionable, and often downright ineffective schemes. From Senate committees consulting surgeons to AI‑driven facial analysis, each attempt reflects the era’s anxieties and the lengths to which authorities will go to police sexuality. While modern science has largely debunked the notion of a foolproof gaydar, the historical record remains a fascinating—and unsettling—chronicle of human curiosity gone awry.

When it comes to safeguarding public health, the phrase “10 botched official” should ring alarm bells. Governments around the globe have, at times, turned what should have been swift, science‑driven actions into tangled, politicised dramas. Below we tally ten infamous episodes where official attempts to reign in deadly outbreaks backfired spectacularly, often because leaders cared more about image than lives.

10 MERS In South Korea

When Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) struck South Korea in 2015, the Park Geun‑hye administration was swiftly accused of turning a public‑health crisis into a bureaucratic nightmare. Critics pointed out the government’s opaque handling, especially the practice of shuttling suspected patients between hospitals before proper quarantine could be enforced. This not only endangered frontline medical staff but also amplified community exposure. Moreover, the absence of a dedicated, centralized treatment hub forced a fragmented approach that hampered containment efforts.

Public outrage intensified when officials refused to disclose which hospitals were treating MERS cases, fearing revenue loss for those facilities. In the vacuum of official information, internet users compiled their own lists, leading to police arrests for falsely naming hospitals as MERS treatment centers. The resulting climate of suspicion and rumor‑mongering eroded trust in the health system.

Journalist Se‑Woong Koo summed up the episode, arguing that the botched response reflected a “crony‑capitalist state” where corrupt elites prioritize power over public welfare, breeding systemic incompetence and deep‑seated public distrust.

9 SARS In China

The 2002‑2003 SARS crisis exposed glaring flaws in China’s epidemic management. While Mao Zedong had once poetically bid “Farewell to the God of Plagues,” the government’s instinct to protect its international image led to severe information suppression. A pivotal report from a Ministry of Health task force in Guangdong was sealed as top‑secret, delaying its release for three days while officials scrambled to locate an authorized reader. By the time the bulletin finally reached hospitals, many clinicians were on Chinese New Year leave, further stalling response.

Amid the spread, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang confidently assured the world that “China is a safe place to work and live, including to travel.” The World Health Organization, however, lodged complaints about governmental interference, noting that China barred direct contact between Taiwanese health officials and the WHO, citing sovereignty disputes. Meanwhile, the public was fed a mixed diet of misinformation: rumors of bird flu, anthrax, and even vinegar‑filled rooms as preventive measures proliferated online.

In hindsight, the SARS episode highlighted the pitfalls of what scholars term “fragmented authoritarianism,” where central directives clash with local implementation, contrasting sharply with the more coordinated responses observed in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

8 Cholera In Zimbabwe

In 2008, as Zimbabwe’s political landscape roiled between ZANU‑PF and the opposition MDC, cholera surged through the nation’s already fragile health system. President Robert Mugabe dismissed the outbreak as a Western conspiracy, lambasting the United States and United Kingdom as “crooks… guilty of deliberate lies to commit acts of aggression.” Hours after neighboring South Africa declared the border a disaster zone, Mugabe claimed the disease was under control—a statement starkly contradicted by World Health Organization experts who noted that he had barred a French medical team from entering the country.

The health ministry eventually conceded that central hospitals were “literally not functioning,” underscoring the dire state of Zimbabwe’s medical infrastructure. In 2013, a UN investigation revealed that the government had even dismissed Georges Tadonki, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe, for attempting to coordinate a robust cholera response. The tribunal later ruled that political considerations had eclipsed humanitarian imperatives.

The cholera crisis claimed over 4,000 lives, a tragic testament to how political denial and bureaucratic obstruction can magnify the toll of an otherwise manageable disease.

7 Nipah Virus In Malaysia

When the novel Nipah virus erupted in Malaysia’s Perak state in September 1998, officials initially mistook it for Japanese encephalitis—a mosquito‑borne illness familiar to the region. This misdiagnosis led authorities to launch fogging campaigns and mass vaccination drives that did nothing to curb the real culprit: a lethal encephalitis transmitted from fruit bats to pigs, then to humans via contaminated pig‑swill.

The confusion persisted until Singapore reported cases in abattoirs in March 1999, prompting a ban on Malaysian pork imports and a more focused containment effort. Ultimately, Malaysia resorted to culling over one million pigs and issuing public health advisories—mask‑wearing, rigorous hand‑washing after handling livestock, and thorough sanitation of animal transport cages.

The outbreak devastated the nation’s billion‑dollar pork industry, and disgruntled farmers sued the government for its mishandling. Their grievances centered on the wasted lives and livelihoods caused by the initial misidentification and delayed response.

6 Plague In India

In 1994, the city of Surat in Gujarat faced a sudden plague outbreak that threw the Indian government into disarray. Mixed messages flooded the media: an official bulletin confirmed the presence of plague, while the state’s chief minister denied it, insisting the illness was merely pneumonia. This contradictory messaging sparked widespread panic, prompting citizens to don masks and handkerchiefs—ineffective barriers against a flea‑borne bacterial disease.

Compounding the chaos, Rajasthan residents began exterminating rats in a desperate bid to halt transmission, inadvertently dislodging infected fleas and possibly accelerating the spread. The government’s initial attempt to conceal the crisis faltered under pressure from trade partners such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, who demanded WHO involvement. Even then, WHO officials lamented the Indian authorities’ sluggish sample sharing and the press‑driven “science by the media” approach.

Rumors of engineered bioweapons from hostile neighbours swirled, further eroding public confidence. The episode underscored how bureaucratic hesitancy and political denial can amplify the impact of even a well‑understood disease.

5 AIDS In The United States

The 1980s AIDS epidemic in America unfolded against a backdrop of political inertia. When the first cases appeared in 1981, the Reagan administration delayed meaningful action, resulting in sluggish funding for research and a near‑absence of nationwide education campaigns. The early victims—predominantly gay men—became targets of moral condemnation, with figures like Reverend Jerry Falwell branding AIDS “the wrath of God upon homosexuals,” while Reagan’s communications chief Pat Buchanan dismissed the crisis as “nature’s revenge.”

It wasn’t until 1987, after 59,572 reported cases and 27,909 deaths, that President Reagan finally addressed the epidemic publicly. Meanwhile, Senator Jesse Helms amended appropriations bills to bar AIDS education that “encouraged or promoted homosexual activity,” effectively stymying safe‑sex initiatives. The administration’s reluctance to confront the disease head‑on is widely viewed as a calculated move to avoid alienating its conservative base.

Analysts contend that this political calculus cost tens of thousands of lives, illustrating how ideological bias can impede urgent public‑health interventions.

4 BSE In Britain

Britain’s bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) saga, colloquially known as mad cow disease, began quietly in the 1970s before exploding onto the world stage in the 1990s. Early government statements denied any link between BSE and the human variant, Creutzfeldt‑Jakob disease (vCJD). Agriculture Minister John Gummer even took a public bite of a hamburger to prove British beef was safe, a stunt that backfired when his daughter refused the meat and he ate it himself, calling it “absolutely delicious.”

The official acknowledgment of danger only arrived in 1996, after several human vCJD cases were confirmed. A 2000 review praised some containment measures but also highlighted systemic denialism, bureaucratic inertia, and lax enforcement. A pivotal misstep was the 1987 decision to allow mechanically recovered meat from carcasses into the food chain—a choice that later facilitated the spread of prions through burgers and meat pies.

The BSE crisis shattered public confidence in UK food safety regulators and underscored the peril of downplaying scientific warnings for economic or political convenience.

3 Spanish Flu In Samoa

In November 1918, the Spanish influenza stormed the Pacific island of Samoa, then administered by New Zealand. Lieutenant‑Colonel Robert Logan, the island’s governor, allowed the passenger ship Talune—already quarantined in Fiji—to dock without any health precautions. Infected passengers disembarked, and the virus quickly swept across Upolu and Savai’i, overwhelming the islands’ meagre medical facilities.

Logan dismissed an offer of aid from American Samoa, claiming he thought the request was meant for his wife. He also severed radio contact with Pago Pago, allegedly in retaliation for American Samoa’s quarantine of Western Samoan mail. Consequently, no external medical assistance arrived until an Australian vessel delivered four doctors and twenty orderlies weeks later.

The disaster claimed roughly 22 percent of Samoa’s population. A 1947 United Nations report labeled it “one of the most disastrous epidemics recorded anywhere in the world during the present century, so far as the proportion of deaths to the population is concerned.” Logan later wrote that the tragedy was “temporary” and that Samoans would “later… remember all that has been done for them in the previous four years,” a starkly detached assessment of the catastrophe.

2 Meningitis In Zambia

June 2015 saw a sudden meningococcal meningitis flare‑up at Kabompo Secondary School in Zambia’s North‑Western Province. Three students died, and three more were hospitalized. Government agencies scrambled to disseminate accurate information, but mixed messages from the Ministries of Health and Education sparked panic. Some students even blamed witchcraft, leading to a violent protest on July 4 that damaged school property and prompted parents to pull their children out of class, demanding a “cleansing” of the institution.

Confusion deepened when Health Minister Joseph Kasonde told reporters the school had been closed for two weeks, while Education spokesperson Hillary Chipango insisted the school remained open, merely noting that students were refusing to attend. Critics argued that the lack of coordinated communication prevented the public from learning that the disease is treatable with antibiotics and easily preventable through vaccination.

The episode illustrates how bureaucratic misalignment can fuel superstition, jeopardize public health, and erode trust in official institutions.

1 AIDS In South Africa

South Africa’s fight against HIV/AIDS was dramatically derailed after President Thabo Mbeki embraced a fringe scientific view championed by virologist Peter Duesberg, who denied that HIV caused AIDS. Mbeki’s administration promoted the notion that AIDS stemmed from drug use, promiscuity, blood transfusions, parasitic infections, and malnutrition rather than a viral pathogen. This denialist stance was partly motivated by concerns over the cost of antiretroviral drugs and a belief that the disease’s prevalence reflected broader socioeconomic deficiencies.

Under Mbeki, a cadre of scientists proclaimed alternative treatments, while the Ministry of Health refused to provide antiretroviral therapy to HIV‑positive citizens until late 2003. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala‑Msimang famously suggested that a diet rich in olive oil, beetroot, lemon, and garlic could cure AIDS, even showcasing a fruit‑and‑vegetable display at a Toronto AIDS conference. Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala‑Routledge, who voiced criticism of the denialist policy, was dismissed in 2007, ostensibly for corruption but widely seen as retaliation for her outspoken stance.

South Africa’s denialist era ended with Jacob Zuma’s election in 2009, and a Harvard analysis later estimated that Mbeki’s policies may have caused over 300,000 premature deaths. The tragedy underscores the lethal consequences of politicising science and ignoring established medical consensus.

Why These Cases Matter: The 10 Botched Official Lessons

From MERS in South Korea to AIDS in South Africa, each of these ten stories offers a cautionary tale about the perils of putting politics before public health. By studying these missteps, policymakers can better prepare for future crises, ensuring that transparency, science, and swift action replace denial, secrecy, and bureaucratic inertia.

Everyone needs a little assistance now and then. Most of us navigate life without anyone noticing when we lean on others or why. If you’ve ever hired a gardener, a masseuse, or even an entire petting zoo for entertainment, that’s probably your business. Yet the more fame a person accumulates, the more their attempts to employ help for any odd task get examined. Often these stories are as ordinary as yours and mine, but occasionally they’re anything but.

10 Outlandish Hiring Highlights

10 Angelina Jolie Tried to Hire a Hitman to Kill Herself

Hiring a professional assassin isn’t something you see on a daily newsfeed. It usually belongs to the realm of movies or the occasional sensational headline about a “Rent‑a‑Hitman” website. Angelina Jolie, however, added a startling real‑life chapter to that narrative.

Jolie, undeniably one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors, has long been in the spotlight for both her cinematic triumphs and her personal life. In 2001 she stunned the world by revealing that she had, at one point, contemplated employing a hitman to end her own life. She explained that the idea of a murder seemed less burdensome to her family than a suicide, believing it would spare them the trauma of a self‑inflicted death.

The plan was anything but whimsical. She meticulously plotted how to amass the necessary funds without raising suspicion and actually made contact with a contract killer. The hitman, displaying an unexpected hint of compassion, advised her to pause and reconsider, suggesting she call back after a month or two if she still felt the need.

Fortunately, Jolie never followed through. The encounter serves as a haunting reminder of how even the most glamorous lives can be shadowed by profound personal struggles.

9 Jeff Goldblum Tried to Hire a Prostitute When He Was 13

Jeff Goldblum’s on‑screen charisma is legendary, but his off‑screen curiosity has taken some rather unconventional turns. During a 2016 appearance on the Graham Norton Show, the actor recounted a bizarre episode from his early teens.

At the age of thirteen, Goldblum reportedly pilfered five dollars from his father with the intention of hiring a prostitute. He confessed that the onset of puberty left him feeling awkward around his female classmates, prompting him to seek a shortcut to adult intimacy. He ventured to his town’s red‑light district, but as he stood at the doorway of a room, a wave of second thoughts hit him. Claiming he had another engagement, he never returned, leaving the episode as a quirky footnote in his colorful life story.

8 The CIA Hired a Magician to Write a Magic Book for Spies

The Central Intelligence Agency is famed for clandestine operations, covert tech, and the occasional eyebrow‑raising anecdote. One of the more astonishing chapters involves a partnership with a professional magician during the Cold War.

Rumors swirled for decades about a secret CIA manual that taught espionage agents the art of illusion. Those whispers were finally confirmed when a former operative unearthed a 1950s manuscript authored by magician John Mulholland. The guide detailed sleight‑of‑hand tricks, covert signaling methods, and other deceptive techniques that could give field agents a subtle edge.

By the 1970s, Mulholland’s expertise was put to practical use: his methods helped operatives discreetly administer sedatives and other substances, and he was consulted on seemingly supernatural claims, such as purported psychic communication. The collaboration remains a testament to how unconventional skills can become state‑level assets.

7 San Diego Hired a Rainmaker and Then it Flooded

When a city’s reservoirs run dry, desperation can lead to truly out‑of‑the‑ordinary solutions. In 1915, San Diego faced a severe drought that threatened its water supply, prompting officials to turn to a self‑styled “moisture accelerator.”

The city paid a hefty $10,000—a fortune at the time—to Charles Hatfield, a former sewing‑machine salesman who claimed he could summon rain. He erected a 20‑foot tower and ignited a chemical concoction he believed would draw clouds inward.

Miraculously, on New Year’s Day 1916, rain began to pour, persisting for an entire month and delivering roughly 30 inches of precipitation. While the deluge temporarily replenished reservoirs, it also caused a catastrophic flood: a dam burst, dozens perished, and infrastructure was devastated.

Because the disaster was later deemed an “act of God,” the city never compensated Hatfield, leaving his reputation forever tied to both miracle and mayhem.

6 The Mayor of Bogota Hired Mimes to Make Fun of Bad Drivers

Political leaders sometimes resort to unconventional tactics to spark change, and Bogota’s former mayor, Antanas Mockus, took that notion to an artistic extreme. A mathematician and philosopher by training, Mockus believed that civic behavior could be reshaped through playful, public‑spirit campaigns.

He famously donned a Superman cape while addressing the city, signaling that ordinary citizens could become everyday heroes. Among his many initiatives, he launched “Night for Women,” urging men to stay home so women could enjoy a night out—an effort that attracted 700,000 participants.

To tackle water waste, Mockus staged a televised shower, abruptly turning off the tap mid‑stream. The stunt led to a 14 % reduction in water consumption, which later fell to 40 % as residents realized the financial savings.

Socially, he distributed 350,000 “thumbs‑up/thumbs‑down” cards for citizens to publicly endorse or criticize one another’s conduct. He also proposed a modest 10 % tax increase, which 63,000 people voluntarily accepted.

Perhaps the most visually striking effort involved hiring over 400 professional mimes. These silent performers roamed streets, theatrically mocking traffic violators and pedestrians who flouted road rules. Their antics helped halve traffic‑related fatalities and contributed to the dismantling of a corrupt traffic police force.

5 The Rolling Stones Hired Hells Angels As Security

The Rolling Stones, rock royalty since the 1960s, needed a security solution for their ambitious 1969 free‑concert venture at Altamont Speedway. The event, billed as a West‑Coast Woodstock, featured the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and several other acts.

Rather than hiring a professional security firm, the organizers struck a deal with a handful of Hells Angels members. The bikers would provide protection in exchange for $500 worth of beer—a bargain that proved disastrous.

Violence erupted when a Hells Angel member stabbed a concert‑goer who was armed with a gun, right in front of Mick Jagger. The band, unaware of the chaos, continued to play. By night’s end, three additional attendees had died in accidental incidents, and the event also witnessed the birth of four babies.

4 Gary Oldman Hired a Voice Coach to Re‑Learn His British Accent

Gary Oldman, hailed as one of contemporary cinema’s most versatile actors, has inhabited a staggering array of characters—from the dark wizard in the “Harry Potter” saga to the iconic Winston Churchill. Yet, after years of living in Los Angeles, he found his native British accent slipping away.

Determined to reclaim his speech patterns, Oldman enlisted the help of a professional dialect coach. The specialist guided him through exercises and techniques designed to restore his original intonation, ensuring that his future performances could once again sound authentically British.

3 Ozzy Osbourne Once Hired a “Personal Dwarf”

Ozzy Osbourne’s career, from his pioneering days with Black Sabbath to his reality‑TV fame, has always been peppered with eccentric headlines. One of the stranger anecdotes involves his decision to employ a “personal dwarf” during his solo era in the 1980s.

He hired actor John Edward Allen, who performed under the moniker Ronnie the Dwarf—a playful jab at new bandmate Ronnie James Dio. Allen became a regular fixture in Osbourne’s stage shows, often being theatrically suspended above the crowd and serving drinks to the rock legend.

The partnership, however, soured behind the scenes. At one point, after a heated dispute, Osbourne allegedly locked Allen inside the tour bus’s luggage compartment, a stark reminder that even the most outlandish collaborations can turn toxic.

2 Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift Hired a Fake Director

Producing a blockbuster film often involves a legion of crew members, but one role you rarely see credited is that of a decoy director. In the case of “Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift,” the producers faced a legal roadblock: they could not secure official permits to film in the desired Tokyo locations.

To keep the production moving, they hired an individual to pose as the film’s director. This “fake director” would be the one to take responsibility if law‑enforcement intervened, allowing the actual director to continue shooting the high‑octane sequences without interruption.

1 Bill Murray Hired an Assistant No One Could Communicate With

Bill Murray, beloved for his dead‑pan humor and iconic roles, is also known for being notoriously difficult to collaborate with on set. During the production of “Groundhog Day,” tensions rose as Murray navigated a turbulent personal life, including a divorce.

To manage his erratic behavior, a decision was made to bring on an assistant. The twist? The assistant was deaf and communicated solely through American Sign Language—a method that neither Murray nor the rest of the crew understood. The arrangement added an extra layer of confusion to an already chaotic filming environment.

When people chase a 10 record breaking title, they often think of glory, fame, and maybe a little cash. Yet, behind many of those ambitious pursuits lie mishaps, injuries, and even tragedies. Some attempts succeed despite the odds; others crumble spectacularly, leaving a legacy of cautionary tales. Below are ten daring attempts – all aiming for a world‑record spot – that spectacularly missed the mark, some even ending in disaster.

10 Longest Car Jump Fail (Tignes, France, 2014)

10 Record Breaking Attempt Overview

After clinching his fourth freeriding world title, French daredevil Guerlain Chicherit swapped skis for wheels, diving headfirst into rally and rallycross. He’d already amassed a French Rally Cup, an FIA Cross‑Country Rally World Cup, and even pulled off the world’s first unassisted car backflip in 2013. Yet the adrenaline junkie confessed, “I need this feeling like a smoker needs nicotine.” Determined to out‑do Tanner Foust’s 2011 record of a 332‑foot (101‑m) ramp jump, Chicherit set his sights on a 360‑foot (110‑m) gap.

In March 2014, his crew crunched 15 variables to launch a custom‑built BMW Mini – the same Mini that performed the backflip – off a steel ramp perched on a snowy Alpine slope. The Mini roared down at 99 mph (160 km/h) and hit the ramp, but a harsh scrape warned Chicherit that something was amiss. Mid‑air the Mini’s hood nosed down, the vehicle rotated, and it slammed nose‑first onto the concrete, cartwheeling across the landing. Miraculously, Chicherit escaped with only minor injuries, spending a single night under observation. Even before leaving the hospital he plotted a repair and a second try, but to this day the jump remains unattempted again.

9 Bird vs. Dominoes (Leeuwarden, Holland, 2005)

In October 2005, Endemol crews were painstakingly setting up a jaw‑dropping 4,155,156 dominoes inside a Leeuwarden exhibition hall for a record‑breaking topple. The dominoes formed an intricate cascade that would have dazzled millions. Yet, midway through construction, an unsuspecting house sparrow landed on a piece, triggering an accidental tumble of roughly 23,000 dominoes.

Attempts to rescue the feathered intruder failed, prompting animal control to intervene. An officer cornered the bird and, after a brief struggle, killed it with an air‑gun – a tragic misstep, as the sparrow was listed on the Netherlands’ endangered species register. The killing sparked outrage across Europe, sparking death threats toward the crew, a $3,500 bounty from a Dutch DJ for anyone who could topple more dominoes, and a tribute song titled “The Domino Sparrow.” Over 5,000 signatures flooded a condolence register, and the bird’s stuffed form later found a home in the Rotterdam Natural History Museum, perched atop a box of dominoes.

Despite the avian sacrifice, the remaining dominoes still fell, securing a record that held for a year until Beijing’s 4.3‑million‑piece cascade eclipsed it. Yet the drama didn’t end there: Guinness later disqualified 153,000 pieces after a crew member inadvertently knocked them down. Whether that crew member faced any further repercussions remains unknown.

8 Zip Lining on a Ponytail (West Bengal, India, 2013)

In 2013, Indian police officer Sailendra Nath Roy turned his own hair into a daredevil’s tool. After a 2007 stunt that saw him zip between two high‑rise buildings using only his ponytail, Roy escalated to a 271‑foot (82.5‑m) zip line in 2011, earning a world record. The following year he attempted a 600‑foot (183‑m) zip line suspended 70 feet (21 m) above the Teesta River, aiming to shatter his own feat.

Unfortunately, Roy failed to inform Guinness, local police, or any medical team about the attempt. Though he wore a life vest, he neglected a crucial safety knife. Mid‑journey his ponytail snagged the trolley’s wheels, trapping him. Spectators watched from the Coronation Bridge, but their cheers turned to confusion as Roy’s frantic calls for help went unheard. Some onlookers even clapped, mistaking his struggle for performance. After a harrowing 30‑minute battle, Roy suffered a massive heart attack, went limp, and only after another 15 minutes was he pulled onto the bridge where CPR was administered—by then, he was already gone. His wife had begged him to quit, but he insisted this would be his final stunt.

7 Tender‑Footed Firewalkers (Dunedin, New Zealand, 2004)

July 2004 saw a charitable fire‑walking fundraiser in Dunedin, organized to purchase defibrillators for the Order of St. John ambulance service. Guinness officials oversaw the event, ensuring the fire pit measured 3.5 m (11.5 ft) and that all participants were at least 14 years old. The record‑book officially logged 341 walkers, setting a new world record.

However, another roughly 150 onlookers also stepped onto the flames, many without proper instruction. Physicist Dr. John Campbell of the University of Canterbury explained the ideal fire‑walk: four swift steps, each lasting one second, across a 3‑m (10‑ft) pit. Guinness, insisting on a longer 3.5‑m pit, inadvertently increased risk. Campbell emphasized that fire‑walking doesn’t require hypnosis—just the right charcoal composition and no metal contact—yet one in ten participants will still get blisters, especially those with thinner skin on the arches and toes. Regular barefoot walkers or weightlifters fare best.

While most burns were minor, 11 participants required hospitalisation, incurring over $1,000 in saline, dressings, and gas costs for the ambulance service. Ironically, the fundraiser netted less than $1,000, turning a well‑intentioned record attempt into a financial shortfall.

6 A Family Shattered (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, 2015)

Chilean cyclist Juan Francisco Guillermo launched a five‑year, five‑continent odyssey in November 2010, aiming to bike a staggering 250,000 km (155,000 mi). By February 2015, he’d covered four continents, endured 793 flat‑tires, and logged 140,000 km (87,000 mi). Along the way, he married Ng Poh Leng and welcomed a two‑year‑old son, Lucas.

During a week‑long stay at a Khon Kaen monastery, the trio prepared to depart. Juan declared his love for the temple, even wishing his cremation there. On the road to Nakhon Ratchasima, Juan led a convoy, towing a baby trailer that carried Ng and Lucas behind his bike. A speeding pickup truck, whose driver claimed he never saw the cyclists, slammed into the trailer, striking Ng and Lucas first, then crushing Juan. The impact killed Juan instantly; Ng and Lucas survived with minor injuries. The tragedy unfolded amid Thailand’s campaigns to curb traffic fatalities and promote cycling, underscoring the stark reality of road‑safety challenges.

5 Plate Glass Break (Las Vegas, Nevada, 2013)

Jesús “Half Animal” Villa, a former Cirque du Soleil acrobat, amassed a string of Guinness records: a double backflip on spring‑loaded stilts, 19 consecutive backflips in under a minute (actually 21 seconds), 13 consecutive 90‑degree push‑ups, and two more stilts feats in a single day. On December 12 2012, he set the distance record by traveling 37 mi (62 km) on stilts in 24 hours, with his girlfriend Pamela Sue Anderson cheering him on.

His seventh record attempt aimed to smash the fastest time running through ten panes of tempered glass, filmed for truTV’s “Guinness Records Gone Wild.” Villa alleged that the production crew tampered with his gear, resulting in a catastrophic failure: as he vaulted from a trampoline toward the first pane, he collided violently, shattering the glass and fracturing his neck. Post‑injury, half his cervical spine required titanium reconstruction. Despite extensive rehabilitation, Villa admits his body never returned to its former peak. Adding insult to injury, online trolls flooded his Fundrazr page with cruel comments, highlighting the lingering stigma faced by disabled athletes.

4 Paralympic Rowing Champ Drowns (Pacific Ocean, 2020)

Angela Madsen’s life read like a heroic novel. A high‑school basketball and volleyball star, she later joined the Marines, playing for the women’s All‑Marine Corps basketball team. A training accident ruptured two spinal discs and damaged her sciatic nerve, leading to a botched back‑fusion surgery that left her paraplegic from the waist down.

Barred from suing the VA by a 1950 statute, Madsen survived on meagre disability checks, which her partner siphoned, leaving her homeless and evicted. After a near‑miss on railroad tracks, she turned to adaptive sports, winning five gold medals at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in swimming, slalom, and billiards. She later discovered rowing, earning a silver at the 2002 World Rowing Championships and four consecutive golds thereafter.

In 2013, Madsen attempted a solo 2,500‑mile (4,023‑km) row from California to Hawaii, only to be rescued by a storm. The following year, paired with a teammate, she completed the crossing in 60 days, sometimes rowing 70 mi a day. In April 2020, she set out again, this time solo, aiming to become the first paraplegic, openly gay, and oldest woman to row from Marina del Rey to Honolulu. Mid‑June, a cyclone threatened her 20‑ft fiberglass boat. She deployed a parachute anchor for stability, yet the anchor needed repairs. On June 21, while tethered to the boat, Madsen’s lack of sensation below the waist likely caused her to stay too long in 72‑degree water, leading to hypothermia or a heart attack. Her body was later found floating, still attached to the vessel.

3 Tug‑of‑War Deaths

Tug‑of‑war seems innocent enough—child’s play at picnics, schoolyards, and corporate outings. Yet the sport can become lethal when sub‑standard ropes are used. The U.S. Tug‑of‑War Association notes that nylon ropes, if overloaded, can snap and recoil like a gigantic rubber band, severing limbs.

In October 1997, 1,600 participants in Taiwan pulled a 2‑inch nylon rope with 180,000 lb of force—far beyond its 57,000‑lb rating—resulting in two men losing arms and 40 injuries, including spinal and organ damage. Similar tragedies occurred in 2007 (high‑school boys losing hands), Nova Scotia (four fingers lost), and Pennsylvania (middle‑schoolers losing fingertips and a thumb).

The deadliest incident unfolded in 1995 in Frankfurt, where 650 boy scouts attempted a world‑record tug‑of‑war. The thin rope snapped, whipping back with such ferocity that a nine‑year‑old was killed instantly, and another boy was crushed beneath falling teammates. In total, 102 participants suffered serious injuries, making it the gravest tug‑of‑war disaster on record.

2 The Truck Driver at the Edge of Space (Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 1966)

Nick Piantanida was no astronaut, just a New Jersey truck driver with a burning ambition to claim the highest free‑fall parachute jump for the United States during the Cold War. After a stint as an exotic‑pet shop owner, he fell in love with skydiving and set his sights on beating the Soviet record of an 80,340‑ft (15‑mi) jump and the U.S. record of 19 mi (31 km).

To fund his dream, Piantanida drove long hauls on weekends, while studying balloon technology and recruiting experts like Paul Edward Yost (hot‑air balloon pioneer) and Jacques‑André Istel (American skydiving father). Sponsors, including New Jersey Senator Pete Williams, helped him secure a custom gondola from Raven Industries and a pressure suit from the David Clark Company.

After two aborted attempts—one in October 1965 ending at 16,000 ft due to wind shear, and a February 1966 mishap where his oxygen valve jammed—Piantanida’s third try in May 1966 seemed promising. The balloon rose to 57,000 ft when the ground crew heard a “whoosh” and a cry for help. They cut the gondola free, deploying a parachute, and reached him 26 minutes later. He was barely conscious, slipped into a coma, and never regained consciousness, dying four months later. Investigators suspect that when Piantanida opened his helmet visor to relieve pressure, he couldn’t reseal it, exposing him to near‑vacuum conditions for several minutes, causing fatal decompression.

1 Great Balloon Catastrophe (Cleveland, Ohio, 1986)

Balloon releases sound harmless—just a colorful skyshow. But Cleveland’s 1986 “Balloonfest” proved otherwise. The city, eager to shed its “Bomb City” image after a decade of industrial decline, environmental woes, and mafia violence, organized a massive fundraiser for United Way. The plan: fill a 3‑story net‑covered square with helium balloons—two per donated dollar—aiming for two million balloons.

On the night of September 26 into the morning of the 27th, 2,500 volunteers pumped 1,429,643 balloons into the net. A looming storm forced organizers to halt before reaching the two‑million mark. When released, the balloons rose like a massive, multicolored cloud over Terminal Tower, setting a new record.

But the celebration turned tragic when the storm drove the balloons northward over Lake Erie. Rain forced them down, causing highway accidents, spooking Arabian horses at a Geauga County ranch, and closing Burke Lakefront Airport for 30 minutes. The balloons drifted across the lake, littering Canadian beaches. Two fishermen capsized in the storm; rescuers described searching for survivors amid a sea of orange balloons as “like looking for a needle in a haystack.” The Coast Guard eventually abandoned the search, and the men’s bodies washed ashore weeks later.

Local media initially hailed the event, with a DJ proclaiming, “There is no ‘mistake on the lake’ anymore!” Yet the disaster left Cleveland’s reputation further tarnished, proving that even seemingly innocent record attempts can unleash chaos.