Holidays often have traditions, such as eating turkey for Thanksgiving, decorating with shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, and carving jack-o’lanterns for Halloween.

Christmas is another holiday with many traditions. Some, like enjoying candy canes, oohing and aahing at decorated Christmas trees, and telling a mall or other store-based Santa what is on one’s gift list, came about long before the 20th century began.

Other Christmas traditions, such as the ones listed below, started within the past 100 years. Read on to learn more about some of these newer traditions.

Related: 10 Holidays No One Celebrates

10 Watching Network Television Christmas Specials

The distinction of oldest Christmas special exclusively for television is neither Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer nor A Charlie Brown Christmas, which premiered in 1964 and 1965, respectively. Rather, it is Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, a cartoon that debuted in 1962. The special was based on Charles Dickens’s novel with a similar-sounding name that tells the story of a selfish, unsympathetic businessman named Ebenezer Scrooge until several ghostly visitors help him see the errors of his ways.

Among the actors who provided their voices to Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol was Jim Backus, who would go on to star in Gilligan’s Island the following year, and Morey Amsterdam, who simultaneously worked on The Dick Van Dyke Show while the Christmas special was in production.^[1]

9 Conducting Toys for Tots Drives

The tradition of a big box with a Marine Corps Reserves Toys for Tots logo to place donations like dolls, toy trucks, and similar items began in Los Angeles in 1947. That’s when a Marine Corps Reserve member was strongly encouraged to start an organization that would distribute the dolls his wife had made to financially disadvantaged children when no such existing organization could be found.

In the campaign’s first year, 5,000 toys were collected and distributed. Since then and through 2023, roughly 677 million toys, books, and games have been given to 301 million financially disadvantaged children.^[2]

8 Listening to Radio Stations’ Christmas Music Marathons

Around 1990, management at an adult contemporary radio station based in Phoenix with the call letters KEZ went against the advice of its consultants and researchers and began playing nonstop Christmas music upon the end of Thanksgiving. Contrary to those consultants’ and researchers’ beliefs, the format proved popular and since then, hundreds of radio stations have followed the same commercial-free Christmas music format, although the date these stations start airing the songs varies.

In 2024, Chicago radio station 93.9 FM began playing nonstop Christmas music on November 1, Cincinnati radio station 94.9 FM started doing so on November 18, and New York City’s 102.7 FM and Philadelphia’s B101 also began doing so around that date. The earliest non-satellite radio airing of Christmas music may have been Fort Wayne, Indiana’s 95.1 FM, which began playing all Christmas music in July amid the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.^[3]

7 Wearing Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Wearing ugly Christmas sweaters—such as ones designed with excessive amounts of glitter or pompoms or of Santa doing something highly out of character—appears to have begun in the early 2000s. Less glitzy versions of the apparel were popular in the 1950s and 1980s.

The current creators of ugly Christmas sweaters include fast food chains and creameries. In recent years, some companies have hosted or will host Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties, and at least a few ugly Christmas sweater parties have supported or will support a nonprofit organization.^[4]

6 Shopping on Cyber Monday

In the early 2000s, the National Retail Federation discovered that online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving were higher than the days leading up to it. Thus, it decided to come up with a catchy name for the day. After discarding ideas such as Blue Monday or Black Monday, Cyber Monday was created in 2005.

The federation attributed the increase in online sales on Cyber Monday to shoppers using (presumably faster) work computers to buy the items on their lists. Using a work computer also made it more likely the gift recipient would not know what they were getting.

In recent years, Cyber Monday sales have almost always increased from one year to the next. For instance, in 2019, such sales totaled $7.4 billion. By 2024, that amount had risen to $13.3 billion. Every year in between, sales had increased except in 2022, when sales dropped to $9.12 billion from $9.53 billion the year before.^[5]

5 Showings of A Christmas Story for 24 Hours Straight

The wheels for this tradition were set into motion when the 1983 movie first aired on TBS, TNT, and TCM in 1991. Those three channels aired the movie six times from the day before Christmas until the day after that holiday Christmas in 1995. The number of airings among those same three channels increased to eight in 1996.

Then, in 1997, the 24-hour marathon began, but only on TNT. In 2004, when that network changed the formatting of its programming to drama, TBS took over marathon hosting duties, but since 2014, both have aired the day-long movie marathon.

In 2020, 32 million people viewed the movie at some point during the marathon. When asked to comment on the movie’s popularity more than a decade after its release, director Bob Clark noted the movie’s approach to an extraordinary time of the year with compassion and candor, and star Peter Billingsley (who played Ralphie) noted how many of the movie’s fans tell him they see their own life story in the movie’s plot. Recently, other Christmas favored have also jumped on the 24-hour move marathon bandwagon, most notably Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.^[6]

4 Leaving Milk and Cookies for Santa

Families providing Santa Claus with milk and cookies in between dropping off presents in their homes began during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The hope was that by doing so, children would comprehend how important it was to give presents to others and also appreciate the presents they themselves had received.

One report indicates that Santa Claus likes all kinds of cookies, such as peanut butter, snickerdoodles, gingerbread, sugar, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate chip. There is no word on what type of milk—2%, oat, soy, etc.—he likes.

With so many food and drink options these days, it can be hard to determine how many calories Santa Claus consumes during his yearly gift-giving trip to people’s homes around the globe. One report’s conservative estimate of about several hundred calories per home concludes he would likely exceed recommended daily calorie allowances by several hundred thousand-fold, which is not something that can likely be worked off with all those trips up and down chimneys.^[7]

3 Watching Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular

The holiday-themed show that counts Vincente Minnelli among its creators premiered in the world’s largest indoor theater in 1933. The show still conducts the majority of its performances there and has, from its inception, included the dancing troupe known as the Rockettes and a nativity scene.

Over the years, the show has added modern features such as an LED light board and 3D effects. Annually, it uses about 1,200 costumes, some 30,000 red dots to give the Rockettes’ cheeks a rosy look, and slightly less than 14,100 batteries.^[8]

2 Paying Homage to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Santa Claus’s reindeer with a nose that appeared to glow was created in 1939 by Chicago-based department store catalog writer Robert L. May as part of a children’s book-writing assignment. May had toyed with naming his creation Rollo, Rodney, Roland, Roderick, or Reggy before settling on Rudolph.

Some of the emotions May experienced in his own life—such as isolation from bypassing a few grades in school, resulting in him being smaller and younger than his classmates, sadness from his wife’s fatal illness, and failure from his inability to become a successful novel writer—an be seen in Rudolph when the reindeer experiences feelings of isolation and glumness.^[9]

1 Reenacting Colonial Troops Delaware River Crossing

Each year for more than 70 years, hundreds of volunteers have gathered on Christmas Day along the Delaware River north of Philadelphia carrying weaponry and dressed in uniforms similar to those that George Washington’s army wore in 1776 when it launched a surprise attack on the Hessians during the Revolutionary War. Then, just as those troops did so that year, these volunteers cross the river into New Jersey.

The day’s events also include 1770s-themed activities and speeches that still occur even if the weather or river is not conducive to the river crossing reenactment. Spectators of the crossing and other events number in the thousands and come from around the United States and the world.^[10]

New York City is well-known for its bustling Times Square, towering skyline, and Broadway theater shows. Yet, New York, like many big cities, has a storied history, and some of the buildings there have seen such tragic events that they are more notorious for their unfortunate pasts than their desirable architecture.

Many ghost hunters and the paranormal-curious have been known to head to these spooky locations with hopes to investigate further. As it appears, there might be other reasons why New York is called the city that never sleeps. Here are ten of them.

10 The Dakota

The Dakota, located at 72nd Street and Central Park West, is home to some of the most sought-after real estate in Manhattan. It was built in the 1880s, and its owner, Edward Clark, who was the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, died at the age of 70 two years before the building was complete.

Overlooking Central Park, the Dakota is famous for both its Gothic architecture and haunted history. Horror fans will notice the exterior was used for scenes in Roman Polanski’s 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby. Also in the 1960s, when renovations took place; workers claimed they saw the ghost of a blonde-haired girl in the hallways.

Tragically, on December 8, 1980, Beatles singer John Lennon was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside the Dakota. His wife still lives there, and she has claimed that the ghost of her late husband visited her one night and told her, “Don’t be afraid. I am still with you.”^[1] Before his death, Lennon also revealed to his wife that he had witnessed a “crying lady ghost” stalking the halls in the night.

9 The House Of Death

In Greenwich Village, 14 West 10th Street was home to author Mark Twain from 1900 to 1901, and his ghost is believed to be one of the 22 spirits that haunt the building, all of whom either lived or died at the residence.

One former resident saw the ghost of a man with “white hair, wild-like” sitting in a chair looking out the window, and when she asked him what he was doing there, he replied, “My name is Clemens and I got problems here I gotta settle.” Also, an actress named Jan Bryant Bartell complained of hearing noises as well as experiencing visions and feelings of dread at number 16 West (next door). She then moved to number 14 West, but the sensations continued, and she believed it was the ghost of Mark Twain.

In 1987, wealthy attorney Joel Steinberg brutally beat his adopted daughter to death at number 14. The building has since been referred to as “The House of Death” by those who know of its haunting history.^[2]

8 The Campbell Apartment

A cocktail bar called the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Terminal was once the office of financier John W. Campbell. Following his death in 1957, it became a small jail before it was sold once again. Since the location’s restoration, the historic architecture has been mixed with contemporary design elements and offers a cozy place to enjoy a drink close by the busy main terminal. However, the history of paranormal activity here also attracts many ghost hunters.

In 2010, owner Mark Grossich said, “Over the last several years, employees have had instances where they felt someone pushing them from behind when they were walking across the floor, and there was no one there. They’ve felt gusts of cold air coming from out of nowhere. My staff has even reported seeing apparitions of an old, fashionably dressed couple sitting and having a cocktail on the balcony when the place was completely closed.”^[3] He added that the ghostly goings-on are so frequent that many of his staff members refuse to be in the place on their own.

7 The Conference House

The Conference House on Staten Island was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966. On September 11, 1776, Lord William Howe, Benjamin Franklin, Edward Rutledge, and John Adams all met here at a failed meeting over a peace treaty during the Revolutionary War.

In 1676, Christopher Billop, an English Royal Navy officer, acquired the land and built the Bentley Manor—which has since had its name changed to the Conference House. It is believed that Billop killed the maid of the manor by stabbing her on the staircase and then throwing her body down the stairs. His motive was that he’d discovered she was signaling to the enemy, and it’s said that her ghost still haunts the building. Another ghost that resides here is the spirit of Billop’s fiancee, who died of a broken heart when he abandoned her, and her cries can still be heard.^[4]

The building also sits on the largest Lenape burial ground in New York City, called Burial Ridge, which would explain a lot of the hauntings in this place.

6 The Lefferts-Laidlaw House

If the thought of hearing knocking on your door in the middle of the night—only to answer and see nobody is there—frightens you, then the Lefferts-Laidlaw House at 136 Clinton Avenue near the Brooklyn Navy Yard is one residence to avoid. In December 1878, then-owner Edward F. Smith heard knocking at his door and loud rattling of his windows, which continued through the night until he eventually called the police. As the police surrounded the building outside, a brick was thrown through the dining room window despite numerous police officers being at the property. After a search of the surrounding grounds, there was nobody else to be seen.

Many psychics have tried to understand what evil spirit haunts this place, and they hold “semi-seances” on the sidewalk outside the house, yet it all still remains a mystery. Built circa 1840, the temple-fronted Greek Revival-style mansion boasts six bedrooms and was last on the market in 2016 for $4.5 million.^[5]

5 85 West 3rd Street

Author Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his haunting Gothic stories, including “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Yet he might have gained inspiration for one of his most famous works, “The Raven,” during the time he spent living at 85 West 3rd Street. He lived at the address from 1844 to 1845, the same time the narrative poem was published, and according to those who have resided there recently, he hasn’t moved on.

The building was demolished by New York University and rebuilt as Furman Hall, yet some of the original features remain intact, such as the facade facing the front street and an original banister. Students living in the hall claim to have seen a mysterious ghost-like figure that stands near the banister and resembles the late Poe.^[6] In 1849, Poe died mysteriously at the age of 40 years old. He was found acting delirious in Baltimore, Maryland, and there has been much speculation surrounding his actual cause of death, with theories including alcohol poisoning, suicide, cholera, and even murder.

4 84 West 3rd Street

Across the street from Edgar Allan Poe’s former residence is a house with its own dark history. At 84 West 3rd Street, there is a former Fire Patrol station that was first built in 1906. Tragically, in 1930, a firefighter hanged himself in the building after discovering that his wife was having an affair. It’s believed that his heartbroken ghost haunts the building, and previous firefighters have complained about strange noises and also seeing the ghost suspended in the air—seemingly hanging from the rafters.^[7] The station has since been transformed into a private residence.

This certainly is one haunted street, as just a short walk down the road will take you to Hangman’s Elm, which is a large tree in Washington Square Park where public executions were once carried out. According to local legend, the last hanging that took place was in 1820, when a slave named Rose Butler was executed for burning down the home of her master.

3 The Manhattan Well Murder

Located in SoHo, the basement of the former Manhattan Bistro was the site of an infamous murder. One night in late December 1799, a young woman named Gulielma Elmore Sands was due to meet her lover Levi Weeks, as they had plans to elope. It was the last time anybody would see her alive. Then, 11 days later, her body was found in the basement’s well with bruises to her neck which suggested that she had been strangled.

Weeks was arrested and stood trial in what became known as the “Manhattan Well Murder,” but he was soon acquitted, thanks to his strong legal team. Since then, the well where the young woman’s body was found has attracted many ghost hunters and fans of morbid history alike. Maria DaGrossa, whose family ran the Manhattan Bistro, once noted, “People are constantly asking to come down here [to see the well].”^[8] After the bistro closed, the basement became the site of a clothing store.

2 12 Gay Street

Originally built in 1827, 12 Gay Street in the West Village is a three-story brick townhouse that doesn’t appear to have anything mysterious about it to an outsider looking in. However, the place is said to be haunted by a restless spirit that won’t keep quiet at night. A neighbor, who has lived on the same street for more than two decades, said, “I wouldn’t go in there right now—it’s legendary that ghosts live there. That place would be like moving into The Shining.”^[9]

Those who’ve entered the house claimed to have felt the sensation of others despite being alone, along with hearing footsteps on the stairs at night and seeing a man wearing a top hat appearing in doorways. There is also talk of a lot of paranormal activity in the basement, which was once used as a puppet theater by a previous owner. In 2009, the house was up for sale, and the new owners could guarantee their own real-life Stephen King experience for the asking price of $4.2 million.

1 57 West 57th Street

There have been many cases of haunted houses, but at 57 West 57th Street, it’s a haunted penthouse that sends shivers down the spines of those who visit there. According to local legend, those who took up residence in the penthouse would soon go insane and even turn to murder. Edna Crawford Champion was the wife of an inventor until her French lover, Charles Brazelle, beat him to death. After she lied to the police and led them to believe that her husband had suffered a heart attack, she bought the penthouse as a love nest. Then, one night, Charles turned on Edna and beat her to death with a telephone—her bodyguards then responded by fatally throwing him out a window.

The apartment was eventually sold to a man named Carlton Alsops, who became tormented by the sounds of high heels tapping across the floor, which caused him so much distress that his marriage eventually broke down. Alsops ended up in a mental asylum and gave up on the apartment completely.^[10] It’s likely that the apartment’s current residents have also heard, or have been warned, of the penthouse’s past.

Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 5’2″ or at home reading true crime magazines.
Twitter: @thecheish

In the role of a superhero, these actors have to appear brave, strong-willed, highly skilled and are expected to act with honor. Then, once the cameras stop rolling, it’s back to reality. Sure, it might appear they have it all; money, fame, glory and a lifestyle others can only dream of but they have also had their share of some real personal demons.

See Also: 10 Outrageous Real Life Superheroes

For these following stars, they have all embodied the roles of their characters to much critical acclaim. Perhaps this is because when facing tougher scenes involving conflict and tragedy – they have had their fair share of heartbreaking experiences to draw from.

10 Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo has won over fans of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe ever since he first took on the role of Dr. Bruce Banner and his destructive alter-ego The Hulk in 2012. Like mild-mannered Bruce Banner has to face up to keep his rage under control, Ruffalo has also battled his own real-life horrors. In 2002, the actor had a benign brain tumor removed which left his face temporarily paralyzed.

Then on December 1, 2008, his brother Scott was shot in the head and killed at his L.A. home. The only key witness who was in the house at the time, Shaha Mishaal Adham, died of a drug overdose shortly after the incident and the case still remains unsolved. Speaking of the tragedy, Ruffalo said, “You never get over it; you just get used to it. You get calloused, a little bit harder maybe, so be on guard for that. But take these tragic things and turn them into something meaningful and worthy of the loss. Make it count.”^[1]

9Robert Downey Jr.

In 1996, Robert Downey Jr. was speeding down Sunset Boulevard when he was pulled over and arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine, and a 357 Magnum handgun. After failing to show up for a court-ordered drug test, he was ordered to spend six months in the Los Angeles County jail. Following his release, he missed another drug test and this time spent three years back behind bars.

His career breakthrough came when he starred as the love interest of the main character in Ally McBeal. Then in 2008, he landed the role of Iron Man and the rest is Marvel history. He has won critical acclaim and praise of fans worldwide as the genius billionaire playboy and philanthropist, Tony Stark.

Speaking with Vanity Fair, he advised other addicts, “Job one is get out of that cave. A lot of people do get out but don’t change. So the thing is to get out and recognize the significance of that aggressive denial of your fate, come through the crucible forged into a stronger metal.”^[2]

8 Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin has portrayed Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) yet he has had his own personal enemies to battle in his personal life too. Raised in California, he grew up with a lot of privileges as his father James Brolin had become famous for the tv series Marcus Welby MD, as well as a starring role in 1979’s The Amityville Horror. As a teenager, a young Brolin also found himself in the spotlight when he was cast as Brad in The Goonies (1985).

Then he became a member of a surfing gang called the Cito Rats and he began to see those he was close to fall victim to heroin addiction. He told The Guardian, “I tried heroin. That sounds so horrible when you put it like that. But yeah, I tried heroin. I mean, I never got into it and I never died from it, which is a good thing. I’ve had 19 friends who died. Most of those guys I grew up with, they’re all dead now.” It appears he just narrowly missed the Hollywood child star curse that strikes down so many.^[3]

7 Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy is known for his roles as the villain, including starring as Venom in the 2018 blockbuster, but his off-screen antics have also found him on the wrong side of the law. The British born actor was expelled from boarding school and he struggled with drink and drug problems throughout his teenage years. Arrested for stealing a car and gun possession, he finally checked into rehab to get sober after waking up from a binge covered in blood and vomit.

Now part of Hollywood’s A list stars, he has achieved great moments in his career yet his past is a constant reminder of just what obstacles he has had to overcome. Speaking with The Telegraph, he revealed, “I have all kinds of things from separation anxiety and abandonment. The loss of mother’s gaze at a certain age… the loss of a father figure… manhood… forgiveness… amendment. And recovery – natural recovery.” He added, “I spent a lot of days unhappy. So, yeah, it had its toll.”^[4]

6 Ben Affleck

Batman actor Ben Affleck, who appeared as the caped crusader in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), has openly been in a battle with alcohol addiction since 2001. Affleck spoke publicly about his difficult childhood; growing up with his father’s drink dependency and his parents’ divorce. Since becoming one of the biggest names in Hollywood, Affleck gained a reputation for his hard partying ways and string of high profile failed relationships including his most recent; a divorce from actress Jennifer Garner with whom he has fathered three children.

The Academy Award winner opened up on social media and wrote, “As I’ve had to remind myself, if you have a problem, getting help is a sign of courage, not weakness or failure.” He revealed that he had completed a 40-day stay at a treatment center for alcohol addiction which had been a “lifelong and difficult struggle”.^[5]

5 Idris Elba

London-born actor Idris Elba is best known for his roles in The Wire and as Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Appearing as a tough guy on screen comes easy to him but his own personal life has been plagued by heartbreak. In 2010, he went public during a press conference that he had become a proud father for a second time to a newborn son. He gushed, “The celebration of having a son – from a man’s perspective, it’s massive.”

That celebration soon came to an end when he discovered via a paternity test that he was not the biological father. Elba said, “It wasn’t immediately obvious – well, it was, because he didn’t look like me. But it wasn’t immediately obvious what had gone down. To be given that and then have it taken away so harshly was like taking a full-on punch in the face.” Elba has since moved on with his life and became engaged to beauty queen and former Miss Vancouver Sabrina Dhowre in 2017.^[6]

4 Paul Bettany

Actor Paul Bettany had a notable acting career yet after suffering a few box office blows with poorly received films Transcendence (2014) and Mortdecai (2015), he thought his film career was over. The British actor was then snapped up by The Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon to play the role of Vision.

When he was 16-years-old, his younger brother died at the age of 8 in a freak accident that fractured his skull. Bettany then turned to drink and drugs to self-medicate himself through the painful loss. He said, “‘(It was) manic. I don’t know if I was aware I was numbing myself at the time. I don’t think (there was anger). It was nobody’s fault. It was the awfulness that is bad luck. Had there not been a heavy dew that morning.” He added that he now suffers from anxiety in raising his own two daughters he shares with his wife, actress Jennifer Connelly, explaining, “‘I am definitely feeling calmer on that but don’t think it will ever entirely leave. It’s an indelible worry.”^[7]

3 Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson is easily one of the most recognizable stars in the world, every year starring in a range of roles including Nick Fury in The Avengers. In the 1950s, he grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during segregation and he revealed he got through the hard times because he was “a good fighter and a smart kid.”

Jackson also said, “Like many young people I faced lots of barriers. They included growing up in a segregated southern state of America. I faced racism during my whole adolescence.” He added, “On the other hand, the best advice that was given to me was that I had to be 10 times smarter, braver and more polite just to be equal. So I did. Eventually my dream of becoming an actor became a reality, which is always bigger.”

In the early 1970s, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, to study marine biology but after joining an acting group he decided to take a different path in life and the rest is Hollywood history.^[8]

2Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson is celebrated as one of the most talented and beautiful actresses in the world but she has also suffered hardships growing up. Born in New York, she grew up in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village as one of five children and her parents are of Danish-Polish descent. She admitted that her family had “little money” and that they relied on welfare to put food on the table.

In 1998, she landed her big break in The Horse Whisperer and later in her career became a household name as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Most recently, Johansson has been active in many charity campaigns including Feeding America which is a relief organization that aims to help the 1 in 8 people struggling with hunger in the U.S. Drawing on her own experiences of child hunger, she revealed, “My family grew up relying on public assistance to help provide meals for our family. Child hunger in America is a real and often overlooked problem, but one that together, we can fix.”^[9]

1 Chris Pratt

Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt became a household name with credit to his portrayal of Peter Quill. The Minnesota-born actor admitted he struggled on his journey to becoming one of the most lovable stars in Hollywood as he was once homeless and living in a van. After graduating from high school, Pratt left college following just one semester when he began working as an amateur stripper charging $40.

Aged 19-years-old, he waited tables in Maui, Hawaii, for minimum-wage pay and lived in his van. He also confessed to eating leftover food off customer’s plates to feed himself. Then in a chance encounter, he met actress and director Rae Dawn Chong who cast him in her short comedy horror ‘Cursed Part 3.’ Pratt recalled, “The moment (Chong) told me she was bringing me to L.A., I knew. I was like, ‘This is what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.” The movie was a flop and never released but it didn’t stop Pratt recognizing that acting is what he wanted to do with his life. In 2018, it was revealed that his role in Jurassic World as Owen netted him a $10 million pay day.^[10]

Most of us like to plonk ourselves down on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn, maybe a beer or two, and take in a good movie. Sometimes though, the backstories, legends and origins of the films are at least just as interesting as the finished product. Whether it is tales of curses, films which may or may not be based on “true” events, or even movies that have proven to have chillingly predicted future happenings, the stories behind the stories are usually quite captivated in themselves. Here are just ten of them….

See Also: Top 10 Creepy Scenes In Movies

10 Three Men And A Baby (And A Ghost That Wasn’t)

Back in 1990 when we were still renting videos from the shop in order to see the latest movies, one particular film that was hard to get your hands on for a time was the comedy “Three Men And A Baby.” This was in part due to the upcoming release of its sequel, but mostly because people were eager to see for themselves the ghost that had seemingly been captured on tape in one of the scenes.

The scene in question is just over an hour into the film and features Ted Danson (Jack) and Celeste Holm (his mother). As they are walking through their apartment with Holm carrying the baby, a strange figure is seen standing near the window and peering through the curtains.

Stories, that were really never anything more than rumours at best, began to spread that the figure was the ghost of a young boy who had committed suicide in the apartment by throwing himself from the window. The story went that the grieving family had left the apartment soon after, and as it was without tenant, it was rented to the film company to film in.

Shortly after the stories began to circulate, another eagle eyed watcher claimed to have spotted a rifle in the same window about thirty seconds prior to the boy’s appearance. Suddenly the tale began to change – the boy had now committed suicide by shooting himself by the window.

Disney studios deemed it necessary to release a statement about the scene following increased interest and theories about the alleged ghost. They claimed that the “boy” was in fact a cardboard cut-out of Jack – who in the film is an actor – from one of his performances. It had simply been left by the window and the angle it was shot from made it look smaller than it was. This was the same they said with the “rifle” that was spotted – it was in fact one of the prop’s arms. What’s more, they claimed, the scenes of inside the apartment were actually shot on set and not on location. In short, there was no boy who had committed suicide there – there simply was no boy at all!

Some people however, would not accept the explanation from the studios, stating that the prop and the “boy” looked completely different. The legend of the ghost at the window, at least for some, continues.

9 The Poltergeist Films – Strange Deaths and Premonitions

The Poltergeist movies are perhaps some of the better known films said to be cursed, not least of which because of the several untimely deaths of cast members in the years following the first film’s release in 1982.

Less than six months after the release of the first film, Dominique Dunne, who played the eldest daughter of the Freeling family, was strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend – he was ultimately found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. She was just twenty-two years old. In the years that followed, Julian Beck (who played Henry Kane) and Will Sampson (who played Taylor) died from stomach cancer and kidney failure respectively. Two years later, Heather O’Rourke, who played the young girl, Carol, died suddenly aged only twelve years old on 1st February 1988.

Some people believe that the curse stems from the decision to use real skeletons for the scene where Carol (played by JoBeth Williams) desperately tries to escape the unfinished swimming pool in the yard, in which skeletons are coming up from the mud due to the heavy rainfall. In an effort to keep costs down, it was decided it was much cheaper to use real skeletons as opposed to having several fake ones made. Some have stated that it is this “disrespect” to the dead that has led to the film being cursed. This would be quite ironic given that the plot for the film is very similar.

Possibly the most spine-chilling aspect of the alleged curse of the Poltergeist movies though, is the Super Bowl XXII poster that is seen on several occasions during the first film. Super Bowl XXII was eventually played in San Diego on 31st January 1988. Also on that date, after suffering from the flu all week, the aforementioned Heath O’Rourke was rushed to hospital with persistent vomiting, before losing her life the following day.

8 Dark Waters – Unwittingly Tells of Murder Eight Years In The Future

Released in 2005, the horror flick, Dark Waters, tells the story of a tragic young girl who is drowned in the water tank that sat on top of the apartment building where she lived. Her body however is undiscovered for some time, and as it slowly decomposes, the residents in the apartment building begin to complain of “foul tasting” water.

Almost eight years later in February 2013, the body of Elisa Lam was discovered in the water tower of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. She had been missing for nearly three weeks. As in the film, guests at the hotel had complained, before the body was discovered, of the water not smelling or tasting as it should. It also had a strange colour to it.

Elisa Lam’s murder is both unsettling and interesting in its own right – and more to the point it is still unsolved. While she was almost certainly murdered, there is still the outside possibility that her death was a tragic accident or even a suicide.

7 The Amityville Horror – Cast Affected By The True Events

The Amityville Horror is based on true events, although what actually happened, and what parts were embellished is very much open to debate. What is very real are the murders of the DeFoe family at their home on 112 Ocean Avenue by the eldest son, Ronnie DeFoe, who calmly went from room to room and executed his siblings and parents in November 1974.

The following year, George and Kathy Lutz bought the property. They knew of the murders, and even asked a priest to come and bless the house for them. According to the Lutz’ they almost immediately began to experience paranormal activity in the house. Twenty-eight days after they took up residence there, they moved out, never to return.

They sold their tale to author Jay Anson, and while they admitted that certain parts of their claims were overstated for the purpose of the story, they maintained that the experiences they had were very real.

Whatever the finer truths of the Lutz’ story, there have been genuine claims of strange activity concerning cast members from both the original film in 1979 and the remake in 2005. James Brolin, who played George Lutz in the original film, was said to have bought into the Lutz’ experiences – even stating he experienced clothing falling to the floor from its hanger of its own accord while he read the book upon accepting the role. Perhaps even stranger was the experience of Ryan Reynolds, who played the same character in the 2005 remake. He stated that he would awaken at 3:15am almost every night for no good reason – that particular time is alleged to have been when the real murders of the DeFoe family occurred, and this had also allegedly happened to the real life George Lutz during his brief time living in the house.

There have also been numerous paranormal investigations on the property where the murders took place. Perhaps the most chilling was one that took place in 1976, before the first film had been released, which claimed to have caught on camera the ghost of the youngest DeFoe son.

6 The Entire Superman Brand and Franchise – Bringer of Bad Fortune?

Whether it is the original television series, “The Adventures of Superman” from the 1950s, the classic Superman films starring the late Christopher Reeve or the new “Man of Steel” movies, to some, the whole Superman franchise is cursed.

The star of the original television series, George Reeves, shot himself in the head in 1959 after playing the role successfully for eight years.
Christopher Reeve made the role his own for the series of hugely successful films in the late-70s and 1980s. Off the back of the movies, Reeves became a star almost overnight. However in 1995 he was thrown from his horse while riding and was paralysed from the neck down. He died nine years later in 2004 from a heart attack following a reaction to an antibiotic. In an even stranger twist, two years later, his widow died from lung cancer, despite never having smoked a cigarette in her life.

Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the movies, not only found it hard to land other similarly high profile roles, she was involved in a serious car accident in 1990 that left her temporarily paralysed. Also suffering from depression, in 1996 she experienced a very public meltdown, during which she became convinced her ex-husband was trying to kill her. This prompted her to hack away all of her hair with a razor blade and sleep rough on the streets. She was found in a state of serious distress in a person’s back yard and was admitted to UCLA medical centre.

Three years after his appearance in Superman III, comedian Richard Pryor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which led to him requiring triple bypass heart surgery in 1990. His health steadily declined until his death in 2005.

The young child who played Superman as a baby, Lee Quigley, died at age fourteen in 1991 following years of substance and solvent abuse.
While Henry Cavill, the star of the “Man of Steel” films does not appear to have succumbed to the curse yet, some have alleged that the actor appears to “almost” get the big role before being snubbed at the last minute. He was alleged to have auditioned for James Bond but lost out to Daniel Craig, and Batman before the part was given to Christian Bale. Cavill himself states that the Batman story isn’t at all true, while the reason he lost out on James Bond was due to him simply being too young. Time will tell – at least for some.

5 The Crow – The Tragic “Curse” of the Lee Family

The Crow was Brandon Lee’s big break, set to catapult the cult star to being a house hold name. Unfortunately for Lee he didn’t live to see the film released. In what was a tragic accident, Lee was shot during the scene that sees him remembering entering his apartment to find a crazed gang there. One of the gang members shoots Lee’s character (Eric Draven).

The gun used was obviously loaded with blanks, but due to various safety measures not being followed as they should have been, the scene ended in disaster. A lead tip from a previous blank bullet was still lodged in the gun from a previous shoot. When it was fired, it fired from the gun and pierced Lee’s abdomen. He died a little over twelve hours later.

The gun used it seemed, had not been properly checked – for example had a cleaning rod been run through the weapon, it most likely would have dislodged the tip. The fake bullets themselves were also questionable, in that they were real bullets with the gunpowder removed as opposed to dummies – this was due to time restraints it is alleged.

In short, it appears if correct procedure had been followed instead of the filming geared towards keeping everything on time, Brandon Lee most likely is still alive today. Perhaps even more depressing is that the actor who fired the shot, Michael Massey (who played Funboy) didn’t actually need to aim the gun at Lee, as both were not in the frame at the same time – he could have simply aimed at the wall for example. That is not to apportion any blame on Massey. For his part he has stated afterwards that he still has nightmares over the incident and it is something that he will never fully get over.
While Brandon’s death was surely a tragic accident, many conspiracy theories soon circulated about a Lee family curse, with more than a few people referencing not only how his father, Bruce Lee had himself died suddenly from a freak reaction to a headache tablet, but also a particular scene in his last film, “Game of Death” – which Bruce was filming when he died seemed to predict his son’s demise.

The scene in question featured Bruce Lee playing an actor, who while filming a scene was shot and left for dead when the “fake” guns were replaced for real ones. He doesn’t die however and proceeds to hunt down the gang who attempted to kill him and take his revenge. While this is seemingly pure coincidence, it really is quite spine tingling how it mirrors not only the tragic circumstances of his son’s death fifteen years later, but also the plot of The Crow sees Draven return from the grave to take revenge for his death.

4 The Fourth Kind – Fake “Real” Promotional News Angers Real Residents

As many films do, The Fourth Kind, which was released in 2009, advertised itself as being based on true events. They even aired “real” archive footage relating to the movie on the Internet, as well as publishing alleged authentic news articles from local newspapers. They drew people’s attention to the fact that many people had actually gone missing over the years in the small town of Nome, Alaska, where the movie is set.

The film tells the story of Dr. Abigail Tyler, who following her husband’s murder, is plagued by visits from aliens who are seemingly abducting people from the small town. Tyler herself studies the phenomenon and conducts interviews and sessions with other residents of Nome who are having similar experiences.

The real life residents of Nome however, including the press local to the region, were less than happy with Universal for their portrayal of their community through the “real” news articles that turned out to be completely fake. Not only were Universal forced to pay $20,000 in compensation, but they had to remove all of their promotional material that claimed to be “real” from the Internet.

The film itself was slated by critics, not least due to what was perceived as the studio using real life deaths and disappearances for the their own ends.

3 Rebel Without A Cause – Classic Flick With Far Reaching Curse

Arguably one of the greatest films of the 1950s “Rebel Without A Cause” is said by some to have been one of the most “cursed” films in movie history. Four of the cast died in suspicious or tragic circumstances, including the two leads, James Dean and Natalie Wood.

James Dean actually perished in a car accident a month before the film’s release. Ironically one of the last things he filmed was a piece for television to raise awareness about safe driving.

Nick Adams, who not only appeared in the film, but was a one-time lover of Wood and very close with Dean, was discovered in his bedroom dead and fully clothed, with no signs of a struggle or forced entry to his home. The autopsy discovered sedatives and other drugs in his body – including the drug paraldehyde, which was used sometimes by alcoholics in their attempts to beat their disease. Adams however was not known to drink, not even socially, and there was no prescription or bottle of the drug found anywhere in his home. His death was ruled an accidental death.

Salvatore Sal Mineo, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the famed film, was found stabbed to death in his home less than a decade later. Some stated he had been killed in a homophobic attack, although Lionel Ray Williams, the man who killed him, stated he had no idea who he was much less that he was homosexual.

Perhaps the most investigated death connected with “Rebel Without A Cause”, came in 1981, when Natalie Wood drowned after seemingly falling overboard from the yacht she had been drinking on for some hours with her husband, Robert Wagner, and fellow actor, Christopher Walken. Although her death was officially recorded as an accident, the many accounts of arguments and fighting that was said to have taken place that evening eventually led to the case being reopened in 2011.

2 The Entity – True Events Stranger Than The Film

The 1982 supernatural film “The Entity” follows the story of Carla Moran, who after experiencing years of paranormal experiences, is physically attacked and seemingly raped by an invisible entity from the other side. What’s more is that the story is based on actual true events that were legitimately investigated and studied by two researchers into the paranormal from UCLA University.

The real victim is called Doris Bither, and in the summer of 1974 she sought the help of parapsychologists Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor. Over the following two and a half months the team conducted extensive investigations and, just as Doris and her children had done, they witnessed numerous amounts of paranormal activity. This included seeing strange lights, glowing orbs appearing out of nowhere, general “poltergeist” activity and perhaps most frightening of all, the appearance of a green mist that formed and took the shape of an adult male.

In recent years many opportunists have jumped on the bandwagon of the case claiming to have been part of the original research team. Taff himself is still fascinated with the events of that summer, and states that although what they experienced was very real, he wonders how much of Bither’s horrid early life, as well as her fascination and experimentation with Ouija boards played into the happenings.

Perhaps the story that makes the skin crawl the most is said to have occurred when the Bither family first moved into the house in California. A strange lady was said to have come to their front door and proclaimed to Bither before leaving as quickly as she had come, “You need to get out! I used to live here in this old house, back when it was just a farm and I was a little girl. There is something very evil here. This place is haunted and you need to get out!”

By all accounts, Bither continued to experience paranormal phenomenon of varied levels of intensity until her death in 1999 aged only fifty-nine.

1 Atuk – The Film That Can Not, Maybe Must Not Be Made

Perhaps one of the most interesting and mysterious backstories to a film comes from one that hasn’t actually been fully made, much less released. It hasn’t been for a lack of trying though. Legend now sates that anyone who reads the script with a view to accepting the main role, will drop dead shortly thereafter.

It is said that the script for Atuk – based on the book “The Incomparable Atuk” was said to have been offered to John Belushi in 1982, who after reading it, felt it was perfect for his persona. A month later he was dead from a drugs overdose – he was just thirty-three years old.

Sam Kinison was next offered the starring role in the film a decade later in 1992, and production this time did begin. However it wasn’t long before the outspoken comic was demanding that his rewritten script be used instead, otherwise he would simply “go through the motions!”

The film was ultimately pulled from production once more, and shortly after, Kinison was dead from injuries sustained in a head on collision. Perhaps chillingly, although probably a shock reaction, Kinison was heard speaking to an “invisible” person in the seconds before he died stating, “I don’t want to die!” several times before seemingly listening to a reply. “But why?” he was then said to have replied before “listening” again for a moment. He then seemed to be resigned to his fate and simply said “Okay! Okay!” before he passed away.

Two years later in 1994, the script was offered to larger than life comedian, John candy, who expressed an interest in taking on the project. It is said that the script was found in his possession when he died suddenly of a heart attack at age forty-three.

Several months following the tragic death of Candy, writer Michael O’Donoghue died suddenly from bleeding on the brain. It was claimed that O’Donoghue had been reading the script with Candy before he died and was in discussions with him about how he should play the role. It is also said he had recommended the script to Belushi twelve years earlier.

In 1997, Chris Farley was said to have been on the verge of accepting the role for the Atuk film, when he died of a drugs overdose at age thirty-three. In a bizarre twist, it is claimed that Farley had been reading the script with his fellow actor friend, Phil Hartman, in an attempt to interest him in a supporting role. In the months following Farley’s death, Hartman was shot to death by his wife, before she turned the gun on herself.

The British Isles are home to some of the most lavish and historic landmarks, many of which are famous all over the world. Think Big Ben or the Houses of Parliament. But perhaps not as famous are the unbelievably named towns and villages found strewn throughout the land.

When we say “unbelievably named,” we actually mean humorous, rude, or downright bizarre names for places which are actually inhabited or visited by human beings. However, some of these places actually have amazing and rich histories, which are worth reading in their own right. Read on to discover ten of the rudest-sounding places in the British Isles . . . with unbelievable stories.

10 Brown Willy

Brown Willy is a hill that can be found in the county of Cornwall, the southernmost county of England. The hill supposedly gets its name from the Cornish Bronn Ewhella, which translates as “highest hill.” This is likely due to the fact that Brown Willy stands 420 meters (1,378 ft) above sea level and is the highest point in Cornwall. The hill is also known for the “Brown Willy effect,” a local phenomenon in which heavy rain that has developed on Brown Willy travels downwind causing showers in lower areas. The effects of this phenomenon can be serious flash flooding and dangerous amounts of rainfall, causing widespread damage.

In 2012, local visitors to the hill campaigned to have the name changed due to the “giggle factor”—but the name remains unchanged today.^[1] Interestingly, Brown Willy is widely regarded as sacred by UFO followers, who visit the hill annually. These followers believe Brown Willy was supercharged with what they call “holy energy.” We can only hope that this is a myth, and Brown Willy does not explode.

9 Cockermouth

Cockermouth is without a doubt the most stunning location of this list. Situated on the edge of the beautiful Lake District in the county of Cumbria, Cockermouth is known as only one of 51 “Gem” towns in the UK.^[2] The name is derived from the town’s location, as it is quite literally at the mouth of the River Cocker. Due to its proximity to the River Cocker, it has also, unfortunately, been home to terrible flooding. In 2009, it was so heavily flooded that the British Army had to take control of the town in an aid effort, airlifting people out from their homes.

Cockermouth traces its history back to the Romans, who built a fort, which was later destroyed, in the vicinity of the current town center. Cockermouth Castle was rebuilt near it. The town is also notable for being the birthplace of the famous Lake Poet William Wordsworth, and the town contains tributes to him. The most famous of these is Wordsworth House, his birthplace, which has been restored and is now a museum.

8 Bell End

Found in the county of Worcestershire, Bell End is a village with proximity to the notable towns of Kidderminster and Stourbridge. The village is home to a stunning Gothic revival mansion known as Bell Hall. The mansion is built on property dating back to Norman times and has a Norman chapel to go with it. According to some reports, Guy Fawkes hid on the property when he was on the run, after the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.^[3] Another notable resident, Lady Godiva, was said to have resided on the original grounds. Lady Godiva is most known for being said to have ridden naked through the streets of Coventry to protest against taxation laws. If the reports are true, then the estate has a fantastic link to some of the most infamous figures in Britain’s history.

So, why is Bell End on this list? For those not aware, Bell End shares its name with a British slang phrase for the glans penis and is frequently listed as one of the most unusual or shocking place names. Unfortunately for residents who have campaigned to have the name changed, it still remains Bell End today.

7 Sandy Balls

Set deep within the New Forest near Fordingbridge, Sandy Balls is a large area of parkland and forests with a long history of being a popular holiday spot. Sandy Balls is in the county of Hampshire, near the south coast of England. The name of the area goes back to medieval times in England, during which the circular, sandy domes gave the place the name “Sandyballas.” After the end of World War I, the area was developed as a school camp for a youth movement, but it has now been established as a popular holiday center.^[4]

The New Forest has been touted as possibly the most haunted part of Britain due to a number of sightings, the most famous being Rufus the Red, who was suspiciously killed by an arrow while hunting in the forest. Local stories say that Rufus’s ghost can still be seen today in the forest, and the blood of the man who was responsible for firing the arrow—Sir Walter Tirel—turns the Ocknell Pond red every year. Other apparition sightings include the Stratford Lyon, a large, antlered, red lion that carries a man on its back. The Lyon was said to have come from the ground after the man pulled at a set of antlers. Another is the Witchy White—a witch who casts love spells and who is said to wander the forest to this day.

6 Shitlington Crags

Shitlington Crags is an area in Northumberland which is a popular visitor spot. A crag, in England, is typically a group of cliffs which are known for climbing. Shitlington Crags is known as part of a larger walking area in the Hexham area of Northumberland. The crags get their name from an abandoned medieval village known as Shitlington. It was first recorded in 1279 but seems to have been gone by the 17th century.^[5]

Shitlington Crags is near the village of Wark, Northumberland, which is noted for having the Goatstones. The Goatstones are thought to be religious stones left by the Anglo-Saxons, and they get their name from Anglo-Saxon gyet stanes, which means “wayside stones.” Wark is also the home of a listed Milky Way Class Dark Sky Discovery Site, meaning the area is so secluded that the stars and Moon are illuminated brilliantly in the night sky.

5 Great Cockup

The amusing-sounding Great Cockup is a fell which is located in the stunning Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. A fell is a high, barren landform, like a cluster of mountains or large hills that can often be traversed by walkers. Great Cockup is partnered by its equally amusing-sounding neighbor Little Cockup.^[6] For those unaware, “cockup” is a slang term for badly messing up, particularly in an embarrassing way.

Great Cockup is part of a number of mountains in the area known as the Northern Fells. The Northern Fells include Souther Fell, which is most famous for a ghostly sighting that occurred in 1745. According to witnesses, on the evening of Midsummer’s Day in 1745, a line of troops marching were noticed walking along the ridge of the fell. The line included horses and carriages, and witnesses were said to be “sober and respected,” therefore verifying as credible. The following day, Souther Fell was scaled, and not a single footprint or carriage mark could be found along the edge where the army had traveled.

4 Tongue Of Gangsta

Yes, you read that right. Residing in the Orkney Islands, Tongue of Gangsta is a place that can be found on the Orkney mainland. Tongue of Gangsta is directly south of the capital of Orkney, Kirkwall.^[7] Kirkwall gets its name from the Norse name Kirkjuvagr (Church Bay), so we can only assume that Tongue of Gangsta has some Norse origins, too.

There is extremely limited information about the toponymy of Tongue of Gangsta. Kirkwall was historically an outpost or meeting place for Scandinavian travelers. It has been described as being the center of their world and as more Scandinavian than Scottish. The area was acquired by King James III in 1468 and has been under Scottish rule ever since. During World War II, in the nearby Scapa Flow, the Royal Navy used the port at Scapa as a main base. In 1939, the HMS Royal Oak was sunk by a German U-Boat and is now designated as a protected war grave.

3 Titty-Ho

Within the small market town of Raunds, Northamptonshire, is an area known as Titty-Ho. Titty-Ho is cited as being one of the most amusing names in Britain, and unfortunately for residents, the name has been highlighted on TV.^[8] Residents have noted that other people cannot contain their laughter when they disclose where they live.

Despite the immature-sounding name of one part of it, the town of Raunds has an interesting history. During the 1980s, excavations in the nearby Nene Valley revealed some remains of a Roman villa. This was in addition to finding medieval buildings such as a church and manor house the previous decade. Raunds has also been the site of prehistoric findings unearthed by English Heritage. Perhaps one day, a discovery may help archaeologists to determine exactly where the name Titty Ho comes from, but this may just be wishful thinking.

2 Wetwang

Wetwang is a village located in the historic county of Yorkshire. The village name is proposed as being a Viking name meaning “meeting place”—as the village is located on a crossroads of two main roads.^[9] The name can obviously be misconstrued as meaning something else entirely.

Wetwang is very old and is even recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086! The village is known to have existed long before 1086, however, and in 2001, a very exciting discovery was made under Wetwang. A chariot, belonging to British armies who fought against Julius Caesar, was uncovered alongside the remains of a female warrior. A street in Wetwang was renamed “Chariot Way” after this event.

Wetwang is also notable for its black swans and has a local public house named the Black Swan in honor of the local birds. The village often appears in lists of unusual or rude place names. During a Woman’s Institute centennial fair in 2015, the name of the village had to be censored on merchandise, as it was deemed as too rude!

1 Twatt

In what is probably the bluntest and most uncouth village name on this list, the village of Twatt can be found on the Orkney Islands. In a twist, there are actually two villages in the UK which share the name of Twatt. Interestingly, both villages are found right at the top of Scotland, with the second Twatt being located in the Shetland Islands.

The village in Orkney is situated on the Mainland island.^[10] The Orkney Twatt was the home of a Royal Navy airfield during World War II. The airfield was decommissioned in 1949, but an abandoned control tower still remains today and can be visited.

The village of Twatt in the Shetlands is a little less known but is definitely inhabited by people and known throughout the islands. The name of both Twatts derives from the Norse word thveit—meaning “small parcel of land.” As you would expect, both places frequently top the lists of the most rude-sounding village names in the UK.

Matt Garrow—I have an English degree (which I use) and a Law degree (which I don’t). I currently work a 9–5 and can found sleeping standing up because I have a 2 year old who doesn’t sleep. Peace !

On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the northern part of Soviet Ukraine, an event which today is widely known as the Chernobyl disaster.

During the evening of April 25, engineers made several fatal mistakes, including disconnecting Reactor No. 4’s emergency safety systems and its power-regulating system. At 1:23 AM, the reactor’s power levels surged, and the events that followed led to an explosion which released more than 50 tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere.^[1]

In the days that followed, 32 people died at Chernobyl, and many more suffered radiation burns. Nearly 8.4 million residents of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia were exposed to the radioactive cloud that was released. The calamity is considered the most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history, and the area itself is still suffering in its aftermath.

10 Radiation After The Explosion Was Off The Scale

Hours after the explosion, helicopters were flown over Reactor No. 4 to evaluate radiation levels. Experts were unable to make an exact reading, as 200 meters (656 ft) above the reactor, radiation levels had reached 1,500 rems, but the counters were not capable of reading any higher than 500 rems.

In an attempt to contain the disaster, helicopters dumped lead slabs weighing 40 kilograms (88 lb) each on the reactor, followed by several tons of radiation absorbing-sand. However, the operation was flawed, as the scale of the disaster was like nothing ever seen before. Pilot Alexander Petrov, who responded to the scene, recalled, “It took us more than 24 hours to get things going. [ . . . ] At first, our commanders didn’t know what to do. We flew out to see what was happening, then returned and flew back in the morning.”^[2]

9 A Late Evacuation

The amount of radiation the Chernobyl disaster released into the atmosphere was 50 million curies—equivalent to around 500 Hiroshima bombs. Police roamed the streets wearing gas masks, but the residents were kept in the dark and only heard rumors. Armen Abagian, who was the director of one of the Moscow nuclear power research institutes at the time, advised the Soviet government to evacuate Pripyat immediately. Abagian recalled, “Children were running in the streets; people were hanging laundered linen out to dry. And the atmosphere was radioactive.”^[3]

Residents started to panic when there was a “metallic smell” in the air, and the atmosphere appeared different. It was close to midnight at the end of April 26 when an evacuation was ordered; 1,200 buses and 200 trucks relocated 47,000 residents of Pripyat. The locals thought they would later be returning to their homes, but this was never the case.

8 Contamination Spreads To Other Countries

The buses which escorted the residents out of Pripyat spread the radiation to wider areas. It took 3.5 hours to evacuate. One resident recalled, “Queues of jammed buses left the city. One after the other, like giant beetles, kilometre after kilometre. The traffic was insane. Only a Second World War survivor can imagine a similar scene.”^[4]

Just days after the initial disaster, the wind changed direction and began blowing high levels of radiation in the direction of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. The city held its annual May Day parades as the government assured citizens everything was normal. Finally, 11 days after the disaster, officials warned the residents of Kiev that they should avoid eating leafy vegetables and to stay indoors.

Later in May, the Russian first deputy health minister also issued a warning that vodka and red wine were not a cure for radiation exposure—despite popular belief. More than 500,000 residents in Ukraine were ultimately forced to leave their homes.

7 Military Reserves Made Their Own Protective Clothing

More than 600,000 civil and military personnel have been given the honorary status of “Chernobyl liquidators” since the cleanup began in 1986. Originally, robots from West Germany, Japan, and Russia were used to help clean the debris, but they could not operate due to the high levels of radiation. Instead, the job was handed over to humans, who could not be exposed for any longer than 40 seconds.

Most of the liquidators were military reserves, and the army did not have enough uniforms suitable for working in radioactive conditions. Instead, reserves made their own protective clothing using lead sheets up to 4 millimeters thick as aprons to help protect the spine and bone marrow. Photographer Igor Kostin recalled, “The clever ones also added a vine leaf for extra comfort.”^[5]

Many of the liquidators have since suffered from severe health problems—some of which were fatal.

6 Doctors Facing Mortality

Dr. Robert Peter Gale, known as “the Chernobyl Doctor,” was one of the many physicians and scientists brought in from 15 nations to help with the aftermath of the disaster. Dr. Gale treated patients who had suffered such a high exposure to radiation that even a bone marrow transplant could not save them. Without functioning bone marrow in the body, a patient will usually die within four weeks. It was also difficult to assess how much radiation patients had been exposed to, as the gradual loss of hair and some darkening of the skin were the only visible signs.

In 1986, Dr. Gale and the director of the Soviet Union’s Central Institute for Advanced Medical Studies signed an agreement to monitor the 100,000 people who were residents in the “danger zone”—a 30-kilometer (18.7 mi) radius surrounding the site which ultimately became the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. He said, “A physician deals with life and death every day. Yet, with us, death is a biological event. We don’t think of our own death. The events of Chernobyl made me focus on my own mortality—on all our mortality. Unfortunately, it takes these tragic events to impress this on us.”^[6]

5 The Buried Villages

The village of Kopachi lies 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) from the site of the Chernobyl disaster. This is an eerie and deserted location, as the homes of Kopachi were completely bulldozed and buried by the Soviet Army. However, this plan only did more harm than good.

Chernobyl guide Yuri Tatarchuk explained, “Kopachi was very badly contaminated and so it was decided to bury it, house by house. It seemed a good idea at the time, but it wasn’t. The digging only pushed radioactive material deeper into the soil and closer to the water table, so that contamination spread even further.”

Today, only two buildings are left standing, one of which is the former kindergarten, where children were not evacuated until 36 hours of exposure. Tatarchuk said of the aftermath, “It was criminal. [ . . . ] At least 5,000 people were badly affected at the time, while women who were pregnant were simply told to have abortions. It was a cruel time.”^[7]

4 Puppies Of Chernobyl

There is a myth that no life can survive in Chernobyl, which is simply not true. It’s estimated that more than 900 stray dogs live in the Exclusion Zone. Many can be found playing inside the abandoned cooling tower at the former power plant. The puppies are believed to be descendants of the pet dogs that were left behind by their owners; residents were granted only a few hours’ notice before they were evacuated and advised to only take vital personal belongings and a certain amount of food.

The dogs have been driven out of the woods by the wild wolves that habitat the area. Now, volunteers, including veterinarians and radiation experts, have formed the nonprofit charity Dogs of Chernobyl. The dogs are tagged and their radiation exposure studied. They are also used for research on diseases including rabies. Some dogs have been fitted with radiation sensors and GPS receivers, which help to map the radiation levels across the exclusion zone.^[8]

3 Birth Defects Among The Children Of Chernobyl

Following the disaster, citizens in the city of Kiev were advised by authorities to take regular warm showers, keep their windows closed, and regularly wash their furniture. The precautions were not enough, as, since 1986, physicians have reported a rise in birth defects. Belarus shares a border with Ukraine, and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is quite close to said border; in 2010, UNICEF reported that 20 percent of adolescents in Belarus suffer from chronic illnesses or disabilities caused by birth defects.

There are many charities that support facilities which help babies who were born with severe birth defects, including neurological difficulties and heart conditions. Another common birth defect in this region is microcephaly, in which a baby’s head is smaller and not in proportion with the rest of their body.

In 2014, Michael Donnelly, chairman of Chernobyl Children’s Appeal, said, “These children are forced to suffer through no fault of their own. [ . . . ] It’s no better now than it was 28 years ago. The level of radiation in the Chernobyl zone is still the same today as it was in 1986.”^[9]

2 Contaminated Wildlife

Months after the Chernobyl disaster, the radioactivity had spread to Galsjo Forest in Sweden. Elk were contaminated, and the moment their bodies were thrown in a quarry after being stripped of their heads and fur was captured on camera.

A 10-square-kilometer (4 mi²) area of forest that surrounds the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant has become known as the “Red Forest” after the contamination caused the trees to die and their leaves to turn a deep red color. After the humans evacuated, wildlife grew rapidly with limited predators to hunt them down—wild boar multiplied eightfold in the two years following the disaster. Radioecologist Sergey Gaschak explained, “Animals don’t seem to sense radiation and will occupy an area regardless of the radiation condition.”^[10]

The Red Forest is now one of the most contaminated sites in the world, with more than 90 percent of the radioactivity found in the soil. Mice embryos used for research have dissolved in the conditions, and horses left that lived within 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) of the power plant died due to their thyroid glands disintegrating.

1 Chernobyl Directors Sentenced To Labor Camp

In July 1987, Chernobyl’s plant director Viktor P. Bryukhanov, chief engineer Nikolai M. Fomin, and deputy Anatoly S. Dyatlov were sentenced to two to ten years at a labor camp.^[11] They were found guilty of gross violation of safety regulations which led to an explosion. Judge Raimond Brize declared in the courtroom, “There was an atmosphere of lack of control and lack of responsibility at the plant.” The plant officials were also heavily criticized for not evacuating the town of Pripyat sooner.

Nowadays, an old sarcophagus covers the damaged fourth reactor at the nuclear power plant, and the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure sits above that. Although it has been more than three decades since the Chernobyl disaster, there are many still suffering the consequences today.

Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 5’2″ or at home reading true crime magazines.
Twitter: @thecheish

Tattoos. Getting something inked permanently on your body is a major commitment. Body art can be incredible to behold. It can be poignant, and it can be funny. Sometimes, it’s the embarrassing, often-regretted reminder of a wild drunken night.

But sometimes, tattoos have fascinating scientific and historical meanings. Tattoos found on ancient Egyptian mummies or in Medieval graveyards shed light on the rituals of long-gone cultures. Scientists have proposed them as a way to track glucose levels, highlight tumors, and even keep vaccine records. Here are ten of the most interesting tattoo stories from recent years and the beguiling backstories behind the body art.

Related: Top 10 Fascinating Examples Of Cultural Body Modification

10 Unlocking the Secrets of Ötzi the Iceman

In 1991, researchers unearthed the mummified remains of a 5,300-year-old man in the Alps, preserved in a glacier. They called him Ötzi the Iceman and were stunned to discover 61 carbon markings covering his body.

But how were these primitive tattoos made? Scientists have various theories, from rubbing soot into cuts to setting plant matter on fire under the skin. But in 2022, a team of scientists and tattoo artists decided to put these ideas to the test. They used four different techniques to inscribe the same image onto the leg of Danny Riday, a tattoo artist from New Zealand.

The group was keen to recreate the motif using tools that would have been available at the time. Their experiment involved animal bone, obsidian, and boar tusk—along with techniques like hand-tapping and hand-poking.

After creating a database of markings on Riday’s leg, the team decided that Otzi’s tattoos seemed to come from hand-poking with a single-pointed tool. “We ultimately proposed that Ötzi’s tattoos were made by puncture, likely using either a bone or copper awl,” explained archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf.^[1]

9 Why Doctors Might Choose to Mark your Colon

When you think of getting a tattoo, the colon isn’t the first place that comes to mind. But there is a good reason why a doctor might decide to ink your innards. If a patient has lesions and small cuts inside the body, tattoos can help mark the areas for surgeons. These tattoos are typically carbon black. But they often leak and cause unwanted side effects.

But in 2022, scientists in the American Chemical Society announced a new type of colon tattoo ink based on biomaterial. The colorant is made from nanoparticles and polymers, which help with visibility and precision. Tests on pig innards and live mice showed improved results.

The team hopes to use their ink on humans to help with the safer removal of polyps and tumors. And why stop at the colon? If the precision is high enough, they say that tattoos could mark tumors across the gut or even the pancreas.^[2]

8 Color Changing Inks That Track Glucose Levels

For people who suffer from chronic conditions like diabetes or kidney disease, it’s vital to keep track of the body’s internal biomarkers. Whether it’s glucose, albumin, or pH levels, you have to monitor them vigilantly. In 2019, scientists in Germany unveiled a new way to track those levels: color-changing tattoos.

So far, the novel inks have been tested on pig skin, not humans, but they’ve displayed impressive results. The tattoos danced across the color spectrum as researchers altered the biomarker levels. Unfortunately, only the pH sensor is reversible, meaning the glucose and albumin are only single use. But it’s a promising start for a new form of technology that could revolutionize the future of medical diagnostics.^[3]

7 Medieval Christian Body Art Found in Africa

Archaeologists unearthed a rare find in Sudan: a medieval man with Christian body art. The tattoo on his right foot shows four Greek letters. Chi and rho are combined to form a Christogram, a shortened monogram of Christ’s name. The other two are alpha and omega, which signify that God is the creator and destroyer.

Researchers found the religious remains while exploring the site of Ghazali, a 7th-century monastery in the Bayuda Desert. There are hundreds of graves across four cemeteries, including the one containing the inked worshiper. Northeast Africa has a rich history of Christianity. Roman trade routes brought the religion to the region. It later became a commanding belief under the Kingdom of Makuria.^[4]

6 Tattooing Mouse Embryo Cells with Gold Dots

In 2023, scientists revealed a new method to tattoo gold onto living tissue. The extraordinary procedure is known as nanoimprint lithography. Engineers in the U.S. “poked” gold nanodots and nanowires into fibroblast cells from a mouse embryo.

The bedazzled mice cells look impressive, and this discovery could be a new frontier in healthcare. “If you imagine where this is all going in the future, we would like to have sensors to remotely monitor and control the state of individual cells and the environment surrounding those cells in real time,” explained David Gracias, who led the study. “If we had technologies to track the health of isolated cells, we could maybe diagnose and treat diseases much earlier and not wait until the entire organ is damaged.”^[5]

5 Dutch Actress Is First Person to Be Tattooed by a Robot

As well as being a star of stage and screen in Holland, Stijn Fransen has another, much stranger boast under her belt. In 2021, she received the first-ever tattoo from a robot. Artist Wes Thomas performed the tattoo remotely on a mannequin arm. His movements were linked via 5G to a robotic arm, which carried out the procedure on Fransen.

Luckily, they didn’t just rush in gung ho. Technologist Noel Drew spent six weeks devising the robotic arm. This involved trialing it on several mediums and materials, including vegetables. Sensors in the needle ensured it didn’t pierce the skin too deeply.

The artwork itself is fairly minimalist, but this world-first is an impressive feat of engineering nonetheless.^[6]

4 Quantum Dot Acts as Vaccine ID

In 2019, MIT researchers unveiled a novel idea to keep track of vaccinated children: quantum dot tattoos. The idea is to record a patient’s jabs in their skin rather than relying on paper or electronic documents. Vaccine cards often go missing, especially in poorer parts of the world, and digital records are not always an option. So tiny tattoos, only visible under certain filters, may hold the answer.

The MIT team came up with a special ink made from tiny quantum dots that reflect light. These dots are injected into the skin in patterns along with the vaccine. The patterns are usually invisible, but they glow under infrared light. This allows medical professionals to read the vaccine records using an app and filter.

The quantum dot ink is still in its early stages. But tests on rats yielded promising results. As researcher Robert Langer told reporters, “It’s possible someday that this ‘invisible’ approach could create new possibilities for data storage, biosensing, and vaccine applications that could improve how medical care is provided, particularly in the developing world.”^[7]

3 Are Ancient Egyptian Mummy Tattoos Linked to Pregnancy?

The Ancient Egyptians were no strangers to body art. Scientists have uncovered several tattooed mummies over the years. The site of Deir el-Medina on the bank of the Nile seems to be a hotspot for inked remains. Among the finds are two women with lower back tattoos, one unearthed around 100 years ago and the other in 2019. The first woman had a string of diamonds drawn just above her buttocks, while the second was adorned with images of water and plants.

Researchers believe this ancient symbolism is in some way linked to reproduction. The water and plants, they say, could depict the shore on the Nile, where pregnant or menstruating women would soothe themselves. Other female mummies have tattoos on their necks and hips, suggesting a further link to fertility. Another mummy was found to have what scientists believe is Bes, the god and protector of pregnant women, on her hip. Whatever the reason, these discoveries help us look closer at the cultures and customs of these fascinating ancient peoples.^[8]

2 Tattooing Mind-Reading Electrodes into the Human Skull

E-tattoos that can read your brainwaves might sound like something out of science fiction, but one tech startup wants to make that a reality. Brain Scientific is working on a highly specialized type of tattoo made from tiny electrodes that are implanted into the skull. This e-tattoo picks up neural signals using a postage stamp-sized processor that clips behind the ear.

Co-founder and executive chairman Baruch Goldstein hopes his digital tattoos could change the face of medical research. He says his devices would allow doctors to receive data about a patient’s brain activity in real-time. This would aid in the study of neurological conditions. The current major project of Brain Scientific is trying to find the brain patterns that lie behind epileptic seizures.

“We are trying to predict when a seizure can happen,” Goldstein explained. “It is too still premature to say what the results will be, but these are more or less our goals: Just to predict when the seizure will happen so you can get medicine that might prevent it.”^[9]

1 World’s Oldest Tattoo Tools Made from Bird Bones

Sharpened turkey bones found in an ancient Native American grave are, according to experts, the oldest tattoo tools ever discovered. The primitive inking gear dates back to 3500-1600 BC. The bones were found in 1985 in Fernvale, Tennessee, but until recently, scientists were unaware of their likely use in tattooing human skin.

This all changed when researchers inspected small amounts of pigment found in the artifacts. The team used incredibly detailed analysis techniques, including a microscope with 140 times magnification. They identified the two types of pigment: red and black. The red was found to be iron oxide, while the black was based on carbon. Both pigments are known to be traditional tattooing materials.

This landmark study suggests that the custom of body art dates back further than previously thought. Before this, the earliest known tool was a 2,000-year-old cactus spine device found in Utah.^[10]

There is a saying that true evil hides in plain sight, and nothing could be truer in the notorious case of Ted Bundy. At face value, he was charming, handsome, intelligent, and charismatic.

Yet lurking under this superficial demeanor was a cold-blooded killer who stalked, raped, murdered, and dismembered his victims. Later, he returned to violate the corpses further. He confessed to killing 30 young women and girls in seven states between 1974 and 1978, but the true total number of his victims is unknown.

See Also: 10 Shocking Facts About The Last Days And Execution Of Ted Bundy

Following a renewed interest in these murders and the stories of those who knew him best, his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer rereleased her memoir, The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, under the pseudonym Elizabeth “Liz” Kendall. This new edition included a contribution from her daughter, Molly, and never-before-seen photos.

These photos from their personal collection give us a chilling insight into the mind of a sadistic killer.

9 Ted On Vacation In Utah
1970

Four years before Ted Bundy began his known brutal killing spree, this vacation photo was taken in Ogden, Utah, in 1970. On either side of Ted are Liz and Molly. They brought Ted along to see their family home before they had moved to Seattle. A year earlier, Liz had been down on her luck as a newly divorced mother of one when she landed a receptionist job at the University of Washington.

Not long after her arrival in Seattle, she bumped into the “handsome” Ted in a bar and the pair began a relationship that was on and off for about seven years. Desperate for a father figure in Molly’s life and someone to help her feel less lonely, Liz tolerated a lot of behavior that she regrets now.

On reflection, Liz said:

This is kind of hard to even think about, but if you could put aside the fact that Ted Bundy was a terrible, murderous man, he was [also] a bad boyfriend. [ . . . ] Some of the things were just plain, flat-out codependence on my part. [ . . . ] I hope that women don’t do what I did, which was just settle for being treated not 100 percent truthfully.^[1]

8 Camping Trip In The Pacific Northwest
1970

Ted and Liz went on their first camping trip together in the Pacific Northwest where they both enjoyed the great outdoors. The Pacific Northwest, particularly Olympia and Seattle, would later become one of Ted’s preferred areas for claiming the lives of his victims.

In 1974, Ted abducted 21-year-old Lynda Ann Healy and strangled her to death. One month later, he kidnapped and murdered 19-year-old Donna Gail Manson and never revealed where the body was buried. By September 1974, he had claimed the lives of six more young women.

Following the abduction of two victims at Lake Sammamish in King County in July 1974, police knew from witness accounts that they were on the lookout for a “handsome young man who called himself ‘Ted.’ ” They also learned that he had used an arm sling to lure women into helping him back to his now-notorious VW Beetle.^[2]

The photo of Ted happily jumping in the mountains could not have foretold what darkness lay ahead. This was his final year of freedom before he was locked behind bars for his horrendous crimes.

7 Ted Awakens From A Nap
1971

Photo credit: Abrams Press/Amazon Prime Video

Liz captioned this photo, “An unhappy Ted who just woke up from a nap.” The photo was taken in Green Lake, Seattle, years before Ted’s killing spree had peaked. Obviously, he could no longer keep his mood swings hidden.

Psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Lewis interviewed Ted after his arrest and testified during his mental competency hearing. She revealed, “I believe he was suffering a bipolar mood disorder stemming from a manic-depressive illness.”^[3]

Later, these mood swings were on display for the public during subsequent trials. Ted jumped around the courtroom, flashed his smile at the television cameras, and waved to the public gallery. Moments later, he appeared agitated and uninterested in the case.

Ted’s trial for the Lake City murder of Kimberly Leach was moved to Orlando. Due to pretrial publicity, the court was unable to obtain an impartial jury. However, it was these outbursts and moments of frenzy that caused more damage to his character than any media coverage. Jurors were able to see for themselves just how volatile a man Ted really was.

6 Ted And Molly Driving A Boat
1971

At age three, Molly began to look up to Ted as a father figure and enjoyed days spent in his company. Now realizing who the monster behind the mask really was, Molly has recalled disturbing memories of her own, which she has detailed in the new edition of her mother’s memoir.

Molly recalls playing hide-and-seek with Ted when he was babysitting one evening. But she was left frightened after finding him naked. Frowning, Molly exclaimed, “You’re naked!” Ted replied, “I know, but that’s because I can turn invisible. But my clothes can’t, and I didn’t want you to see me!”

Molly added, “I tried to shove him out of the way, and comedically, Ted fell down to the shower mat where he sat cross-legged, covering his penis with his two hands.” When she recalled the memory in adulthood, she finally realized that Ted had had an erection at the time.

She also writes, “My next memory is of him leaving my room. I lay awake in fear for a very long time, watching the door. Hoping he would not come back. He did not.”^[4]

5 Ted Playing With Neighborhood Children
1972

Photo credit: Abrams Press/Amazon Prime Video

Enjoying the sunshine in the University District of Seattle, Ted can be seen playing with a young Molly and her friends in the neighborhood. Ted’s own childhood was a troubled one. He was brought up to believe that his mother was his sister and his grandparents were his parents.

Ted was born on November 24, 1946, at a home for unwed mothers in Burlington, Vermont. His mother, Eleanor “Louise” Cowell, considered putting the baby up for adoption, but her father, Ted’s grandfather, insisted that the baby return to their family home in Philadelphia. For the next decade or so, Ted was raised with the belief that his mother was his sister.

In The Stranger Beside Me, Ann Rule writes that Ted told her, “Maybe I just figured out that there couldn’t be 20 years’ difference in age between a brother and a sister, and Louise always took care of me. I just grew up knowing that she was really my mother.”^[5]

Later interviews revealed that Ted had discovered his own parentage when a cousin teased Ted about his birth certificate, which said that he had no known father. This was something that haunted Ted for the rest of his adult life.

4 Ted Taking A Nap
1974

Photo credit: Abrams Press/Amazon Prime Video

This photo was taken as Ted woke from a nap on Liz’s childhood bed during a Christmas break at her childhood home in Ogden, Utah. In 1974, the brutal murders that would later shock the world had begun. Liz said that she had noticed subtle changes in his personality that made her feel like she was “losing him.”

Kevin Sullivan, author of The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History, explained, “There were two Bundys. The only people who ever saw the diabolical Bundy were his victims.” Sullivan added, “This is what makes 1974 so extremely different. He is going to launch himself into full-time murder, and he was just going to keep doing it until he was captured or killed.”

In later interviews with investigators, Ted said that he was ruled by the “entity,” a demon that emerged whenever he was tense and told him to commit violence toward women. The serial killer confessed, “The tension would be too great, and the demands and expectations of this entity would reach a point where they just could not be controlled.”^[6]

3 Molly Playing With Ted’s Hair
1975

During a Nightline interview with Molly and her mother, Molly said, “I adored this man. We were like a family.”

They almost did become a real family when Liz became pregnant with Ted’s baby in 1972. However, Liz made the difficult decision to have an abortion. In the book The Phantom Prince, Liz wrote, “Both of us knew it would be impossible to have a baby now. He was going to start law school in the fall, and I needed to be able to work to put him through.”

She added, “It was awful. Ted took me home and put me to bed. He lay down beside me and talked about the day when I wouldn’t have to work and we would have lots of kids. He fixed me food, which I couldn’t eat, and did all he could to comfort me.”^[7]

Later, Ted did have a child of his own—a daughter named Rose (aka Rosa). He fathered Rose with his wife, Carole Ann Boone, while he was in prison. The whereabouts of Rose and her mother, Carole, are unknown as of this writing.

2 Ted And Liz In Utah
1975

Photo credit: Abrams Press/Amazon Prime Video

Liz was eventually encouraged by a close friend to speak to detectives about her suspicions surrounding Ted. She had discovered various suspicious items, including women’s clothes that did not belong to her and a pair of crutches. Later, after Ted’s arrest, Liz was interviewed again by Detective Robert D. Keppel. This time, her statements were taken more seriously.

She revealed:

About the crimes . . . he told me that he was sick and that he was consumed by something that he didn’t understand. And that he just couldn’t contain it. He said that he tried, he said that it took so much of his time, that’s why he wasn’t doing well in law school and couldn’t seem to get his act together because he spent so much time trying to maintain a normal life. And he just couldn’t do it, he said that he was preoccupied with this force.

Liz added, “He . . . started by saying that he was sick, that ‘I don’t have a split personality.’ And he said, ‘I don’t have blackouts, I remember everything I’ve done.’ “^[8]

1 Ted Drinking On The Courthouse Steps
1980

On January 15, 1978, Ted broke into the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. He brutally murdered students Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy. Three other young women were attacked that night but miraculously survived. Then came his final act of evil—the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. This was the undoing of the serial killer, and these murders landed him in the electric chair.

During the four-day hearing, US District Judge G. Kendall Sharp refused to allow the defense team to claim that Ted was incompetent during his initial trial. They tried to argue that Ted was provided alcohol smuggled in by his partner, Carole Ann Boone, and that he was heavily under the influence of Valium and other pills. Disagreeing, Sharp stated, “[Ted] is the most competent serial killer in the country at this time.”^[9]

On January 24, 1989, Ted Bundy was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison.

About The Author: Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 5’2″ or at home reading true crime magazines. Founder of Crime Viral community since 2015.

Let’s be honest, we all love a good meme and in recent years memes have exploded into an amazing art form that has helped shape today’s society. Whether it be a silly joke from your friend or a slew of them on your social media, there is no doubt that they have had an effect on your life. They are a great outlet for people to connect with one another and express emotions and feelings that are otherwise hard to describe with words. Memes are a very flexible media and you would be surprised that some of your beloved memes may even have some disturbing backstories. Bring your attention here and discover the dark truth behind some of your favorite memes!

10 Times Memes Got People In Trouble

10 Deflated Garfield

To start this list off, let’s take a look at the Deflated Garfield meme. It takes the final panel of an original Garfield comic and takes it out of context to make a surprisingly funny meme. Though the image is used to create joy, the original picture depicts the limp and lifeless corpse of Garfield with Jon practically begging him to be alive. The actual imagery is often overlooked as we just see a flat Garfield, but the comic in which it first appeared is actually Jon going through a horrific experience. Though, the reason this image is able to be turned into a meme is through the overexaggerated facial expression of Jon and Garfield’s very uncaring manner. This secretive meaning allows for a greater interpretation and the access into meme culture. Garfield’s complete deadpan state works as a great punchline.^[1]

9 “You’re Finally Awake, That Fall Looked Bad”

This meme makes fun of all of the current issues in society and pretends to take you back in time when things were simpler and happier. In this format, it usually takes a certain niche from the past, something very prominent in the time it is trying to represent (Usually the early 2000’s). We all know that 2020 has had many downs and this meme gives a bit of a reprieve from it, hitting you with a wave of nostalgia that does all but physically bring you back to the good old days. While this meme may seem innocent enough, it is only successful due to the terrible times that we are currently in. It is built off of the backbone of our distress and misfortune but tries to make it better. Although it has good intentions, it is definitely hard to overlook exactly what makes it so popular.^[2]

8 Going To Brazil

This next meme is the perfect example of jokes having some truth behind them. The Going to Brazil meme is a case of scary funny, the same way we laugh during horror movies or as a defense mechanism. This meme is a satirical take on a rather awful occurrence in real life. Kidnapping is a real thing and Brazil is somewhat known for it. This meme often depicts a 1st person view of a rather crazy scenario that is supposed to represent the journey to Brazil. So while this meme is rather funny, it is definitely based on something much more serious. Its dramatic and exaggerated portrayal is key to its success and is reminiscent of some more recent and popular memes as well.^[3]

7 Demotivational Poster

The “Demovitational Poster” is next up and this meme has a lot of history behind it. The beginning of this format dates back as early as the late 1990’s. Since then, this meme has warped and changed with the times, to a point at which it is almost unrecognisable from its first iterations.
This meme was created by a company by the name of “Demotivators” and its goal with this format is to criticise and make fun of the motivational posters that are usually hung up around an office. Since it is well known that those posters do not do their job very well, a group decided to go against the current and poke some fun at the depressing nature of the workplace. These demotivational posters bring to light real issues with working a 9-5 and the hopelessness one may feel when stuck in one.^[4]

6 Sirenhead

Sirenhead originated back in 2018 as a piece of art by Trevor Henderson. His goal was to essentially design a new monster and since then has gained quite some popularity. Memes featuring Sirenhead usually poke fun at his design or in some cases have him dancing to popular music. The stark contrast between what he’s supposed to be (dark and scary) and his presentation in meme culture (fun and lively) make for a great joke and has potential to continue in many different environments. You may not know this but Sirenhead also has a darker past, being involved in some creepypastas, which are scary stories found on the internet. These stories depict him in a much darker light with him being the main antagonist, causing mayhem and misery.^[5]

Top 10 Internet Memes and Phenomena

5 Declined Credit Card

In this meme, if your credit card declines, whatever you may have purchased is automatically refunded. Now this meme probably wouldn’t have made it to this list if what was purchased was only items like skittles or soda but instead it is something a lot more serious. In most cases of this meme, it shows someone’s credit card declining after they have ordered a rather large hospital procedure. For example, a doctor may remove a bullet from a patient’s body, but when his credit card declines, the doctor simply shoots the patient as a sort of refund.

This meme usually takes images from popular media to relay this message such as Star Wars or Looney Tunes to create a sort of familiarity between the meme and the observer. While this may seem over the top (for which it is), it also highlights the unfair and harsh nature of the U.S.A’s health care system. While a lot of countries have free health care, the States are quite the opposite and charge quite a premium for basically any procedure. In a lot of instances, these bills are unable to be paid by the patient and can lead to debt that is almost worse than the “refunds” in the memes.^[6]

4 WW3 Memes

WW3 memes were brought to light in the first few months of 2020. These memes were making fun of the current political climate at the time, as tensions were high between countries and the threat of a third world war had a scary potential. Looking back on it now, this meme seemed to be a coping mechanism for us as a whole, a way to vent and cope with our concerns through humor. So while they are rather humorous, they are built upon the fear of a very dark and scary reality. Luckily WW3 did not come at this time, or else these memes would have a lot darker of a memory. These memes did not stay around for long either as they quickly faded as the months passed and they became stale as tensions eased.^[7]

3 Gender Reveal Party

Gender reveal parties have been a rather new staple being seen as early as the late 2000’s. Since then they have changed and evolved, first starting out as a small gesture to reveal the gender of a new baby. Early examples of this may be a cake made out of pink or blue dough so that you recognise the gender only after cutting through the cake. Through the years this did not remain the norm as young parents kept on going for bigger and louder ways of announcing their child’s gender. As time went on people started experimenting with popping balloons with guns or using fireworks to celebrate the big reveal. With this, you of course had fires start to break out and cause some serious damage to the surrounding area due.

This meme makes fun of the serious issues and damage such a simple idea such as a gender reveal has caused. Again, this contrast between the intention and result make for some great irony, but as you can see this meme in particular is steeped in rather dangerous, and potentially life endangering activities.^[8]

2 Dad From Coraline

The Dad from Coraline is another great example of taking a dark concept and turning it around so that it’s funny. The beautifully detailed depiction of the Dad lets you fully understand how he feels and in most cases, people on some level can relate to it. This meme attempts to take that hollow or depressive feeling we all get sometimes and turns it into a joke. Reminiscent of using our humor to deter our concerns for a third world war. While this image has been used in numerous ways to make a joke, it is unavoidable to recognise the darker, empty feeling that it was created with and shows. It makes fun of the nature of this generation, with our general confusion and sadness that we internalize, but this meme allows for some relief as we can relate to it rather well.^[9]

1 Don’t Turn Me Into Marketable Plushies

Now this is a rather niche meme, one that is not as widespread as the others, but is still very interesting. This meme takes popular characters from across all media and uses them to satirize capitalism and the greed of the corporations that have created these characters. This meme takes the character and has them beg not to be turned into a stuffed animal, effectively stripping them of their personality. These stuffed animals do not at all capture the spirit of the character they are created after and is a great comparison to how a big corporation will abandon their personality for monetary gain. It goes to represent the real values of these companies, which is rather disturbing.^[10]

10 Memes And Trends That Are Secretly Centuries Old

Photos dominate the modern world as they never have before. We’re saturated with professional pictures, selfies, and everything in between. We’re used to plenty of mundane images; any social media profile can provide those. And we’ve all seen the sensational pictures embedded in every meme and news report.

Yet it’s the combination of the mundane and the terrible—once you know it’s there—that is most arresting. Some photos’ stark simplicity becomes haunting when you realize the true story underneath.

10 The Fredericksburg Ice House

This image seems to be merely a pastoral view from the 19th century. It’s only marginally more interesting to hear that this is a view of the famous Fredericksburg battlefield, a couple of years after thousands of Union soldiers fell there during the US Civil War. It seems unremarkable—after all, the soldiers are all gone.

Or are they?

After the fighting, Union troops were in a rush to dispose of their dead comrades during a brief truce. The cold December weather made digging hard, and eventually, the gravediggers got tired. They looked around for any other place they could stash the bodies. Their eyes settled on the abandoned icehouse of a Mr. Wallace. That’s the long, low building in the right foreground.

With little ceremony, the burial details began dumping their deceased brethren inside. The sight sickened several onlookers. One soldier described the scene:

[They would] drag the bodies to the pit of an old ice house, 15 feet deep, and cast them, all turned and twisted and doubled; the feet of one sticking up, the head of another, the arms and back of another; the upturned faces, beside the protruding entrails. Hundreds were to be thrown in, and what a horrid spectacle the whole mass would present, the imagination must picture.

An officer recalled:

The most sickening sight of all was when they threw the dead, some four or five hundred in number, into Wallace’s empty icehouse, where they were found—a hecatomb of skeletons—after the war.^[1]

After that, the armies eventually moved on. The populace had fled. The city remained a ghost town for the rest of the war—in more ways than one. No one remembered what lay behind the icehouse’s rickety door.

When the photographer took this image two years after the battle, he had no idea how many decomposing corpses were right there under his nose.

9 The Lawson Family Portrait

Nearly everyone’s been in a family portrait at some point. This photo looks quite run-of-the-mill. Most of the family members look fairly wooden—though the father standing at right has a certain far-off look in his eye. His name was Charles Lawson. And he was already planning on murdering everyone around him.

The Lawsons were a poor family, eking out a meager living as tobacco farmers in North Carolina. Their poverty must have weighed heavily on Charles’s mind. Another factor in his disquiet was that he had incestuously impregnated his daughter Marie (back row, second from left)—and she’d started confiding that fact in the neighbors.

A week before Christmas 1929, Charles finally decided to pay for a family portrait, because he knew he wasn’t going to need the money.^[2] On Christmas afternoon, the father hid in the barn with a 12-gauge shotgun and lay in wait for his daughters Carrie (front row, far right) and Maybell (front row, second from left) as they walked to their uncle’s house. He blasted them at point-blank range, then finished them off with the butt of the gun. Stalking back to the house, he gunned down his wife Fannie (back row, standing far right) on the front porch. The he charged into his own home as an invader.

As Marie screamed, he shot her in cold blood, along with his unborn child/grandchild. The small boys James (front row, far left) and Raymond (front row, second from right) ran for cover, but Charles hunted them down in a macabre game of hide and seek. Last was baby Mary Lou (in Fannie’s arms, top right). He finished her off without wasting a bullet and then killed himself in the woods shortly thereafter. The only survivor was son Arthur Lawson (rear row, far left), who was out of the house at the time.

Within seven days, a standard portrait had become the last record of a family about to be destroyed by its deranged patriarch.

8 A Doomed Expedition

All expeditions to the far corners of the Earth are fraught with peril. Many of them, especially in the early days, never even reached their destinations. The Terra Nova Expedition, led by British captain Robert Falcon Scott, was one that did. He and four others had set out to reach the South Pole in late 1911 and succeeded. The photo should be recording a moment of triumph, yet there is no elation. Instead, the men look haggard. Despair settles on their furrowed brows.

They are haggard from their rough journey. They are joyless because they know it was a race between British and Norwegian teams to reach the pole first, and they’d lost. They are hopeless because the return trip seemed an insurmountable obstacle.

It was. The Norwegians were long gone and could be of no help. The group had already endured punishing blizzards and food shortages on the southward journey; returning north would mean similar hardships, with less energy and fewer supplies to sustain them. Each man in this photo had little to look forward to in his short time remaining, just cold, misery, and the real possibility of death.

They marched on for weeks, slowed by multiple cases of severe frostbite. Poor weather hampered their progress even further, as did time-consuming searches for pre-established supply dumps that were far too well-hidden. Two men died along the way; the last three made it within 18 kilometers (11 mi) of a resupply camp before perishing. What’s more, they knew how close they were but were unable to reach it. As Scott wrote in his diary’s final entry:

Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.

It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.

R. SCOTT.

For God’s sake look after our people.^[3]

When a belated rescue team found the last campsite eight months later, the corpses of the polar team still lay in their sleeping bags. Their camera was with them. It surrendered this photograph only after all its subjects were long dead.

7 A Storm On The Mountain

The photo quality here looks awful, like the above images were shot on an early flip phone. At first glance, it seems nothing more than someone’s grainy camping photography, perhaps depicting some bad weather. In reality, the camera was top-notch, and it was capturing some of the worst “weather” in Washington state history.

In 1980, Mount St. Helens in the southwestern part of the state was a slumbering volcano that had decided to stop hitting “snooze.” It rumbled and smoldered ominously for months on end. Yet some people remained in harm’s way. Local residents refused to evacuate, including a famously cantankerous old innkeeper. Geologists and volcanologists, despite their misgivings, stayed close by to monitor activity. And some photographers, eager to document the foreboding phenomenon, crept closer to the stirring giant. One of these was Robert Landsburg.

A freelancer supporting National Geographic, Landsburg was on the latest of numerous trips to the mountain. His morning on May 18 began like any other. Waking in his serene campsite, he found a good vista and started snapping photos. But at 8:32 AM, everything changed. A 5.1-magnitude earthquake sent a terrifying landslide down the side of the mountain. Moments later, an eruption of magma, volcanic gas, and ash followed, a one-two punch of rapidly approaching terror.^[4]

Simultaneously enthralled and horrified, Landsburg kept shooting. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he could never outrun the onrushing blast. Resigning himself to his fate, Landsburg calmly finished his work, dismounted the camera from the tripod, stuffed it into his backpack, and then laid down atop his equipment. His body would protect the precious film.

Fifty-seven people died that day, Landsburg among them. But his jaw-dropping final photographs survived.

6 Tropical Tranquility

This image looks like mottled old-time footage, perhaps an old VHS tape of a seaside vacation. Beachgoers wade in the shallows, a familiar sight on any coastline. A second look shows that the breakers beyond the shallows look rather . . . large. They are. When these waders ventured out, they didn’t know they were wading into the path of destruction.

Indonesia’s and Thailand’s western coasts in 2004 were densely populated, chock full of everyone from native fishermen to foreign sightseers. Christmas passed peacefully and uneventfully. The following day, however, a gargantuan offshore earthquake unleashed a terrifying tsunami. Experts estimate that the tsunami’s energy was double that of all the bombs used in World War II, combined.

As often happens, the tidal wave was preceded by a drainage effect, as water was sucked away from the beach to feed the growing wall offshore. Tragically, many people on the coast mistook this for a sort of benign natural occurrence. Hundreds stuck around to watch. Some even reveled in the unusual circumstance, walking out onto the former seafloor and picking through old junk or stranded fish.

When the water returned, it swept all before it. An approximate death toll climbed to nearly a quarter of a million people.^[5] Some of the first were the folks in this picture, who had only minutes or seconds to live when it was taken.

5 A Skyline’s Last Morning

September 11, 2001, has passed into the history books, but each living witness has had the day’s events burned into his or her memory. The world changed for many. Western countries awoke to modern realities of terrorism, and nations the world over would be shaped by their response. Approximately 3,000 lives ended, and the loss reverberated throughout countless families, friendships, and workplaces. Most visibly, New York City’s iconic skyline was forever altered.

Photographer David Monderer loved that skyline, and he’d been waiting nearly a month to do it justice with a good photo. The sunny Tuesday morning offered the perfect opportunity. He strode out onto the Manhattan Bridge walkway, aimed, and took this shot.^[6]

The photo above is one of the very last to show the Twin Towers as they were. Looking at the image, it is easy to imagine the activities inside—people beginning their daily routines, fortifying themselves with coffee for the first morning meetings. They had no idea that the cloudless blue sky above already held two airliners winging their way closer, bearing a deadly destiny.

4 An Alaskan Vacation

The man in this photo looks scruffy but perfectly at ease. Behind him is an abandoned Fairbanks bus, signifying the location as Alaska. One might think he’s a local goofing off, or maybe a tourist who found a good photo op. One would not guess that he was slowly starving to death.

His name is Christopher McCandless. The unassuming man is actually rather famous as a free spirit, being the subject of a book and film called Into the Wild. Proclaiming his desire to throw off the shackles of modern society and live authentically, he struck off into the Alaskan hinterlands in spring 1992. There, he could commune with nature.

Unfortunately, nature showed no desire for communion. Without adequate training or supplies, McCandless was in over his head from the start. He managed to forage for some edible plants and was occasionally successful in hunting attempts, but even these were of limited use to someone who had no idea how to properly preserve the food he gathered. After three months, he tried to hike back to civilization but found the trail blocked by a swollen river. Defeated—and unaware of another viable crossing point less than 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) away—he returned to the bus and settled in to meet his fate.^[7]

When a hiker found McCandless, the man had been dead for approximately three weeks. His emaciated body weighed only 30 kilograms (66 lb). Stashed away amid his meager possessions was an undeveloped roll of film, from which the above image was recovered.

3 More Northern Serenity

Staying in Alaska, we fast-forward to 2003. Here, we see a happy couple perched on the pontoon of a seaplane, obviously ready to enjoy a wilderness adventure. They got more than they bargained for.

The man’s name is Timothy Treadwell, a zealous environmentalist. He had traveled to Katmai National Park with his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, for a pet project: documenting grizzly bears. Treadwell held a strong affection for the beasts and felt them to be kindred spirits. It amounted to a more extreme version of Christopher McCandless’s desire to be one with nature—while McCandless was willing to hunt to survive, Treadwell expected to coexist peacefully with all the animals he encountered. Previous visits had convinced him that the bears would become used to his presence, see him as nonthreatening, and leave him alone.

He was tragically mistaken. On October 6, 2003—scant days after this picture was taken—Treadwell and Huguenard’s campsite was invaded by a hungry brown bear. First Treadwell, then his girlfriend were mauled by the remorseless attacker. They may have been still alive when the animal began devouring them.^[8]

This image is the last known picture of the couple. But it’s not the last record. Treadwell’s video camera was still running when the attack took place. Only audio was captured—a flurry of agonized cries and dying screams.

2 An Army’s Last Exercises

Here, we see quite an archaic throwback: cavalry. These horse soldiers look like they hail from the 19th century. However, this picture was taken in 1939. The men are Polish soldiers, and they unknowingly stand on the precipice of disaster.

As part of regular military exercises, all Polish servicemen would practice maneuvers and operations. The cavalry’s role was to act as scouts and skirmishers, fighting on foot when necessary. Many of the men here might have been nervous about rising tensions with Germany but felt confident that Britain and France, Poland’s allies, would swiftly send aid to counter any aggression.

They were sadly mistaken. The crushing blitzkrieg would strike within a few weeks, and the Western allies would not react in time to stop it. The Polish army would stand alone, fall alone, and then cease to exist. These cavalrymen would be swept away by a tide of tanks and mechanized infantry.^[9] In that way, they are emblematic of all the doomed forces of their country—dandelion ghosts staring down a hurricane.

1 Fleeting Goodwill

A handshake is the simplest means we have for signaling peace and friendship. Intended originally to show you weren’t holding a weapon, handshakes evolved into a minimum standard for mutual respect. Here, Archduke Franz Ferdinand warmly grasps the hand of one of his subjects. The date is June 28, 1914.^[10]

He could not know that, within hours, he and his wife would be dead by an assassin’s bullets. He could not know that their deaths would ignite festering tensions throughout Europe, eventually plunging the continent (and the world) into war. And there’s no way he could have known the effects of that war: the rise of fascism and Comumnism, another world war, widespread societal breakdown, cultural collapse, atomic standoffs, and terrific new tensions that are still rippling through history.

As The New York Times put it in 1915: “Those two shots brought the world to arms, and the war that followed has brought devastation upon three continents and profoundly affected two others, and the tocsin has sounded in the remotest islands of the sea.”

The reverberations of 1914 remain with us today. It is hard to know what might have happened had June 28, 1914, gone differently; perhaps some flashpoint was inevitable. But the world would surely have been better off if the handshakes had prevailed.

David F. Ellrod lives in Maryland with his wife, three daughters, and one very excitable dog. He can be reached on Twitter @DavidEllrod.