The moon is one of the visible features of the night sky. Little wonder humans have blamed it for almost everything they cannot find answers to. While the moon is usually innocent—as you are about to find out—it is not always so. The moon has sometimes turned up guilty of accusations leveled against it.

These accusations vary and are not necessarily bad. But all are weird, or at least, unexpected. They are things we would not expect people to link to the moon.

See Also: Top 10 Strange And Scary Facts About Moons

10 Madness

We have long associated madness with the full moon. In fact, the term “lunatic” was formed from Luna, the Latin word for the moon. In the first century, the famous Roman author and philosopher, Pliny the Elder, claimed full moons stimulated the formation of dew. This dew, he claimed, increased the amount of water in our brains, leading to occasional bouts of madness.

This misconception was reinforced in the 1978 book, The Lunar Effect: Biological Tides and Human Emotions, by Arnold L. Lieber. Lieber wrote that the gravitational pull of the moon attracted the fluids in our body, the same way it attracts water in the ocean, causing tides. Lieber claimed the attraction caused fluids to jump around in our brains, causing madness.

Several researchers have proven the moon is innocent of all charges. The moon has no effect on our brain and does not make us mad. Psychologist, Professor Scott Lilienfeld of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, even has an interesting explanation for why we think the full moon makes us mad.

He says the rumors began centuries before the invention of electricity, at a time when people depended on moonlight to see at night. At the time, people spent more time outside during full moons. This included people with mental illness, who had more time to behave irrationally, causing the superstition.

9 The Death Of General Stonewall Jackson

Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died of pneumonia on May 10, 1863. This was just a week after he was shot by his own troops in the night of May 2, 1863. The Confederates had launched an offensive against the Union that night, leading to the Battle of Chancellorsville. The General was shot after he and his unit were mistaken for invading Union troops.

Researchers, Don Olson and Laurie E. Jasinski of Texas State University have blamed the shooting on the full moon on the night of the battle. Here is the thing with the full moon. We often assume full moons increase visibility. This is often true—unless the moon is right in front of you. At that point, everything in front of you will appear as a dark, featureless shadow.

The moon was right in front of the soldiers of the 18th North Carolina infantry, who shot the general that night. They could not see the approaching soldiers clearly. All they saw were the black shadows of approaching men and horses. They opened fire the moment the unit got too close. General Jackson was struck by three musket balls that destroyed his left arm. He died of complications a week later.

8 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

On March 11, 2011, a deadly magnitude 9 earthquake tore through northeast Japan. An equally deadly tsunami followed shortly after. By the time it was over, 15,894 people were dead with another 2,500 missing. Over a million buildings were either damaged or destroyed. The disaster cost between $199 billion dollars and $235 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster ever.

The earthquake was surprising because Japan’s early earthquake warning system never detected it. This made skeptics blame it on some sudden unexpected event—like the gravitational pull of the moon. This sounded plausible considering the earthquake occurred a week after a new moon and a week before an upcoming super moon.

You see, the orbit of the moon is actually oval and not circular. This means the distance between the earth and the moon changes every time. When the moon is closest to the earth, we call it a super moon. The super moon is like a full moon, except that it is larger and brighter.

The moon’s gravitational pull on the earth is most powerful during the new and super moons. In fact, there is evidence that this powerful gravitational pull puts more pressure on geological faults, causing seismic activities and ultimately, earthquakes. However, that was not what happened this time. The moon’s gravitational pull on the earth was actually at its weakest at the time the earthquake hit.

7Childbirth

For centuries, people have speculated that more children are born during full moons than on any other time of the month. The rumors probably began over the erroneous belief that the gravitational pull of the full moon affected the amniotic fluid in the belly of pregnant women—the same way it does with oceans. This supposedly causes the water to break, inducing labor.

This is false. Series of studies have proven that the gravitational pull of the moon has no effect on women, childbirth or labor. The most expansive of these studies was published by Daniel Caton in 2001. Caton analyzed the details of 70 million children born over 20 years. He discovered that more children were not born on nights with full moons. Unfortunately, this rumor is one that just wouldn’t die.

6 Positive Stock Market Returns

Several studies have indicated that stock market returns appreciate during the 14 to 15 days around a new moon. One study, which involved 25 stock exchanges in the G7 countries, revealed that profits become three times higher during new moons than at any other time of the month.

That said, do not think of buying stocks during new moons to sell during the full moon two weeks later. While you would turn in a decent profit if you did, you will lose most of that money to transaction costs since you would be buying and selling stocks very often. Besides, Stocks also appreciate at other times of the month, just not as much as they do around new moons.

5 Acute Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis

Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis is a painful eye condition caused by one of enterovirus 70 or coxsackievirus A24 viruses. The affected eye becomes reddened and swollen with pus dripping out of it. Fortunately, the infection is rarely lethal and often disappears on its own within a week.

The condition is most common in Africa though it has been observed in several other countries including the United States. Africans call it Apollo, in reference to the Apollo 11 moon landing. This is because the condition was first observed in Ghana in 1969, the same year Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed on the moon.

People assumed the crew of Apollo 11 had brought it back to earth on their return from the moon. In fact, some called it “Apollo 11 disease” so others could know what they were talking about. People know better these days though. However, they still call it Apollo even though they no longer blame it on the moon landing.

4 Menstruation

People have always believed the human menstrual cycle is in sync with the moon. In fact, menstruation is from the Latin mensis (“month”), which itself is from mene, the Greek word for moon. The rumor probably arose after people observed the moon took around 28 days to complete an orbit round the earth. The human menstrual cycle also comes around every 28 days on the average.

One of the modern menstrual-moon cycle rumors was traced to one Doctor Eugene Jonas who observed that women were getting pregnant despite only having sex when they were not ovulating. Doctor Jonas concluded that women had two fertile periods. One was based on their regular menstrual cycle while the other was the result of what he called the lunar cycle.

The lunar cycle is supposedly based on the movement of the moon round the earth. Doctor Jonas had no scientific evidence to back up his theory. His personal belief in astrology was all he had. However, he went on with it anyway.

That said, there is no evidence that the human menstrual cycle is linked to the moon. Besides, every woman has a different cycle that lasts for anything between 21 and 35 days. The 28-day cycle is only an average.

3 The Great Crypto Crash

The cryptocurrency market suffered a massive crash in January 2018. Every cryptocurrency depreciated by around 80% in less than a month. Bitcoin itself went from $20,000 per coin in December 2017 to $10,000 per coin in January 2018. For comparison, businesses lost around 78% of their value in the infamous dot com bubble of 2000.

The effect of this crash was so massive that it was named The Great Crypto Crash. It was surprising too, considering cryptocurrencies had rapidly appreciated in late 2017. Investors and analysts began looking around for whatever they could blame for the misfortune. It appears that someone just looked up into the sky and blamed the moon.

This claim was made by Alexander Wallin, the CEO of the investing platform, Sprinklebit. He actually blamed the drop on the Chinese New year. The Chinese New Year (also called the Lunar New Year) is based on the lunar calendar. The two-week event starts on the night of the first new moon of the lunar year and ends on the first full moon.

Wallin claimed bitcoin crashed when Chinese investors cashed their bitcoins to fund their New Year celebrations, which began on February 16. This pumped more bitcoins into the market, crashing prices. This is plausible considering Chinese citizens hold a lot of bitcoins. However, are we really blaming the moon for the crash?

2 Vehicle Accidents

Full moons have a terrible reputation for causing accidents. This is unfortunately true. Researchers from Princeton University and the University of Toronto reached the conclusion after studying deadly motorcycle accidents in the US, UK, Canada and Australia over a 30-year period. They discovered there were 5% more accidents on full moons than other nights.

This got worse during super moons when the likelihood of an accident increases to 27%. Researchers believe this is because full and super moons tick all three boxes required for an object to be considered distracting. They are large, bright and could suddenly appear without warning. Besides, people are likelier to be out on full moons and riders could be tempted to ride faster because of the increased visibility.

1 Crime

Full moons have long been associated with increased criminal activities. This theory has been reinforced by police units like the British Sussex police, which claimed that more crimes occurred during full moons. The Sussex police reached this conclusion after analyzing their 2006 crime records. They discovered they recorded more crimes during full moons than on other nights.

This trend has been observed by researchers too. However, the theory is inconclusive because other researchers have found no correlation between crimes rates and the full moon. Even if it were true, the increased crime rate is not caused by the mind-altering powers of the moon as some believe. The moon has no effect on our mind.

Instead, the light from the moon encourages people to remain outdoors for longer. At the same time, criminals prowl the streets during full moons because they need light to commit crimes. The light needs to be bright enough so they can see but dark enough so they can sneak to their victims and catch them by surprise. This is called the illumination hypothesis.

Legends of mythical monsters and creatures have sent chills down spines for hundreds of years. So intertwined have these stories become with everyday life that tragic incidents are sometimes blamed on these legendary creatures. For instance, the deaths of nine skiers on Dyatlov Pass were, for a long time, thought to be the handiwork of abominable snowmen living in the northern Urals. Likewise, when two young girls tried to stab their friend to death in a forest in Wisconsin, they blamed the mythical Slender Man, claiming they had been forced to commit the crime to prevent Slender Man from harming their families.

On this list are more devastating incidents that have, to some extent at least, been blamed on creatures of folklore.

Related: 10 Bizarre Legal Actions Regarding Mythical Creatures

10 Bigfoot Kidnapping

Ever since the infamous Gimlin footage made headlines in 1967, there has been a horde of Bigfoot sightings in the U.S. despite experts dismissing the entire concept as being either a hoax or simply ludicrous.

In 1987, things took a turn for the tragic when 16-year-old Theresa Ann Bier apparently decided to skip school and go Bigfoot hunting in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California on June 1. Accompanying her was 43-year-old Russell Welch, who returned from the outing alone. Theresa was reported missing, and when authorities inevitably questioned Russell, he claimed that he last saw the teenager on June 2, after they’d both encountered Bigfoot and she chased after it. According to Russell, Bigfoot had abducted Theresa. He also changed his story several times, adding more and more details to it.

Not believing the story for one second, police arrested Russell Welch on June 11th but had to release him when no sufficient evidence against him could be found. A thorough search that included sniffer dogs in the area where Theresa was last seen yielded no success other than discovering what was believed to be her purse and scraps of her clothing.

To date, no one has been prosecuted for her disappearance, and her fate remains a mystery.^[1]

9 Mermaid Drowning

In December 2013, 12-year-old Siyabonga Masango left his home to play soccer with his friends. A while later, the heat led to the boys deciding to go swimming in a tributary of the Sabie River in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

A man washing his car nearby saw Siyabonga being pulled into the water and rushed over to help. Unfortunately, they couldn’t see or find him inside the water. Police divers searched for two weeks but also couldn’t locate the boy, believing that he had drowned after being attacked by a crocodile.

Siyabonga’s family was not convinced, believing instead that a mermaid had taken their son but that he would be “released”’ in time to go to school. The family also performed rituals to ensure that this would be the case. Siyabonga was never found, however, and his ultimate fate remains unknown.^[2]

8 Ghostly Vengeance

In June 2018, two men in the Thai village of Tambon Dong Yai in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Phimai district died in their sleep. Concerned residents set off to the local medium to hold a rite and call up spirits for an explanation. According to the medium, the ghost of a widow told her that she wanted to kill four men in the village, and as she’d already taken the lives of two, two more would soon follow.

Upon hearing this, several villagers hung a red shirt in front of their homes, hoping that it would keep the ghost away. Some even added a note stating that there were no men in their house, only pets.

Apparently, no other men suffered the same fate as the first two after the red shirts were displayed outside houses.^[3]

7 Alien Abduction

The disappearance of Amelia Earhart spawned a slew of conspiracy theories even after the Navy officially concluded that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan had most likely run out of fuel, after which they crashed into the Pacific Ocean and drowned.

These theories ranged from Earhart and Noonan landing on Nikumaroro and living as castaways until they died, being taken prisoner by the Japanese, or that they were eaten by coconut crabs after crashing somewhere near Howland Island.

Naturally, there would also be a far stranger theory in the mix, with some believing that Earhart was taken by aliens on the day she was to land on Howland Island and sent to a wormhole where she was left in suspended animation.

A version of this theory was included in the popular anthology horror series, American Horror Story, in which a character claims to be Amelia Earhart and makes contact with aliens.^[4]

6 Demonic Murder

Demons and evil forces are prominently featured in folklore, mythology, fiction, occultism, and religion. Going hand-in-hand with these stories are tales of demon possession and exorcism. In modern times, many crimes have been blamed on demons and evil creatures.

In 2016, Aljar Swartz admitted killing and beheading 15-year-old Lee Adams and burying her head in his backyard in Cape Town, South Africa. It was only after his trial, and after psychiatrists and psychologists found him mentally stable, that Swartz’s lawyer suddenly announced that his client was demon-possessed and requested for an exorcism to take place in Swartz’s prison cell where he was awaiting sentencing.

The lawyer also insisted on getting a retired Methodist minister to perform the exorcism after Swartz allegedly told him that a demon in the form of a black lizard appeared to him in his cell and tormented him. Swartz also said that the lizard would crawl into his chest and “control” him. The lawyer argued that his client was a “vessel” and “instrument in the hand of the devil” and could not be held accountable for Lee’s murder.

The court eventually found that Swartz murdered Lee Adams for the purpose of selling her head to a sangoma—a practitioner of herbal medicine, divination, and counseling in some traditional South African societies. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.^[5]

5 By Order of the Vampire Queen

In 2002, 22-year-old Allan Menzies murdered his 21-year-old friend, Thomas McKendrick. Menzies then ate part of his head, drank his blood, and buried him in a shallow grave. During his murder trial, Menzies stated that Akasha, the “Vampire Queen” in the film The Queen of the Damned, had repeatedly instructed him to kill his friend. He also said that he’d watched the film more than 100 times and that Akasha told him if he murdered people, she would reward him by turning him into an immortal.

Menzies further said that he’d made up his mind to kill McKendrick after McKendrick insulted Akasha. He also believed that he was indeed a vampire after the murder and said he didn’t really “feel anything” after McKendrick died.

Menzies was handed a life sentence for the crime in 2003 but was found dead in his prison cell in 2004. It is believed that he committed suicide.^[6]

4 Monster Behind the Mystery

Originating from Norwegian folklore, the Kraken is one of the most feared mythologic beasts. Legend has it that the monster was so big that sailors would often mistake it for an island and try to land on it, only to be dragged to a watery grave. Respected zoologist Carl Von Linné listed the Kraken as a real creature in Systema Naturae. Many believe that such a monster truly existed after Ichthyosaur bones were found in a pattern similar to how octopuses place bones when they’re done with their meal.

Colliding with another mystery, the Kraken has been blamed for the mysterious disappearances of boats and planes in the Bermuda Triangle. Some believe that a super-intelligent Kraken lurks in the depths of the triangle and “feeds” on ships and aircraft.

The Kraken has even been blamed for the Mary Celeste disappearance, even though the legendary ship vanished in a completely different part of the sea.^[7]

3 Quota of Lives

The Higginson Highway in Chatsworth, Durban, South Africa, is notorious for fatal accidents. Here, rocks are often hurled at cars from overhead bridges, after which injured motorists are robbed of their belongings. At other times, drivers lose control of their vehicles and veer off the highway, rolling down the embankment. Sometimes head-on collisions lead to tragic deaths.

Many of these accidents have been attributed to the highway’s resident ghost, aptly named Highway Sheila. Being the restless spirit that she is, it is believed that Sheila has a “quota of lives” to fulfill each year, and she achieves this goal by appearing in the middle of the road, causing drivers to swerve, leading to often-fatal accidents.

Recently, a young Metro police officer and his family were traveling home late at night on the Higginson Highway when he almost hit a woman in white standing in the middle of the lane. They were all terrified by the incident but believed that God had saved them from harm.^[8]

2 Wendigo Psychosis

Filling several pages of Algonquian books on legendary creatures, tales of the Wendigo describe the creature as a humanoid cannibal with antlers who feasts on human flesh to survive harsh and cold climates. Legend has it that the first-ever Wendigo was a hunter who got lost in the wild during winter and was driven to cannibalism to survive. This saw him morph into a Wendigo, doomed to roam the forest in search of more victims.

In the 1800s, a Cree man named Swift Runner slowly became addicted to alcohol, got fired from his job as a guide for the North West Mounted Police, and became increasingly violent as time passed. In 1878, Swift Runner led his wife, six children, mother-in-law, and brother into the woods, killed them, and ate them.

Police found broken hollowed-out bones in the woods as well as a pot of human fat and arrested Swift Runner. He told police that he had been possessed by a Wendigo, which led to him committing the massacre.

No one believed him and Swift Runner was found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed in December 1879.^[9]

1 Lurking Leviathan

Described in Caribbean folklore as a 75-foot half-dragon, half-octopus, the lusca is a sea monster said to inhabit the waters surrounding Andros island in the Bahamas. Some versions of the tale say that the creature sports the head and torso of a shark and the lower body of an octopus.

One theory has it that the lusca, or lurking Leviathan as it’s sometimes called, is the ghost of a woman who drowned and was turned into a beast. Another says that a lusca is a mermaid or siren put on Earth by nymphs to lure sailors to their death.

The TV show, River Monsters, aired an episode dedicated to the lusca monster, which explores the possibility that the creature could be responsible for the disappearance of a number of swimmers exploring the blue holes surrounding Andros. The missing people include 38-year-old Liu Guandong, Wesley Bell, and 72-year-old John William Batchelor. Batchelor’s boat has been found, but he remains missing.^[10]