The Internet has changed human life like most other technologies in our history couldn’t. We can now stay connected with faraway friends, look up videos of dogs singing a wide variety of songs, and post multiple photos of our kids on Facebook even if no one wants us to.

SEE ALSO: 10 Ways The Internet Is Destroying You

That’s only on the surface, though, as it also has many things you’d only run into if you knew what to look for. Anyone who has explored the furthest edges of the Internet knows that it’s a weird and unsettling world out there. Even the most ardent explorers, however, may not have heard of some of these creepiest corners of the web, and we’re here to fix that.

10 Plane Crash Info

Visit Plane Crash Info Here

Advancements in aviation technology in the past few decades or so have made sure that traveling in an airplane is now a much safer affair than it used to be. A lot fewer people die in crashes these days than they used to, so much so that it isn’t unheard of for all the passengers of a crashed flight to have made it out without a scratch.

Still, that doesn’t mean that planes don’t seriously crash with fatalities anymore. Crashes still happen, though they just sound like numbers to the most of us unless it happens to someone we know. If you want to really understand what goes on just before a plane crash, all you need to do is visit Plane Crash Info.

It’s a regularly-updated database of all plane crashes in history, with detailed info on exactly how they happened. Its most unsettling – and heartbreaking—section is ‘Last Words’, with audio clips from CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) just before the crash. While the intention here is to legitimately document plane crashes for the sake of record keeping, some of those recordings are quite disturbing.

9 Real Time Death Counter

Visit Real Time Death Counter Here

It’s difficult to quantify exactly how many people die around the world at any given point in time. It’s not because we don’t have the technology to do it, it’s just that death isn’t a very noteworthy event to keep a track of, as it (unfortunately) happens so often. What maybe a loved one for some of us may just be another person out of billions of others who just ran out of time for someone else.

That didn’t sit too well with Brad Lyon, who decided to create a real time simulation of all the deaths in the world. It’s quite accurate, too, as it’s based on accurate numbers taken from every country. We know it doesn’t make for the best screensaver, but if you’re ever in the mood for a visual representation of the fragility of life, this might be the best place for it.^[]

8 Death Row Last Words

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It doesn’t matter where you stand on capital punishment, many U.S. states still regularly use it for serious offenders. While 29 states have it as a method of punishment on paper, it’s the state of Texas that’s really addicted to it. Around one third of all cases of capital punishment since it was resumed in the U.S. are from Texas, which is also probably due to its size.

If you’ve always wondered what death row inmates say just before they die, you’re in luck. Texas records details of all of its death row inmates, and you can access it if you have enough time and mental space for it. It’s not all creepy, either, as many of those last words are heartfelt messages to loved ones, too.

7 The Fifth Nail

Visit The Fifth Nail Here

If you’ve never heard of the killer known as Joseph Edward Duncan III, you haven’t been paying as much attention to as we’d like. By far one of the most violent criminals in U.S. history, he’s currently on death row for the rape of multiple kids and brutal murders of the Groene Family in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. While we’d spare you the details of the crime in question, just the fact that the judiciary handed him three death sentences and nine life sentences should tell you something about how gruesome it was.

If you don’t want to hear anymore about this, we’d completely understand. If you do, though, there’s a regularly updated blog called The Fifth Nail you can check out. It contains his personal accounts of the murders as well as his general outlook on the world (which he sent to someone outside the prison to publish). Just reading one post there is enough to tell you that’s there’s some messed up stuff in there.

6 Murder Auction

Visit Murder Auction Here

Murder has been a part of society for as long as one can remember, which is probably why we all collectively decided that maybe we should criminalize it at one point in our history. Regardless, it’s still an uncomfortably-widespread occurrence in almost all countries, as any more than one murder is ‘uncomfortably widespread’ for us. Regardless of our opinion on it, though, there’d always be someone willing to end another person’s life as long as their reasons are convincing enough for them.

Somewhere deep down, though, we’re all fascinated by murderers and serial killers, as they represent the extreme end of what we all could do if there was no law stopping us. For everyone whose fascination goes a bit beyond watching serial killer documentaries on Netflix, a website called Murder Auction features artifacts from convicted killers and other violent criminals you can buy. They’re not really related to the murders, as everything found at a crime scene is still the government’s property, though you could get your hands on things like paintings and love notes written by some of the most infamous serial killers.

While we haven’t personally ordered anything from there—as we’re pretty sure that would put us on some kind of a government list—it’s unsettling to know that the option to buy something like that is out there.

5 The Cannibal Café Forum

Visit The Cannibal Café Forum Here

Being a cannibal is no joke. Apart from the ethical and legal implications of it, there’s surprisingly little information online on how to go about being one if you’re interested (not that we endorse going that route to be honest). What utensils do you use to cook another person? What kind of seasoning do you garnish it with? Which part of the body do you start with?

For those who’ve always had an academic interest (hopefully) in details like that, there’s The Cannibal Café Forums. It’s now a defunct website, though Google has done a good job of archiving it, and other versions of it may also be active on the dark web. It features everything from going about finding a victim to people making requests to cannibalize themselves, as that’s also apparently a kink people have.

4 Reborn Dolls

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We’re not sure about you, but we find dolls to be inherently creepy toys for multiple reasons. For one, it’s clearly an inanimate object made to resemble a real person, even if we know that it’s not meant to be a real person. Much more importantly, though, there’s something about their eyes that scares the creeps out of us, especially when they follow you around the room no matter where you go.

If you’re not convinced by those arguments, we’d like you to check out a website called Reborn Baby Dolls. In a horrible misjudgment of popular opinion on dolls, someone called Deborah King figured that they need to be more human-like than they usually are. To that end, she takes regular dolls and rebuilds them to seem more human-like by a variety of homemade techniques, and posts them there for appreciation. We’d like to clarify that none of these dolls are for sale or any monetary profit; she just does it because she thinks other people would like looking at it.

3 The Simulation Argument

Visit The Simulation Argument Here

We’ve all heard of the simulation argument, that the world isn’t actually real at all and we’re living in a kind of a simulation. While certain glitches like inconsistent weather patterns and whatever the hell Bjork is supposed to be lend credence to that theory, most of us don’t pay much attention to it. After all, if we were sentient and intelligent beings in a simulation, how is it that none of us are smart enough to have figured it out yet?

According to some, though, we already have by the way of a website called The Simulation Argument. It features blogs and studies by reputed authors to make the argument for the world actually being a simulation. Spend enough time on it (trust us, we have), and there’s a good chance you’d be convinced of it, as some of the arguments presented there are nothing if not reasonably put.

2 Edarem

Visit Edarem Here

‘The creepiest guy on YouTube’ is a tall claim to make, as YouTube is filled with all sorts of creeps and nightmares out to steal your hopes and dreams. Though if there’s someone who could legitimately fit that description, it’s Edward Muscare, also known as Edarem.

On first look, it just seems like a regular old guy trying his best to scare the kids. Take a look at any of his videos, though, and you’d realize that his videos are some of the most unsettling on the entire website. Some of them are outright creepy and look the part, though for the others, you’d have to pay a bit more attention and know his personal history to understand why they’re creepy. What may look like a video of just an old guy awkwardly dancing to Pretty Woman gets really disturbing once you realize that he was imprisoned for sexual battery. He eventually died in jail, though his creepy legacy lives on in the form of his videos that’re still up for anyone to watch.

1 Real Crime Scene Photos

Visit Real Crime Scene Photos Here

As we said before, crime scene photos are almost always restricted to police and government records, as they’re usually quite gruesome and unsettling in cases of violent crimes. That doesn’t mean that there’s no way to get your hands on them, as anonymous sources on the inside have been trading information with journalists for as long as those professions have existed.

The crime photos section of Crime Online isn’t the only website documenting photos of real crime scenes online, though it’s definitely the most professionally-managed. Here, you can find crime scene photos from most serial killers, including Manson and Bundy. Not all of them feature dead bodies, either, which may actually make it worse. There’s something much more unsettling about, say, a photo of utensils once used to cook human remains than that of the actual remains. Pictured here is a crime scene photo of Jeffrey Dahmer’s kitchen.

About The Author: You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, or get in touch with him for writing gigs.

We may not realize it, but Google Maps has revolutionized our lives in more ways than one. Most of the apps we use wouldn’t be possible without their tech. We no longer have to rely on bystanders for navigation, and for the first time, we can actually see all the travel destinations we’d never be able to visit in high detail.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Ways Google Does Evil

That being said, there have been times when Google Maps has managed to give us quite the creeps too. People have found some bizarre and mysterious stuff just looking through Google Maps and its Street View feature, ranging from harmlessly creepy to downright horrifying.

10 A Possible Scientology Base

Scientology is a weird mix of science and religion—with quite a bit of aliens thrown in—that we really don’t have the space to get into right now. We often hear bout it when a Hollywood celebrity gets associated with it, which is probably for the best as it’s all too complicated to understand.

What’s weird, however, is that there several sites around the U.S.A. and the world suspected to be Scientology bases. One of them is the Trementina Base in New Mexico, which is visible from Google maps. It’s just two overlapping circles with diamond shapes in their centers, and someone has clearly gone to great lengths to make it.

While most people thought that it was a facility meant to flag aliens making their way to Earth (or something), an ex-Scientologist denied the claim as that would be ridiculous. No, according to him, the facility actually has a sensible purpose, which is to guide other members towards L. Ron Hubbard’s works that have apparently been written on gold sheets and kept in titanium boxes.

9 Bodies in a Dumpster

Catching just a quick glimpse of this Google Maps image might be a bit disturbing. Have you stumbled across a town of murderers or cannibals? The moment seems to have occurred on trash collection day, with garbage cans lining the pavement at the side of the road. Among the bins, boxes, and generic rubbish, however, there are some rather creepy additions to the pile of unwanted goods. Stuffed into the cans or scattered at the side of the road is a collection of what has been described as “dead bodies.”

The user who came across this image described the scene, writing: “Google Street View captures a dumpster full of dead bodies in Chile!” Indeed, around six human-like figures can be seen among the rest of the trash. One is face down in front of the cans, and another stuffed upside down into a can with its legs flailing in the air. Slumped beside the third bin, one of the figures almost looks like it is sitting on the curb. Another body can be seen wedged into a can so that just its head and arms pop out. While the scene may have left users aghast—at first—on closer inspection, it seems these human forms might not be actual people. The color and fabric-like material they appear to be made from suggests they are actually mannequins.

8 Giant Disfigured Bunny

Imagine just browsing through Google Maps and accidentally running into a giant, disfigured pink bunny out of nowhere. Located in Northern Italy, its face is all out of shape and visibly screaming, giving the whole thing an even more unsettling vibe. If you stumble upon it, you may assume that your app is glitching or that someone actually went to great lengths to build a giant creepy bunny for people looking from above. Fortunately, it’s the latter, and it doesn’t involve the occult.

In reality, the bunny is a part of an art installation by a Viennese collective and is meant to serve as a hangout spot for visitors. One of the members says that it’s supposed to be a huge thing that makes you feel small, which it probably does if you see it up close. From afar, though, it has that look of an abandoned, mangled bunny that so many horror movies begin with.

7 Nogoro, Japan

If you’re ever exploring the Japanese countryside on Maps, the chances are that you’ll stumble upon the sparsely-populated village of Nogoro. From a distance, it may look like it’s full of people casually chilling around all over town. Zoom in a bit, and you’ll realize they’re actually lifeless dolls. We hope you didn’t do this when you were all alone at night.

The village is actually on its way to being completely abandoned, as its residents keep leaving it for better opportunities in the cities. The dolls are made by a woman named Ayano Tsukimi as a tribute to its departed, which is inexplicably the only way she could come up with to do that. We don’t know about you, but knowing that all of those dolls represent someone who is now dead does raise the creepy factor of the whole thing for us.

6 Underwater Pyramids

While we’re strictly against conspiracy theories (unless they’re creepy or awesome), mysterious locations found on Google Maps have done their part in giving credence to many of them. One of them is the underwater pyramid found on Google Maps in the Bahamas.

Many tabloids and conspiracy-lovers hailed the discovery as proof of aliens, Atlantis, and a wide variety of other things that probably aren’t real. It was found by a conspiracy theorist, too, though that doesn’t mean that the structure doesn’t actually exist. Some experts believe that it may have been something built by an ancient civilization, though they also admit that there’s no way to disprove that it’s not a secret alien base.

5 Pigeon People

If you explore the streets of West Tokyo on Maps, you may run into a row of people just standing and looking at you. They may come across as people just staring at the Google’s Street View crew out of curiosity, except all of them have their pigeon masks on. Aside from the legitimate question of “where did they even get so many pigeon masks to begin with”—it’s all rather inexplicable and unsettling.

As it turns out, the pigeon people were locals who knew about the Google crew and wanted to appear in the final photo of the street. It’s all rather harmless and fun, provided you know the explanation.

4 Abandoned Gas Masks

Exploring Pripyat in Ukraine—the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history—is a horrifying experience in general. It is now a ghost town with abandoned buildings that won’t be inhabited again for a long, long time to come. And it has that dilapidated look we here at thoroughly love.

However, the creepiest sight in the whole town has to be the room full of abandoned masks, which is saying a lot in a town full of creepy sights. We don’t know if it’s so disturbing because there are so many of them or that they’re child-sized and located inside an abandoned school.

3 El Bronx , Colombia

El Bronx in Bogota, Colombia, had managed to earn the reputation of one of the most dangerous places in the city before it was demolished. One of the most crime-riddled regions in the country, it certainly didn’t make for a nice walk at night, or any time of the day, really.

While the area doesn’t exist anymore, Google’s Street View Crew managed to capture it at the peak of its glory. Unfortunately, what may look like normal streets of a slum are made multiple times more horrifying if you knew that the neighborhood was known for child prostitution and murder. Some of those buildings also housed murder victims at times, who were then fed to starving dogs as a message to rival gangs.

2Ariel Castro’s Blurred-Out House

When it comes to highly-publicized, gruesome acts of crime, very few cases manage to grip national conscience like that of Ariel Castro. He kidnapped three women and kept them hostage for over nine years and was only arrested when one of them escaped with her six-year-old child (whom she conceived and gave birth to while in captivity). Castro was charged with multiple counts of rape, aggravated murder, kidnapping, and attempted murder, among others.

So, how is it related to map locations? The house Castro kept the women in could be seen on Google Street View. Except now, it’s completely blurred out. We’d say that it’d have been equally creepy if the house was just there, but seeing it blurred out because of the seriousness of the crime somehow makes it even more disturbing.

1 Murder Victim

For those who’ve always wondered if Google Maps has ever accidentally recorded a serious crime, we’re here to tell you that—yes, it has. The case in question was of a 14-year-old boy in Richmond, California, whose dead body showed up on Google Maps. It was seen with police cars and a bunch of detectives standing around, suggesting that it was taken after the body was found.

Understandably, the images brought back some emotions for the victim’s father, who immediately requested Google to remove the image. It was gone from their maps within days, though it does make us wonder if Google Maps still has accidental images of other serious crimes around the world.

About The Author: You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, or get in touch with him for writing gigs.

Humans have always been fascinated with (and terrified by) the paranormal. This doesn’t prevent some of them from going out of their way to try and force an encounter with the unseen. However, sometimes spooks are the furthest thing from their mind when they are suddenly confronted with something they can’t explain.

It is no wonder that there are a variety of paranormal reality TV shows all dealing with real-life ‘encounters’ with ghosts, demons and other apparitions. Obviously, most of these shows have eye-roll inducing episodes because of the bad acting or weird re-enactments, but occasionally they produce a gem, regardless, that causes real goosebumps.

Potential spoilers ahead!

10 Paranormal Events Linked To Mass Tragedies

10 Terror in the Woods

Woods can be scary places. You can’t always see the dangerous creatures hiding between the trees or thick undergrowth, and that is just the real-life ones. Many people have had unsettling experiences hiking or camping in the woods, while others have purchased homes in remote woods only to find that there is something sinister lurking inside.

Bill and Charisse Stark experienced their own horror story that was eventually aired on Destination America’s Terror in the Woods. They couldn’t believe their luck when a cabin owner sold them his property at the edge of a geological reserve in Red River Gorge, Kentucky. The cabin was to be their dream ‘retirement retreat.’ The dream soon turned nightmarish when unexplained incidents started happening in and around the cabin.^[1]

At one point, Bill installed a security camera outside which captured a green mist that seemed to fade in and out. The camera also caught what looked like a bright light coming up from the ground and floating off. Bill found a weird footprint in the snow outside the cabin, and the couple’s TV and PlayStation would on occasion turn on by itself. When they inspected the game console, they found a slimy substance covering it.

Later, in their Terror in the Woods episode, it was revealed that a woman suffering from a terminal illness had died in the cabin. It was also reported that strange things kept happening in the cabin after the episode aired.

9 Ghost Hunters

Ghost Hunters ran from 2004 to 2016 and was revived in 2019. During its original 11-season run, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson investigated haunted locations in the US as well as the UK. They are the founders of TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) and work alongside a team of ‘ghost hunters.’

During the multitude of episodes, many strange things happened including faces materializing in darkness, multiple EMF meters triggered at the same time, disembodied figures wandering around and voices calling out from basements. During “The Armory” episode the team was investigating the New Bedford Armory in Massachusetts when their sound man, Frank DeAngelis, inexplicably fell backwards. He couldn’t get back on his feet and had to receive medical attention.

Afterwards, DeAngelis claimed that he felt something pass through him. He also quit the crew the next day because he was too traumatized to carry on with the investigations.^[2]

8 True Terror with Robert Englund

Who better to host a scary show than Freddy Krueger himself? True Terror with Robert Englund premiered in March 2020 (as a continuation of True Terror with George Takei) and has received great reviews. The show takes historical news stories of the paranormal kind and brings them to life using Englund’s celebrity and general creepiness.

One of the stories of the pilot episode included a man from North Carolina who dreamt of his own death and the countdown to it. There is also the tale of a New Orleans teenager unable to escape a waking nightmare and his eventual grisly fate. (Sounds like something Freddy Krueger could be involved in, right?)

One of the creepiest episodes, however, is the one that relates the true story of the Axeman of New Orleans, who was one of America’s most infamous serial killers. The Axeman initiated a dark chain of events in which he challenged the public and the police with an open letter. The media printed several responses from citizens in which they challenged the killer right back. Italian American immigrant, George Columbo intended to meet up with the Axeman and what followed is the stuff of nightmares.^[3]

7 Paranormal Lockdown

Imagine spending 100 hours in an infamously haunted house, with an unpredictable demonic entity. This is exactly what paranormal researchers, Nick Groff, and Katrina Weidman, did for Paranormal Lockdown in 2016. The Black Monk House episode was slated as a two-hour special that filled the ‘gap’ between the show’s first and second seasons.

Black Monk House in Pontefract, England, has been visited by several paranormal investigators, some of whom have experienced objects levitating and people being attacked by an unseen entity. A girl was dragged upstairs in what could only be described as a scene from a modern horror movie, while some ghost hunters who have encountered the ‘poltergeist’ that resides in the house, refused to stay at the property. The caretakers of the house also refuse to stay inside by themselves.

Nick and Katrina spent four days trying to capture the poltergeist, The Black Monk, on camera. The result makes for one of the best (if not most terrifying) episodes of the series.^[4]

6 Unsolved Mysteries

Before Unsolved Mysteries 2020, there was Unsolved Mysteries 1987 presented by Robert Stack, among others. As the name states, each episode revolved around mysterious incidents including murders, hauntings, disappearances, and accidents. Robert Stack’s inimitably deep voice and the iconic intro music gave many a viewer a goosebump or two. Alongside this, some of the episodes were truly creepy and are still being discussed on internet forums such as Reddit years after airing.

One of the most memorable, and truly terrifying, episodes aired during Season 7 and related the story of Pam and Eric Ellender. In 1991, Pam and Eric were found dead in their bed in Sulphur, Louisiana. Their infant daughter was unharmed and crying from her bedroom when police made the discovery. It was revealed afterwards that the killers threw a party in the couple’s home soon after killing them and while their bodies were in the bedroom. While the murders were technically solved, there were many chilling details included in the episode that kept viewers at the edge of their seats. It is truly an episode that must be watched.^[5]

10 Gruesome Deaths That Have Been Attributed To Ghosts

5 The Dead Files

Cheerfully named The Dead Files sees medium Amy Allan and former homicide detective Steve DiSchiavi investigate haunted locations at people’s request. The core of each episode revolves around Steve and Amy doing independent investigations at a specific location and then revealing their findings to one another at the end of the show.

Even though the show has attracted a lot of criticism over the years, it remains a firm fan favorite and has aired its 12th season earlier in 2020. One of the spookiest episodes, according to fans, details the story of Annie who has lived in her home for more than ten years and believes that the hooded figures she keeps seeing on her property has made her existing health problems worse. Annie also claimed to have seen the ghosts of long-dead Native Americans surrounding her house in Cedar Park, Texas. Annie’s friend, Joel, claimed to have seen what looked like paper cut-outs in the shape of people hanging in the trees around the house, jumping between the branches.^[6]

4 Celebrity Ghost Stories

Celebrities are not exempt from brushes with the paranormal. There have been so many stories of celebrities experiencing something unexplained that there is even a TV show or two dedicated to those celebs who want to share their scary stories.

Celebrity Ghost Stories (American version) debuted in 2009 featuring Belinda Carlisle and Gina Gershon, among others. Other stars throughout the series included Joan Collins, Alice Cooper, Kelly Osbourne, Nene Leakes, who heard the voices of ghost children, and Paula Abdul.

One of the episodes feature shock rocker, Marilyn Manson, who related the story of his encounter as a teen with a copy of the Necronomicon. His friend implored him to read the incantations in the book, and Manson believed that doing so caused a disturbance in the energy around them. Manson also claimed that a scary disembodied voiced asked them ‘do you believe in satan?”

Manson stated during his segment that he had read enough of the Bible to know that what was happening was ‘not good’ and that people’s energy stays with the things they were attached to in life after they die.

3 Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

Much like Unsolved Mysteries, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction also gained a cult following its premiere in 1997. Presenting 5 stories in each episode, of which some are fact and some fiction, was the premise of the show.

The show’s opening episode, The Apparition, was one of the most unsettling in the series. It tells the tale of a woman who suffered a nervous breakdown and after her recovery starts seeing the ghost of a dead woman in a mirror on the second floor of her home. The ghost tries to say something, but never succeeds.

One night a man breaks into the woman’s home and follows her when she runs upstairs trying to escape him. The man then sees the ghost in the mirror and freaks out.

Even though the episode aired years ago, it still packs a chilling punch and is worth a watch. It was revealed at the end that the story was based on true events.

2 Paranormal Witness

Paranormal Witness is one of the most popular spooky TV shows and ran for five seasons between 2011 and 2016. The stories covered during the show included the weird abilities of Don Decker, the Capitol Theatre Haunting, werewolves, creepy dolls and, of course, demons.

One of the most horrifying episodes details the incident in which 23-year-old Christene Skubish died after she fell asleep at the wheel while driving along Highway 50 in California and crashed down a steep incline in 1994. In the car with Christene was her 3-year-old son, Nick. When she didn’t arrive at her intended destination, her stepfather reported her missing. Five days later, a woman named Deborah Hoyt and her husband were travelling along Route 50 when Deborah spotted a woman lying on the side of the road. The woman was naked, and her arms covered her head. The couple immediately notified the police, but when the authorities arrived, the woman was gone.

This incident led police to the discovery of Christene’s body inside her wrecked car and Nick laying in a fetal position in the passenger seat, weak and dehydrated but alive. Doctors agreed that if Nick had been inside the car for another hour or two, he would have died.^[7]

The details of this story are both chilling and heartbreaking and one of the best episodes of Paranormal Witness.

1 Haunted

Haunted premiered in 2018 on Netflix and recounts terrifying true stories of people who have found themselves face-to-face with evil. One of the episodes in Season 2 of the series details a nurse’s encounter with a possessed patient at a nursing home which caused many viewers to freak out.
However, Season 1’s Slaughterhouse episode, in which two sisters reveal that their father was a serial killer, is about as terrifying as they come.

Their childhood was spent listening to the terrible sounds of people being murdered in their house, after their father picked up ‘strays’ from the streets and bars. They lived on a couple of acres of forest land and their father disposed of his victims’ bodies in the woods. The sisters believed that the murders led to their house becoming haunted, and their father also engaged in dark rituals in the woods which led them to believe that he was possessed.^[8]

The episode unleashed controversy with many viewers taking to Twitter to voice their scepticism about the validity of the claims made by the sisters.

10 Terrifying Haunted And Creepy Mask Stories

Libraries are invaluable bastions of knowledge, technology, and social resources. But there are a few that are home to more exotic collections than your average mystery paperbacks or romance novels. And some have histories more spine chilling than you’d think. Here are ten libraries where you wouldn’t want to spend the night.

10 Creepy Stories From Funeral Homes And Crematoriums

10 The Nassau Public Library

The Nassau Public Library, the largest and oldest in the Bahamas, features unique Arawak (indigenous peoples of South America and of the Caribbean) artifacts and a collection of historic prints, colonial documents and old newspapers. There is also a reading room and museum on the property. But the structure wasn’t intended to serve the public as a library at all. The unique octagonal building was originally constructed by Joseph Eveas in 1797 to serve as a correctional workhouse (a jail). Modern patrons check out books and materials from what were once tiny cells that housed prisoners over two hundred years ago. The basement of the NPL is even known as “the dungeon.”^[1]

9 Weapon of Mass Instruction

Imagine you’re walking down the street, minding your own business, when, out of nowhere, an armored tank, complete with a gun turret, glides down the avenue, seemingly in your direction. That’s exactly what artist Raul Lemesoff does in the streets of Argentina, only his “tank” is a mobile library he calls “A Weapon of Mass Instruction,” and its purpose is to disseminate books, not bullets. The “tank” is really a modified 1970 Ford Falcon that holds up to 900 books at a time. A whimsical and community-oriented (Lemesoff says the tank can generate much social good as “a structure that has the ability of transporting books, giving books away, collecting books, making a mess of people’s heads”) idea, for sure, but one that has probably inspired more than a moment of fear when that ominous silhouette rounds the corner.^[2]

8 Conjuring Arts Research Center

The name “Conjuring Arts Research Center” might sound like it belongs in a story about a fictional wizarding school, but it’s a real place, located in midtown Manhattan. The dim, tightly-packed library owns hundreds of books on stage magic, some dating prior to 1700. In addition to the tomes, the library also houses original apparatus, huge pieces of mechanical stage machinery that once thrilled, fooled, and shocked audiences around the globe. The Conjuring Arts Research Center is open by appointment only, though you can visit a couple of local magic shops they’ve partnered with if you wish to check out books.^[3]

7 University of Southern Denmark

The University of Southern Denmark is fairly run-of-the-mill when it comes to literature, but in this case, it might be better to judge a book by its cover. At least three rare books, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, were found to have large concentrations of arsenic on their covers during an X-ray process widely utilized to find the chemical composition of pieces of art, such as paintings and pottery. Historic pigments containing the poison were commonly used in the 19th century to form a popular color called “Paris Green” which was used for everything from wallpaper to clothes. In this case, it was applied as a pesticide to protect the manuscripts from insects. Arsenic poisoning can cause ailments ranging from nausea to cancer to death. Unfortunately, the toxicity of arsenic is permanent, so the books will always be a hazard to human health. They are now stored in special protective boxes and handling is discouraged.^[4]

6 New York Puppet Library

This one is probably fun to look at during the day, but you wouldn’t want to be there as the sun sets, throwing long shadows across the weird collection it houses. The New York Puppet Library, located in Brooklyn College, is home to almost 100 unusual puppets, some enormous. Even though the puppets make their presence known, many staff members, students, and even other libraries are shocked to learn of the Puppet Library’s existence. Making it even creepier is the fact that puppets are stored 20 feet off the ground. Anyone wishing to borrow one is required to climb a ladder into the rafters, painted eyes watching them all the way.^[5]

10 Creepy Mysteries Involving Abandoned Vehicles

5 Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Monsters lurk in the pages of the books at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. From dragons to basilisks to manticores, this library specializes in manuscripts about beasts of unknown origin. Even more eerie are the vivid illustrations of odd and unusual cryptids, like tribes of humans with dog’s heads, found in the library’s 1559 edition of the Cosmographia. In addition to works aspiring to be semi-naturalist, there are famous fictional monsters here too, including an 1882 copy of Frankenstein that boasts a cover with a strikingly sinister, thin and tall version of Shelley’s man-monster, long before Hollywood got ahold of him. The repository has so many examples of monster lore that they even put on an exhibition in 2018, De Monstris, to showcase their strange zoo.^[6]

4 Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

Envision a library where hundreds of glass eyes, those of corpses, look down on you from the shelves. That’s exactly what you’ll find at the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services. This institution focuses on “realia,” animal skeletons, skulls, teeth, furs, and other taxidermy (just because the corpses aren’t human doesn’t make them any less odd for a library setting!). ARLIS is the only known library in the United States to have such unusual holdings, and is patronized largely by teachers and scientists who incorporate the specimens into their lessons and lectures. Sometimes, though, the animals are loaned out for more unusual uses—the 2013 film The Frozen Ground borrowed several to use for the set design of a serial killer’s basement.^[7]

3 Newberry Library

It sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, but it isn’t—along with a huge collection of religious texts, Chicago’s Newberry Library is in possession of a 17th century spellbook, handwritten by two nameless witches. “The Book of Magical Charms” contains spells ranging from cheating at dice to raising the dead, some of which require unusual ingredients such as dead men’s teeth. The library also holds two other spooky volumes: “The Commonplace Book” and “Cases of Conscience Concerning Witchcraft,” the latter of which was written by Increase Mather, the gentleman who passed the sentencing at the Salem Witch Trials. Interestingly, in 2017, the library sought the public’s assistance in translating the occult texts by putting them online, so any experts in Latin, witchcraft, or medieval English should definitely take a peek.^[8]

2 Historical Medical Library

The Historical Medical Library, located in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, was the city’s central medical library from its establishment in 1788 to over a century and a half later. With over four hundred editions printed before 1501, this is one of the most important collections of historical medical knowledge in the United States. Books and illustrations abound detailing some of the most harrowing medical procedures ever envisioned by man, from blood-letting to trepanning (holes drilled into the skull). Important knowledge, definitely. Easy to stomach? No.^[9]

1 Patee Library—Penn State

It sounds like the most lurid kind of fiction: a beautiful young woman, killed in cold blood the day after Thanksgiving, her murderer never found. But it, sadly, happened in real life. On November 28th, 1969, 22-year-old Betsy Ruth Aardsma was brutally stabbed to death in the basement of the Patee Library. She was killed from behind, and no sexual assault took place. Though there have been many suspected of the foul crime, from Aardsma’s boyfriend to serial killer Ted Bundy, the motive remains unclear to this day, and the killer has never been identified. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, you might still want to think twice about hanging around those basement stacks alone, just in case Betsy’s killer ever wants to revisit the scene of their crime.^[10]

+ English Crime and Execution Broadsides Collection

This one isn’t a library in and of itself, but it is a strange and creepy collection owned by the Harvard Law School Library. The English Crime and Execution Broadsides are nearly 600 “broadsides” (large sheets of paper printed on one side only, used historically as posters or announcements). These are on a specific topic: the grisly details and punishments for capital crimes committed between 1735 and 1868 in England and Wales. These included arson, rape, assault, and murder. Not only are the crimes described, but the punishments, including hanging, are, as well, and the “dying speeches” or confessions and last words of the condemned. The broadsides are illustrated too, showing the execution scenes or vignettes of bloody crime scenes.^[11]

10 Creepy Stories Of Intruders Hiding In People’s Homes

About The Author: A.L. Montone is a magician working in the Baltimore, Maryland, area, and the co-founder of the Baltimore Academy of Magic. She is also a playwright, and served as the director of a historic house and museum for six years.

There’s some place in every neighbourhood that holds a creepy sway over the people there—a park, an abandoned house, a railway bridge that comes with a dark legend. It has always been a fascinating, if difficult to explain, phenomenon; many writers and filmmakers have used this phenomenon to great effect—from Stephen King’s towns of “Derry” or Lovecraft’s “Innsmouth” to “Boo Radley’s house” in Harper Lee’s classic “To Kill a Mockingbird”, some places are simply creepy, whether logically justified or not.
Here’s a list of ten real creepy places, some that will instantly cause you to poop your pants and flee, some you won’t even realise are creepy until you learn its dark history.

Top 10 Iconic Places Pictured From Behind

10 Deadman’s Island, England

This little island near the Isle of Sheppey in the county of Kent, lying in Medway estuary where the Swale meets the river. Like any bona fide creepy island, it is off limits to the general public. But why would this place in the so-called ‘Garden of England’ be creepy, save its name? For once, the name really does say it all.

About 200 years ago, England had a real issue with where they could house the nation’s prisoners. Gaols were full and you couldn’t just hang everyone. Given that Britain’s empire spanned the globe, there were a lot of ships going back and forth. So prison hulks were born (large ship that would house prisoners prior to shipping them off to some far flung corner of the world, like the one alluded to in the opening of Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’). Deadman’s Island is covered with the bones of many such men and boys, probably those who died of disease aboard the cursed ships. Amongst the rocky outcrops, sand and shells on the island, you’ll just as likely spot a jawbone, femur or an eyeless skull staring back at you. Great fishing spot, though…^[1]

9 Pearl’s Airport, Grenada

Graveyards are inherently creepy. This ‘graveyard’ does not house mouldering corpses under the ground, though. Rather, it’s a sort of above ground graveyard for soviet-era Russian and Cuban aircraft.

Pearl’s was Grenada’s first airport, opening in 1943 before quickly being taken by the Allied forces as a military air base during the second world war. By 1979, the Grenadian government had been taken over by a Marxist-Leninist party named the ‘New Jewel Movement’. Over the next few years, Grenada looked like many tin-pot communist states—rife with corruption, coups and extrajudicial murders. This prompted the USA to invade. During the American occupation of Grenada in the early 80s, the airport was captured by the 8th marine regiment and used as their base of operations.

The creepiness here is that the disused airport serves as a reminder of a bloody invasion, a totalitarian regime and a time the world nearly went up in flames.^[2]

8 Truby King Recreation Reserve, New Zealand

The name of this place doesn’t exactly make the hairs on anybody’s neck stand on end—it sounds like the sort of place you’d love to have a picnic with your family. Try this one—The Seacliff Lunatic Asylum. Creepier? Good, because that’s exactly the place that used to exist on this nature reserve. And it’s creepy as hell.

There are plenty of abandoned and renovated mental institutions you can visit all over the world, and they’re plenty creepy—there is something really disquieting about a place where a mental hospital used to stand. There is not much chance of a hokey, ghost-hunterish, manufactured jumpfest here. It feels sad, haunted by real pain and the crimes of long-dead patients. One such person was Edward Lionel Terry, an Englishman who murdered a destitute Chinese migrant named ‘Joe’ Kum Young in 1905. The asylum also suffered a fatal fire which ripped through ward 5 in 1942, killing all but two female patients. Not much of the original building remains, but that adds to the eeriness, conjuring images of lost souls wandering the grounds looking for their bed…^[3]

7 Davelis Cave, Greece

Every ancient culture has a few important caves. We did used to live in them, after all. Hellenic culture has a very close association with caves, especially putting virginal ‘oracles’ in them to get hopped up on goofball gasses to tell the future. This cave in Penteli, north Athens evokes such weirdness and has the history to justify it.

The cave was once a centre for the worship of the god Pan and the nymphs, a place for revelry where the lines between the temporal world and the world beyond are blurred. Later, Orthodox Christians used the cave as a hermitage, founding small church dedicated to both Saint Spyridon and Saint Nicholas (the latter famously being the basis for our modern depiction of Father Christmas—and having dealt with the devil). In the 1800s, the cave was a base for ‘Davelis’, a bandit who lent his sobriquet to the cave’s name and apparently hid some treasure there. The place was also used by the military during the cold war, lending a certain Area 51 weirdness to the place to go along with the occultish feeling. Many legends, both older and urban, are associated with the cave—paranormal activity is often reported in this dank, dark portal to the underworld… obviously.^[4]

6 Kuldhara, India

When you imagine a ghost town, images of a mining community left to be consumed by the encroaching desert somewhere in the Western US is typical. A place where the promises of the gold rush never materialised. You probably didn’t have a Brahmin settlement in Rajasthan in mind, did you?

Centred around a temple to the mother goddess (possibly Parvati), which shows remnants of statues depicting Ganesha, Vishnu and the Asura Mahishasura as well as an unnamed , local horse-riding deity. Local legend has it that the villagers were driven out by a lecherous man named Salim Singh who wanted to claim a local girl for himself. He sent guards to collect her, but the villagers sent them away ’til the next morning. When the guardsreturned, the village was abandoned. Before they left, the villagers cursed Kuldhara, causing all who tried to live there to be plagued by supernatural entities.^[5]

Or the village became gradually depopulated by the 1890s due to a dwindling water supply…

10 Creepy Places That Are Serial Killer Playgrounds

5 Himeji Castle, Japan

On first glance, this is a classic example of a Japanese castle—magical, like something from a Studio Ghibli film. But scratch the surface and you’ll learn about the creepy folklore associated with Himeji Castle. And, much like horror classic ‘Ringu’, there’s a creepy well on site.

The story of how an evil, plotting samurai named Tetsuzan had his plot to murder the Castle’s lord, Norimoto foiled by a beautiful servant named Okiku is a sad ghost story. Okiku confided in her lover, a brave warrior named Motonobu, telling him of Tetsuzan’s plot to seize Himeji Castle. Motonobu told Lord Norimoto who feld. Tetsuzan’s evil servant, a man called Danshir, learned that it was Okiku who had leaked the plan. Seeing her beauty, the evil Danshir decided to have her for himself, finding someone else to blame for the foiled plot. She rebukes him 3 times, choosing her love for Motonobu over her safety. Danshir kills Okiku in a jealous rage and throws her body down the well. It is said that, if you find yourself near the well at night, you can hear her frantic whispers emanating from the well.^[6]

Nope.

I’ll just get some macha soft serve ice cream and some dango on a stick, please.

4 Bunce Island, Sierra Leone

Our second river island on this list is equally horrific, equally creepy but different in one key way—you can visit there. Ok, there are other differences. It wasn’t diseased prisoners found on this island; it was a centre for English slave traders, not criminals. It’s located in Sierra Leone, not England. And it was often raided by pirates like Barti Ddu (Black Bart in English) and the French during their many wars with Britain.

Bunce Island was the main processing point for slaves bound for the British colonies Georgia and South Carolina, used to work the rice plantations there. The once powerful ‘slave castle’ on the island survived many raids from Portuguese and Creole Luso-African raiders and pirates through the eighteenth century but couldn’t survive against one powerful foe—the abolition of slavery. By 1840, over 30 years since the abolition of slavery in Britain, the place was abandoned. A tragic air pollutes this place today, with funding set aside to renovate the island as a tourist destination. Perhaps it should be left to nature—history has been recorded, perhaps the ghosts of the past should be laid to rest.^[7]

3 Tommy Jones’ Obelisk, Wales

There is something tragically beautiful about this monument found in the wilds of the Brecon Beacons mountains in South Wales— The obelisk marks the place where the body of a little boy who got lost was found, now often used as a landmark for hikers who are uncertain of their location when the mountains get foggy. This is much less a simple memorial than a tool to avoid future tragedies.

The far more famous story of ‘The Lady of the Lake’ often overshadows the (far less mythological) story of Tommy Jones, but it’s worth knowing: Tommy was a 5-year-old boy from the coalfields of the Rhondda valley who was on his way to visit his grandparents who lived on a farm near the ancient town of Brecon in 1900. He met up with his grandfather and William, his 13-year-old cousin, with whom he set off to tell his grandmother that he had arrived and to expect his dad too. At some point, little Tommy got scared of the dark and decided to head back to his father had been. He never made it back. The family and some soldier who were rifle training nearby began the search immediately. Nothing. A few weeks went by, with searches of the wild countryside conducted every day until, a month later, Tommy’s body was found where the monument now stands.^[8]

2 Old Franklin Park Zoo, USA

Seeing long abandoned cages that used to house bears is almost as distressing as seeing cages with bears still held inside them. Thankfully, animals are treated marginally better nowadays (in many parts of the world, at least—we’re looking at you Pakistan). This abandoned zoo in Boston, MA, serves as a sad reminder of how we used to treat these apex predators.

Within the dilapidated, crumbling buildings, once a massively popular attraction for Bostonians, you can still see the steel cages and barred enclosures that housed the bears. If you find abandoned prisons creepy, you may well find this abandoned animal jail just as weird.^[9]

1 Just a normal street in Paris, France…

Except it isn’t all that ‘normal’. It looks pretty unassuming, to the untrained eye. But seldom do people look down and really wonder what it is they’re looking at (unless they’ve stepped in dog mess). Five indentations mark the tarmac on the Rue de la Roquette, just in front of a crosswalk. What could they be? The site of some car crash, or just where a particularly heavy lorry passed over? Why should anyone care anyway?

These indentations mark the spot where the Paris guillotine stood within the long gone Prison de la Roquette. This death machine was employed in the public beheading of 69 convicts between 1851 and the closing of the prison in 1899. The markings on the road once housed the support stones on which ‘Madame Guillotine’ stood. It is said that if you stand in the centre point of the five indentations for too long, you’re bound to die… mainly because you’d be randomly standing in the middle of a road.^[10]

Top 10 Places Famous For Bizarre Reasons

About The Author: C.J. Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. He is a little obsessed with lists.

There is always some truth in the most mysterious and terrifying stories out there. And the best of these stories leave you with the chills. Even for people who love spooky stuff, there are still some genuinely bizarre occurrences that give them the creeps.

Every year, authorities record cases of individuals who simply vanish in thin air. In all of these instances, families and authorities are thrust into a state of limbo, trying to figure out what happened. We will explore 10 of the creepiest disappearances throughout history that still baffle historians and researchers alike.

10 The Mary Celeste Crew

The Mary Celeste set sail on November 5, 1872, bound for Genoa from the New York Harbor. Onboard the ship was a cargo of industrial ethanol. Almost a month later, David Morehouse was sailing his ship when he and his crew spotted the Mary Celeste drifting about 400 miles east of the Azores. Morehouse claimed he had noticed something rather strange about the way the ship was sailing. The captain sent his chief mate and several other of his crew members to investigate the ship. When they arrived aboard Mary Celeste, they found no single soul on board, yet the vessel was under full sail.

The lifeboat was not there, but a six-month food supply was still intact. There was not even the tiniest sign of a struggle, and the cargo was untouched. Morehouse’s crew sailed the deserted ship to Gibraltar. Investigators generated several theories as to how the crew of the vessel had disappeared. Some of these theories involved a giant squid, ghosts, pirates, while others were settled on Morehouse when he claimed the ship’s salvage rights.

9 Percy Harrison Fawcett

Fawcett was an explorer and had served in the army earlier in life. He later went down in history after disappearing during his search for an ancient city called “z” in the Amazon jungle. Tales of an ancient civilization with mysterious towers that emitted a strange light fascinated him. After making some promising finds during preliminary investigations, Fawcett, his son Jack and Jack’s close friend Raleigh Rimell set off north towards their hometown Cuiaba. When they were about 400 miles away from where they started, Fawcett instructed his Brazilian assistants to head back home and take a letter to his wife. In the letter, Fawcett advised his wife not to fear failure.

Nothing was ever heard of Fawcett, his son, or Raleigh again. A few years later, a Swiss man reported to have encountered Fawcett, then an old man. Stefan Rattin gathered some reporters, and they went out to find Fawcett where they had previously met. Nothing more was ever heard of the Swiss man nor the reporters. Investigators have sent many more expeditions to look for Fawcett and the others but found nothing.

8 Disappearance Of Australian Prime Minister

On December 17, 1967, Australia was baffled by Harold Holt’s disappearance, then prime minister of the country. Holt had gone out for a swim on Cheviot beach near Melbourne and never came back. The Australian authorities mounted one of the biggest search and rescue operations in modern history. They have, however, never been able to find his corpse to this day. At the time of Holt’s disappearance, he was 59 years of age and was generally fit mentally and physically. He had, however, collapsed during a parliamentary proceeding earlier in the year. People close to him also reported that Holt had been suffering a shoulder injury.

Some theories suggest that Holt had fallen victim to the riptides of Cheviot Beach. Others claim that the prime minister had been suffering depression and chose to end his life. Other conspiracy theories claim Holt was abducted by the Soviet Union or Chinese submarine because he supported the Vietnam war. Or maybe he was abducted by aliens, who knows.

7 Amelia Earhart

Perhaps the most famous disappearance in history, Amelia Earhart, vanished from the face of the earth on July 2, 1937. Earhart was already a legend as the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She and navigator Fred Noonan had embarked on a mission to complete the first flight around the world. To date, explorers and historians are still trying to solve their vexing disappearance. The pioneering pilot and her navigator had set off for Howland Island, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, from Lae in New Guinea.

Earhart and Noonan vanished somewhere on the Pacific Ocean. A search-and-rescue team searched for the two for over two weeks. No remains or clues to their disappearance ever emerged. Two years later, a court order officially declared the two dead. Her disappearance has sparked many conspiracy theories, thus becoming a topic of debate.

6 Angela Hammond

On April 4, 1991, Angela Hammond vanished while talking with her boyfriend from a Clinton, Missouri payphone. The boyfriend, Rob Shaffer, recalls that Angela had described to him a suspicious man circling the neighborhood in a green pickup truck. He then stopped near the payphone, and since then, the 20-year-old girl disappeared. Shafer told the police that he quickly jumped into his car and drove to where Angela was. As he was heading there, the green pickup drove past him. He slammed the car into reverse gear and blew its transmission. Shaffer helplessly watched as the abductor took his girlfriend away.

The police initially suspected Shaffer, but they soon cleared him due to witnesses and his alibi. What makes this case rather creepy is that it could be linked to two other Missouri disappearances earlier that year. Angela Hammock has never found. Detectives categorized the case as a random crime since she was not doing anything wrong or suspicious. Her abductor just happened to spot her talking to her boyfriend. Why the police were not able to find the conspicuous green truck with a big decal on the window is still a mystery.

5 James Edward Tedford

56-year-old James E Tedford and his 28-year-old wife Pearl Tedford had moved back to Vermont at the end of World War II. At the end of his second spell of military service, Tedford returned to their rented property in Fletcher town, Franklin, VT, to find his wife missing. His close family claimed they had no clue as to where his wife had vanished to. The only detail they had was that they last saw her walking to the Amoco Store when she disappeared. Around 1947, a lonely James Tedford checked into a soldier’s home after searching for his missing wife.

Two years later, James also vanished. On December 1, 1949, James was returning to the retirement home from Vermont when he disappeared mysteriously. The route to Bennington passed through the Green Mountain Forest. At the time, the area was renowned for creepy events such as disappearances. All 14 passengers who boarded the bus testified to seeing him there, sleeping. However, when the bus arrived at its destination, James was gone. No one had seen the old man get off the bus at any point of the journey. His luggage remained tucked on the luggage rack of the bus.

4 Frieder Langer

Between the 1940s and 1950s, Bennington had become notorious for the disappearance of more than half a dozen people. One of the creepiest cases was that of 53-year-old Frieder Langer on October 28, 1950. Langer had gone hiking with her cousin Herbert Elsner when she disappeared. The family had set up a campsite near Somerset Reservoir. The pair had left the campsite to go on a hike in the nearby mountain. On their trip, Langer slipped into a stream. She requested Herbert to wait as she rushed back to the campsite and change her wet clothes. She never returned.

Herbert headed back to the campsite and discovered Langer had not gone back to the campsite. They mounted a search operation for the next two weeks. The searches used a helicopter and an aircraft in the search operation but couldn’t find any trace of her. A year later, Langer’s body mysteriously appeared near the same Reservoir that the searchers had extensively combed. Due to the conditions of her remains, it became difficult to determine the cause of her death.

3 The Sodder Children

The disappearance of the five Sodder children is by far the eeriest case on this list. Five out of 10 siblings disappeared under unclear circumstances from their home on a Christmas Eve night. Rather than head off to bed, the five kids asked their parents if they could stay up and play with their toys. The parents agreed and went to bed. Then a strange series of events began. The phone rang, and when the kids’ mother answered, the voice on the other end asked for someone unknown to the mother. When she said she didn’t know the person in question, the voice laughed and immediately hung up. As she heads back to bed, she noticed that someone had drawn up all the shades and unlocked all the doors, and the lights were on.

The family was later woken up by sound on the roof, only to realize that the house was in flames. Luckily, the parents and five of their children managed to escape the inferno. None of the kids that had asked to stay up were in sight. The Sodders never stopped believing that their children were still alive, even when the official conclusion was that they had succumbed to the inferno. This sliver of hope was backed by a photo of one of their sons as a grown adult, mailed anonymously in the ’60s.

2 America’s Lost Colony

We have all heard of individuals like Jimmy Hoffa and DB Cooper who disappeared, leaving no trace of their whereabouts. However, it is weirder and creepier when a group of people, especially a larger one, disappears all at once. This is exactly what happened in July 1587. About 115 English families landed on an island, now Dare County. As tensions grew between the local tribes and the newly arrived colonists, John White, the town’s governor, sailed to England to seek supplies and help. When he returned three years later, there wasn’t a single soul in the town. It was completely deserted, and all the town inhabitants had vanished.

The only clue left behind was a wooden post inscribed with the word Croatoan. It is not certain whether the Croatoan native tribe killed or assimilated the settlers. Scholars also believe that the Spanish army may have wiped out the whole settlement. Historians can only speculate what happened to the colony since no concrete evidence is available.

1 The Sarah Joe

Maritime tragedies are not something new. However, things got weird when five friends failed to return from a fun fishing day in the Hawaiian waters. They had departed in February 1979 from the coast of Maui on a small fishing boat dubbed Sarah Joe. Family, friends, and authorities mounted massive search and rescue operations to no avail. A decade later, authorities received information of Sarah Joe’s sighting on the coast of the marshal islands. Next to the wreck, they discovered a grave of one of the five missing persons. How the boat got there, who buried him, and where the rest of them were, are questions that have continued to baffle researchers and historians.

That abandoned house at the end of your street is pretty creepy. The story your older cousins told you about the guy with a hook for a hand calling the babysitter from inside the house (or something like that – you were too busy trying not to pee your pants to listen), that was really creepy. These are creepy things that happen in the real world. So, what about the internet?

C’mon, are you kidding?

Amongst the sea of mid-2000s of cat video montages, the panoply zoomers lip-syncing to 5-seconds of a pop song (that proves the world is doomed), and that damned Scottish bloke singing a sea shanty, there exists some of the creepiest, most mysterious and downright gross content. You don’t even have to plumb the depths of the deep web to find it – it’s right at the surface. The blurred line between the internet and real-life blur at this point.

Here’s a list of 10 of the creepiest things found online.

10 Creepy Images From American Courtrooms [Disturbing]

10 Out In The Cold

Russian YouTuber ‘Stas Reeflay’ (real name Stanislav Reshetnikov) focussed largely on gaming-based content. Finding it tough to compete in the genre, Stas also made some sketchy livestreams. Stas had done a fair few of these edgy streams, generating income by pepper spraying his girlfriend or forcing a friend of his to drink oil for donations. On December 2nd, 2020, things went too far on one of these streams. One viewer pledged $1000 for Stas to beat his girlfriend, Valentina, and lock her outside in the freezing cold.

This was in Moscow. In the winter.

Stas did what he’d been paid to do – As he locked Valentina out in sub-zero temperatures, soaking wet from some water he’d poured all over her, she proceeded to bang the door frantically for 2 hours. The viewers kept donating.

When Stas eventually pulled her back into his apartment she was unconscious and had turned a blueish-grey. Stas took Valentina and propped her up on his couch. When he failed to revive her, he continued to stream and take money.

She had been pregnant.

The paramedics came after Stas eventually called for an ambulance. They asked the YouTuber to refrain from filming them. He refused, allowing the 1500 or so viewers to continue to watch.

And donate.

He is awaiting trial.^[1]

9 r/ControllableWebcams

Most creepy or shocking threads on sites like reddit will leave you wondering “is this real?”. Indeed, many threads are essentially just creepypastas or ARGs (alternate reality games) masquerading as true stories in order to maximise engagement.

Not so on reddit board ‘r/ConrollableWebcams’—a community of people dedicated to watching feeds from hacked cameras, the links posted allow users to access random webcam feeds. Sometimes it’s a carpark. Sometimes it’s a workplace. Sometimes it’s a bedroom. Yes, we have entered a real-life deep web creepypasta here, folks.

Mods have tried their best to ensure that nothing too untoward occurs on this board, but there’s only so much control they can have (short of scrapping it outright, of course).

This egregious, gross intrusion into people’s right to privacy is more common than you’d think—Go check your Nest or Ring setup now!^[2]

8 Nizamul Khan

Another famous YouTuber has found himself on the wrong side of the law, this time in India. Nizamul Khan is a popular creator who specialises in motorbike stunts performed during skits, often featuring Nizamul’s girlfriend. The pair were said to be head-over-heels in love, with Nizamul planning on proposing to her. The problem? The girl’s brother, Kamal Sharma, vehemently opposed his sister’s involvement with Khan. Sharma forbade his sister from seeing Khan, going so far as to confiscate her phone.

On the 28th of October, 2020, Khan and two accomplices followed Sharma on his way home from work. The three attackers rode alongside Kamal whilst he had stopped his bike at an intersection. He was shot in the back and died. Nizamul Khan and his two co-conspirators are awaiting trial.^[3]

7 112Dirtbag

Maury Murray vanished after leaving her crashed car in a snowbank, seemingly to avoid police after a passer-by called them. If you want a deeper dive into the mystery of her vanishing, check out the video above.

In 2012, 8 years after Maura vanished, a lead seemingly popped up out of nowhere. A video posted to YouTube by a user named ‘112Dirtbag’ showed a middle-aged man staring directly at the camera and laughing, before ending the video with a wink and a message which read “Happy Anniversary”. Now, the username and the message suggested he knew something about Maura’s fate, if not directly responsible – the name is a reference to a quote from Maura’s father, speculating as to what could have happened to her; he said that perhaps some “dirtbag” on “route 112” could have abducted her. Furthermore, the video was posted exactly 8 years to the day that Maura went missing, making the final message incredibly troubling.

It turned out that this guy was just a troll. Alden Olsen, a Massachusetts resident, was cleared of any involvement. He has since started a blog about Maura’s case, seemingly trying to help solve it. So, we can assume Olsen was trying to bring more attention to the case (?!) By posing as the killer…

Although he has been definitively cleared of suspicion regarding Maura Murray’s case, one cannot help wondering why he, and many like him in other tragic cases, do this sort of stunt, inevitably compounding and exacerbating the misery of the victim’s loved ones.

Just stop.^[4]

6 Hungry?

With a prominent NSFW warning, this post on Reddit’s ‘r/IAmA’ board should also have a YMV warning too – ‘You May Vomit’.

User ‘u/IncrediblyShinyShart’ lost the use of one of his legs after a motorcycle accident. He spent some time in severe agony with doctors suggesting that should amputate the leg. When the user asked what would happen to his leg, he learned that it would be cremated and then dumped in a landfill. This wasteful action did not please IncrediblyShinyShart, so he took his amputated limb home after it was cut off below the knee. After initial plans to freeze dry the leg fell through due to the exorbitant costs involved, he resolved to getting a cast made. One problem remained—what to do with the leg?

Luckily for the newly legless poster, a friend of his was a chef… and he had a group of pals who’d often discussed if they’d be curious in tasting human flesh if it were ethically sound.

And so, they did. In some tacos, with some Mexican style veggies and seasoning, all topped with a splodge of tomatillo sauce.

“It had a very pronounced, beefy flavor to it. The muscle I cut was tough and chewy. It tasted good, but the experience wasn’t the best.” Later, one of the guests messaged IncrediblyShinyShart—”hey, just so you know, I pooped you out. Sorry”.^[5]

5 Weird Stores

On the r/TooAfraidToAsk subreddit, people have a space to ask the community any question that may be deemed too stupid, taboo or embarrassing in real life. In July 2019, one user named ‘u/icemanthrowawy123’ took a different tack – he wrote ‘Twelve mysterious and identical stores open on my street. What could be happening?’. The post quickly climbed to the top of the board; it wasn’t the usual ‘I shat my pants in public’-type post, typical of the average redditor.

He wrote that these ‘shops’ only sold out-of-date, mouldering Walmart foodstuffs and only took cash. Referring to the signage on all these random shops:

‘The names are all tiny variations off of each other like {townname MART} or {Market of Townname} and all clearly bought their signs from the same place as the fonts, colors, size, and shapes are identical. These stores see no business that I’ve ever witnessed yet have large staff numbers and are surviving way longer than the former stores that closed on this street’.

Could they be a front for money laundering a food stamp fraud scam? Some users thought so, but others doubted the veracity of the tale; the poster hadn’t provided any photos or further evidence, despite promising to do so. Silent since late 2019, it seems this was simply a creepy post made for clicks.

But you never know, maybe ‘they’ got him.

4 What Happened To Om?

Om Sayf is a Syrian refugee living in Turkey who gained a large following for her livestreams playing PUBG (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLhUu-4LyRM). Her star was on the rise until, on the 10th of Jan, 2021, she posted a video claiming she was quitting YouTube. She also left social media. Creator burnout? Maybe she’d gotten another job? Unfortunately not.

It seems that something far darker and more immediately dangerous for Om could be afoot. At the end of her ‘final’ video, she made a hand gesture that seems to be the new universal signal to indicate domestic abuse (https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/secret-hand-signal-allows-domestic-18387107).

Her fans peppered Twitter with concerned messages and calls for an investigation. She has since made videos that show she is indeed alive, if not confirming she is well. Although there is no resolution to this story yet, we can only hope that the Turkish authorities can provide her with the help she needs, whatever that may be.^[6]

3 “Ubisoft goes Steamworksm bye bye always on DRM”

Back to the weird and wonderful world of Reddit. A user called ‘YAYVIDEOGAMES’ made thousands of incoherent, garbled posts, all a variation of a single phrase—’Ubisoft goes Steamworks bye bye always on DRM’. Each post is unique, including bold, italic and differently formatted lettering, suggesting that each of his posts were typed out by u/YAYVIDEOGAMES. Embedded in many of the posts were a series of strange, sometimes creepy image files, including one photo showing a handwritten variation of his garbled message messily scrawled on a piece of paper. Furthermore, all of this was completed within just a few hours.

What was this? Was it some strange form of trolling, a guy losing his mind, a new and sophisticated bot? Nothing made sense—this was a real mystery.

Well, after some grade A online sleuthing from within the Reddit community, we finally have an answer to what went on here. It seems that YAYVIDEOGAMES was bedridden and suffering with chronic pain and the aftereffects of delusional paranoia During attempts to improve his situation by pharmacological intervention (opiates and anti-psychotics), the user made the repetitive posts whilst in a secure facility, either due to being in an altered state or to overcome his immense pain.

Not so mysterious, but still very harrowing, nonetheless.^[7]

2 Getting Proof Of UFOs, One Leak At A Time

‘Finally!’ cried all the true believers when this footage was leaked. Hold your horses, though, all this stuff is not proof of the existence of aliens, gang. It is simply proof that US authorities know and study the phenomenon of UFOs (and seem to have no idea what is going on).

In and of itself, this is as close to proof that UFO fans and fanatics have ever gotten—You must admit, sceptics, it’s all quite intriguing. Keep watching the skis… I mean skies (obligatory Simpsons reference complete).^[8]

1 Hell IRL

One of the prevailing dictums of the internet age has been “The Internet is not real life”. It is also true, however, that real people with real lives use the internet. The intersection of these converging ‘realities’ can be a scary place. Nowhere is this more evident than the tragic case of Brandi Worley and her husband, who took to reddit for advice under the username ‘u/Jasoninhell’.

The man took to the site in 2016 to seek advice about his terrible home life – a cheating manipulative wife who had cuckolded him, even chiding him to be kinder to his neighbour, with whom she had been having the affair. Jason, after taking the advice of reddit users, filed for divorce and sought custody of their two kids.

Three days later, Jason’s wife waited until he was asleep (he was sleeping in the basement, out of her reach), before stabbing her children to death and attempting to take her own life. She was convicted of the murder of 7-year-old Tyler and 3-year-old Charlee and sentenced to 120 years in jail.

In 2018, Jason returned to reddit to give an update, stating that although he was still in mourning at the loss of his kids, he was doing better. Further he gave advice to always take the time to tell your loved ones what they mean to you and cherish your time with them, finishing with –

“Always make sure they know how much you love them, I had the fortune that the last thing my children ever heard me say was, “I love you, good night. I will see you in the morning.”^[9]

10 Creepy And Surreal Moments Caught On Video

About The Author: CJ Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. He is a little obsessed with lists.

We love October, AKA spooky season. We dress up in scary costumes for Halloween, tap into the terrifying stories of demons and poltergeists, and we get to enjoy some of Disney’s greatest hits, namely “Hocus Pocus” and “Halloweentown.” But what happens when all the horror we reserve for one month ends up hiding in our attics? No, this isn’t a metaphor for suppressing trauma. I actually mean finding weird things in your attic. And there have been some pretty weird things—creepy, even.

Here are the top 10 creepiest things found in attics. 

10 A Secret Apartment

Owning a house is exciting, but what would you do if you found out that your house had its own secrets? A Reddit user by the username “CatchingWindows,” was shocked to discover an apartment in his attic.

The discovery sent the property owner down an investigative rabbit hole. Before the house was converted into a two-story building, it was a store, and the owners lived upstairs. After the store closed down, a church bought the unit and built around it.

In pictures shared by the shocked resident, the house looked littered, filled with spiders. The man couldn’t believe that he had been living in the same house for over two years. Other discoveries in the attic were a toilet, an aged bathroom sink, hidden glass windows, and junk to last for days, as another Reddit user remarked.

9 Artwork with a Message

What is the most disturbing drawing you have ever seen? A real estate agent couldn’t contain herself when she saw it while showing a house to prospective clients.

While she was in the attic, the agent discovered a series of crayon drawings by children. One reading said, “Did I scare you?” She was understandably freaked out and shared her discovery on TikTok. As usual, the agent’s social media followers were quick to discuss the situation, with some dismissing it as child-like behavior. In other words, a prank. Still, others felt that the drawings were aggressive and a sign that the child who lived there was disturbed.

8 Hidden Bones

As far as creepy discoveries go, this one might chill you to the bones (no pun intended, believe me). In Virginia, police officers received a strange call. When they arrived at the scene of the crime, they discovered a child’s body in the attic.

Vacant apartments can fall into the wrong hands, and this one surely did. The attic was used for all the wrong purposes. According to Richmond police, they found the body of a two-year-old tucked away in the dark. An autopsy found that the young girl, Ariellisa Simmons, had died of dehydration.

Following investigations, police arrested the young girl’s stepmom. The court charged her with first-degree murder, child neglect, and felony murder. After reaching a verdict, the woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in the child’s premature death.

7 The Head of Le Bon Roi

Only a king’s head is fit to wear a crown, but what happens when a monarch loses his head—literally? King Henry VI ruled France in 1589. One of his most notable achievements was ending the war between Catholic and Protestant citizens. By royal decree, Henry IV introduced a policy of religious tolerance, bringing peace and earning the title of “le bon roi” or “the good king.” But, in 1610, Henry VI was assassinated because of his beliefs.

When the monarch fell, and the French Revolution took over, the remains of monarchs were destroyed. But as fate would have it, Henry VI’s head survived. In 1919, a photographer purchased the royal’s head from an auction, and in 1955, Jacques Bellanger, a tax collector, became the new owner. In 2010, the same royal head surfaced again after it was discovered preserved in an attic.

With the aid of computers and forensics, Philippe Charlier, an anthropologist and medical doctor proved that the head belonged to Henry VI. In a wonderful twist of events, the good king survived all these years only to be found hiding in an attic. However, the authenticity of the discovery was questioned by genetic scientists who disputed that the head belonged to Henry VI.

6 There’s a Snake In My…Attic

If you’re afraid of snakes, then this is your worst nightmare. When an Idaho family moved into their new house, they were shocked when an insulation crew discovered a three-foot-long African ball python. So, what’s so scary about the snake? In Idaho, and even the larger United States, pythons are extremely rare. People import exotics into the country through special rights.

The good thing was that because of the attic’s dry heat, the snake was dead and well-preserved for about two years. With the deadly snake no longer a threat to the family, they inquired whether the previous owner was a snake charmer. To their amazement, no one had any idea how a python could have ended up in the house.

5 Adolf Hitler’s Musical Tastes

Adolf Hitler is easily one of the most notorious characters in history. After Hitler’s Nazi empire fell, soldiers took possession of his personal belongings as souvenirs. Recently, a woman from Moscow discovered Hitler’s personal music collection tucked away in her father’s attic.

Anyone would be terrified to meet Hitler, and for Alexandra Besymenskaja, stumbling onto Hitler’s records was an unexpected encounter. Alexandra’s shock aside, her discovery revealed the Fuhrer’s hypocrisies as it became clear that he secretly listened to Russian and Jewish composers.

Among the records were Russian composers like Alexander Borodin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Peter Tchaikovsky, and Jewish composer Richard Wagner. When you think about Hitler’s dangerous rhetoric and actions in WWII, it’s scary to even listen to his records.

4 A Grandma’s Mummy

A 10-year-old boy from Germany played in his grandparents’ attic when he discovered a set of suspicious-looking boxes. When the boy inquired about the boxes, neither his father nor grandma knew what they contained. In a shocking twist, the largest box contained a real mummy.

The mummy, carefully packed in a wooden crate, was placed inside a sarcophagus, complete with hieroglyphic adornments. The family later discovered that the item belonged to their grandfather who had traveled to North Africa when relics from ancient Egypt were in demand.

Curious to discover if the mummy was real, the young boy’s father took the peculiar object to Berlin to show expert archaeologists. If movies are anything to go by, the family should keep the mummy inside the coffin to avoid a great disaster.

3 A Freeloader

Do you have a roommate that never pays the rent? You are not alone. In Jiangsu Province, China, a man discovered that someone was living in his attic, rent-free. Pssh, lazy.

The apartment owner first became suspicious when he noticed items like cash disappearing from his house. The police searched his three-story apartment and discovered a homeless man had been living in the crawlspace. The unwelcome visitor had made himself at home and apart from stealing cash from the apartment, also helped himself to food in the kitchen.

Further investigations revealed that the squatter also visited a neighbor’s house when they were away, taking advantage of hidden attics. You never know what—or who—is hiding within your own house!

2 Here Comes Momma with the Baby Carriage

What happens to baby carriages after the kids grow up? Hopefully, they just get put into storage. Maybe you sell them. Or you can store dead things in it, I suppose. In one of the creepiest discoveries ever, a team of investigators stumbled upon a collection of vintage baby carriages with some appalling occupants. Each pram had a well-preserved small animal corpse swaddled perfectly and placed within the compartment.

The spooky discovery at a 200-year-old farmhouse in Ossining, New York, was shocking since each baby carriage had a different small animal. They found a total of ten creatures, including dogs, cats, raccoons, and squirrels. The careful planning and detail suggest that the creative or sick mind that conjured the idea designed the scene intentionally. 

Vintage houses are known to harbor some strange things, but this discovery takes it o a whole new level. 

1 The One Who Stayed

Breakups can be tough, and for heartbroken lovers, healing takes a very long time. Sometimes, the best way to heal is to just stay away. Or live in your ex’s attic? This was the case for a woman from Pittsburg. The single mother of five discovered her ex of 12 years living in her attic!

A few weeks before the discovery, the woman noticed things going awry in her house, but she couldn’t explain the changes. On the weirdest days, she would find a blanket in the basement or a toilet seat left up and even hear some unusual noises around the house. The mom knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t just put her finger on it.

Then, one Saturday morning, she heard a noise coming from her bedroom. When she went to look, she found her ex standing there. After a brief altercation, during which the man tried to grab her, the woman ran outside to get help. To her shock, the homeless man had been living in the house for over two weeks after a stint in prison!

Oh, Halloween, you’re nothing like the original holiday. But that’s okay(ish). Because thanks to our socioeconomic ideologies, we’ve found several ways to capitalize on the holiday and enhance the absolute best part of it all—the mass consumption of candy. There’s nothing like knocking on people’s doors, asking for candy, and coming home with a full pillowcase or basket of sugary treats. And we all know that there is an unspoken hierarchy to Halloween candy.

There’s the good stuff: King Size Snickers, Twizzler Pull n’ Peels, and AirHeads. You’ve got the candy bars you’re willing to trade: maybe that Three Musketeers Bar or Milky Way. And don’t forget the candy you give to your younger brother because he doesn’t know the difference between a delicious Reese’s peanut butter cup and a not-so-thrilling Mounds bar yet.

Then there’s the candy that your parents suspect has been tampered with. Though we’d rather enjoy our candy without fear that someone has done something malicious to it, we can’t. There are some creeps out there who delight in doing it. Here are the top 10 creepiest things people have done to kids’ Halloween candy.

10 Milk Dud Bullets

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/march-30-2019-minneapolis-mn-shopper-1354301834

It’s bad enough eating Milk Duds that get impossibly stuck to your molars, but finding bullets where your candy was supposed to be is probably worse.

Back in 2014, a mother from Ohio discovered bullets in her 4-year-old son’s boxes of Milk Duds. What made this an even more troublesome discovery was that her son’s preschool had handed them out during a Trick-or-Treat event. And they were certainly not duds. There were three rounds, all .22 caliber.

Though the school didn’t have anything to tell the press about the incident, they were not the ones who brought in the bullet-filled candy boxes. Parents brought in the candy from home, which means this is either a sick prank or a scary message. 

Whatever the case, it was not a mistake.

9 Something to Snicker About

States one by one are legalizing marijuana for recreational use. But before the prohibition on pot was lifted, people had to resort to clever ways of transferring drugs from dealer to user. One dealer from Hercules, California thought of the perfect plan: transport them in Snickers candy bar wrappers.

Great idea!

Unfortunately, if you are attempting to mail said marijuana, totaling five ounces, and you get the address and postage wrong, your plan can backfire. Call this one unintentional, but any mysterious appearance of drugs in an edible substance is creepy.

As the letter was left stranded at the post office, the worker decided to hand out the Snickers bars to kids. And that’s how four weed Snickers bars ended up in someone’s Trick-or-Treat bag.

Police noted that the Snickers bars were so perfectly resealed that anyone could have mistaken the “candy” for actual candy. Nobody did, though, obviously. When you opened the wrapper, you found marijuana buds wrapped tightly in a plastic baggy. And I’m pretty sure it didn’t smell like chocolate.

The post office worker was not charged for being an unintentional drug dealer to minors.

8 Sticking it to Your Cheek

Another 2014 Halloween candy horror story, a young boy from Spokane, Washington found a rusty nail in his Halloween candy. But it’s not like he was pulling apart his candy. No, Halloween candy is not an arts and crafts project. 

He was eating it. 

Yes, he bit down on the nail, and yes, it poked his cheek. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, and he did not get tetanus. However, I’d personally be terrified of biting into a piece of candy from then on. 

The mother of the young boy’s friend proceeded to open up the rest of his Trick-or-Treat candy and found several other pieces of metal inside them. These included nails, staples, and what looked to be watch parts.

7 Arsenic and Old Laced Halloween Candy

Halloween is for kids, maybe high school teenagers, but definitely for kids. So when we see that person who looks questionably too old to be trick-or-treating, a part of us judges them hard. How dare they take the candy away from the children!

But it’s not like we ever do anything about it. Unless you’re Helen Pfeil.

Helen Pfeil had been passing out candy to young kids all day, but when she started seeing people who were too old to be trick-or-treating, namely the 14-16-year-olds, she got a little too wrapped up in a “practical joke.”

Pfeil took a dog biscuit, some steel wool, and ant buttons (ant trap poison), wrapped it up like a candy bar, and handed it out to a total of 12 teenagers. Five of the candies were discovered that evening.

When confronted by police she swore she meant it as a joke; there was supposed to be nothing malicious about it. But the judge had her admitted to a hospital for a psychological examination. He states that he didn’t understand how someone with reason could poison children as a joke.

6 The Parent Tax on Halloween Backfires

Your candy isn’t yours until after your parents sift through it. That’s just how it goes. They reach in, look for the best things, and take them. It is the mommy and daddy tax. But as seemingly unfair as it is, we’d never wish ill on them.

But I guess this one is karma?

Salinas, California, 2013, a mother was eating some of her daughter’s Trick-or-Treat candy when she started to feel some curious side effects. It started as anxiety and then quickly changed to euphoria. After feeling ill, she checked the candy wrapper for its ingredients. She notices a small hole in the wrapper that wouldn’t normally be there.

She checked herself into the hospital where the doctor told her she was tripping on LSD.

The woman didn’t suffer any long-term side-effects following the incident but had it been her daughter, that may have been another story. The lesson here is to always let your parents take the Halloween candy tax; they double as taste-tester.

5 Mystery Pills

After a fun Halloween night in Lloydminster, Canada, two children found pills in their candy. One had a full blister pack of pills. The other found an individual pill after biting into his Snickers bar. Though reports didn’t include what kind of pill it was, its markings, “APO,” indicated that it was a prescription of some kind. When the parents looked at the Snickers wrapper, it was evident that someone had tampered with it.

4 Nightmare Ingredients

Halloween candy tastes so good, but the ingredients that go into it are not. No, we’re not talking about caramel, chocolate, or even high fructose corn syrup. We’re talking about far worse ingredients.

If you were given instructions to make some of your favorite Halloween candy, it might include the preservative TBHQ. TBHQ, also known as Tertiary butylhydroquinone is a byproduct of butane; it is essentially lighter fluid.

The substance’s antioxidant properties are great for preventing the discolorization of candy that contains iron. But for humans, it’s been shown to cause behavioral problems and cancer. Preserves your food, but not you.

Of course, the FDA regulates TBHQ so we don’t exceed dangerous levels in what we eat. But if you ask me, it shouldn’t even be there, to begin with. 

3 Meth-Coated Candy

In 2018, a couple reported feeling ill after ingesting their children’s Halloween candy. The Sour Patch Kids had seemed fine before they opened the package, but it was obvious that they were not fine. The candy ended up testing positive for meth. Thank goodness their kids didn’t eat any of it.

2 This Candy Will Get You Going

Meet William V. Shyne, a quiet dentist from Fremont, California. On Halloween 1959, he handed out 450 pieces of candy to Trick-or-Treaters—that happened to be heart-shaped candy-coated laxatives. No one knows why he did it. But if he was out to make these kids sick, he succeeded.

Thirty kids fell ill. Parents traced the candy back to the man living at 4844 Norris Road, who was none other than Shyne himself. When Shyne found out the police were looking for him, he skipped town. Police arrested his good friend Hazel Engelby, who was handing out candy with him that night.

Shyne eventually turned himself in on November 11. He was charged with “unlawful dispensing of drugs” and “outrage of public decency.” The court dropped the drug dispensing charges and let Engelby off the hook. Shyne still faced a $500 fine and spent six months behind bars.

A few years later, he was arrested for insurance fraud and spent two months in county jail. Shyne passed away in 2007, but he left a legacy of laced Halloween candy that would haunt us to this day.

1 The Candy Man

Dr. Shyne may have started the laced Halloween candy trend, but this next guy made the idea of getting dangerous Halloween candy in your bag terrifying.

On October 31, 1974, Ronald O’Bryan tragically gave his five children Pixie sticks laced with cyanide. Ronald’s eight-year-old son, Timothy, was the only one to consume the poisoned Halloween candy. 

Timothy died not soon after.

No one saw Ronald lace the candy. But when investigators discovered that he had recently taken out life insurance policies on the kids, they made a critical connection. The court found him guilty of murder. Ronald received the death penalty via lethal injection. He was executed in 1984.

Dolls, figurines, or puppets have fascinated humans for millennia. Our minds can conjure them up into anything, just like our hands can fashion them out of anything. For some, this imaginary manifestation has become a legitimate fear. Experts refer to it as automatonophobia, which is a fear of objects possessing humanoid features.

Why they frighten us is anyone’s guess.^[1] Suggestions range from evolutionary, which is our primordial instinct to recognize and react to faces, to socially reinforced through movies and media. Regardless, it’s fair to assume that dolls—without meaning to—mean a lot.

So, we’ve compiled a list of doll, sculpture, and puppet sanctuaries from around the globe that are known to send visitors’ instincts into a tailspin. Although this list is not exhaustive, it’s a creepy start. And, many of these are open to the public, so go have a look and let us know what you think.

Related: 10 Peculiar Museums You Must See To Believe

10 Island of the Dolls, Mexico

Squeezed between the channels of Xochimilco south of Mexico’s capital is a patch of farmland that has sowed its name in the ghostly legends. Known locally as Isla de las Munecas (Island of Dolls), its sprout to notoriety is disturbing and tragic. It all began in 1950 when a man named Julian Barrera left his wife and young daughter to live as a recluse on the island. While there, Julian came across the body of an unknown young girl floating in the canal. Also floating in the water was a doll that Julian assumed belonged to the girl, which he hung from a nearby tree, making sure it faced where he had found the body. Numerous versions abound of what prompted Julian to perform this peculiar ritual, but everyone agrees he never stopped.

Following the incident, he was seen obsessively scouring the canals and trash heaps for discarded dolls until his bizarre collection grew from one to hundreds. Julian hung his cherished assemblage across the island in whatever condition he’d found them in. As a result, many are visibly damaged, missing a head or limb, some without an eye or two altogether. Furthermore, due to exposure, the dolls have become more decrepit, amplifying their spine-chilling aura. Unsurprisingly, visitors to the island often report paranormal activity. Some claim if you listen closely, you can hear the dolls whisper to each other.

In 2001, Julian’s body was discovered in the canal. The official cause of death was a heart attack, although legend insists that Julian was found at the exact spot where he had found the girl’s body.^[2]

9 Stare Into the History of Dummies, USA

Belly speakers! That is what the ancient Romans called ventriloquists. Like us, their ability to appear to have voices emanating from inside their stomachs fascinated them. However, unlike us, the ancients believed the voices belonged to the dead, who had taken residence in the ventriloquist’s gut to communicate with the living. Therefore, ventriloquism served to channel the world of the dead. This was their status until the rise of Christianity, when it was deemed witchcraft and outlawed. It was only during the 18th century that it evolved from its haunting origins to the comedic form we know today.

The Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, is the only place in the world where this turbulent history of ventriloquism is displayed. William Shakespeare Berger founded the museum in 1973, and it houses all things ventriloquist sourced from around the world. It is the permanent home for authentic dummies used by icons like Jeff Dunham, Jay Johnson, and Willie Tyler. It also has replicas of other luminaries such as Edgar Bergen, Shari Lewis, and Bozo the Clown. Puppet depictions of U.S. presidents ranging from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush also feature in the collection. The museum has around 900 dummies in total.

If having glassy eyes following you around isn’t daunting, Vent Haven has seasonal openings each year where customers can even adopt a dummy for a year for $50.^[3]

8 An Abandoned Park of Statues, Japan

The Hidden Village of Statues in Japan’s Toyama prefecture is a perfect example of how a thoughtful idea can backfire eerily.

Back in 1989, Mutsuo Furukawa set out to create a serene park where people could meditate and unwind, away from the bustle of modern-day Japan. Besides trees and flowers, his park would feature life-sized busts of people. He commissioned over 800 of them in the likeness of his friends, family, and coworkers. Others depict local legends, historical figures, and Buddhist icons. Furukawa’s dream came true for a time. After he died in 2012, the park fell into disrepair and was consumed by vegetation. Then, in 2016, its rediscovery by a local photographer sparked tourist attention for reasons that are the exact opposite of what he intended.

Now run by volunteers, it has been dubbed Fureai Sekibutsu no Sato, which translates to “Village where you can meet Buddhist statues.” Locals avoid it because they believe the sculptures come to life at night. Meanwhile, thousands of visitors throng to the grounds each year. Many describe the experience as feeling like you’ve wandered into a forbidden zone. Curiously, during a full moon, the shadows cast by the statues create the impression that you are being followed. For the time being, it’s fair to say that only the statues can unwind calmly after a long day’s work in this park.^[4]

7 Another Abandoned Park of Statues, Italy

In 1547, following a series of tragic incidents in his personal life that culminated in the death of his wife, Prince Pier Francesco Orsini commissioned a creation of wonder to channel his grief. The result was the Bomarzo Gardens in Italy. This woodland enclave located near Viterbo and designed by Pirro Ligorio was initially called the Sacred Grove, but later locals renamed it Monsters’ Grove. For generations, visitors have been stunned by the numerous larger-than-life sculptures that adorn these otherwise lonely woods. Among them are an elephant mauling a Roman legionnaire, a giant tearing another in half, and the showstopper—a colossal screaming head of Orcus, the deity of the underworld in Roman mythology.

The Park of the Monsters has influenced several works, most notably Salvador Dali’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Others, including the poet André Pieyre de Mandiargues, have written essays about it. Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden (a serious contender for a spot on this list) was similarly inspired by the Bomarzo Garden.

After a brief period of abandonment, the sculptures re-captured the world’s attention when, in the 1950s, Salvador Dali documented a short film about the park. The result was a restoration program that converted it to the popular destination it is today.^[5]

6 Spend a Night With Clowns, USA

Cursed motels, along with evil clowns and haunted graveyards, are recurring themes in horror films. So it should come as no surprise that blending this trio is not for the faint of heart. Enter Tonopah’s Clown Motel in Nevada. Nicknamed “America’s Scariest Motel,” it was built in 1985 as a memorial to Clarence David, a self-described clown enthusiast. It is home to over 2,000 clowns from around the world, intended to give you the jitters. Not to worry, owners guarantee that a few of these prospective roommates are actually “happy clowns.”

The Clown motel also sits next to the Old Tonopah Cemetery, which adds to the ambiance. Clarence, whose work inspired the motel, is buried here, as are many of the miners who perished in the Tonopah-Belmont Mine Fire disaster of 1911. Combined with the graveyard’s long-standing ghostly allegations of its own, it’s no surprise that reports of paranormal activity are rife. Among them is a once-famous local joker who continues to play pranks on the unsuspecting from beyond the grave.

We cannot vouch for the existence of “happy clowns” in case you happen to spend the night at Clown Motel; as for ghosts, their misty reputation for veracity still eludes us.^[6]

5 Abandoned Dolls of Chernobyl, Ukraine

Shortly after midnight on April 26, 1986, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, in what was then the USSR, fried itself into the world’s worst nuclear disaster. As radioactive particles seeped into the air, Soviet authorities ordered immediate evacuations of all settlements near the facility. The town of Pripyat came under this zone, and as a result, it was closed to the public and designated a restricted area. However, it is now teeming with disaster tourists.

Following Pripyat’s hasty evacuation, a considerable chunk of it appears to have remained undisturbed, serving as a major lure for visitors. Abandoned dolls are a common sight among the rust and crumble. They’re strewn about everywhere, some sleeping on hospital beds, some in parks wearing gas masks, while others appear to be hiding in schools. Contrary to popular belief, most of these dolls aren’t lying around where they were dropped in the ensuing evacuation. Tourists have been known to move the dolls around and pose them for a perfect photograph, and some have even smuggled in their own. We hope the likes were worth it, given that visitors are advised not to touch anything within the exclusion zone.^[7]

4 A Village Resurrected Back to Life, Japan

Japan’s population is shrinking fast due to low fertility rates. Particularly hard hit in the crisis are rural areas, where entire communities are abandoned in favor of the urban regions. Nagoro, a village nestled on the slopes of Mount Miune, is one such community. Once a bustling village, it has transformed into a ghost town.

Tsukimi Ayano’s return to Nagoro in the early 2000s brought her face to face with this reality. As a young woman, Ayano had moved from Nagoro to Osaka, where she worked before returning to enjoy her retirement. Instead of familiar and friendly faces, she was greeted with a sea of emptiness. It was in this void that Ayano’s vision for Nagoro’s regeneration emerged: Life-sized dolls!

Ayano’s dolls, made of straw, newspaper, and wood, are unlike any other. They are meant to represent former residents who have either moved away or died. Each doll is meticulously crafted to mimic a specific facial expression, retain their own story or personality, and are usually dressed in clothes and accessories that once belonged to the person they represent.

Ayano’s vision to repopulate Nagoro appears to have come true. The number of her new “residents” has surpassed that of humans by tenfold. Aside from that, human activity has resumed in the village as well. Construction workers carrying out maintenance, commuters crowding at a bus stop, or students waiting for class to begin, are just a few examples of people frozen in time in Nagoro.^[8]

3 The Possum Trot, USA

Calvin Black met Ruby while working for a circus in Georgia, and the couple married in 1953. That same year, they relocated to Yermo, California, hoping that a climate change would be good for Calvin’s health. To make ends meet in the heart of the Mojave Desert in California, the couple opened the Possum Trot, a refreshment stop along Highway 15. Visitors to the shop were met by various handmade art forms, including small-scale windmills, stagecoaches, trains, and over 80 handcrafted, nearly life-size dolls.

Their dolls, the majority of which are female, were inspired by and named after friends and other famous women throughout history. Before crafting one, they pondered the doll’s persona, even down to the hair type, eye color, and sense of style. The dolls’ faces were made of redwood taken from electrical power poles knocked down in car accidents. The abdomen was made of sugar pine, while the other trimmings, such as wigs and garments, were salvaged from dumps. To top it all off, the dolls could interact with stunned customers via built-in speakers.

Calvin died in 1972, and before his death, he requested that his creation be burned down, but this did not happen. Possum Trot was dismantled after Ruby’s death in 1980, and most of their artforms were sold. Michael Hall, an art collector, amassed the largest surviving collection of the dolls and other original materials. He donated his collection to the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1989, where Miss Ripple, Helen Marvel, Little Red Riding Hood, and other dolls are still on display.^[9]

2 Pray With Ghosts, Czech Republic

Lukova’s St. George Church has had its share of mishaps over the years. Accidents have forced it to be rebuilt multiple times since it was first constructed in the 14th century. When a piece of the roof fell during a funeral service in 1968, the locals had had enough. Believing it was cursed, the church was abandoned and left to rot.

In 2014, a caretaker took pity on the deteriorating structure and reached out to a local artist for help to bring it back to life. After some considerations, they realized that the only way to ensure St George’s bright future was to exploit its haunted past: ghosts. To create these ghostly creatures, the artist used plaster models of real people, draped them in shawls, and placed them in pews and other areas throughout the cathedral. The thirty or so ghosts are said to represent the spirits of Sudeten Germans who resided in the area before being expelled following WWII.

Naturally, news of ghosts praying silently in a haunted church spread like wildfire, attracting visitors eager to capture a photograph of a real one in action. With visitors came the funds needed to nurse St George back to life. Likewise, the locals appear to have re-embraced the church, and they eagerly join the ghosts in prayer every Sunday.^[10]

As the old saying goes, prayers do get answered in the end.

1 Walk Into a Personal Diary, Finland

The Parikkala Sculpture Garden in Finland appears to be your typical sculpture collection in a family backyard. Except that this backyard is home to nearly 500 concrete sculptures, the majority of which are life-sized, the work of one person. This collection was not intended for curious visitors to gawk at; rather, it is a personal diary depicting the artist’s hopes, hobbies, and fears, all cast in stone. Human sculptures are the most common subject matter, although other subjects are also featured.

Particularly striking is a cluster of over 200 statues, supposedly self-portraits, in various yoga poses. However, it’s their sinister stares that capture attention instead of the fact that they are supposed to be a memory of his young body. They range from blank to aggressive to blatant diabolic grins. Real human teeth can be seen in some of the statues’ smirks. Others have hidden speakers that make a walk through this backyard an unsettling experience.

A bit of a recluse, Veijo Rönkkönen, was the man behind it all. Before his untimely death in 2010, he occasionally let guests into his garden, only to communicate with them via notes. Rönkkönen refused to exhibit his work, despite numerous requests, instead preferring to bury it and leave it alone in silence. Today, however, as many as 30,000 people visit his backyard annually.^[11]

Oh, the human teeth were donated.