The thought of impalement probably brings to mind Vlad the Impaler or some other medieval torturer. But impalement isn’t just the stuff of textbooks or nightmares. It is a reality—and for the 10 people on this list, an especially brutal one.

Being impaled on rods, spikes, fences, or branches is a truly horrific experience. Humans are fragile beings, and there is really nothing preventing you from becoming a human shish kebab. So prepare yourself to be faced with the stomach-churning reality.

10 Phineas Gage

At 25 years old, Phineas Gage was working as a US railroad construction foreman when something tragic happened while making way for a new railway. He was using a tamping iron to push down explosives into a rock in which a hole had been drilled. The rod scraped against the side of the rock, causing sparks to ignite the explosives and launch the iron rod completely through Gage’s head.

After lying unconscious for several minutes, Gage awoke and was able to speak coherently. Although he survived, his personality fundamentally changed. People who had previously thought of Gage as personable and responsible came to find him crass and unpleasant. His friends and family said that he was “no longer Gage.”^[1]

It’s difficult to say exactly how profound these changes were because we know little about what Gage was like before the accident. There are also differing opinions in the scientific community over how long these personality changes lasted.

The case of Phineas Gage has been studied for many years by neuroscientists trying to more fully grasp the intricacies of the brain and all its functions. Gage died 12 years after his accident. His skull and the pipe that impaled him are held at the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School.

9 Unnamed Woman

In Saran district in Bihar, a 17-year-old girl fell from a roof of a building that was under construction and landed on three iron rods attached to a cement pillar. All three rods went straight through the young woman’s lower torso and remained there for another 10–12 hours. Emergency services had to cut the bars from the building’s foundation while supporting the girl to prevent them from moving and harming her further.^[2]

The girl was detached from the cement pillar and rushed to the Ruban Patliputra Hospital where she was operated on for five hours. Amazingly, the bars missed every major organ. The girl survived the surgery and spent some time in the hospital recovering.

8 Li Jen

Li Jen, a 37-year-old builder working in China, was trying to enter his apartment when he realized that he must have left his keys inside. Instead of calling a locksmith, he climbed up the side of his apartment building toward his balcony. But he slipped and fell 15 meters (50 ft).

After landing on a lamppost that pierced him through the shoulder, he was suspended in the air. Firefighters had to cut the lamppost and transport it with him to the hospital. It took three hours to remove the pole, but it somehow managed to miss all of Li Jen’s essential organs.

His injuries could have been far worse had the pole not prevented him from slamming into the concrete. Doctors said that Li Jen was likely to make a full recovery.^[3]

7 Unnamed Man In Sweden

At the height of the Pokemon Go craze, an unnamed man broke into Stockholm Olympic Stadium to catch a Pokemon. The man wasn’t paying attention when he fell and was impaled through the thigh on a metal fence.

Police were called and had to hold the man in position while medical professionals gave him a morphine injection so he could be safely lifted off the fence. It was several meters high, so this was no easy task.

The man was then taken to the local hospital. “We had to lift him off, and the medical team took over and drove him to hospital. It’s a few meters high. High enough that you have to climb anyway,” said Goran Norman, an emergency control room officer.^[4]

6 Josh Hassan

Twelve-year-old Josh Hassan was impaled through the chest when he leaned over a fence to look for his football. His mother heard Josh screaming and rushed to his aid. She and two other people held him in place so that the fence spike didn’t do any more damage.

After a fire department crew cut the railing away from the rest of the fence, Josh was rushed to the hospital and operated on. The doctors told the family that the spike had missed his heart by less than 8 centimeters (3 in).

“The spike went through my jacket and through me, and I was hanging. I looked down and saw the skin flapping. I shouted for my neighbor, and he came and held me up so the injury did not get worse,” the boy said. Josh was released after spending two days in the hospital. He decided to keep the spike as a souvenir.^[5]

5 Stephen Schultz

Stephen Schultz, an American man visiting Panama, was fishing with his family and fighting to capture a monster fish for 25 minutes when the creature jumped onto the boat and impaled Stephen through the face. It was a 270-kilogram (600 lb) marlin, and the snout of the beast pierced Stephen through the cheek and nasal cavity.

He later said: “[The fish] jumped once, facing away from the boat and turned around in midair; he was about [5 meters (15 ft)] away; went back into the water, made one more jump toward the back of the boat and his bill struck me on the left side of the face and knocked me onto the ground.”^[6]

Stephen was rushed to the hospital and managed to escape the incident with only minor injuries and, surprisingly, no scars. The entire event was captured on video by Stephen’s sister, who said: “I wasn’t too sure what happens when you go deep-sea fishing. I wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be that close. So I was like, I’ll get this on film. Then it was in the boat. Before I could react, it was already at us. So I just kept rolling.”

After impaling Stephen, the marlin escaped back into the sea.

4 Lucia Perez

Sixteen-year-old Lucia Perez had just finished school when she was abducted by a gang. Then she was drugged, raped, and viciously assaulted before being impaled. Her attackers washed her and put her clothes back on before dropping her off at a drug rehabilitation clinic. She later died of her injuries.^[7]

The Argentinian community was devastated by Lucia’s death as was her heartbroken family. A group of people organized a sit-in and women wore black to protest the high rate of murders of women in the country. Two men were arrested in connection with Lucia’s murder and rape, but a third man was also thought to be involved with covering up the crime. He was also held by police.

3 Justin Firth

In Idaho, Justin Firth was working normally, setting up a fence, when he suddenly saw a flash and felt a pressure in his back. He looked down and saw a spike sticking out of his stomach. Justin had been impaled.

His coworkers started screaming and immediately called 911. Justin didn’t feel any pain except that pressure in his back. When the paramedics arrived, they didn’t have the proper tools to cut the spike from the front loader to which it was attached.

So his colleagues used a torch to sever the spike and industrial putty to keep Justin from getting burned by the torch. He was taken to the hospital by an air ambulance and spent three-and-a-half hours in surgery.

The spike had missed Justin’s bladder, kidneys, and spine by only a few centimeters. The trauma doctor said, “It’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen because it was a potentially catastrophic injury that’s going to have a really great outcome.”^[8]

2 Margaret Reynolds

Margaret Reynolds, a 67-year-old British woman, was visiting a New Jersey beach while on vacation. Unfortunately, a gust of wind blew an umbrella that impaled Margaret through the ankle. “It was a beautiful day, and a gust of wind blew the umbrella,” Reynolds said. “It was just an accident.”^[9]

As soon as it happened, bystanders heard her scream, “My leg!” A bolt cutter was used to free her, and part of the umbrella had to be cut off. Her friend held Margaret’s hand the entire time. She was then escorted to a hospital. She had surgery to remove the bit of umbrella in her ankle, and according to authorities, she was doing very well.

1 Sean Rontrea

In Brooklyn, New York, 29-year-old Sean Rontrea was impaled when he fell five stories from his apartment building. He landed on a spiked fence that pierced his chest. The scene was apparently quite gruesome, with copious amounts of blood everywhere.

While dangling 1 meter (3 ft) off the ground, Sean screamed, “Get this thing out of me.” The spike was rusty and blunt and came very close to Sean’s heart and other vital organs. “It’s not every day you see a guy impaled on a fence like he was suspended in space,” said paramedic William Ritter.^[10]

Sean had to be cut down using a portable saw. To avoid further damage, the paramedics used a garbage can to support his weight. Sean was rushed to the hospital with a 1.2-meter (4 ft) section of fence still attached to him. There, surgeons undertook the delicate task of removing the spike.

There have been countless movies and TV shows depicting terrifying tales of hauntings that have resulted in hideous deaths, but do any of them have their basis in reality? While stories of poltergeists are rife, has anyone actually died as the result of an encounter with a ghost?

While no coroner has ever been known to have recorded a specter as an official cause of death, there is enough documented evidence out there to suggest that there may be a spark of truth to all of those tall Hollywood tales. Here, we look at the stories of ten people whose death has been linked in some way to the ghostly and supernatural—judge for yourselves just how much truth lies behind them.

10 The Hammersmith Ghost

One of the best-known and best-documented deaths that was, albeit indirectly, attributable to a specter is that of the Hammersmith Ghost.

In the early years of the 19th century, West London’s Hammersmith district was full of rumors about a terrifying apparition that was haunting one of the area’s graveyards. Local people reported seeing a figure in white, sporting a glass eye and horns, who would emerge suddenly from the spooky shadows, wailing, moaning, and writhing before passersby. After a pregnant woman claimed to have been attacked physically and a wagon driver abandoned his passengers and horse in fear at the sight of the specter, the news spread that the ghost may have been that of a man who had recently killed himself before being buried in the churchyard’s consecrated ground.

The reports were taken so seriously that armed patrols were sent out to arrest the ghost, and it wasn’t long before one of their number, an excise officer by the name of Smith, encountered it in person. After demanding to know the identity of the apparition and receiving no response, he fired a shot from his gun, fearing that he would become the next victim. Unfortunately, it was no ghost that lay dead in the graveyard. Instead, the victim, Thomas Millwood, was a man—a plasterer wearing the white clothing that signified his trade.

The murder trial that ensued was one of the most unusual in history, with Smith eventually being sentenced to death (although this was later commuted to hard labor thanks to a royal pardon.) However, Thomas Millwood’s spirit didn’t rest easy. The day after he was killed, his body was brought to the Black Lion public house, and to this day, it is believed that he still haunts the premises, whispering in patrons’ ears, banging on walls, and making loud footsteps over the bar area. Thomas Millwood may have truly become the Hammersmith Ghost after all.^[1]

9 The Curse Of King Tut

During the early 1920s, the pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, an Ancient Egyptian burial site dating back to the 16th century BC. The virtually undisturbed tomb was uncovered by Howard Carter, a British archaeologist, together with the fifth Earl of Carnarvon. The amazing haul of finds would become a worldwide media sensation. However, the press also seized on the stories which said a curse would fall on anybody who desecrated the pharaoh’s tomb, and shortly after, Lord Carnarvon himself met an untimely death in Cairo. Arthur Conan Doyle, famed Sherlock Holmes creator, fueled the fires of the rumor mill by telling the press that it was an evil spirit which had been summoned by ancient Egyptian priests to protect their pharaoh in death which could have killed Carnarvon.

While all this speculation may have diminished over time, the following years saw a string of deaths of numerous people who had been part of the team that had uncovered the tomb or who had, in some way, been involved with the proceedings. Among the death toll was Arthur Mace, a member of the excavation team who was killed by arsenic in 1928; Richard Bethell, Howard Carter’s secretary who allegedly smothered to death in his sleep in 1929; and Sir Archibald Douglas Reid, who was responsible for X-raying the pharaoh’s mummy and was the victim of a mysterious death in 1924. Could an ancient Egyptian ghost have been responsible?^[2]

8 Alcatraz’s Hole Ghost

Alcatraz is widely believed to be one of the most haunted spots in the United States, but no part of the notorious island prison has been linked with more terrifying tales of ghosts than the cells in D-Block. A portion of D-Block is known as the Hole. The Hole is the coldest part of the prison, and its cells were used for solitary confinement. The cells featured only a sink, a toilet, and a dim light bulb controlled by the guards. Inmates slept on mattresses that were taken away during the day. No reading materials were allowed, leaving inmates with nothing other than crushing boredom. The final cell in the Hole was called the Oriental and was essentially a steel sensory deprivation chamber with only a hole at the bottom for waste.

During the 1940s, there were many reports of a ghostly man wearing late-19th-century prison clothing patrolling the Hole. However, the apparition may have been responsible for a suspicious death of a prisoner. Shortly after being locked in a Hole cell, the inmate began screaming that there was somebody with glowing eyes trapped in with him. The guards ignored him as he screamed long into the night before an eerie silence fell. The next day, the guards discovered that the convict had been strangled to death, the handprints on his throat livid and fresh. While some say that one of the guards finally snapped and took the ultimate step to stop the man’s screaming, a thorough investigation into the matter turned up no evidence. Did a 19th-century prisoner who wandered the jail’s corridors commit the crime from beyond the grave?^[3]

7 The Thai Widow Ghost

In 2013, villagers living in a Tambon Tha Sawang in Thailand were terrorized by the ghost of a widow who was believed to have killed ten men in the space of a single month. All of the men had died under mysterious circumstances, some while sleeping and others apparently dropping dead while walking around. All had been declared by doctors to have died of respiratory failure.

Since none of the men had shown any signs of being ill, the villagers hired a spirit medium, who blamed a widow ghost for the deaths. The medium then recommended that each resident hang red shirts outside their houses so that the spirit would be repelled, especially those who only had a single son, since they were most at risk of a ghostly visit.^[4]

While that may have been the end of the inexplicable deaths in Tambon Tha Sawang, in 2018, a different Thai district was being terrorized in the same way. Was it the same ghostly widow?

6 Carl Pruitt’s Cursed Grave

This story goes back to Kentucky in 1938, when a man named Carl Pruitt came home one day to find his wife in the arms of another man. In a wild fury, he strangled her to death with a chain before killing himself immediately afterward. (The other man fled.) After Pruitt was buried, visitors to the graveyard noticed that discoloration was starting to appear on his tombstone, and it looked eerily similar to a chain.

Before long, a boy trying to impress his friends chipped the tombstone by throwing a rock and immediately afterward fell victim to a freak accident that claimed his life—his bicycle chain somehow came off and strangled him as he rode home. The mother of the boy, naturally devastated, decided to vent her anger on the gravestone, hitting it repeatedly with an ax. The following day, she, too, became a victim of the Pruitt grave’s curse. She was found strangled by her own clothesline, which had inexplicably wrapped about her neck as she was hanging laundry.

Not long after that, there was another incident which cemented the grave’s reputation for being cursed. A farmer fired a gun at the tombstone while passing the graveyard in his wagon. The horses sped up, frightened by the gunshot, and the farmer was thrown out of the wagon. As he fell, one of the reins wrapped itself about his neck and strangled him. By now, the number of strangulations linked with the grave was starting to look like more than a coincidence, but that didn’t stop two policemen from tempting fate by trying to take photos of themselves at the graveside. When they drove away from the cemetery, they noticed they were being followed by a bright light. As they sped away, the vehicle crashed into a fence, and one of the policeman died, his head almost entirely severed by the chain that hung between the fence posts.

For years, people avoided the cemetery, terrified of meeting a hideous death, but in the 1940s, one man decided that he would take the risk of attacking the tombstone with a hammer. He was later found dead by the cemetery gates. How did he die? Yes, you guessed it: He was strangled by the chain that locked the cemetery gates. It’s no wonder that shortly afterward, the cemetery was stripped, and the cursed tombstone was removed permanently.^[5]

5 The Aged Laborer

In 19th-century England, coroners and juries relied on the evidence of witnesses in court to determine the cause of death in cases where the deceased was believed to have died of “unnatural” causes. In Bristol in 1841, an inquest was held into the death of Patrick Hayes, an “aged laborer” who had fallen down the stairs and died.

The wife of landlord of the inn in which he had died, Mary Croker, gave testimony that she had heard the sound of the deceased as he fell down the stairs. She shouted out, asking who had fallen, and the reply, in the deceased’s voice, said “It is me, and I am dead.” In her questioning under oath, Mary Croker informed the coroner that the man had clearly seen the house’s resident ghost—a lady wearing a silk gown who had already killed two or three of her former lodgers by scaring them to death.^[6]

4 The Campo Lane Ghost

In mid-1800s South Yorkshire, UK, a woman named Hannah Rallinson was officially recorded as having died from fright. Rallinson and her husband, both Mormons, had recently moved into new rooms in Sheffield and had been introduced to a woman named Harriet Ward. One day, Harriet had been going down into the cellar of the Rallisons’ home when she screamed, claiming to have seen a ghost of a terrifying, bloodstained old woman. Harriet didn’t just see the apparition once—in fact, it appeared to her on five separate occasions over the 24 hours that followed, both while she was asleep and awake.

The Mormon congregation became obsessed with the Campo Lane Ghost, as it became known, and collectively decided that it must have been the victim of a murder who had been buried under the cellar floor. It was decided to take away the flagstones to find out what was beneath. As the night wore on, a large group gathered to observe the proceedings, and it was decided to cover the cellar’s window to stop the crowd from looking in. Hannah Rallinson went down to the cellar with a blind, and what she saw on the cellar steps caused her to fall into a dead faint. It was reported in the local newspaper that she had seen a woman in white who had rushed at her before vanishing.

Hannah was taken into another room on the first floor, where her friends tried to revive her, and as she briefly regained consciousness, she announced that she could still see the ghost, complete with gashes around its neck and a bloodstained nightgown. Apparently, the ghost had told her it was Elizabeth Johnson, a restless soul who had been murdered by William Dawson, her nephew, over a century earlier. The late Mrs. Johnson had told her that she had to leave the house, as it was marked with her blood. Despite being a fit, healthy, and strong woman, Hannah Rallinson died the next day, her death certificate officially recording the cause of death as “sudden death in a fit believed to have been brought on by a fright.”^[7]

3 The Spring-Heeled Jack Case

Another tragic tale of the 19th century is that of Jane Halsall, a seven-year-old girl from Lancashire, England, who allegedly died at the hands of a specter known as Spring-heeled Jack. Stories of an apparition named Spring-heeled Jack had been in circulation for several decades before the unfortunate death of Jane Halsall, and fear of this terrifying character had not abated over the years.

When Jane returned home one day saying that her playmates had warned her that Spring-heeled Jack was on his way to her hometown, her parents tried to allay her fears. However, that very night, Jane fell seriously ill and was unconscious by the time the doctor arrived. Just six hours before her untimely death, she was quoted as having said, “The ghost is coming.” The coroner concluded that she’d died of fright and laid the blame on Spring-heeled Jack (or rather the man he believed was impersonating the evil spirit). A coroner’s court jury found “Jack” guilty of the death of the little girl, arguably meaning that a ghost was tried and found guilty in a court of law.^[8]

2 The Hinterkaifeck Farm Murders

With its peaceful Bavarian surroundings, the Hinterkaifeck farm seemed to be an unlikely spot for one of the 20th century’s most puzzling murders. However, in 1922, this homestead was the setting for a case that would baffle the German police and would never be resolved. The Grueber family, who lived there, were social outcasts, with the husband being a notorious wife-beater who’d had an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Nevertheless, the events which ensued on the Gruebers’ farm shocked the local community.

In late 1921, the Grueber’s maid, Maria, reported hearing disembodied footsteps and voices around the house. She left her position abruptly, afraid the farm was haunted. Six months after Maria’s departure, the father, Andreas, saw footprints in the deep snow surrounding the house leading from the woods to the farm. There were no footprints to show a return journey. Andreas carried out an immediate search, but no one was found. That night, Andreas, too, heard the strange noises in the attic. Again, he found nothing and no one in hiding. Events took an even stranger turn after that. The next morning, an unfamiliar newspaper was lying on the porch. A few days later, one of the house keys disappeared. Andreas saw scratches on the tool shed lock as if somebody had been trying to pick it.

Some days later, the townsfolk began to wonder where the Gruebers had gotten to. They went to the farm to check on the family and made a grisly discovery in the barn—the bleeding bodies of four members of the family, all stacked one on top of the other and covered up with hay. In the house, the rest of the family and the replacement maid were also found dead. Although there were signs of strangulation, the instrument believed to have caused their deaths was a pickax.

There were a bunch of complicating factors, too. Every one of the bodies had been covered up in one way or another, and while their date of death was found to be March 31, neighbors had seen smoke from the farm’s chimney after that date. There was evidence in the house of meals having recently been eaten, a bed had been slept in, and the farm’s animals had been fed. There was no evidence of any theft, and jewelry and coins remained untouched in the home. Was it a vengeful spirit that killed the Gruebers? Was it a grisly home invasion? Whatever the truth of the matter, the police have yet to solve the murders, and the jury is still out.^[9]

1 The Jamison Family

In 2009, the Jamison family disappeared, apparently off the face of the Earth. Their bodies weren’t found for another four years, when their skeletal remains were all discovered lying facedown in the woods, close to where their abandoned truck had been found back in 2009. Before their disappearance, the Jamison family had told anyone who would listen that ghosts were haunting them and that Madyson, their six-year-old daughter, was in regular conversation with a ghost girl who had met her death in their house decades ago.

The day that the family disappeared, security camera footage shows them packing their vehicle, almost as if under some kind of trance. No cause of death was determined, and there have been suggestions that the family members were possessed by the ghosts that inhabited their home.^[10] Since the bodies were severely decomposed, there was no way of telling what killed the Jamisons, so speculation is still rife.

These are just ten documented deaths that have been linked to ghosts. While the truth is shrouded in mystery, all we know is that these people died under bizarre circumstances. Who knows what really happened?

I am a one-time actress, legal secretary, and early years teacher turned writer with an interest in history, the unusual, and the fascinating!

In the ancient world, the possibility of a violent, premature death was always around the corner. Certainly, it could happen to the ordinary people who died in the millions from famine, disease, or war. But it was also a frequent visitor to the rich and powerful who were often bumped off by their enemies, their friends, or even their families.

The list that follows details just 10 examples of particularly gruesome deaths in the ancient world. They range from the brutal murders of Roman emperors by their own sons to the strange case of the “mummy’s curse.”

10 Aeschylus
455 BC

Aeschylus, the father of Greek tragedy, was noted for such works as The Persians and the Oresteia (still frequently performed today). As such, one might expect a tragic ending for Aeschylus. But the way this ancient playwright kicked the bucket would be more suited to a slapstick comedy.

According to legend, the Athenian author was killed when an eagle dropped a tortoise—seriously, a tortoise—on his head from a great height while Aeschylus was out for a stroll. Modern historians have speculated that the bird in question may have mistaken the writer’s bald crown for a rock on which it intended to smash the tortoise’s shell.

To add an element of the supernatural, the Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote in his Naturalis Historia that Aeschylus had been staying outside due to a prophecy which predicted that he would be killed by a falling object! Surely, a great tragedian should have known that you can’t run away from your fate.^[1]

9 Cleopatra
30 BC

According to historical accounts, Cleopatra, the last active pharaoh of ancient Egypt, committed suicide in a particularly grisly fashion. She held a poisonous asp (a kind of snake) to her breast until it fatally bit her, injecting her with deadly venom.

But did this legendary suicide really happen?

Many have speculated that this version of events was merely a cover-up of the famously beautiful queen’s murder by her political opponents. Only 50 percent of asp venom is injected with a single bite, so she could have easily survived.

Meanwhile, two of Cleopatra’s maidservants were found dead alongside her, suggesting foul play. Maybe Octavian (later Augustus, the first emperor of ancient Rome) had her murdered to take over her empire?

History cannot tell us for sure.^[2]

8 Claudius
AD 54

Emperor Claudius is probably most famous for his conquest of Britain in AD 43 and for his central role in Robert Graves’s novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God, later turned into a TV serial for the BBC. Fewer people, however, know of his untimely death—poisoned by his own wife, who was also his niece.

According to Roman historian Suetonius, Claudius’s niece Agrippina, was desperate for Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (aka Nero), her son from a previous marriage, to ascend to the imperial throne. So she served Claudius a dish of poisoned mushrooms.

When this failed to finish him off, the power-hungry Agrippina fed him a poisoned gruel and finally administered a poisoned enema. Nero ascended to the throne and proved to be one of the cruelest rulers that Rome had ever known.^[3]

7 Caracalla
AD 217

More Roman emperors are known to have been assassinated (23) than to have died of natural causes (20). That’s not even taking into account those who may have been assassinated (8), were forced to commit suicide (5), or were executed (3). So it’s no surprise that another one makes this list.

Like so many other Roman statesmen, Caracalla had a hand in his fair share of murders before he was assassinated. According to his biographer, this emperor, who ruled alone from AD 211–217, was killed by his own bodyguard. It happened while Caracalla was urinating by the side of the road.

Don’t feel too sorry for him, though. Caracalla had previously ordered the murder of his own brother, Geta, who was stabbed to death in their mother’s arms.^[4]

6 Valerian
AD 260

Just one more Roman emperor dying horrifically? Go on then.

Valerian’s death was probably the most gruesome of all. After being captured by the Persian king Shapur I, Valerian was treated in humiliating fashion. Historian Lactantius described how the Roman emperor was used as a footstool for Shapur to mount his horse. Unsurprisingly, Valerian wasn’t pleased with this and offered the Persian a hefty sum of gold for his release.^[5]

Shapur, however, wasn’t having any of it. He expressed his disdain for the emperor’s offer by pouring molten gold down his throat before flaying him, stuffing his skin with straw, and hanging this trophy in his royal palace. It doesn’t get much rougher than that.

5 Ramses III
1155 BC

It wasn’t just Romans who could die in grisly fashion. The ancient Egyptians knew how to kill in style as well.

In the case of Pharaoh Ramses III, it all stemmed from a dispute over succession to the throne. Ramses’s son Prince Pentawere, who was not directly in line for the throne, is thought to have slit his father’s throat and cut off his big toe for good measure.^[6]

The body of Pentawere is thought to have been recently found by archaeologists. The contorted posture and pained expression of the corpse suggested to some a long, slow death by suffocation after being buried alive.

4 Hypatia Of Alexandria
AD 415

Hypatia was not a bad person—neither a murderer nor a schemer. She was merely caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was a brilliant mathematician and Neoplatonist philosopher when very few women were able to take part in intellectual pursuits. Unfortunately, Hypatia was also caught in a power struggle in fifth-century Alexandria.^[7]

Christian supporters of Bishop Cyril disapproved of Hypatia’s supposed closeness to Orestes, the governor of Alexandria, and showed this disapproval in the most graphic way possible. A mob of Christian zealots dragged Hypatia from her house, stripped her naked, beat her to death with roof tiles, and then set her corpse on fire.

3 Akhenaton’s Daughter
Approximately 1340 BC

Pharaoh Akhenaton was not a great example of kingship and is probably best known today as the father of Tutankhamen. He is thought by many historians to have fathered his own grandchildren after sleeping with his daughter, but even that wasn’t messed up enough for Akhenaton.

Growing jealous of his daughter, he ordered her death after getting into an argument with her. History does not record the subject of their disagreement, but it must have been serious. The pharaoh went as far as cutting off the hand of his daughter’s corpse so that they wouldn’t cross paths in the afterlife. Ancient Egyptians believed that the soul could not reach the afterlife if the body was not intact.^[8]

2 The 5th Earl Of Carnarvon
AD 1923

Okay, so this isn’t technically a death in the ancient world, but it still has a surprising and spooky link to ancient Egypt. Lord Carnarvon was the financial backer of the 1922 expedition which recovered the treasure from the tomb of King Tut—and just one of the several expedition members to be struck down by the “mummy’s curse.”

When King Tutankhamen’s tomb was excavated, the ominous inscription “Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the King” was found near the doorway. Sure enough, four months and three days after the tomb was opened, the earl died of an infected mosquito bite.

Must be a coincidence, you say? Well, maybe. But when Tutankhamen’s mummy was unwrapped, a strange mark was found on his left cheek, exactly matching the spot of the mosquito bite on Lord Carnarvon’s cheek, which proved to be his death warrant.^[9]

1 Old Croghan Man
Sometime Between 362 And 175 BC

Human sacrifice was common in the ancient Celtic kingdoms of Ireland and was just as violent as anything dreamed up by the most depraved pharaoh or Roman emperor. The unidentified body of “Old Croghan Man” was found in County Offaly in 2003 and bears clear signs of a gruesome death.

According to forensic analysis, the unfortunate nobleman had holes cut in his upper arms through which ropes were passed to restrain him. Then he was stabbed, cut in half, and had his nipples cut off.

Why the nipples, you ask?

Well, in pre-Christian Ireland, prisoners and defeated enemies would suck on the nipples of the king as a gesture of submission. Cutting off Old Croghan Man’s nipples ensured that he could never again rule as king—in this life or the next.^[10]

I am a recently graduated student of English Literature from SE London. Twitter: @Connolly

We really don’t realize how lucky we are until we take a look back at the medical history books and recognize that most surgical practices during the Victorian era (1837–1901) were basically medieval. Between the 1840s and the mid-1890s, there were some radical changes in the operating room which went on to become a surgical revolution. However, many patients had to suffer up until that point.

The high mortality rate during this time is widely reported in newspapers, medical journals, and coroners’ inquests; even the healthiest of people wouldn’t make it out of surgery alive. It really was a tough time being a Victorian who needed surgery, but thanks to advances in modern science, these real-life horror stories are all a thing of the past. These following gruesome and shocking facts are not for the fainthearted.

10 Chloroform Was Considered A Practical Anesthetic

The idea of surgery without anesthesia is unimaginable, but that was a grim reality in the past. In 1847, chloroform was introduced in Britain and used for the next 50 years. Scottish obstetrician Sir James Simpson was the first to try chloroform, and after passing out in his dining room, he realized that he could utilize its powerful fumes for practical purposes.^[1]

Simpson invented a mask that would be saturated in chloroform and then placed over the patient’s face. After only a few minutes of preparation, surgery would begin. Even Queen Victoria herself was given chloroform for the birth of her last two children. Use of chloroform as an anesthetic eventually declined.

9 Hot Irons Were Used To Stop Bleeding

In Victorian surgery, where there was profuse bleeding from a wound, a hot iron might be used to stop the blood flow. Obviously, this was not pleasant at all, and alternatives to cauterization had been found long before the Victorian era. The scientific journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society reported on one such alternative way back in the 1670s. Surprisingly, they even recorded the surgery as a “cheerful” experience for the patient.

The report reads:

The leg therefore of the poor woman being cut off, immediately the Arteries were dressed with some linen pedlgets dipt in the [mysterious] Astringent liquor with a compress on it, and a bandage keeping all close against the arteries. The success was, that the blood was staunch without any other dressing; and instead of complaining, as those are wont to do who have a limb cut off, and the mouths of whose arteries are burnt with a hot Iron or a caustique to stop the blood, this Patient look’d very cheerful, and was free from pain, and slept two hours after, and also the night following; and from that time hath found herself still better and better without any return of bleeding, or any ill accident.^[2]

8 Many Of The Surgeries Resulted In Fatalities

Surgery in the Victorian era was lethal, but not due to the fast-handed surgeons. Instead, it was the high probability of infection after the patient left the operating table. According to medical historian Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris, “[Surgeons] never washed their instruments or their hands. The operating tables themselves were rarely washed down. These places became a sort of slow-moving execution for the patient because they would develop these postoperative infections that would kill them, sometimes within days, sometimes within months.”^[3]

Despite the pungent smell, doctors also believed that pus emitting from a post-surgery wound was a sign that things were healing well rather than what it really was—the result of a bacterial infection. The high death rate was just put down to “ward fever.” It wasn’t until surgeon Joseph Lister (1827–1912) introduced antiseptic practice and sterile environments in hospitals that the infection rate began to lower. Lister is now known as the “father of antiseptic surgery.”

7 Barbers Were Recruited As Surgeons During War

From the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 to the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853, there was a brief period of calm in Britain. During the battle days, however, barbers did a lot more than cut hair—they were enlisted as surgeons and expected to perform operations on wounded soldiers. Despite no extensive knowledge or formal training that extended further than that of an apprentice, a barber-surgeon would be tasked with pulling teeth, bloodletting, and performing basic surgical tasks.

Surgeons and barbers were separated as two professions well before the Victorian era,^[4] but patients in need of surgery would still sometimes approach barbers, as they had the sharp tools required for the job. Even in modern times, the red and white poles outside of a barber’s shop are a symbol of the blood-soaked napkins they used during bloodletting.

6 Leeches Would Be Used To Extract Blood

If the thought of blood-sucking leeches is enough to make your skin crawl, then this part might make you shudder. The heart pumps 5 liters (1.3 gal) of blood around the body in just one minute, and severe blood loss can lead to shock or even death. Luckily, our body has a clotting system in place to prevent this. However, during the Victorian era, the ancient practice of bloodletting hadn’t quite died out just yet.

Victorian surgeons would use live leeches to suck the blood from the patient. The practice of bloodletting was harmful, as it could cause anemia, but doctors overlooked this for thousands of years.^[5]

5 Amputated Limbs Would Be Dropped In Sawdust

Imagine having your leg sawed off because of a broken bone or a fracture; then that limb is dropped in a bucket of sawdust by your side as you lie on the operating table, and people observing start to applaud. As mentioned previously, this could all occur without anesthetics, so it’s no surprise that patients would hope for an efficient and quick surgeon.

Dr. Robert Liston (1794–1847) was one of the most famous surgeons in history and was known as the “fastest knife in the West End.” He amputated his patients’ limbs with great speed and often called out during the surgeries, “Time me, Gentlemen! Time me!” On average, only one of every ten of Liston’s patients died at London’s University College Hospital, which was considered a great success, as other surgeons lost one in every four on average. Patients would camp outside his waiting room in hopes that he would consider them for surgery.^[6]

4 Hospitals Were Only For The Poor

If you were lucky enough to be rich during the Victorian era, a family doctor would treat you at home from the comfort of your own bed. The poor would be hospitalized, and it was it was the role of the government, not the medical staff, to decide who would be admitted. Only one day a week was put aside for accepting new patients, and they would typically fall into two categories: either “incurables” for infectious diseases or “lunatics” who suffered from mental illnesses. Starting in 1752, the rule at St Thomas’ Hospital in London was that “no patient was to be admitted more than once with the same disease.”^[7]

Operating rooms would always be situated on the top floor of hospitals to take advantage of the sunlight that would beam through a window in the roof. If patients were too poor to pay for their treatment, spectators were invited to view the procedures. For others, they would have to seek financial support from their parish or a willing patron.

3 Surgeons Wore Their Blood-Soaked Clothes With Pride

British surgeon Sir Berkeley Moynihan (1865–1936), recalled how his fellow surgeons would turn up to work, enter the operating theater, and put on old surgical frocks that were “stiff with dried blood and pus.”^[8] Victorian surgeons were known for wearing their blood-soaked garments with pride, and they also carried with them the stench of rotting flesh as they made their way home.

Being a surgeon was not considered the noble profession it is today, and the hospital bug-catcher, who had the job of ridding the mattresses of lice, was paid more than a surgeon during this time. Due to high mortality rates, hospitals were known more as “houses of death” than houses of healing.

2 There Were Crowds Gathered Around The Operating Table

While patients would squirm on the operating tables and even attempt to run away during the painful procedures, onlookers would be there to enjoy the whole show. Operating in front of an audience was nothing unusual during the Victorian era, and the risk of germs entering the theater wasn’t even thought about.

Historian Lindsey Fitzharris, author of The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine, writes, “The first two rows were occupied by the other dressers, and behind a second partition stood the pupils, packed like herrings in a barrel, but not so quiet, as those behind them were continually pressing on those before and were continually struggling to relieve themselves of it, and had not infrequently to be got out exhausted. There was also a continual calling out of “Heads, Heads” to those about the table whose heads interfered with the sightseers.”^[9]

The painful cries of the patients and the loud crowd watching the surgery could be overheard from the street many floors below.

1 One Of The Most Renowned Surgeons Was Transgender

In 1865, surgeon Dr. James Barry died. His gravestone reads: “Dr James Barry, Inspector General of Hospitals.” Considered one of the most successful surgeons in Victorian history, Barry was actually born Margaret Ann Bulkley and had no way of fulfilling his dreams in the operating theater, as women were denied a formal education. He enlisted in the army, and in 1826, he carried out a successful caesarean section in Cape Town, seven years before the operation was performed for the first time in Britain.

Known for his bad temper, he angered Florence Nightingale, and following his death, she said, “After he was dead, I was told that [Barry] was a woman. I should say that [Barry] was the most hardened creature I ever met.”^[10] It wasn’t until a domestic member of staff cleaned his body after his death that the truth was realized. His gravestone was already listed and remains unchanged.

Cheish Merryweather is a true crime and oddities fanatic. Founder of Crime Viral and can be found on Twitter @TheCheish.

McDonald’s is an American staple. Almost every town has at least one and many have upwards of three. It’s even spread and branched out to become a worldwide brand!

It’s in our movies, our books, the ads are everywhere, it’s one of those brands that’s woven into the fabric of everyday life to the point that we don’t even notice the product placement anymore when it pops up in a show.

It’s so ingrained in our culture that it’s considered, consciously or not, to be a safe and familiar place, with its bright lights, colorful mascots, and 24/7 availability. Underneath that cheerful, safe veneer, however, beats the same sort of danger you can find everywhere else, and the terrifying possibility of being murdered.

The unlucky locations below have all suffered the tragedy of serving up a helping of McMurder.

See Also: Top 10 Failed McDonald’s Products

5Taiwan Blood Pool

On March 26th, 2018, a McDonald’s customer stopped into a McDonald’s in Tainan City at just past midnight for a quick bite to eat. Finishing his meal, he wandered into the bathroom, only to be confronted with something horrible: a bathroom stall with a rapidly expanding puddle of blood spilling out from under the door.

The authorities were quickly called and opened the locked stall to a gruesome sight: the corpse of a 46-year-old man, an empty syringe, and a scene drenched in blood. The man, identified only as Chiu, had apparently been dead for some time, and was covered in blood from his face to his shoes. Though authorities could not confirm nor deny a murder, the state of the body suggested murder most foul.

4Chinese Cult Killing

Monday, August 18th of 2014, found Wu Shuoyan in a McDonald’s in Zhaoyuan, China, with her 7 year old son. They sat down to eat, when a group of people (Zhang Fan, Zhang Lidong, Lü Yingchun, Zhang Hang, and Zhang Qiao, and a 12-year-old child) entered the McDonald’s and began to preach.

The group of 6 were from a known Christian splinter cult, The Church of Almighty God, that frequently hold public demonstrations like this. They were mostly ignored. Until, that is, they started badgering the crowd for their phone numbers, in order to contact them later about the church.

Most gave up their numbers, albeit reluctantly, just to get the cultists to leave them in peace. Wu, however, refused, rebuffing several attempts to pressure her into giving over the number. At which point, the cultists became frustrated, and then insulted, and then infuriated.

Wu was reportedly then tied to a chair, accused of being an evil spirit, and beaten to death by the members of the cult, who struck her first with a metal mop handle and then, as they became more furious and frenzied, chairs, and their own bare hands. Wu was left so injured that it was hard to identify her body, as the cult menbers had also knocked her to the ground and stomped on her face, shattering her features.

When questioned, the cult members showed no signs of remorse, claiming that Wu was an evil spirit, and that they also did not fear the law nor any repercussion for their murder, claiming that they have God on their side, and are in direct opposition to “the Great Red Dragon” together. Said Great Red Dragon is, according to Chinese officials, an allegory for the Chinese government, to which the cult is opposed.

The act was recorded on video, and the accused arrested and tried.

3 Bronx Drive-Thru Hit

Mob hits are something we usually imagine to be a thing of the past, the sepia-toned 1940’s, a bygone era of blood-red zoot suits, feather caps, Cadillac Series 62s, and tommy guns. Yet, just last year, on June 18th of 2019, a mob hit was carried out in a McDonald’s in the Bronx.

71-year-old Sylvester “Sally Daz” Zottola, alleged Bonanno crime family associate, was waiting in line for a hot, fresh cup of McDonald’s coffee, when his life was ended in a rain of gunfire (and, presumably, thick New York accents screaming Mafia cliches).

The gunman, reported to be one Bushawn “Shelz” Shelton, was a member of a local gang allegedly hired by Sylvester’s 41-year-old son, Anthony Zottola Sr. to kill his father in order to take control of the ‘family business’—gambling.

Anthony is also accused of making an attempt on the life of his brother, Salvatore Zottola, in an attempt to lure his father out, a single act in a murder plot that apparently spanned years, and included multiple attempts on his fathers life, as well as sending hundreds of texts in film-themed code to his hitman.

The texts repeatedly referred to Sylvester as “the star” and “the actor”, with one allegedly reading “Today was supposed to be the end until the actor wanted to do his own stunts and throw it in reverse in the middle of shooting a scene and drive in the opposite direction.”

Anthony is currently on trial for the murder, as well as several other felonies in connection to the murder and the events preceding it.

2 Sydney River Mcdonald’s Massacre

On May 7th, 1992, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, three young men (Derek Wood, 18, an employee of the restaurant, Freeman MacNeil, 23, and Darren Muise, 18) broke into a Halifax McDonald’s after closing with the intent to rob it. Unfortunately for everyone involved, however, there were still employees inside when the break-in occurred.

James Fagan, 27, Donna Warren, 22, Arleen MacNeil, 20, and Neil Burroughs Jr., 29, where closing up shop when the three men broke into the fast food restaurant. The men reportedly didn’t hesitate much before drawing their weapons and opening fire.

James, Donna, and Neil were killed almost instantly, but Arleen, who was shot in the head, survived to testify against the men, although she was left permanently disabled by brain damage. The robbers then looted the register, making off with a measly 2,017 dollars.

The three robbers were caught, convicted, and sent to prison, although as of 2020, at least two are out on parole. Muise, who admitted to being the one to kill Fagan, was released on parole in 2012, and at last check lives with his girlfriend in lower British Columbia, “stable and financially secure” according to the parole board.

Freeman MacNeil was awarded day parole, while Wood was denied it twice on appeal.

1 San Ysidro Massacre

July 18th of 1984 saw one of the deadliest, most gruesome shootings in American history happen in a San Ysidro McDonald’s. Over the course of an hour and 17 minutes, James Oliver Huberty rampaged through the small restaurant, killing 21 people and injuring 20 more.

With no apparent motive, and no spoken cause, Huberty spent the little more than an hour inside the McDonald’s repeatedly firing into bodies both living and dead, attempting to kill everyone in the restaurant and parking lot.

Rescue workers and cops were no exception to the rule, as Huberty fired upon them as well the moment they crossed into the parking lot, shots pinging off the cars and fire engines, even the ambulances.

Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over, as one officer managed to get off a careful shot and strike Huberty dead center of the chest, killing him instantly. The 20 people still alive inside were taken to the nearest hospital for emergency treatment.

Although the McDonald’s no longer stands, a monument to the victims is still displayed in the town, in remembrance of the 21 dead and 20 injured in the shooting.

Since the dawn of mankind he has been striving to make life easier through invention and innovation. Many of his creations have been lifesaving and have saved us all time by making us a much more productive civilization, while others have been purely evil and have reflected man and his inhumanity to his fellow man. Throughout time there have no doubt been many more inventions that have failed miserably and thus have never seen the light of day, while at the same time a good number should never have made it past the drawing board. Plastic is one of these that always creeps into this writer’s mind. This invention has been so useful it is hard to imagine life without it, but yet there’s a giant mass of this substance in the Pacific Ocean dubbed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” which glaringly illustrates the harsh, long-term effects of this most useful invention. Please keep reading to learn more on just how insensitive, and sometimes downright creepy, yet brilliant, man’s inventive mind has been, and can be…

10 Homegrown North Korean ‘Inventions’

10 Gas Resistant Strollers

In England, a quite ungainly contraption known as the “Gas-Proof Pram,” was born out of fear and necessity. These gas-proof prams, or gas-resistant strollers were a product produced in the late 1930’s, both by the use of mustard and chlorine gas in World War One and the looming threat of their use again by the new Nazi regime. Although there is not much information available on these short-lived things (hence the reason for the brevity of this article), they were produced by F.W. Mills hailing from Kent in South East England to protect babies and toddlers from deadly gas in the advent of German air raids. These strollers were generally equipped with a lid that had a glass panel and a gas filter on top. On the rear the stroller was also fitted with a motor horn bulb to ventilate stale air from the interior. Fortunately, these disturbing devices were never needed for their intended purposes and were never produced in any great quantities, and were never tested in battle.

9 The Cotton Gin

Invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 and patented by him the following year, the cotton gin revolutionized the industry in America by allowing far more of the so-called “white gold” to be processed. The cotton fibers were made into goods like linens, and what was left undamaged was used mainly for textiles such as clothing. This radical growth in the cotton industry unintentionally caused an exponential growth of slavery in the American south with a sharp increase in the demand for cotton laborers. The machine itself did indeed radically reduce the labor involved with processing the plant; the immediate effect was a sharp increase for more of it to increase profits to meet the increasing demand for it, along with the land needed to grow it, but it did not assist with the harvest, so more and more slaves were needed for this latter part of the operation. For example; there were six slave states in the year 1790. By 1860 that figure had more than doubled to 15. From 1790 to 1808, the year Congress banned the importation of African slaves; southern slave states had imported over 80,000 slaves and by 1860 about one out of every three Southerners were African. As a direct result of the invention of the cotton gin, it is regarded as the most important, albeit inadvertent, event leading up to the start of the American Civil War, which lasted four years, from 1861 through 1865, and cost at least a half a million American lives (with new estimates reaching three quarters of a million), along with at least a million non-lethal casualties.

This makes it by far the bloodiest conflict in the history of the United States—and it all started with the invention of a simple machine.

8 Bat Bombs

Pennsylvania dentist Lytle S. Adams was on vacation at the famous Carlsbad Caverns when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December, 1941. The caverns being the home of around a million bats Doctor Adams was very impressed with the animals. So, after hearing about the viscous attack on the radio, he was quick to come up with a very devious and quite unique plan of vengeance against the Japanese Empire—The Bat Bomb. In less than a month, on 12 January, 1942 he sent word of his plan to Washington—Incinerate Japanese cities by attaching minute incendiary bombs to tens of thousands of bats and let them loose over the skies of Japan (which were constructed primarily of wood and thatch by the way)! The doctor later recalled excitedly, “Think of thousands of fires breaking out simultaneously over a circle of forty miles in diameter for every bomb dropped! Japan could have been devastated, yet with small loss of life.”

It just so happened that Doctor Adams knew Eleanor Roosevelt so his plan managed to get a high-level audience with the military brass there. The National Research Defense Committee decided to accept his proposal and after some research decided to use the Mexican free-tailed bat and Doctor Adams et al. went to Washington with an unarmed dummy bomb to demonstrate the concept. The extremely complex design became known as “Project X-Ray” and the myriad of problems with the design would soon become evident when a hanger and an Army general’s car were set ablaze and burned. After this the Marines took the project over and soaked two million dollars into it. Soon afterwards, the project was dropped due to advancements with the Manhattan Project and the expected success of the atom bomb. This was quite fortunate for many Mexican free-tailed bats and Japanese civilians alike.

7 Urban Baby Window Cages

Imagine Mom, it’s 1922. It’s a scorching hot and horribly humid summer day in your tiny 30th floor apartment somewhere in Anytown U.S.A. (only 300 feet above the street below). Supper is in the oven so you can’t leave, and the elevators of the day are dangerous at best. It’s just you, your 3-year old son, and your 8-month old daughter who is miserably hot and Dad’s at work. So what to do with Susie? Suddenly you think, ‘I know! I’ll stick her out the window!’( I don’t think so!) Well, that is exactly what some parents used to do before the advent of air conditioning! In the late 19th century a one Doctor Luther Emett wrote a parenting book called, “Mental Floss” that suggested parents should “air out their kids” to “renew and purify their blood.” So what happened? Some brainiac came up with the idea of “airing out kids” in baby cages bolted to the outside of skyscrapers—and some people, parents, actually bought them! I mean what could possibly go wrong? Do I even need to state the obvious myriad of horrific possibilities from bird droppings to hail storms to loosening bolts? Needless to say these horrible contraptions, which were not much more than human chicken coops, neither caught on, nor “hung around”—the pun being totally intended.

6 Hydrogen Blimps

It is bad enough that inventors have always felt the need to burn things just to get them to work, but hydrogen blimps were ridiculous indeed, and are considered as one, if not the most dangerous inventions of all time. Take the rest of our mass transportation systems for example. Everything on land, sea, air, rail, and space uses volatile fuel of some kind, including electric vehicles, but at least they have fuel tanks and fuel cells that are well-protected from damage and thus the engineers have taken the danger of the fuel these vehicles use into account. Yet hydrogen blimps are nothing but glorified balloons with a frame, and to load passengers on them and take to the sky is ludicrous. Yet airships such as the Hindenburg illustrated this in the most horrific manner possible, even though dozens went down in the years before her. They crashed during fueling, they crashed during takeoff, they crashed in flight, they crashed while docking, and were lost in battle, so they literally failed in every aspect of their use. Nazi Germany had an excuse for using hydrogen since the United States wouldn’t sell her helium, which was very expensive so they couldn’t afford it, but what did that say about the “glory” of the fatherland? After 29 years of continuous loss of life and limb one would think that these airlines would have quickly make the switch to the much safer, yet more expensive helium, but as history shows, mankind is a stubborn lot indeed. Obviously blimps, or dirigibles, are still used today but not for mass transit, and all are required by law to use helium for lift.

Simply put, hydrogen-filled airships were an extremely dangerous form of transportation. For example; from 5 August, 1908 through 6 May, 1937 (the fateful day of the Hindenburg disaster) twenty-two airships crashed to the ground and burned. That is an average of 0.75 airships crashing per year for twenty-nine years, and the source list this information was derived from was only a partial list that did not include those airships lost in battles. So it is safe to say that more than one hydrogen airship was crashing to the ground and burning per year during this timeframe. If passenger planes were ever dropping from our skies at this alarming rate the industry simply would not exist today.

What were they thinking?

5 The Shoe-Fitting Fluoroscope

In Boston, Massachusetts, Doctor Jacob Lowe demonstrated a shoe-fitting fluoroscope in 1920 at a shoe retailer convention. He did so again in 1921 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He filed for a patent for it in 1919 and had it approved in 1927. The shoe-fitting fluoroscope utilizes X-rays to create moving images of the interior of an object in real-time so it is easy to imagine how fascinating it would be to children who would have such inexpensive and easy access to such technology—which would be fine if it wasn’t deadly. The selling point for this technology was nervous parents worrying about the damage caused by their kids wearing ill-fitting shoes. The problem was, not only was these machines ineffective at fitting shoes, but during a 20-second viewing the American-made machines delivered about 13 roentgens (0.13 sievert (Sv), and although British Pedoscopes were around 10 times less powerful they were still dangerous. Even though the radiation was directed towards the feet, much of it would scatter, radiating everyone around the machine. Sales persons are believed to receive up to a years’ worth of radiation exposure in just 2 hours! In addition to the little girl mentioned above there have been reports of other injuries such as dermatitis with ulcerations, burns requiring amputation, and basal cell carcinoma, with many more likely as late as 2004, and an untold number associated with these devices. These infernal machines were finally banned in 1970. For many, it was too little, too late.

4 The Brazen Bull

There was a beautiful bronze statue cast in ancient Greece that is said to have beheld a horrific and dark truth—a foreboding and murderous truth—it was the final truth that death always brings. It was the Brazen Bull invented by Perillos of Athens between 570 and 554 BC. The statue was commissioned during the reign of Phalaris, the evil tyrant of Acragas, in Sicily, who was notorious for such atrocities as eating newborn babies, as an exceptionally cruel torture device. The bull was cast hollow, and used with a fire built below. It was designed so it could be opened and a person placed inside, a fire started underneath, and as the person started to burn the smoke and steam would escape through the bull’s nose. Incense was placed inside to counteract the smell of burnt flesh. It is said that there was a series of tubes built into the statue designed to distort the screams of the victim making them sound like the animal it depicted. After the victim had burned away, the bones would be collected for bracelets that Phalaris would wear. When Phalaris wanted to test the sound system, he pushed Perillos into the very device he created and lit a fire, but released him before he died, only to kill him by heaving him down a steep incline. Ironically, Phalaris died by his own commissioned torture device when his reign ended after the city was taken by Telemachus in 554 BC and he was cooked in his own Brazen Bull. Talk about Karma.

3 The Tricho System

Marketed as an award-winning innovation, the “award” the Tricho System won was a “grand prize” and was sold by a man named Max Kaiser, a Londoner, who began selling the machines in 1914 to anyone with four-hundred dollars to spend. Making arrangements at one of the “International Exhibitions” of the time Kaiser more or less “guaranteed” the exhibit would win either a “gold medal” or a “grand prize.” In fact, quite dubiously, the manufacturer didn’t have to pay a fee to Kaiser until after this medal or prize was first awarded. The Tricho System won its prize on 19 October, 1925, at the Paris Exposition Generale Commercial. By the end of 1925 over 75 Tricho Systems were installed in beauty salons across the United States including Duluth and Minneapolis. These devices utilized direct X-ray beams to focus on the woman’s cheeks and upper lips to permanently remove unwanted hair. Most women would go through an average of twenty treatments apiece. Either small doses repeated over longer periods of time, or a single large dose could cause serious damage to facial tissue that wasn’t noticed at first, but would come back to haunt them as ailments such as keratoses, pigmentation, ulcerations, wrinkling atrophy, carcinoma, and even death started to occur. Over time the AMA collected dozens of case studies and alerted its members to the issue, and reports of injuries to women treated by Tricho System treatments appeared in medical literature well into the 1940’s.

Here is yet another case of man’s ignorance to the dangers of radiation. But again, along with other toxic substances such as radiation, hydrogen, and lead, it never ceases to amaze this writer how long things such as this persist before they are taken off the market. Take lead for instance—there are scholars who think the use of lead plumbing and pewter utensils in the Roman Empire may have facilitated their demise, yet the United States didn’t ban the use of lead-based paint, or leaded gasoline until 1978, and the fluoroscope mentioned above wasn’t banned until 1970. A more modern example is Teflon, which was banned from domestic production in 2014, yet it still can be imported as of this writing. When will we ever learn?

2 Agent Orange

Originally developed to simply enhance the growth of soy beans, Agent Orange (consisting of about equal amounts of dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, with small, variable proportions of tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) was weaponized and used extensively during the Vietnam War. Used in large quantities it was a powerful herbicide used by the United States to deforest the jungle and destroy Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army crops. Under the codename Operation Ranch Hand, the United States military sprayed upwards of twenty millions gallons of herbicides over Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia from 1961 through 1971, covering over 4.5 million acres. Containing the carcinogen dioxin, Agent Orange was the most used of these herbicides (13 of the 20 million total). Agent Orange was proven afterwards to cause very serious health problems for both the Vietnamese people and returning United States military personnel and their families. Among these were rashes, birth defects, severe neurological problems, psychological problems, and cancer. Notwithstanding are the immense environmental damage this military action has caused to the nation of Vietnam since that country has since reported that 400,000 of their people were maimed or killed by the abuse of these herbicides, and that 500,000 of their children have been born with birth defects caused by being exposed to Agent Orange. They also claim that as many as 2,000,000 of their citizenry have contracted cancer or some other form of illness due to the use of these dangerous chemicals in their country.

1 The Radium Girls

“Look Honey! A watch that glows in the dark!” This excited comment was undoubtedly repeated many times over and over a century ago, when excited shoppers first laid their eyes on watches and clocks with hands and dials that “magically” glowed brightly in the dark of night. But little did they know that this was a deadly and highly toxic “magic,” with horrifying consequences for the women making the magic happen. In 1916 the first plant to make these “magical” devices magic opened up in New Jersey and hired around 70 women. They would be the first in a wave of thousands to gain employment in similar plants across the United States in a good-paying, seemingly glamorous vocation.

The task of applying the very special glow-in-the-dark paint to the minute dials faces was both painstaking and very delicate, requiring a good eye, and plenty of manual dexterity, so the girls were instructed to wet their brushes with their lips to give them a good, sharp point. Therein was their downfall. The paint glowed so efficiently because it contained a not fully understood new element discovered only 20 years before called radium, and radium is highly radioactive. As it turned out the girls were swallowing it on a daily basis. In spite of this radium quickly turned into the craze of the day, ending up in everything from cosmetics and toothpaste to soft drinks and food items. The problem is, when one ingests radium the body mistakes it for calcium and incorporates it directly into bone tissue quickly causing radiation-induced bone necrosis and bone cancers.

One of the saddest aspects of this story is that the so-called “Radium Girls” didn’t rush into this blindly. They asked their employers whether or not the paint was harmful or not and were ensured that it wasn’t. In short, they were lied to, whether intentionally or by ignorance, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is what happened to many of these poor girls. The most insidious part of this is that it took years for the symptoms to show up making it hard to prove the cause of their problems, especially since radium gives the illusion of good health when ingested by stimulating red blood cells, when in reality you’re being slowly poisoned. At the time, radium was the most expensive substance on the planet costing a whopping 2.2 million dollars per gram in today’s money! Adding to the mystique of the job the Radium Girls were listed in their local phone directories as “artists” prompting them to get friends and family to seek employment with them.

Another sinister aspect to this whole thing, was that the radioactive dust created in the plant shimmered so brightly, that the girls would wear their finest dresses to work so they could be seen afterwards at their favorite speakeasies being the shiniest ones on the dance floor. Early in the 1920’s though, some of the Radium Girls began suffering from symptoms such as severe toothaches and fatigue, with the first known death happening in 1922 when Mollie Maggia died at only 22 after a year of pain. Even though her death certificate wrongly stated that she died of syphilis she was really suffering from what was called “radium jaw,” a condition that caused her entire lower jawbone ending up being so soft and brittle that her doctor simply lifted it off of her face! The radium was doing nothing less than drilling holes in her jawbone while she was still alive!

Fortunately, the Radium Girls did not suffer in vain. Their cause eventually changed labor laws for the better in the United States for all factory workers. As they should have.

10 Bizarre Inventions From The Victorian Era