The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson tells the story of several people in one of the most haunted houses in the country. The novel has recently been reworked as a hit series on Netflix; reports of viewers passing out with fear from watching the show have circulated.

SEE ALSO: 10 Truly Creepy Demonic Hauntings

The horror Jackson’s characters witnessed is a work of fiction. However, the following families all experienced something that felt very much real to them. These families were driven from their own homes, leaving behind a legacy of pure fear.

10 The Smurl Family

When Janet and Jack Smurl first moved into their family home on Chase Street in West Pittson, Pennsylvania, they knew it was a fixer-upper. The property needed repainting and refixing, but what they didn’t know was that the renovations would be the least of their problems.

Over a period of 13 years, they were tormented by the ghosts that haunted the place. Janet also believed she was molested in her sleep by a demon, and Jack said he was sexually attacked by an unknown force as he watched a baseball game on TV. They also witnessed the family dog being thrown violently against the wall.

Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren identified four ghosts at the property—a harmless old lady, a violent young girl, a man who had died in the home, and a demon who controlled the other three spirits. In 1987, the Smurl family had had enough of the attacks, and they fled their home with no intention to return.^[1]

9 The Perron Family

The real-life haunting of the Perron family was so terrifying it inspired the 2013 horror film The Conjuring. In 1970, Carolyn and Roger Perron, along with their five young children, moved into a farmhouse in Rhode Island known as the Old Arnold Estate, built in 1736. The previous occupant issued them a cold warning: “For the sake of your family, leave the lights on at night!”

The disturbances began almost immediately. Carolyn was awoken in the middle of the night by the ghost of an old, gray lady named Bathsheba, whose head hung loosely. The apparition warned the family to leave. The children also bonded with the spirit of a little boy they affectionately named “Manny,” who watched them through the windows as they played outside. Then there were the malevolent spirits that tossed them out of bed, pulled at their legs, and filled the house with the smell of rotting flesh many mornings at 5:15 AM.

To this day, the Perron family struggle to talk about what happened. Andrea Perron, now a grown woman, said, “Let’s just say there was a very bad male spirit in the home—with five little girls.”^[2]

8 The Enfield Poltergeist

Between 1977 and 1979, there was one ghost story that gripped the world—the Enfield Poltergeist. At 284 Green Street in Enfield, England, sat a suburban family home on a quiet street. Within this home, single mother Peggy Hodgson and her two young daughters were tormented by a violent poltergeist.

Sisters 13-year-old Margaret and 11-year-old Janet complained of menacing voices, loud banging, and chairs being overturned in the house. Janet would also become possessed and speak in a deep, demon-like voice belonging to 72-year-old Bill Wilkins, who had previously died at the house.

Press photographer Graham Morris, who was asked to report on the disturbances, recalled, “I thought it was an ordinary job until I walked into the house.” Morris managed to capture a famous photograph of young Janet purportedly levitating out of her bed as her face twists in horror.^[3]

7 The Lemp Family Curse

Built in 1868, the Lemp Mansion in Benton Park, St. Louis, Missouri, boasted a cave where the Lamp family brewed their own beer. In 1901, William J. Lemp was left devastated when his fourth son Frederick Lemp died of ill health. In 1904, William committed suicide by gunshot, and William J. “Billy” Lemp, Jr. took over the family business.

In 1920, Elsa Lemp Wright, the youngest Lemp child, shot herself following her divorce. As a result of Prohibition, the family brewery was sold at auction after hitting hard times, and Billy Jr. also shot himself in 1922. Years later, in 1949, Charles Lemp, the third son, shot himself in the head after killing the dog. The only surviving son, Edwin Lemp, died of natural causes, and his dying wish was for every family heirloom to be destroyed.

Not surprisingly, the Lemp Mansion, now a restaurant and inn, is said to be haunted.^[4] One legend is that there was another Lemp son who was born deformed and hidden away in the attic—his spirit is believed to haunt and torment the house.

6 The Snedeker Family

The Snedeker House inspired the book and horror film The Haunting in Connecticut due to its chilling legacy. In 1986, the Snedeker family—Allen and Carmen, their three sons and daughter, and two nieces—moved into the house on Meriden Avenue, Southington, Connecticut. While exploring their new home, Carmen found mortician’s tools in the basement, and she soon discovered that the property was once a funeral home.

It wasn’t long before their eldest son experienced visions of evil spirits, and both parents claimed to have been sexually attacked by demons. Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren agreed that the Snedeker house was infested with demons. Since the family moved from the home, there have been no further reports of any paranormal activity; it is believed that the evil within was drawn to the family rather than the house itself.^[5]

5 The McPike Mansion

Alton in Madison County, Illinois, is considered one of the most haunted places in the United States, as many ghost stories plague this town. However, one building stands out among the rest—the McPike Mansion. Businessman Henry McPike built the 16-bedroom mansion on Alby Street for his family in 1869.

In the 1900s, the mansion was sold to Paul Laichinger, who rented the rooms to boarders. However, those who did stay here soon began to hear strange noises, including children talking and laughing together, although children weren’t on the grounds.

Following the death of Laichinger in 1945, the mansion sat vacant until 1994, when Sharyn and George Luedke purchased the property as a restoration project. Sharyn soon noticed that a ghost-like man would stare at her from the window as she was gardening. Other disturbances included orbs being caught on camera and heavy metal doors opening on their own. Ghost hunters have confirmed that the most paranormally active room in the house is the wine cellar.^[6]

4 The Sprague Mansion

In the mid-1800s, Lucy Chase Sprague lost her fortune and died penniless at the Sprague Mansion on Cranston Street in Cranston, Rhode Island. The property has stood with a dark cloud over it ever since. In 1967, Robert and Viola Lynch moved into the 28-bedrooom mansion that featured its very own creepy Doll Room.

In the late 1960s, night watchman Bob Lynch Jr. and a few of his friends had the blankets thrown off their beds. Using a makeshift Ouija board, they contacted a ghost that spelled out: “Tell my story!” Another entity that haunts the place is a ghost by the name of Amasa Sprague, whose body was discovered bludgeoned to death close to the house in 1843.

Since the Lynch family moved away, paranormal experts who have visited the mansion captured the dolls’ eyes in the Doll Room moving on camera. The wine cellar is also a place of much paranormal activity, including orbs and unexplained lights.^[7]

3 The Danny LaPlante Killings

In January 1987, teenagers Annie and Jessica Andrews heard loud knocking sounds coming from their bedroom walls. They also found blood-red writing on the walls: “I’m back. Find me if you can.” The girls had recently lost their mother and believed there was a spirit trying to make contact. When the girl’s father found a young boy standing in the house wearing a dress belonging to his deceased wife and holding a hatchet, he chased him from the house. Police later found a crawl space in the house and that the “ghost” was 17-year-old Daniel LaPlante.

Following a short sentence in a juvenile detention center, La Plante was released, and he turned his attention to a different family. On December 1, 1987, he assaulted and shot 33-year-old Priscilla Gustafson and then drowned her children, seven-year-old Abigail and five-year-old William, in their family home in Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. He was sentenced to life behind bars for his horrendous, deplorable actions.^[8]

2 The Lutz Family

On November 13, 1974, at 112 Ocean Drive, Amityville, Long Island, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. murdered his parents, two brothers, and two sisters with a .35-caliber rifle while they slept peacefully in their beds. Butch claimed he was tormented by voices that ordered him to kill his family.

A year later, George and Kathleen Lutz moved into the Amityville house with their three children after purchasing the five-bedroom property for a low price. George reportedly then began to awaken at 3:15 AM every day—around the time Butch was known to have massacred his family. They also saw a pig-like creature with red eyes staring from the windows of the house, and the young children would levitate from their beds.

Both George and Kathleen passed lie detector tests about what they experienced in the home, and eventually, they fled from the property. 112 Ocean Drive is still known as one of the most haunted houses in America.^[9]

1 The Winchester Mystery House

Located at 525 South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California, is the Winchester House, which was first built in 1884. Following the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester, and with a $1,000-a-day inheritance at hand (the average daily wage at the time was $1.50), Sarah Winchester sought the help of a spiritualist to deal with her grief. Sarah had also lost her only daughter when she was just six weeks old.

The spiritualist warned Sarah that she was cursed and advised her to “build a home for [herself] and for the spirits.” The spirits in question were said to be those killed by Winchester rifles. Sarah sold her home in New Haven, Connecticut, and began work on the Winchester House. “If you continue building, you will live. Stop and you will die,” advised the spiritualist.

Every day for 38 years, Sarah continued building.^[10] The property ended up with 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, trap doors, secret passages, and staircases that lead to nowhere. The labyrinth-like mansion attracts paranormal experts from all around the world.

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

Ed and Lorraine Warren were a husband-and-wife team who became world-renowned paranormal investigators following probes into high-profile cases like The Amityville Horror, the Annabelle doll, and certain spooky events that inspired the Conjuring series.

In 1952, the Warrens founded the oldest ghost hunting group in New England. They also wrote numerous books on their paranormal investigations and developed personal insights into thousands of paranormal cases throughout their career. On April 18, 2019, Lorraine Warren died peacefully in her sleep at age 92. Ed Warren had preceded her in death in 2006 at age 79.

These are their most chilling cases from a history based on discovering the true evil that lurks in people’s homes.

10 The Perron Family

In 1970, the Perron family moved into an old farmhouse in Rhode Island. It wasn’t long before their dream home became their worst nightmare. Carolyn, Roger, and their five children witnessed a tall woman in a gray dress roaming the house. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated the home and discovered that the woman was a 19th-century witch named Bathsheba who had sacrificed her baby to the Devil before hanging herself from a tree in the backyard.

Bathsheba was a constant penetrating force in the house and fought with Carolyn for dominance. Carolyn’s daughter Andrea recalls, “[Bathsheba] loathed my mother, and she lusted after my father. My mother was never allowed to resume her rightful position as mistress of the house.”

Andrea added, “It wanted to be the dominating force, and we fought it for a long time. I guess we know who won, as [we] left and [the ghost] is still there.”^[1]

9 Annabelle

Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Occult Museum is a permanent home to the Annabelle doll which is kept in a special protected case. In 1970, this Raggedy Ann doll was given to 28-year-old Donna, and it wasn’t long before she and her roommate noticed that Annabelle was moving around the apartment on its own. They also found random notes scrawled on parchment that read: “Help Us.”

At first, they thought this was all a prank. But when events worsened, they decided to call in a medium. During the seance, they were able to contact a spirit named Annabelle, who had died when she was seven years old.

Ed and Lorraine heard of this and warned the women that a demonic presence was manipulating the doll in a bid to find a human host. After the Warrens witnessed Annabelle levitating, they removed the doll permanently from the apartment and placed her in the sealed glass case at their museum. In 2020, social
media abounded with rumors that Annabelle had escaped the museum, but this was later determined to be a hoax—the fault of a poorly translated story into Chinese^[2]

8 Snedeker House

In 1986, the Snedeker family moved from New York to Connecticut so they could be closer to the hospital that was treating their eldest son for cancer. Unfortunately, the family home on Meriden Avenue in Southington that they purchased was a former funeral home, although they had to make this chilling discovery on their own.

After renovations on the house were complete, Carmen Snedeker entered the basement for the first time. There, she found embalming equipment and body tags with the names of the deceased.

The family soon realized that the house was infested with demons. Carmen witnessed the water in her mop bucket turning a different color. She recalled, “The mop water was blood red. I mean a deep, deep red. It made my skin crawl.” The middle son said, “The lights were coming on and off and on and off even though there was no bulbs in it.”^[3]

Ed and Lorraine Warren assisted in performing an exorcism on the house which has brought closure to the family. Since then, no further paranormal activity has occurred. The Snedeker family remained in the house for two more years before they relocated to Tennessee. It is still a private residence, but people have been known to stop by and look at the property from a distance.

7 Enfield Poltergeist

The Enfield Poltergeist terrorized a small London house in the Enfield suburb. Between 1977 and 1979, single parent Peggy Hodgson and her two daughters—Margaret, 13, and Janet, 11—experienced furniture being thrown around, small objects flying across rooms, and picture frames falling from the walls. The children would find themselves levitating out of their beds. These paranormal events were witnessed by their neighbors, journalists, and even police officers.

The younger daughter, Janet, had also begun speaking in a deep masculine voice which was believed to be the spirit of an old man. The family had received a lot of negative attention in the press as the young girls were accused of “attention-seeking behavior.”^[4]

When Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated, they found it was a case of “demonic possession.” Janet later admitted that she had played with a Ouija board before the disturbances had begun and that she was unaware that she fell into the trances until she was later shown the photographs. The family continued to live in the house even as people attempted to debunk the story as only a money-making plot. Mary Hodgson died in 2003, and her daughter, Janet, still believes the possession actually occurred.

6 The Donovan Family

In the early 1970s, Ed and Lorraine Warren met with the terrified Donovan family at their house. On arrival, the Warrens witnessed loud pounding coming from inside the walls, peeling wallpaper, water running blood red, and beast-like noises echoing throughout the home.

The Warrens questioned the Donovan family. Had they purchased any unusual secondhand items or had a family member passed away recently? Nothing was discovered until the youngest daughter, Patty, made her confession. She had used a Ouija board to communicate with a “teenage boy” who had died in the neighborhood 10 years earlier. The spirit never revealed his name to Patty, and the Warrens knew this was more than likely a demonic entity disguised as the boy.

The Warrens immediately called for a priest. Following an exorcism, life inside the Donovan home slowly returned to normal. Ted Donovan’s brother, who was a witness to the possession and the exorcism, wrote in a report: “I, nor anyone else in my family, have ever before witnessed anything so weird and terrifying.”^[5]

5 Smurl Family

In 1974, the Smurl family went through their own personal hell after moving to West Pittson, Pennsylvania. Janet and Jack Smurl, their young daughters, and Jack’s parents all lived in the house together and suffered the worst 13 years of their lives.

The paranormal activity began when their home renovations were found to be destroyed. New wallpaper peeled from the walls, freshly painted windows cracked, strange odors filled every room, and disturbing voices were heard throughout the house. Janet even revealed that she was molested one night in her sleep by a malevolent force.

The Smurls were terrified and decided to contact Ed and Lorraine Warren for help. Lorraine discovered that the Smurl family home was infested with four spirits— a harmless elderly woman, an old man who had died at the house, a young and violent girl, and a demon that controlled the other spirits and had turned them against the family.^[6]

The incidents stopped by October 1986 and the family moved back to Wilkes-Barre in 1988. Reportedly, a church-sanctioned exorcism took place there, and the property has been cleared of all activity ever since.

4 Demon Murder Trial

In 1981, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson fatally stabbed his landlord, 40-year-old Alan Bono, with a pocketknife more than 20 times. It was the first murder to have occurred in Brookline, Connecticut, in 193 years.

Shortly before the murder, Johnson had moved in with his girlfriend and her brother David who claimed he was being tormented by a demon. The family of Johnson’s girlfriend called in the help of Ed and Lorraine Warren.

They performed an exorcism on David, which successfully expelled 42 demons in his body. During the exorcism, Johnson dared the demons to enter his body instead. One month later—with no history of violence—he killed Bono in cold blood.

In court, Johnson’s claimed that he was not guilty by reason of demonic possession. However, he was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and received a sentence of 20 years. He only served five years due to good behavior.^[7]

3 Union Cemetery

There are many eyewitness accounts of the “White Lady” who haunts the Union Cemetery in Easton, Connecticut. It is known as one of the most haunted cemeteries in the United States.

The White Lady has also been seen walking in front of people’s cars as they drive along Route 59 late at night. Concerned drivers believed that they had hit a person and exited their vehicles only to discover that nobody was there. The “White Lady” name came from witnesses saying she wore either a white gown or what appeared to be a wedding dress.

In 1990, Ed and Lorraine Warren set up their cameras in the cemetery to record the investigation. Shortly after 2:40 AM, they heard the sound of a woman weeping, and a female form had begun to move several feet in their direction. As Ed approached the woman, she vanished from sight.^[8]

Nowadays, the cemetery is known to close after sunset.

2 The Demonic Werewolf in London

Bill Ramsey was considered “living proof” that werewolves really do exist. Born in Southend-on-Sea, England, Ramsey recalled an event in childhood in which he felt “strange” before a powerful rage came over him, and he was able to uproot an entire fence. As an adult, he would witness his face transforming into a wolf and his hands twisting into claws.

Ed and Lorraine Warren became involved when London police officers reported being attacked by a werewolf. Ed said:

This was the first case of lycanthropy that we had ever come across. I interviewed the police officers that this man actually attacked. Now he stands about [170 centimeters (5’7″)] and weighs about [68 kilograms (150 lb)]. But he would take some of these [police officers] who were well over [183 centimeters (6’0″)], and he would throw them around like they were kindling wood.^[9]

In 1989, the Warrens convinced Ramsey to come to their church in Connecticut and undergo an exorcism. During the event, Ramsey’s face contorted, and he launched at the exorcist. Then all was calm, and the exorcism was a success. Since then, there have been no more incidents recorded.

1 The Amityville Horror

On November 13, 1974, at 3:15 AM, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. killed his parents and siblings with a .35-caliber rifle while they slept peacefully in their beds. Butch later told the police, “Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. It went so fast.”

The following year, the Lutz family moved into the house on Ocean Drive in Amityville. A priest was called to bless the house, and he warned the family, “Do not use the upstairs room as a bedroom, and do not let anyone sleep in there.”

Within days, they knew something was wrong. Their young daughter made an imaginary friend with a red-eyed pig, foul odors filled each room, furniture levitated, and banging occurred throughout the night. Finally, they fled from the house.

When Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated, they discovered that the land had been used previously by a practicing black magician. He had requested to be buried on the land and remains there to this day.

Kathy Lutz said, “Things of this nature happen quite frequently, and when they happen to families, they usually close the door, and they don’t talk about it; and unless these things are talked about, they’ll never be understood.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsX9HMzWg_E” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>^[10]

Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. She can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 157 centimeters (5’2″) or at home reading true crime magazines. You can follow her on Twitter.

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

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

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

10 Radiation After The Explosion Was Off The Scale

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

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

9 A Late Evacuation

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

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

8 Contamination Spreads To Other Countries

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

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

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

7 Military Reserves Made Their Own Protective Clothing

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

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

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

6 Doctors Facing Mortality

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

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

5 The Buried Villages

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

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

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

4 Puppies Of Chernobyl

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

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

3 Birth Defects Among The Children Of Chernobyl

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

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

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

2 Contaminated Wildlife

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

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

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

1 Chernobyl Directors Sentenced To Labor Camp

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

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

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

Throughout history, people have held a special fascination for haunted paintings. There is just something about certain artworks that naturally lend themselves to speculation of the supernatural. The eyes that seem to follow you or the inexplicable feeling that the subject could jump out at any minute and claim you as their next victim.

“The Hands Resist Him” is a painting that has garnered much attention for allegedly being haunted. One look at the 36″ x 24″ oil on canvas, and it is easy to see why.^[1] A young boy stands next to a life-size, hollow-eyed doll while mysterious hands press against the glass panels of the doors behind them. The imagery is designed to suggest otherworldly connections, but many believe that there is more to it. The painting has a disturbing history, one that was modernized by the media and the use of the popular selling platform eBay. Here are 10 facts about this disturbing painting, so you can decide for yourself: haunted is it or an urban legend?

Related: 10 Terrifying Haunted And Creepy Mask Stories

10 The Artist

“The Hands Resist Him” was painted by William Stoneham. In 1972, Stoneham’s work was contracted by Charles Feingarten Galleries for two years. Afterward, Stoneham made his debut at a one-man show in 1974. Henry Seldis, an art critic for The Los Angeles Times, wrote, “William Stoneham’s paintings are at their best when at their weirdest. In those instances, the young artist comes close to inventing the first truly neo-surrealist painting I have encountered to date that extends the surrealist fantasies into the contemporary realm. The best works here deserve the attention of collectors devoted to traditional surrealism without objecting to a good many new and startling twists.” Only one of Stoneham’s paintings sold in the show: “The Hands Resist Him.” The sale marked the beginning of the painting’s chilling story.

Stoneham put his art career on hold in 1984 to work in the film and computer game industries, securing work with Christoper Walas, ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), and then, in 1992, LucasArts Entertainment. But he eventually returned to his art. His “newest work is an exploration of figurative and textural concepts influenced by the urban environment and the social/political forces at work in our world.” Using various mediums in his art, he evokes a sense of despair and fright. Stoneham’s art can be viewed on Fine Art America and his website, Stoneham Studios.^[2]

9 The Inspiration

The inspiration for “The Hands Resist Him” came from an old photograph and a poem. The photograph was one of Stoneham at the age of five when he and his adoptive family stayed at his grandmother’s tiny Chicago apartment. Stoneham used the photo as a reference for the boy in the painting. In addition, a poem, written in 1971 by Stoneham’s first wife, Rhoann Ponseti, served as inspiration for the painting’s title.

Stoneham also credits his long-held connection to Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious as a source of inspiration. The theory states that humans are born with a collection of knowledge inherited from “the past collective experience of humanity,” which leads them to hold “a number of deep-seated beliefs and instincts, such as spirituality, sexual behavior, and life and death instincts.”. But they can only access it in times of crisis and dreams. In Stoneham’s own words: “the hands are ‘the other lives.’ The glass door, that thin veil between waking and dreaming. The girl/doll is the imagined companion, or guide through this realm.”^[3]

8 The Auction

“The Hands Resist Him” was listed on eBay in February 2000. The listing, titled “Haunted Painting,” caused a sensation. In mere hours, the painting’s story and link were shared all over the internet. The eBay listing racked up more than 30,000 views before its sale.

Beginning with a grim warning, the listing detailed the supernatural occurrences that had plagued them since bringing the painting into their home. The sellers also included pictures as proof of their claims. Their efforts paid off when “the bidding price of the painting shot up—from the first bid of $199 to a final price of $1050 in just 30 days.” A transcript of the listing can be found on BBC (follow the link at the bottom of the article “See more pictures and read the ad >>>”).^[4]

The auction marked a new nickname for the painting: “eBay’s haunted painting.” An excerpt from the listing reads:

“When we received this painting, we thought it was really good art…At the time we wondered a little why a seemingly perfectly fine painting would be discarded like that (today we don’t!). One morning our four and a half year-old daughter claimed that the children in the picture were fighting and coming into the room during the night.”

7 The Media

“The Hands Resist Him” has become an “internet legend.” Not only does the painting have its own page on Facebook, Wikipedia, and Stoneham Studios, it’s also been the subject of online articles, podcasts, and discussion forums. The media latched onto the haunted aspect of the painting and further spurred interest in the artwork—and the urban legend. The first article, “The eBay Haunted Painting,” was published on BBC in July 2002. Three more followed: The Daily Dot on October 31, 2013, The Line-Up in June 2018, and STSW Media in March 2019.

The painting was mentioned in a movie review on CNN in February 2019, then on the Crawlspace podcast in December 2019, and the Empty Frames podcast in February 2020. Additionally, “followers of 4chan’s paranormal portal /x/, Reddit’s r/creepy, Encyclopedia Dramatica’s creepypasta wiki, and other corners of the web devoted to the unsettling and unexplainable truly believe that the painting is haunted.” The painting has even inspired a round of memes.^[5]

6 The Book

In May 2016, Darren Kyle (D.K.) O’Neil published “a dramatized account of the notoriously haunted artwork” called The Hands Resist Him: Be Careful What you Bid For. O’Neil’s book introduces a young fictional family as the winning bidders as well as a detective who finds a connection between the haunted painting and his investigation into a 28-year-old open case of a serial killer known as “The Life Swapper.” The book is available on Amazon and currently has a four-star rating. There is a film adaption of O’Neil’s book in the works.^[6]

O’Neil also had a supernatural experience with the painting:

“I first saw it online when I was living in Dubai. I printed it out and left it on a side table next to some other documents printed on the same printer with the same paper. Anyway, I went to Italy for a month. When I came back, the air conditioning had gone awry, everything was green mold. The TV, bed sheets, my daughter’s cot and clothing, all of my suits in the closet, and the documents I had printed all green. But right next to them, the only thing that was perfectly untouched was the printout of the painting.”^[7]

5 The Reactions

Many people experienced unexplained physical sensations after viewing the haunted painting. One eBay buyer claimed that “he fainted at the sight of the painting” while another “said she felt like her throat was being tightened by an external grip.” A buyer said that his monitor went white and emitted a blast of heat as soon as he looked at the painting. He also started crying for no reason. Someone heard an Exorcist-type voice, and another reported a “new Epson printer that ate and mutilated page after page when the user tried to download images of the painting.”

Viewers also mentioned difficulty breathing, becoming ill, or general discomfort, while some parents said their children grew unruly and started to scream at the sight of the painting. Jupiknight wrote on Reddit on August 23, “I still refuse to look at/study this picture more than like, 5 seconds…It creeps me the f––k out.” In reply, snoos_my_dog added, “I actually purchased a print of this painting from his website. I put it on display in my living room and man, that thing made everyone who saw it uncomfortable…People actually would stop coming over because of it. I ended up taking it down due to popular demand.”^[8]

4 The Gun

A major selling point in the eBay auction was the seller’s description of events. As the story goes, the sellers kept the painting in their 4½-year-old daughter’s bedroom. One morning, the girl claimed that the subjects of the painting “did not let her sleep at night.” Her parents set up a motion sensor camera and captured some truly terrifying supernatural activity.

The photographs showed the boy crawling from the painting “as if he’d been threatened by the doll.” In others, the doll’s face appears to be angry, and she is holding a gun in her hand “instead of the dry cell which was painted in the original.”^[9]

3 The Deaths

“The Hands Resist Him” is said to be responsible for the deaths of three men who were close to the painting at the time of its first sale. The first was Henry Seldis in 1978, the art critic who wrote a review of Stoneham’s work at his debut art show in 1974. According to authorities at the time, they believed Seldis committed suicide after being found dead in his apartment. The next was Charles Feingarten, the man who contracted Stoneham’s work and whose gallery served as the location of the art show; Feingarten passed in 1981. Lastly, the first owner was actor John Marley who died in 1984 after having open-heart surgery, though he sold the painting before his death. Marley was best known for his part in the movie, The Godfather—he’s the one who wakes up in bed with the horse’s head.

After the deaths of these three men, the painting disappeared until it was found by the same family who would later sell it on eBay. When told of this 26 years later, Stoneham brushed it off as a coincidence. Though Stoneham has said of the painting, we “live in an age of science of revelation and hard realities and hard facts, but we are still drawn to the mysterious…And what is more mysterious than paintings? More than any other object, paintings are a one-of-a-kind thing created by someone using their hands.”^[10]

2 The Current Location

The winning bidder of “eBay’s haunted painting” was gallery owner Kim Smith. The painting presently resides in the back room of Smith’s Perception Fine Art Gallery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Its current resting place is the result of a request from Smith’s sons, who didn’t “want to keep ‘the most haunted painting in the world’ in their family home.”

Smith has only publically shown the haunted painting six times. Though he has yet to experience anything supernatural, he has received many prayers “and quotes from the scriptures from a man of faith. Advice as to how to cleanse my residence of this evil thing from a Native American Shaman in Mississippi,” as well as reports “of people being repulsed, made physically ill, or suffering from blackout/ mind control experiences.” Smith has no plans to sell the painting, despite receiving a low six-figure offer recently. “‘Nothing has ever been to the point where I would consider serious,’ he said. ‘It’s kind of got its own mystique that’s growing here.’”^[11]

1 The Sequels (and Prequel)

“The Hands Resist Him” has three sequels and a prequel. The first two sequels were commissioned by a private collector. “Resistance at the Threshold,” 2004, depicts the boy and the doll after many years have passed. They are standing at the glass door, but the boy has become an old man, and the doll has become, well, something else. The second sequel, “Threshold of Revelation,” 2012, continues the progression of the old man and doll, this time in a new location.

The prequel and final sequel were painted more recently. “The Hands Invent Him,” 2017, was also commissioned and portrays the young boy on the other side of the glass door. The third sequel, “What Remains,” 2021, serves to complete the series. The sequels and a prequel can be viewed on Stoneham Studios and Fine Art America. No similar happenings have been reported for these paintings, and they do not seem to inspire the same amount of disturbing reactions or internet buzz.^[12]

Tragedies such as bombings, wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and personal calamities have left a permanent dent in history’s timeline. As modern generations navigate their own catastrophes, the events of yesteryear still echo, demanding never to be forgotten.

On this list are haunting images taken during and after terrible tragedies. They reflect the severe impact of these events at the time and in the years to come.

Warning: Some images may disturb sensitive viewers.

10 Shadows Remain After Bodies Are ‘Vaporized’ During Nuclear Blast

When the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, people were going about their day not knowing the terror at hand. The intense heat from the blast caused “shadows” to be burned into nearby surfaces, reflecting the object that had been there mere seconds before.^[1]

This happened with human victims as well. Their likenesses were burned into the walls or surfaces closest to where they were standing or sitting when the blast occurred. This picture is the last reminder of a man who had been sitting or walking on the stairs as the bomb hit. For more sobering facts nearly lost to time, read 10 Facts Everyone Forgets About World War II.

9 Monument To Commemorate Fallen New Zealand Soldiers

Two years after the fierce Battle of the Somme during World War I, New Zealand soldiers erected a massive cross in memory of the comrades who had lost their lives during the fighting.^[2] This photo depicts two of these soldiers digging a hole in which to erect the monument.

Surprisingly, there have also been people who have erected monuments to their foes. Read more at 10 Times People Erected Public Monuments To Their Enemies.

8 Listening For Signs Of Life

On December 28, 1959, part of the Coalbrook mine just outside Sasolburg in the Free State, South Africa, collapsed, injuring one miner. A mine inspector was called in. He visited the site within two weeks but was not told of the incident. His report didn’t show any abnormalities inside the mine.

Tragically, on January 21, 1960, Section 10 of the mine collapsed piece by piece while 1,000 miners were underground. 435 miners remained trapped after the rest were able to escape.^[3]

This picture depicts rescue workers sinking sound equipment into the shaft to try to hear signs of life from the trapped miners. Rescue efforts continued in vain for two weeks. On February 5, 1960, it was decided that all efforts should be stopped. All 435 miners died underground, and their bodies were never brought to the surface.

Unfortunately, horrific fatal accidents have occurred aboveground, too. Read about some of the most frightening in Top 10 Freak Airplane Incidents And Accidents.

7 More Than 900 Drink Laced ‘Kool-Aid’ At The Behest Of A Crazy Cult Leader

On November 19, 1978, Jim Jones murdered more than 900 people in Guyana. He gave them cyanide-laced Flavor Aid to drink after telling them to synchronize their watches.^[4]

The result was mass death rivaled only by the events of 9/11. This grim picture is a reminder of how easy it is for charismatic psychopaths to infiltrate the minds of vulnerable people. Even so, there are some angles to this story that point in another direction. To learn more, check out 10 Things That Don’t Quite Add Up About The Jonestown Massacre.

6 If I Fail, He Dies

In an image eerily reminiscent of the situation the world is currently facing, this picture depicts Red Cross volunteers making face masks during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.^[5]

The pandemic lasted from January 1918 to December 1920 and resulted in the deaths of over 50 million people worldwide. One can only imagine the type of determination that resulted from the poster stuck against the flag in the background. Unfortunately, this is not the only pandemic the world has faced. Read more at Top 10 Deadly Pandemics Of The Past.

5 Walking Into Disaster

The image on the left shows the crew on their way to board the Space Shuttle Challenger for their mission to space on January 28, 1986. They look happy, excited, and obviously completely unaware that they will not return alive. Or at all.^[6]

Seventy-three seconds after the launch of the Challenger, the spacecraft broke apart in the air, killing all aboard. To discover more about space catastrophes, read 10 Horrific Disasters Of The Space Program.

4 Leaving War Only To Find Heartbreak

After surviving the devastation of World War II, this unnamed German soldier couldn’t wait to return home.^[7]

Tragically, as he arrives at the place he once called home, he finds nothing but burned remains of the structure. Then he learns that his entire family died after air raids by Allied forces. Get your tissues ready before you click to read more heartbreaking tales in 10 Incredibly Tragic Stories Surrounding Devastating Wars.

3 Soldiers Horrified By Footage Of Concentration Camps

Although many Germans were aware of the mass slayings of Jewish people during the Holocaust, it is believed that some did not know about the atrocities in concentration camps. By the beginning of 1945, an estimated 1.1 million people had been killed at Auschwitz.^[8]

This image reflects the horror that some German soldiers (who were prisoners of war) experienced after being forced to watch footage from the concentration camps in 1945. Despite all the tragedy, there was still some hope as told in 10 Remarkable People Who Escaped From Auschwitz.

2 Punishment For Not Meeting Daily Quota

During the reign of King Leopold II of Belgium in Congo, the man in this picture, Nsala, failed to reach his daily rubber collection quota in 1904. As punishment, the Belgian overseers cut off his five-year-old daughter’s hand and foot.^[9]

Nsala is staring at the dismembered remains here. The overseers then killed his daughter and wife and cannibalized both. If you want to know more about the atrocities that occurred in the Congo Free State under Leopold’s rule, click on 10 Horrifying Facts About The Genocide In The Congo Free State.

1 Barely Alive

This disturbing photograph is just one piece of evidence of the atrocities that occurred in the Andersonville Prison, eventually known as the worst prisoner-of-war camp ever in the US. Soldiers were fed regularly; prisoners were not.^[10]

The man in this image, a Union Army soldier, barely survived the Andersonville Prison after wasting away from hunger during the US Civil War. He was eventually released in May 1865. You can read more about Andersonville at Top 10 Infamous Wartime Prisons.

Photographs tell a story, whether intentionally or not. Sometimes small details only come to light after a photograph has been developed or, in modern times, after it has been looked at several times on a smartphone and an obscure detail makes itself clear in the background. Other times, a photograph looks perfectly normal but its backstory or events that took place after it was taken is filled with horror.

10 Stories Behind Incredible Pulitzer Prize–Winning Photographs

10 Mountain of skulls

Between 1800 and 1900, American bison were hunted by American settlers who had a seemingly unquenchable bloodthirst for the animals. Cross-country trains were packed with hunters who would aim at the bison from the windows and kill several in one go. Once the bison were down, the hunters would get out, skin them, and cut out their tongues. The remains of the bison were left to decompose in the hot sun.

Between 1872 and 1874, one railroad business shipped half a million bison hides east and eventually the bison population was almost decimated. Their numbers dwindled to mere hundreds from what was estimated to be between 30-60 million.

This photograph captured the aftermath of the horrific slaughter. It depicts a mountain of bison skulls in the Midwest during the mid-1870s.

Fortunately, conservationists, indigenous tribes, ranchers, and many more made a concerted effort to save the bison from extinction and today there are estimated to be 500,000 in the US.

9 Still missing

Devonte Hart was one of six children adopted by Jennifer and Sarah Hart.

Hart took part in a demonstration against police violence in Portland in 2014 and was photographed hugging a white police officer, anguish etched on his face. The picture went viral on various platforms and the young boy was thrust into the spotlight.

The palpable emotion visible on the boy’s face in the photo, took on a whole new meaning in March 2018 when the world woke up to the news that the Hart family’s SUV had gone over a cliff in California. All the members of the family were in the car at the time, and police believed that the driver, Jennifer, went over the cliff intentionally. Five bodies were recovered at the time. Later, Ciera’s body (one of the six children) was recovered and remains of Hannah Hart were found on a beach in May 2018.

It was subsequently found that Jennifer was under the influence of alcohol while driving and that Sarah was in the passenger seat looking up different ways to end one’s life. One of the searches included “How long does it take to die from hypothermia while drowning in a car?”

During the ensuing investigation, terrible details of the Hart’s family life came to light. There have been allegations of child abuse and one of the family’s neighbors told a news channel that the 15-year-old Devonte would often come to her home, asking for food. She went on to say that Jennifer and Sarah Hart would starve the children as punishment and forbid them to go outside. Devonte Hart’s body has never been found.

8 Tree of baby graves

In South Sulawesi, Indonesia, lives an ethnic group called the Toraja who practise animism. They believe that non-human entities including fauna, flora and sometimes inanimate objects possess a ‘spirit.’ The group also practise intricate funeral rites which in itself are occasions for families to gather and the rest of the villagers to participate in these events and reaffirm their commitment to ancient beliefs and traditions.

Some of these funeral events last several days at a time as several ceremonies must be held. Because the average Torajan family would lack the money required to cover funeral costs, it sometimes takes months to years before the ceremonies are held. In the meantime, the deceased is embalmed and kept under the same roof as their family. When they are eventually buried and the ceremonies have been completed, the deceased would be placed in a beautiful coffin and interred in caves or suspended from a cliff.

When a baby dies, they are not buried in the same fashion. Should an infant pass away before they start teething, their remains are wrapped in cloth and placed inside a hollowed-out space in a tree trunk. The gap is covered with palm fibre and sealed. Once the tree begins to heal, it is believed that the child has been absorbed by it.

7 Class photo

At first glance, this photo looks like nothing more than an ordinary American class photo. That is until you realize that the two boys in the upper left-hand corner shooting imaginary guns at the camera is none other than Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

A few weeks after this photo was taken at Columbine High School in 1999, Harris and Klebold put an evil plan that they’d been working on for more than a year, into action. The two seniors placed two bombs in the cafeteria as well as in their cars which were parked in the school’s lot. These bombs failed to detonate, but the two boys proceeded to shoot and kill 12 students and 1 teacher. They shot and injured a further 21 people, while 3 others were injured trying to escape the massacre.

Harris and Klebold then committed suicide in the school library.

It was revealed afterwards that the shooters hoped their planned massacre would claim more lives than the Oklahoma City bombing.

6 Ransom photo

On 1 February 2012, 18-year-old Samantha Koenig was kidnapped from her workplace in Anchorage, Alaska. Israel Keyes stole Samantha’s debit card and other valuables, raped her, and then murdered her the following day. Leaving her body in a shed, Keyes set off for New Orleans to join his family as they all set out to the Gulf of Mexico for a two-week cruise.

When the cruise was over, Keyes went back to the shed in Alaska and removed Samantha’s body. He applied makeup to her face and sewed her eyelids open. He then placed a four-day-old newspaper next to her and snapped a photo.

He proceeded to send the photo and a ransom demand of $30 000 to Samantha’s parents. Afterwards, he dismembered her body and dumped the parts in Matanuska Lake.

Samantha’s devastated family paid the ransom amount, while Keyes went around using Samantha’s debit card to make several transactions. He was eventually tracked down and arrested because he was careless with the transactions.

Israel Keyes died by suicide on 2 December 2012 while being held on suspicion of murder.

10 Poignant Photographs From Humanity’s Lowest Moments

5 Picture of home

In 1948 David ‘Chim’ Seymour took a picture with part of the caption reading: “Children’s wounds are not all outward. Those made in the mind by years of sorrow will take years to heal.”

The setting was a school for disturbed children in Warsaw, the subject a young girl of around 8 years old named Tereska. She was busy with a teacher’s assignment that required the students to ‘draw home.’

Tereska didn’t draw a building. Instead she drew a tangle of lines. One hand still on the blackboard, displaying her haunting drawing, Tereska looked at the photographer with anguish in her eyes.

When Tereska was only 4 years old, her father was seized by the Gestapo. Tereska and her teenaged sister fled to their grandmother’s house. Then, their grandmother’s house was attacked, and they had to flee again, the older woman briefly returning to the home to fetch a forgotten item. She never returned: it is presumed she was either shot or died in an ensuing bomb attack. A large piece of shrapnel hit Tereska and she was left brain damaged.

Tereska and her sister Jadzia spent three weeks walking through a war zone before they finally arrived at a village.

Tereska’s mental health steadily declined over the years, and she spent her life in an asylum until her death in 1978.

4 Sword Attack

On 22 October 2015, 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson entered Kronan School in Trollhättan, Sweden. He wore a German WWII helmet, a mask reminiscent of that of Darth Vader and carried a sword.

He attacked 20-year-old TA, Lavin Eskandar with the sword and then stabbed a 15-year-old student Ahmed Hassan in the abdomen. Eskandar died on the scene while Hassan died later in hospital.

Pettersson then wandered the halls and happened upon two oblivious students who posed with him for a photograph, thinking he was part of an early Halloween prank.

Shortly afterwards, 42-year-old teacher Nazir Amso requested that Pettersson remove his mask. Pettersson responded by stabbing the older man. Amso died after spending 6 weeks in hospital.

At this point, police had arrived at the school and they shot Pettersson who died in hospital later. The ensuing investigation revealed that Petterson shouted “I am your father” before attacking his victims.

3 Shell-shocked

The first photographs were taken during the late 1820s, but it took another century for smiles to become the standard expression in them. Before that, grim expressions were the norm, with some modern-day researchers and experts believing that bad teeth could have been one of the reasons for smile-less photos way back when. Another theory says because photographs took so long to take in the 19th century, it was hard for people to hold their smiles long enough.

During the Great War that lasted from 1914 to 1918, there was even less to smile about. Millions of soldiers and civilians lost their lives, and those who survived the war were subjected to PTSD, living their lives with missing limbs and missing loved ones.

In this photograph taken in the trenches during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in September 1916, the photographer captured not only medical orderlies tending to the wounded inside a trench, he also captured what seemed to be a happy, smiling soldier.

However, looking more closely at the photograph, it is clear to see that the soldier, who is looking directly at the camera, is ‘shell-shocked’ and has had his psyche destroyed by witnessing the death and destruction around him.

The term shell shock was coined by British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers during the war.

2 Trapped in mud

In 1985, disaster struck the small town of Armero, Colombia when a nearby volcano erupted, causing a huge and destructive mud slide. The volcano eruption had been ‘brewing’ since the 1840s and by September 1985 had released such violent tremors that residents in nearby towns became frightened.

Nevado del Ruiz erupted on 13 November 1985, triggering the mud slide. The mud covered at least 85% of Armero, destroying houses, roads and bridges, and trapping residents who tried to flee. Most of the town’s people died; up to 25,000. This meant only a fifth of the population survived. Hours passed before the initial rescue efforts began, leaving scores of people trapped and terrified before their eventual death.

Two days after the disaster, photojournalist Frank Fournier, made his way to Armero intending to take photographs of the rescue effort. Fournier was shocked by the chaos and horrifying screams of people on the brink of death. A farmer approached Fournier and took him to a little girl that had been trapped under her house for three days. Thirteen-year-old Omayra Sánchez Garzón was buried neck-deep in water and debris and rescue workers were working non-stop to free her. Her legs were pinned down by something in the water and by the time Fournier reached her, she was floating in and out of consciousness.

Fournier took a photograph of Omayra, and the young girl asked him to take her to school because she didn’t want to be late for class. Fournier stayed with Omayra while volunteers and rescuers kept trying to save her. At one point she asked them to let her rest and to tell her mother goodbye.
Omayra died 3 hours later.

1 Last effort before disaster

On 4 August 2020, a massive amount of ammonium nitrate that had been stored improperly at the port of Beirut exploded, killing 181 people, injuring at least 6,000 and leaving 300,000 homeless, while causing billions in property damage. The explosion could be heard in Cyprus and felt in Turkey, Syria and Israel and is considered to be one of the most devasting and powerful non-nuclear explosions in history.

In the days after the disaster, a photograph was found on a photographer’s recovered phone. The photographer died in the blast.

The photo shows heroic firefighters desperately trying to break into a Beirut warehouse (Warehouse 12) after reports of a fire. A unit of 10 firefighters was sent with 7 following close behind the three trying to get into the warehouse.

Moments later the warehouse exploded, the blast swallowing up all 10 firefighters.

10 Of The Most Powerful Photographs From The Last Decade