The Pilgrims who boarded the Mayflower and sailed across the ocean to America, we’re told, were trying to set up a new colony free of religious persecution—but there was a bit more to the story than that. The Pilgrims weren’t just a group of religious Puritans. The real story of the colony that one day grew into the most powerful nation in the world isn’t exactly pure.

10The Pilgrims Were Actually Escaping The Religious Tolerance Of The Dutch

The Pilgrims didn’t flee religious persecution in England by going to America—they went to the Netherlands.

Long before the Pilgrims stepped aboard the Mayflower, they settled in a Dutch city called Leiden, where they were welcomed with open arms. The Dutch let them hold Puritan services in their churches, promising that they let all honest people live freely in their nation.

And they did. The Dutch lived up to their promise—but the Puritans realized maybe religious freedom wasn’t what they wanted after all. They complained about the “extravagant and dangerous” lifestyle of the Dutch, who, they complained, were depraved enough to spend part of the Sabbath not resting. The Puritans were worried that their children might be swept away by the depraved and wild lifestyle of doing work on the Sabbath. The young Puritans, William Bradford wrote, were being “drawn away by evil examples” by “the great licentiousness of youth in that country.”^[1]

And so they boarded the Mayflower—not to escape religious persecution, which they’d already escaped by going to the Netherlands, but to escape the religious tolerance of the Dutch.

9French Pilgrims Went To America First

The Pilgrims on the Mayflower weren’t the first people to have the idea—some French settlers had already gone off to America in search of religious freedom 55 years before them. They didn’t find it. Instead, they found the Spanish, and what happened next makes it a bit easier to understand why the Puritans didn’t want to stay in Europe.

The French set up a settlement called Fort Caroline and began living lives as Lutheran Protestants, away from all the religious wars of Europe—until Europe found them. A Spanish army led by Pedro Menendez de Aviles tracked them down and killed them all, for no other reason, as he proudly explained, than “for being Lutherans.”^[2]

The Spanish climbed over the French walls with ladders, snuck into their bedrooms, and attacked. The French Pilgrim’s piousness was no match for the Spanish conquistador’s guns and their willingness to sneak into someone’s bedroom and murder him in his sleep.

132 Pilgrims died—nearly every single person there. And the Spanish conquistadors renamed the fort “Mantazas,” meaning “massacre,” to commemorate their favorite pastime.

8A Man Put His Kids On The Mayflower To Spite His Wife

The strangest names on the passenger list of the Mayflower were the More children: four unaccompanied minors, all under nine years old, sailing off to America without their parents.

The Mores were the children of Samuel and Katherine More—or, at least, that’s what Katherine told Samuel. As the kids grew older, though, Samuel started noticing that they didn’t look very much like him. Instead, looked an awful lot like Jacob Blakeway, the guy his wife kept insisting was just a friend.

Samuel More divorced his wife, but under English law, he still had legal authority over his kids. He also absolutely hated his wife, so, purely out of spite, he handed her kids off to the Puritans and bought them a one-way ticket on the Mayflower.

All but one of the kids died during the first winter. The sole survivor was Richard More, who ended up settling in Salem. Apparently, he still had his biological father’s genes—years later, he was convicted for “gross unchastity with another man’s wife.”^[3]

7Less Than Half Of The People On The Mayflower Were Puritans

Despite how we imagine it, the Mayflower wasn’t a boat full of Puritans. In fact, out of the 102 people on the boat, more than 60 were Anglicans—followers of the very religion the Puritans were trying to escape.

The Puritans let the Anglicans come with them because they needed their money. Sailing two boats to the New World and setting up a colony was expensive, and they needed investors. They made it clear, though, they weren’t part of the group. They called these Anglicans “Strangers” and called themselves “Saints.” Those two boats, though, didn’t pan out anyway. The other, the Speedwell, started leaking before they even got off the docks, and so all 102 people had to cram into the Mayflower.^[4]

By the time they’d made it to Plymouth, there were only 32 Puritans left alive. Worried that they were going to fall into “the devil’s hands,” the Puritans signed the Mayflower Compact with the Strangers, letting them elect their own governors—and then made sure a Puritan was elected every time.

6They Landed At Plymouth Because They Were Running Out Of Beer

The Puritans were against a lot of things, but beer wasn’t one of them. They drank incredibly heavily. In fact, they brought more beer with them than water. Pretty much all the Pilgrims drank was beer. Water, they explained, “spoiled quickly,” which sounds like an alcoholic father’s justification for brushing his teeth with Pabst Blue Ribbon.

By Christmas day, after months of sailing in cramped quarters, starving, and being ridden by disease, a true tragedy struck: they were running out of beer. They had to start rationing their supply, and, to the Pilgrims, this was a nightmare. “We have, divers times now and then, some beer,” William Bradford wrote in his journal, but they’d resorted to the unthinkable: “We began to drink water aboard.”^[5]

People started complaining—so they kicked them off. The first settlers were dropped off at Plymouth and forced to drink water, because the people who stayed on the boat wanted to make sure there was enough beer for themselves. They didn’t suffer long, though. They refused to. One of the very things the Pilgrims built was a brew house.

5The Pilgrims Robbed Native American Graves

When the Pilgrims landed, they expected to see a thriving Indian population all around them—but nobody was there. Other than the distant light for a few campfires at night, there wasn’t any sign of life anywhere around them. Then they started to wander out, and they found empty towns full of corn, beans—and the bones of dead men.^[6]

The natives had been wiped out by a plague, spread by the first Europeans to the area. It had wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of the people in southern New England, leaving behind nothing but empty towns full of supplies just waiting for the settlers to use them. The settlers, instead of being worried about the fact that an entire country had just been wiped out took this as a sign of god’s favor. John Winthrop called it a miracle, writing, “God hath cleared our title to this place!”

They took their corn, but more than that, they literally robbed their graves. One settler wrote in his diary that he dug up a dead man’s grave and fished out all the possessions he’d been buried with. “We took several of the prettiest things to carry away with us,” he wrote, “and covered the corpse up again.”

4The First Native American They Met Asked For Beer

Not every Native American was dead. While the settlers were still setting up their camp, they made first contact with a Native American—who, out of nowhere, wandered into their camp and said, in English: “Welcome, Englishmen!”

The man’s name was Samoset. He’d met Englishmen before, and he’d picked up enough phrases to get by. He knew, at least, how to welcome an Englishman, and, more important, how to ask them for beer.

After he’d asked them enough times, the Plymouth colonists gave him “strong water,” which was enough to make him happy. Apparently, Samoset had a bit of a personality. After a while, they started politely hinting he should go home now, but they couldn’t figure out how to get rid of him.

They ended up letting him sleep off the strong water in their camp, which paid off. Samoset would ultimately save their lives several times and help them make peace treaties with the Wampanoag tribe. He also sold some of the first land in America to the Plymouth settlers—which probably wasn’t his to sell, but certainly gave the settlers a signature they could use to call the land their own.^[7]

3Squanto Had Been Sold Into Slavery Several Times

Samoset told the settlers about Squanto, a man in his tribe who could speak English even better than he could. He wasn’t lying. Squanto spoke English nearly as well as the Englishmen themselves.

There was a reason. Six years before, Squanto had met another famous settler: Thomas Hunt, John Smith’s successor at the Jamestown Colony. Hunt had kidnapped him and 23 other natives and sold them into slavery in Spain. From there, Squanto was sold again to an Englishman, who taught him to English and brought him to Newfoundland to work as his interpreter. While in Newfoundland, he was sold again, this time to Thomas Dermer, who took him to Massachusetts. By a miracle of chance, Squanto made it back to his home. By the time he’d arrived, though, everyone he’d known was dead, wiped out by the plague.

Squanto ended up with the Wampanoag when Dermer was taken hostage. He won his freedom, and, in an act of mercy, convinced them to let Dermer go alive. And that was how he ended up the tribe’s interpreter to the Plymouth Colony—a colony that was built, as he realized when he met them, directly on top of his family’s grave.^[8]

2Squanto Went Mad With Power

Squanto never extracted revenge on the settlers. Instead, he helped them so much that, without his help, some believe, the settlers wouldn’t have survived. He taught them to grow maize, to catch eels, and helped them negotiate with the nearby tribes.

In time, though, he got a little carried away. He was the tribe’s connection the European settlers—and that made him their connection to guns and technology. He started making people give him gifts in exchange for a few good words with the English, and at least once threatened that, if they didn’t do what he said, he would make the Englishmen release the plague again.^[9]

One of his tricks went too far. He got mad at Massosit, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe, and decided this time he was going to show them he was bluffing. He’d really get the Englishmen to kill him. So, he tricked the Englishmen into believed that Massosit was planning on killing them all, trying to convince them to strike him first.

When they realized it was all made up, Massosit demanded Squanto’s head. The Englishmen were going to do it, too—but when they realized how doomed they were without his help, they had to side with Squanto, who, it turns out, really was as important as he thought he was.

1They Hung A Dead Man’s Head Over Their Fort

Peace didn’t last long. Even with all the empty villages around them and the help of people like Squanto and Samoset, the settlers were starving. It was a just a matter of time before the harshness of life broke out into war—and when it did, it was brutal.

Things were particularly bad in the nearby Wessagusset Settlement. They were starving so badly that, when one of their Pilgrims stole corn from the Pecksuot Tribe, they agreed to hang him for it. They needed the help of their native neighbors so badly that they were willing to kill their own people.

The Pecksuot Tribe, though, wasn’t totally satisfied, and a rumor that they were plotting to destroy the white presence in America reached the Plymouth Colony. It was the same sort of rumor they’d ignored before, when Squanto spread it, but they’d been in America for a few years now, and they were harder, more cynical people. So, a group from the Plymouth Colony, led by Myles Standish, took care of it.

They invited the best warriors from the Pecksuot tribe over for dinner. Then they locked the door, stabbed them to death, chopped off the chief’s brother’s head, and placed it on the roof the blockhouse, next to flag made from a cloth soaked in his blood.^[10]

Some of the most cherished songs of all time are based on true stories. In many cases, these are events from the songwriter’s own life. Autobiographical songs can have a special meaning because they came from a real experience that gives us a quick glance into the singer’s life. At times, these songs can also let us know that we are not alone in our own experiences. Others have felt the same despair, heartbreak, or joy that we have also felt.

So here are 10 autobiographical songs that really tell a story.

Related: Top 10 Songs With Dark Back Stories

10 “Baby Girl”

There were a lot of memorable songs from Sugarland’s 2004 debut album, and “Baby Girl” is probably the most tenderhearted. It is the story of a struggling young singer who writes letters home telling her parents about the modest venues she is playing. She asks them to send her money but at the same time, assures them that her big break is just around the corner. The last verse is a happy ending. The character describes her success and glamorous lifestyle while making it clear that her values have not changed and that her family still means everything to her.

The song, which was written by Jennifer Nettles, Kristen Hall, Kristian Bush, Robert Hartley, Simone Simonton, and Troy Bieser, is very much about the process of chasing dreams. As Jennifer Nettles points out, it is something nearly everyone can relate to. In a 2010 interview with Songfacts, Nettles was asked if the song was autobiographical and replied: “Oh, you bet. It was not only autobiographical, but it was also a self-fulfilling prophecy in the sense that it was the first single, and it manifested itself in a way of showing that success.”^[1]

9 “Tenterfield Saddler”

One of the most iconic and unique singer/songwriters to gain a following in the 1970s was flamboyant showman Peter Allen. His sentimental ballads were often as popular as his upbeat dance numbers.

Some of Allen’s most indelible songs, from “Don’t Cry Out Loud” to “Continental American” and “I Still Call Australia Home,” strongly reflect his own experiences. As The Guardian reports, Allen once said that “it was his songs that serve as his true biography.”

His most obviously autobiographical song is the poignant 1972 ballad “Tenterfield Saddler.” The song talks about Allen’s grandfather, a saddler in the little town of Tenterfield, Australia. It then goes on to describe his troubled, heavy-drinking father, who committed suicide. The song finally concludes with a glimpse of Peter Allen’s own eventful life since leaving rural Australia.^[2]

8 “Coal Miner’s Daughter”

Country music, which is rooted in folk songs, is full of autobiographical tales. Loretta Lynn has written and recorded a number of popular songs taken from her own life, including “You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man” and “One’s on the Way.”

However, the most famous is her signature song, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” released in 1970, which is also the name of her autobiography and a film adaptation. The song harkens back to her childhood in rural Butchers Hollow, Kentucky. She talks about growing up poor in material things but rich in love. Like a Grandma Moses painting, its simplicity and lack of pretension serve to heighten the beauty of this compellingly nostalgic ballad.^[3]

7 “The Heart Wants What it Wants”

Occasionally, we will get an autobiographical song about an artist’s relationship with another well-known artist. These types of songs can be very juicy and sources of much gossip, such as Carly Simon’s hit “You’re So Vain.” (People are still pondering who that song was really about.)

However, Selena Gomez takes a soft-hearted approach with “The Heart Wants What it Wants” (2014). This song is about her turbulent relationship with Justin Bieber—which was co-written by Antonina Armato, David Jost, and Tim James. But, instead of bitterness and accusation, we hear the artist’s vulnerability as she lays her feelings bare. Something else unusual is that, according to Gomez, her ex actually liked this song. Gomez did joke that Bieber might have been “a little jealous” of the guy in the video, but she said that he “thought it was beautiful.”

“The Heart Wants What it Wants” also got the approval of Gomez’s good friend Taylor Swift, which means a lot considering Swift could be considered queen of autobiographical break-up songs.^[4]

An interesting footnote reported by The Los Angeles Times is that “the emotionally raw voiceover in the video’s opening—in which she cries over a relationship low—actually happened.” The audio was captured by “a mic that was taped under a table in the room where Gomez went to collect herself.”

6 “Mr. Bojangles”

One of the most widely covered songs based on a true story is “Mr. Bojangles.” There have been versions sung by such diverse artists as Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, Neil Diamond, Nina Simone, and Sammy Davis Jr. The original version was recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1968 album of the same name. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band scored a big hit with their 1970 rendition of the song, which holds up well today, maybe because the blend of country and rock that the crossover band brings to it suits this melancholy tune about a down-on-his-luck street performer.

Just as Walker’s lyrics describe, he met the homeless man who called himself Mr. Bojangles in a New Orleans jail and listened as he recounted various stories from his life. At some point, the man responded to a request from one of the other inmates to “cheer everyone up” by doing a dance.

Bojangles was a popular nickname among street performers like this man in honor of the actor/tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who was Shirley Temple’s memorable dance partner in films such as The Little Colonel.^[5]

5 “Coat of Many Colors”

Like Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the 1971 Dolly Parton song “Coat of Many Colors” recalls a childhood marked by poverty but enriched by love. Parton’s family cannot afford to buy her a coat, so her mother makes her one from rags. As she sews it, she tells young Dolly the biblical story from Genesis about the gift that Joseph received of a multi-colored coat, which provoked the jealousy of his brothers. However, instead of envying Parton’s coat of many colors, her classmates make fun of the patchwork garment.

One of the most impressive things about this song is that despite her age, the little girl has the wisdom and maturity to value the coat for the love that went into making it. She feels a sense of pride in wearing the coat even though it makes her a target of ridicule.

On tour with Porter Wagoner when she wrote the song, Parton “jotted the original lyrics down on the back of one of Wagoner’s dry-cleaning receipts. The framed receipt now hangs next to a replica of the original coat, also sewn by Parton’s mother, in Dollywood’s Chasing Rainbows museum.”

More than just a touching ballad, the song has taken on a life of its own, serving as the inspiration for two TV movies and a children’s book.^[6]

4 “Clancy’s Tavern”

With the 2011 feel-good tune “Clancy’s Tavern,” co-written by W Scott Emerick, Toby Keith pays homage to his unconventional grandmother and her supper club in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Keith has frequently and very successfully mined his life story for song ideas.

“Clancy’s Tavern” tells the tale of his grandmother’s place, where as a young boy, he got his start in music. Keith said his grandmother “was like Miss Kitty” and went on to explain, “when I was a kid, some of the earliest memories I have of being on this earth were going by her nightclub and seeing my grandmother.”^[7]

3 “I Wonder”

One particularly heartrending song in the autobiographical category is the very personal 2006 ballad “I Wonder” by country crossover artist and American Idol alum Kellie Pickler. The tearjerker was, of course, inspired by Pickler’s memory of growing up without her mother. The sensitive lyrics express the pain a young girl feels during special moments and times when she needs her mother the most. She also wonders whether her mother has missed her over the years.

“I Wonder” was a collaboration between Pickler, Aimee Mayo, Chris Lindsey, and Karyn Suzanne Rochelle, who co-wrote the song.

Pickler’s moving performance of “I Wonder” at the 2007 CMA Awards matched the deep emotion and vulnerability within the song itself.^[8]

2 “At Seventeen”

Like so many autobiographical ballads, Janis Ian’s most famous song, “At Seventeen” (1975), has a coming-of-age theme. Initially inspired by a newspaper article about a debutante, Ian deals very effectively with the pains and disillusionment of growing up as she contrasts the experiences of popular girls with “ugly ducklings.” She laments the fate of plain, awkward girls to sit at home, rejected by boys who pursue more conventionally attractive young women.

It may sound like a pity party set to music at the beginning, but there is an interesting twist. Ian reflects on what often turns out to be unfulfilling destinies of the beautiful girls who make advantageous but loveless matches. This gives the narrative a more balanced perspective and reminds us that although beauty may seem like the most important thing during adolescence, it does not guarantee happiness down the line.^[9]

1 “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again”

Something that sets Elton John’s 2019 song “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” apart from typical autobiographical songs is that, instead of covering a specific event or chapter in the life of the artist, it is about the evolution that has occurred over Elton John’s lifetime, leading him to a good place. Written by Elton John and his longtime collaborator Bernard J. P. Taupin, the song is from the legendary entertainer’s biopic Rocketman. It was recorded as a duet by John and Taron Egerton, who portrays him in the film.

“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” is also an upbeat tune, which is another departure, as most of these songs are ballads. One thing that makes this song so appealing is that it has a positive message because self-love is something that so many people, regardless of their background, have struggled with at some point.^[10]

This article is going to examine a collection of people who have experienced extraordinary life events or have predicted rather shocking occurrences in their life. I wanted to select individuals who haven’t been featured in many lists and might present new material for even the most dedicated reader. For this reason, the people selected don’t follow a specific guideline except for the fact that they have tackled a rather difficult and often controversial issue in their lifetime. This article will discuss a wide range of topics including the death penalty, homosexuality in sports, predictions of life on Earth, and time travel.

In the May 6, 2013 issue of Sports Illustrated NBA center Jason Collins became the first openly active gay athlete in the history of North American major team sports, which includes football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. Collins is quoted: “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete in an American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation.” In college, Collins played at Stanford University and was the 18th overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft. As a rookie he made an immediate impact in the league with the New Jersey Nets and helped the team reach the NBA Finals in 2002.

In 2004, Collins signed a $25 million dollar contract with the Nets and played in New Jersey until 2008. Since that time he has played with five separate NBA teams. In 2013, Jason was involved with a trade and became a member of the Washington Wizards. He has averaged 3.6 points and 3.8 points per game in his 12-year NBA career. After the 2013 season, Collins became a free agent and will be looking for a new team this offseason. After he made the announcement, a large collection of NBA players came to his support. Kobe Bryant said: “Proud of Jason Collins. Don’t suffocate who you are because of the ignorance of others.” A number of high ranking US officials, such as former president Bill Clinton and current president Barack Obama have also released statements in support of Jason Collins. However, some others have questioned the timing of his decision and feel sexuality in sports should be kept private.

Robert Liston was a Scottish surgeon that lived during the first half of the 1800s. He was one of the most talented doctors during an era when surgical care was much different than today. During the first part of the 19th century, doctors didn’t understand the importance of cleanliness and of washing their hands before invasive surgery. In many operations, the main goal was speed. The faster you got the job done, the better chances of survival. During his career Robert Liston was known as the fastest knife in the west and was a renowned surgeon. He could amputate a leg in a couple minutes and remove an arm in under 30 seconds.

During his work day, Liston was known to wear a blood-stained bottle-green coat with wellington boots. He would often invite his students to watch his operations and have them time his amputations. In many cases, Liston was said to keep his bloody operating knife in his mouth while he worked. Sadly, despite his reputation as a great surgeon, many of Liston’s patients died because of the general lack of interest in keeping infections away.

In the last years of his life, Robert Liston became the first doctor to perform an operation with modern anesthesia by using ether. He also invented a leg splint device that is still used in some hospitals today. Liston was a great surgeon that saved many lives. However, he has also gained a reputation for some sloppy work and bizarre operations. Some of the most unbelievable medical cases are attributed to Robert Liston.

In one instance, it is said that Liston performed a surgery with a 300% fatality rate. He amputated the leg of a patient in less than three minutes, but also cut the finger off his assistant and slashed through the coattails of a spectator. When all was said and done all three people died from their injuries. In one case Liston was said to have accidentally removed the testicles of a man during a leg amputation. In another example Liston was presented with a young patient who had a pulsating tumor on his neck. Liston proclaimed to have never seen a tumor on the neck of a small child, so he cut it off. The boy quickly fell to the ground and bled to death from the wound. Finally, it is written that Liston removed a 45-pound scrotal tumor from a man that had to carry the tumor around in a wheelbarrow.

On March 14, 2013 a man named Marlin Pohlman was arrested at the Portland International Airport in the US state of Oregon and charged with multiple sex crimes. He is accused of drugging four separate women with LSD, ecstasy, and laughing gas, then kidnapping and raping the women. Pohlman is thought to have used a syringe filled with an unknown chemical substance to disable his victims. After police entered his home they found a makeshift drug lab that appeared to have a large collection of unidentified chemicals. By all accounts, Pohlman was a smart man who worked for EMC Corporation, which is a company that specializes in data storage. He is currently being held in jail under a $2 million bail and has yet to face trial as of early May, 2013.

Interestingly, Marlin Brandt Pohlman has also been making waves on the Internet since 2004 for other reasons. On October 1, 2004 Marlin Pohlman registered the patent US 20060073976 A1, which is a “Method of gravity distortion and time displacement.” The description of the patent device is extremely detailed and works in accordance with Geroch’s theorem (Geroch 1967). In the patent, a large section of the schematics was provided by John Titor. For those unfamiliar with the story of John Titor, he is said to have been a time traveler from the year 2036 that began to post messages on the Internet in 2000 with information on time travel.

Over a two years span, John Titor posted a huge amount of information about time travel and the future of humans of Earth. According to Titor, the world was supposed to enter a World War III in 2004. The poster claimed that the United States will be split into five separate sections due to Civil War. Strangely, the message parallels the ideas of Billy Meier, who will also be discussed later in this article. As of 2013, none of John Titor’s future predictions have come true and he is widely regarded as an Internet hoax that caught the world’s attention. However, the connection with Pohlman is interesting.

Artie Moore was a Welsh man that made many contributions to early radio and wireless communication technology. At a young age he constructed a home-made radio station that allowed him to receive signals from around the world. In 1911, Moore intercepted a message from the Italian government that was a declaration of war against Libya. In 1912, Moore became world famous after he decoded a message from the ill-fated RMS Titanic in the hours before its demise.

On April 15, 1912 Moore was managing his radio equipment when he received a Morse code signal from the Titanic. The signal gave the ships location and announced that it had struck an iceberg and was sinking. The final message read: “Come as quickly as possible old man; our engine-room is filling up to the boilers.” Moore immediately gave the information to the local authorities, but they did not believe his story as the ship was thought to be unsinkable.

It wasn’t until two days after the accident that the official news of the disaster reached the mainstream press, and it was told that Moore had decoded the Titanic’s distress code from over 4,000 miles away. News of Moore’s home-made radio spread around Europe and he was offered a job by Guglielmo Marconi, which he accepted. Moore would then go on to make many contributions to radio and wireless communication. However, for the rest of his life, he was known for decoded the Titanic’s distress signal before anyone else.

The story of Anna Bågenholm is one of survival. In 1999, the 29-year-old Bågenholm was living in Narvik, Norway when she decided to go for a skiing trip outside of Narvik with two friends. While skiing down a steep hill Anna lost control and fell headfirst onto a frozen river near a waterfall. After she landed, a hole opened up in the ice and Bågenholm became trapped beneath the water with only her legs and skies visible.

After arriving at the scene, Anna’s friends attempted to pull her out of the water, but they were not strong enough. They called for a rescue team approximately seven minutes after Anna had fallen into the freezing cold water. At this time, she was able to find an air pocket under the ice and stay conscious for forty minutes until she passed out from circulatory arrest. Once the rescue team reached the location, they were able to cut a hole in the ice to retrieve Anna’s motionless body.

At the time of her rescue Bågenholm had been in the water for 80 minutes and wasn’t breathing. She was taken to the hospital with a body temperature of 13.7 °C (56.7 °F), and it took over 100 doctors and nurses to save her life. When all was said and done, Bågenholm survived the lowest body temperature ever recorded by accidental hypothermia. She has made almost a full recovery and returned to work as a doctor. After the accident, it was discovered that Anna’s metabolism had slowed down to almost 10% of its baseline rate while in the water, which saved her life. Doctors were able to learn some valuable information about hypothermia and how the body reacts to cold water due to the case of Anna Bågenholm.

One of the most mysterious deaths of the 20th century is the case of US biological weapons specialist Frank Olson. In 1943, Olson was one of the men who helped start the United States bio-weapons program. In the late 1940s, he conducted experiments on biological weapons, toxins, and human mind control drugs. He was involved in the infamous Project MKUltra that looked into the behavioral engineering of humans. It is unclear exactly what Olson did with the US bio-weapons program, but it has been suggested that he was spotted in the area of Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1951 before the mass poisoning event that killed seven people and left fifty others in asylums.

In 1953, Olson traveled to Europe and visited a series of chemical research facilities. At this time he may have witnessed some extreme experiments with biological weapons, which caused him to regret his work. It has also been said that Frank might have discovered information regarding the use of biological weapons in the Korean War. During 1951, the Communists made various claims that they were being attacked by disease stricken mosquitoes.

According to the initial versions of the death of Frank Olson, it was said that he suffered a nervous breakdown and committed suicide by jumping from the tenth-floor room at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York on November 28, 1953. However, in 1975 it was revealed that the United States government had purposefully given Frank Olson a large dose of LSD before he became unstable. It was also written that Olson was looking for a way out of the biological weapons business in the weeks prior to his death.

In response to the news, the US government offered the family of Frank Olson a $750,000 settlement, which they accepted in 1975. In 1994, Frank Olson’s body was exhumed and a second autopsy was carried out which showed signs of blunt force trauma before Olson fell out the window. The evidence pointed to a possible homicide and in 2012 the sons of Frank Olson officially filed suit in a US district court seeking damages and answers in the bizarre circumstances of their father’s death.

Some people have claimed that Thomas Midgley, Jr. has caused more damage to the Earth’s environment than any other single organism in the history of the world. Midgley was an American chemist who developed the tetraethyllead (TEL) additive to gasoline and some of the earliest chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Chlorofluorocarbon is a compound that was widely used in the middle of the 20th century in products such as solvents, refrigeration, and air conditioning.

In 1916, Midgley began working for General Motors and found that when you mix a tetraethyl lead (TEL) substance with gasoline the car seemed to run smoother. In response to the positive results, GM decided to promote the new product as a more fuel efficient gas and advertised it as Ethyl. However, the company failed to include mention of the potential harmful effects of the lead being used in the combustion of the gas. Ethyl quickly became a standard ingredient in motor fuel and the substance wasn’t largely removed from the market until the early 2000s when it was proven beyond a doubt that the neurotoxicity of lead was damaging the world’s environment. Over the course of his time experimenting with TEL, Midgley received lead poisoning on numerous occasions. In October of 1924, Midgley had a press conference where he poured TEL all over his hands and inhaled the substance for sixty straight seconds. The demonstration almost killed Thomas and he spent over a year recovering from the lead poisoning.

In the late 1920s, Midgley turned his attention to solving the problem of air conditioning and refrigeration systems, which were unstable. He synthesized the first chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), which was named Freon. Freon soon became widely popular in refrigerators and other products. It wasn’t until the middle of the 1970s that it was discovered that the release of Freon creates severe ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere. CFCs can be measured in the air all over the world and have a lifespan of over 100 years. This has caused many nations to push for the complete elimination of CFCs.

In 1940, Thomas Midgley, Jr. contracted polio and became severely disabled. To cope with the immobility he made a system of ropes and pulleys to get around. However, in 1944 he got trapped in the ropes and was strangled to death. Thirty years after his death it was realized that the creation of Freon and lead-based gasoline has caused serious damage to the world’s environment.

In 1937, Eduard Meier was born in the Swiss town of Bülach. At a young age, Meier became interested in spiritual exploration and his first described extraterrestrial experience was the age of five. According to Meier, he has been periodically visited by a collection of extraterrestrials named Plejarens throughout his lifetime. Meier has identified the Plejarens as coming from beyond the Pleiades, which is an open star cluster located in the constellation of Taurus. The Pleiades is the most clear star cluster from Earth.

Meier has described his alien visitors as humanoid Nordic aliens who look similar to European Caucasian humans. They are typically six to seven feet tall, have blond hair, blue eyes, and are extremely athletic. Some contact reports have indicated that Nordic aliens hold a strong concern for the Earth’s environment and world peace. They are said to be smiling, affectionate, youthful, and all-knowing beings.

Billy Meier has suggested that the Plejarens agreed to provide him with visual evidence of their existence if he published their ideas in a collection of books. Meier agreed and over the last 60 years he has put together a huge collection of Contact Notes that describe a wide range of topics that he claims were discussed with the aliens. Some of the most important notes include information on human history, space, the environment, and the dangers of modern religion. He has also put together a huge collection of future predictions and prophecies for human life on Earth. Billy has published countless photographs, video clips, and artifacts of alien crafts that he says proves his theories are true.

Some of the predictions are noteworthy. In the early 1950s, Meier made the statement “negative events on Earth lead solely back to overpopulation and to the irresponsibility, selfishness, and overbearingness of Earth’s human beings.” According to some, Meier has predicted numerous world events and disasters. The amount of information that is attributed to Meier is enormous, so it is impossible to discuss all his ideas.

Probably Billy Meier’s most famous note is named the Henoch Prophecies and was provided in 1987. The prophecy is extremely depressing and discussing a wide range of world problems, including the mention of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. The Henoch Prophecy includes many ideas that parallel an earlier message delivered by Meier in 1958 titled Warning to all governments of Europe. In the note Meier describes horrible events. He tells a story of World War III and the complete destruction of the planet Earth due to modern weaponry.

According to the prophecy, in the future the United States will be completely destroyed and separated into five separate sections due to an intense series of Civil Wars and conflict with Russia and China. Meier says the world with enter an unthinkable series of disasters for 888 days where 1 in every 4th person on Earth will be killed, mainly due to hunger, plagues, and nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. According to Meier, the horror will begin after the final Pope of the Catholic Church is elected which will be an evil man named Petrus Romanus—Peter the Roman—that will destroy the church and be the second Pope after Pope John Paul II. This note has gained more attention of late because of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis, who is the second Pope after John Paul II.

The Henock Prophecies mention specific cases of war in which Russia starts causing serious problems in Europe and attacks Canada and the United States by way of Alaska. The notes mention computer guided nuclear warheads that will become uncontrollable to humans and devastate the world. It mentions experiments that have gone horribly wrong, including a human and pig hybrid fighting machine that has no conscious and will cause havoc on the world. The note predicts that China will attack India and kill around 30 million people. Russia will begin by attacking Scandinavia, which will put all of Europe in war. It is predicted that this event will occur months after a terrible tornado will have swept across northern Europe. The attack by Russia is said to come in the summer months by way of Arkhangelsk. However, all of the blame should not be placed on Russia and China, as the notes mention on numerous occasions that the United States has become too aggressive in thinking it can control under developed nations with a world police force. “American politics will aspire to gain absolute control of the world concerning supremacy in economy.”

Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok are the two Russian astronomers that discovered the comet C/2012 S1. The object was found on September 21, 2012 at the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) near Kislovodsk, Russia. For this reason, the comet is often referred to ISON. ISON is a sungrazing comet that will pass extremely close to the Sun on November 28, 2013. It has been difficult for Nevski and Novichonok to determine exactly how large the comet is, but the nucleus is thought to be around 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) in diameter, which makes the entire comet pretty big. ISON will make its closest pass to Earth on December 26, 2013 and then reach perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on November 28, 2013. At this time, ISON will pass within 730,000 miles (nearly 1.2 million kilometers) of the Sun.

It appears that the discovery of the comet has gained extreme interest by world space organizations. On April 30, 2013, the online Slooh Space Camera broadcast a live image of ISON as it traveled towards Earth. NASA has organized a massive global campaign to track the comet using space and ground-based telescope technology. In fact, they are going to develop a huge balloon that will be strapped with a telescope and camera equipment that will watch ISON as it nears the Earth next fall. This will include infrared and visible-ultraviolet imagers that can track emissions from the comet.

It is thought that ISON is making its first pass into our inner solar system from the Oort cloud. However, it has been recognized that the comet holds an extremely similar orbit to the Great Comet of 1680. Due to the similarity, it was originally hypothesized that the two objects could have come from the same parent body. It should be said that the comet does not appear on the Torino scale, which is used to measure the potential danger of future impact events on Earth. This indicates that NASA has found a 0% chance that the comet with directly hit Earth, suddenly change direction and have a chance of hitting Earth, or break apart and move towards the Earth.

This being said, if ISON is not completely destroyed by the Sun, the comet will display a marvelous light show on Earth. It has been estimated that the comet has the potential to become so bright in the sky that it will rival the moon and be visible during the day. It may also have an enormous tail that covers a large part of the Earth’s sky. There is the possibility that the comet with get destroyed by a coronal mass ejection (CME) as it passes the Sun. It really just depends on how large the object is. Currently, the scientific consensus is that there isn’t a connection between large comets and coronal mass ejections, but there have been some threatening comets destroyed by CMEs in the last ten years, including C/2002 V1 (NEAT) and C/2010 X1 (Elenin).

In April of 2013, NASA released a picture of ISON as it passed by Jupiter’s orbital path. The article indicated that the nucleus of ISON has started to take form and was quite impressive. If the comet turns out to be large enough to survive the Sun, it could provide a marvelous show towards the end of 2013. Despite the opinion that the comet holds no threat to Earth, some have become concerned with the possibility of seeing an object so large and bright in the Earth’s sky, especially only one year after the 2012 apocalyptic predictions. If this event occurred last year, it would have garnered much more attention. The ultimate conspiracy being that NASA knows the Earth is in danger of being stuck by ISON, but has covered the truth. Some have connected the comet to the Nibiru cataclysm and claim that it has moons.

On October 31, 1981 somebody entered the St. Francis Roman Catholic Convent in Amarillo, Texas and raped, beat, and stabbed a 76-year-old nun named Tadea Benz to death. After the crime, police soon turned their attention to a 17-year-old teenager named Johnny Frank Garrett. On November 9, 1981 Garrett was arrested by the police for the murder of Benz after circumstantial evidence was gathered against him, including his fingerprints at the scene. During his interviews, it was soon realized that Garrett was mentally slow because he was viciously abused by his stepfather and experienced severe brain damage.

During the interrogation of Garrett, police said he gave a written confession detailing the murder of Benz. However, Garrett refused to sign the confession and later recanted any responsibility in the crime. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial, conviction, and death by way of execution. During the trial, Garrett took the stand and denied raping or murdering Sister Benz. However, he said that he entered the convent two days before the crime looking for items to steal. He said that he entered multiple rooms and left fingerprints. After a short deliberation, Johnny Garrett was found guilty of the murder of Sister Benz and sentenced to death. On February 11, 1992 he was executed in the state of Texas.

Johnny Garrett was scheduled to be executed in early January of 1992, but was given a month reprieve due to the urging of Pope John Paul II. Despite fingerprint evidence against Garrett, a large amount of important facts were ignored by the jury, including statements where multiple witnesses saw a dark skinned man near the convent at the time of the murder. Also, Garrett’s case involved a pathologist named Ralph Erdmann who was later accused of evidence tampering and perjury. Erdmann discarded valuable semen samples during the autopsy of Benz.

In the years following her son’s execution, Johnny Garrett’s mother attempted to get him exonerated due to DNA evidence found at the scene that didn’t match her sons. However, the state of Texas has refused and even threatened her with a lawsuit. In 2004, the entire case against Garret was turned upside down when it was revealed that DNA evidence identified a man named Leoncio Perez Rueda as the rapist and murderer of another elderly woman named Narnie Box Bryson, who was killed near Amarillo four months prior to Sister Benz.

Immediately, the investigators knew the cases were connected because the killer used the same type of murder weapon, inflicted similar wounds, and left black hairs on both bodies. After a DNA test, it was proven beyond a doubt that Rueda’s black hairs were found on the body of Sister Benz. Rueda’s fingerprints were also found in the convent where Sister Benz was murdered. Rueda was arrested by the police and admitted to the murder of Narnie Bryson and the attack of a nun in Amarillo. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Despite the DNA evidence, the state of Texas refuses to exonerate Johnny Garrett for the murder. His final words were reported: “I’d like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. And the rest of the world can kiss my ass.”

If the popularity of true crime documentaries and reality TV is anything to go by, there is a pervasive, widespread appetite for the true story on screen. Something about a film based on actual events sets it apart from the rest. It offers audiences a glimpse into something awe-inspiring or gut-churning that has happened to someone else or could happen to them, making the fiction all the more potent.

Recognizing this fact, filmmakers will often do anything to “sell” the reality of their fiction; and marketing teams will do anything to promote a film. But this approach has blurred the lines between fiction and reality. Nestled among the authentic representations of people and events are a few films that aren’t actually based on a complete story. Sure, filmmakers may be inspired by one or two events and adapt them into a film, even if they occurred at different times or in different places.

However, these movies are explicitly marketed as being “based on a true story,” but they simply never happened as the film portrays. Over the years, they have led audiences up the garden path before pushing them into the pond. But, thanks to this article, you will never be fooled again.

Related: Top 10 True Stories More Interesting Than The Myths They Inspired

10 Fargo (1996)

Joel and Ethan Coen’s Minnesotan black comedy, Fargo, opens on a white-on-black title card announcing “THIS IS A TRUE STORY.” But it isn’t, it wasn’t, and it never will be.

Fargo tells the story of hapless car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), who hires two career criminals to kidnap his wife to extort his father-in-law (owner of the car dealership where Jerry works) for the kind of money that will allow him to become his own man. And, with a little help from the pregnant police chief (Frances McDormand), absolutely nothing goes to plan.

The film claims to be based on events that took place in Minnesota in 1987, with only the names changed for privacy. But the Coen brothers added the true story disclaimer because they “wanted to make a movie just in the genre of a true story movie. You don’t have to have a true story to make a true story movie.”

Fargo can be considered a series of random events stitched together into a single movie. Though the Coens have often been credited with pioneering the sly opening gambit of pretending to be a true story, it is a tradition that goes much farther back…^[1]

9 The Last House on the Left (1972)

Similar to Fargo, The Last House on the Left opens with the text: “The events you are about to witness are true. Names and locations have been changed to protect those individuals still living.” But, also like Fargo, it is merely narrative deceit.

Such an announcement was designed by director Wes Craven to put viewers on edge, setting them up for something grisly and unforgiving while ensuring they would buy whatever came next. Especially when what comes next is an exploitation thriller centering around the rape and murder of a young woman and her friend and the subsequent bloody revenge enacted by her parents.

The Last House on the Left takes many of its stylistic features from the documentary format. It uses on-location sound recording and handheld cameras because that was Craven’s bread and butter—this was his first feature film—and up until this point, he had only been involved in the production end of documentary features. But, far from being based on anything “true,” The Last House on the Left is, in fact, a loose remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960).^[2]

8 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Trading on the commercial success and cult following of The Last House on the Left, which made $3 million against a budget of less than $100,000, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre copied the sentiment of its predecessor’s opening message with a long crawl of text and accompanying narration claiming the film to be an account of a real-life tragedy. It may seem stuffy and hokey now, but it was a promotional strategy that paid off big time.

While The Last House only brought audiences a harrowing hour and a half of violence and humiliation, Texas Chainsaw birthed a legend: the human skin-wearing Leatherface. It is this character that ensured the fiction’s longevity and spawned a total of eight sequels, prequels, and reboots.

Unfortunately—or perhaps, fortunately—none of the tale is true. The story actually came from director Tobe Hooper’s frustration with frenzied crowds while Christmas shopping in 1972. Nearing a display rack of chainsaws, he imagined slicing through the crowds to get what he wanted, and the rest is history; he hurried home and penned the story treatment in one sitting.^[3]

7 Flight (2012)

Rarely one to string viewers along, director Robert Zemeckis is best known for such heartwarming, family-friendly fare as Back to the Future and Forrest Gump. And yet, the much harder-hitting Denzel Washington drama-thriller Flight—in which alcoholic pilot Whip Whitaker manages to land a failing plane and is investigated after the fact—was falsely portrayed in the media as being based on a true story.

Zemeckis later came out in an interview to say that it is “completely fiction,” drawing instead on an amalgamation of malfunctions and crashes from the preceding decades, which were thrown together and given the sensationalist Hollywood treatment.

Nevertheless, Flight made a modest killing at the box office, raking in over five times its production budget. It also inspired another air-based drama film to boot: the Tom Hanks feature Sully, centering around the verifiably real pilot who landed an airplane on the Hudson River back in 2009.^[4]

6 The Strangers (2008)

The Strangers was instrumental in revitalizing the home invasion horror movie, popularizing the genre for a new generation and paving the way for runaway hits like the Purge franchise.

Opening narration and text in the style of Texas Chainsaw introduces the central characters Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) as a real couple whose vacation time at their family’s summer home in 2005 turns dark as three masked strangers launch a deadly assault upon the house.

But no such couple ever existed. Writer and director Bryan Bertino has admitted he weaved the story together from his knowledge of the Manson family murders. The interest in Manson’s story stemmed from a childhood obsession that began with his father giving him Helter Skelter—attorney Vincent Bugliosi’s account of the Manson cases he tried. Bertino claims he was fascinated by the victims’ experiences and wondered what their untold story would be.^[5]

5 Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Picnic at Hanging Rock is set at a girls’ school in early 1900s Australia, where a Valentine’s Day picnic trip leads to the mysterious disappearance of three girls and their teacher.

Every screen adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock—and the 1967 Joan Lindsay book it is based on—purport to be true stories, but none are. So ubiquitous is their legend, though, that the story has gone beyond pop culture to permeate social and folk history, recognized widely yet inaccurately as a real happening.

According to Lindsay’s live-in housekeeper, Rae Clements, the author wrote the novel in a short spell based upon an especially vivid dream, centering on a summer picnic at the very real Hanging Rock, which Joan had visited many times throughout her childhood. The fact of the film and novel’s most important location being real has only added to the mystery and sense of folkloric ownership that locals feel over the tale, spurring it on and keeping it alive through the years.^[6]

4 The Amityville Horror (1979)

The Amityville Horror has a long and winding history in contemporary Western folklore. So deep are its roots in our subconscious, in fact, that (much like Picnic at Hanging Rock) many people take it for granted that the film is based on a true story.

The story goes that George and Kathy Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder) and their children move into a new home in Amityville, where they are terrorized by supernatural forces, which summon flies and slime and blood to haunt them. Priests are called, nuns are blighted, and not only were a whole family murdered in their sleep in that very house, but it was once owned by an 18th-century Satanist.

Unlike most other cases of mistaken “true story” belief, this one is actually not the filmmakers’ fault. And neither is it the fault of the source novel’s author Jay Anson. No, the origin of the Amityville story actually lies with the Lutzes. George and Kathy were real people who moved into a house previously occupied by the serial killer Ronald DeFeo Jr. They then decided they could make a quick dime. Thus, they conspired with DeFeo’s lawyer, who was hoping to get a retrial for his client, and concocted the whole thing over a bottle of wine—haunting, flies, priests, the lot.

While there is some truth to the story—the real murders of six people, for instance—the paranormal elements are highly debated and mostly disregarded as pure fiction. Over the years, the real story has emerged in bits and pieces. But the legend lives on, as does the house—though it has been renovated and its address changed.^[7]

3 Wolf Creek (2005)

Wolf Creek is a sleeper hit that has still yet to wake up, having largely been forgotten by mainstream audiences—if they ever saw it in the first place. Yet it still frequently ranks high on critics’ lists, such as Esquire’s 65 Scariest Movies of All Time.

The film, which boldly announces that it is “based on actual events,” tells the story of three backpackers—Liz, Kristy, and Ben (Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, and Nathan Phillips)—whose car breaks down in Australia’s Wolf Creek National Park. They accept help from a local but soon find their trust misplaced as he tortures and kills them in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Though Ben escapes, title cards at the end of the film tell viewers that Liz and Kristy were never found. Technically, this is true, as Liz and Kristy never existed in the first place. None of the events of Wolf Creek happened in real life, and director/writer Greg McLean has admitted that his villain was based on a lot of different people, including Bradley Murdoch and Ivan Milat, two actual serial killers. Then he took some well-known Australian personas—think Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin—and gelled them all together to offer a killer character that represented the picture of a stereotypical Australian, or what non-Australians view as real. Crikey!^[8]

2 The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project has, in the years since its release, come to be recognized for popularizing the found-footage genre in horror cinema. Using handheld cameras operated by the cast, it tells the story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams (all playing themselves)—who go searching for the legendary Blair Witch in the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland.

According to the film, the three went missing, leaving only their cameras behind. In this sense, Blair Witch went beyond traditional “true story” marketing by actually positioning the movie upon release as real footage. The viral marketing behind the film not only made it one of the first films to be promoted with an extensive internet campaign but was so convincing it caused widespread panic among viewers. But this isn’t where its duplicity ends: There is no real Blair Witch, no Blair Witch legend, and the film wasn’t even shot in Burkittsville.

Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez came up with the idea in 1993, tapping into their instinctual fear of the low-budget hits that preceded them. And, following in the lucrative footsteps of those cinematic forebears, they made around $250 million against a budget of $600,000.^[9]

1 The Fourth Kind (2009)

Unfortunately, not all “true story” cinema goes the way of The Blair Witch Project, and many flicks are lost in time, forgotten by the very crowds they were built to please. And, if ever there was a perfect instance of this, it is the misguided alien abduction thriller The Fourth Kind.

The film opens with Milla Jovovich informing the audience that her character, psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler, is real and that archival footage will be played alongside the film’s dramatic recreations. In reality, the “archive footage” is of actress Charlotte Milchard, and though it should perhaps go without saying, none of the film’s alien abductions happened. This is despite the fact that it was widely circulated that this film was based on actual events, backed by a fake website and fake stories attributed to real papers.

The Fourth Kind is an example of not just a marketing campaign but an entire production going too far to sell a film as a true story. As a result, the Alaskan press brought a legal case against NCB Universal. A settlement was reached to stop the organization from creating fake stories attributed to Alaska publications and fake news websites to promote their movies.^[10]

KAMIKAZE!!! Just quietly uttering the word will conjure up visions of terror and destruction on a fantastic scale, and of course a spectacular fiery explosion and death—the cockpit and the guy flying it. They have their own drink, the word is branded into the global conscience, and is no doubt used countless times every day around the planet, yet many don’t know the true story behind these brave, yet terrifying suicidal WWII warriors. The Germans used suicide attacks in WWII, but only sparingly when compared to their Axis counterparts in the Pacific. The Japanese on the other hand took finding ways to hit big steel things with big steel bombs to an entirely new level and degree of viscous savagery. Imagine such treachery as a suicidal mine-wielding frogman under your ship, or some guy in a huge rocket-powered bomb flying at you at 650 mph (1046 kph)! Please read on to find out which of these flew, which floated, and which didn’t. Here you can learn more than you might ever want to know about what the Allied forces and the rest of the world would come to know as the “kamikaze.” Prepare to be both amazed and shocked at the lengths these people went to, to try and win what would prove to be an unwinnable war.

10 Facts About The Kamikaze You Probably Didn’t Know

10 What Did “Kamikaze” Mean Back Then?

First, it helps to know the actual Japanese meaning of the word. Literally, as when reading, kamikaze would be read simply as “god-wind,” but it most commonly denotes the “divine wind,” which was the light in which the Japanese saw the kamikaze soldier in during World War II. The Japanese concept of the “divine wind” dates back in their culture to the Middle Ages when twice, invading fleets of Mongol warships were ravaged en route by typhoons, both times sparing the Japanese from spilling even a drop of blood in their defense. They called these miraculous events “divine wind,” and were taught about to every school age child in Japan, and in WWII, their hopes were that these kamikazes would be their new divine wind, that would again snatch them from the jaws of defeat.

In the West though, especially to Allied servicemen, the kamikazes were simply suicidal pilots or soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Empire, that viciously attacked Allied forces from the air, land, and sea, in the costliest, longest, and most horrific fighting of the entire war, with complete disregard for their own lives. It is interesting to note that a “divine wind,” this one named Typhoon Cobra, did manage to ravage the Allied Pacific Fleet, then commanded by Admiral William ‘Bull’ Halsey, on 14 December, 1944, on the way to attack the Japanese. This tropical maelstrom, dubbed “Halsey’s Typhoon,” took the lives of 790 seamen, and sank at least two destroyers in the Philippine Sea east of Luzon.

9 The Ancient Japanese Samurai And Their Bushido Code

The ancient samurai ideology, and their Bushido Code, was condensed in “Hagakure,” which was a collection of 18th-century samurai anecdotes and axioms that literally began with the sentence, “The way of the samurai lies in death…,” and so was clearly meant to enforce the belief that a soldier had to be ready to die for his emperor at all costs. This would soon become the core philosophy of the Japanese soldier who had already adopted the samurai ideology, thus subsequently adopting the Bushido philosophy reprinted in Hagakure as well. Although never reprinted in-full before the 1930s, that would change with war when a commentary, praising the logic in Hagakure’s message, was published in 1940, and given to every Japanese soldier to carry with him into battle. Today, military historians aren’t quite sure if the Japanese soldier’s failure to surrender was due to his belief in the samurai traditions and the Bushido Code, the fear of being executed by their own side for cowardice, or even by the “murderous” Americans who they were told would kill them as well if they were captured by them. Whatever the case may be, ancient samurai ideology and the Bushido Code, along the message they carried with them in Hagakure, obviously influenced the Japanese soldier of WWII in a deadly manner for all involved.

8 The Precursors To Kamikaze Strikes—Banzai Charges, Suicide Bombers, And Suicide Pilots

Long before 1944, when kamikazes started attacking Allied forces in earnest, the Japanese had already been fighting with suicidal kamikaze-like tactics. In Europe, where over five million German soldiers had surrendered to Allied forces, in the Pacific, that number was less than five percent, or not very many. Although the Allies weren’t ready for these vicious suicidal attacks, they were well aware of their foe’s suicidal tendencies in battle. For example, during the “island hopping” campaigns of the Pacific Theater, frontal “Banzai!” charges against entrenched Allied positions from waves of Japanese soldiers, and attacks by individual suicide bombers with satchel charges sent to take out tanks, weren’t unheard of, but these were seen then by the Allies as acts of desperation born out of the desperate situation they found themselves in.

In hindsight though, the Allies could have known that their enemies were potentially suicidal, since there was a deadly kamikaze-like strike as far back as 1941 that very few have heard of in Pearl Harbor. This engagement occurred when the U.S.S. Curtiss, the first American seaplane tender constructed specifically for this purpose, was hit just below her bridge by a Japanese suicide pilot while fighting off Japanese warplanes and even a midget submarine at one time, on 7 December, 1941. The incident, although isolated and not sanctioned by the Japanese navy, caused 54 casualties, including several deaths aboard the Curtiss. Please note that these types of unsolicited attacks by the Japanese were called “kesshi,” referring to when an individual makes a ‘dare-to-die’ decision.

(“Banzai” is a Japanese battle cry meaning, “May you have ten thousand years of long life!”)

7 Japanese Prime Minister Orders Tokkō Missions

As early as mid-1943, the Japanese brass knew that bombing targets with heavy warplanes was both inaccurate and extremely expensive. They also knew that due to misses, American bombers had to drop three or four times as many bombs needed to destroy an intended target, and they did not have those resources to turn onto Allied forces. So they had to improvise, and improvise they did, and came up with the concept of “one plane, one ship” with the pilot and plane together acting as a human-guided bomb.

But the concept needed to be proven first, so on 14 October, 1944, a Japanese Rear Admiral did just that. He got in his plane, took off, found the closest Allied ship, and rammed it. That Allied ship was the American aircraft carrier U.S.S. Franklin, and the Divine Wind—or Kamikaze—was re-born. And then the Allies would soon learn more than anyone that the “one plane, one ship” concept would not last for their enemy, since kamikaze warplanes would eventually attack the Allies in droves.

The new divine wind actually began to blow when Japanese Rear Admiral Kamito Kuroshime first proposed voluntary suicidal attacks in July 1943 called “tokkō,” or Divine Wind Special Attack Units, which were at first rebuffed by the rest of Imperial command. But as Japanese losses mounted, as they had in the battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal, they were forced to rethink the idea. Tokkō was officially militarized when Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojō gave the order to start forming ‘special suicide missions.’ These missions would use much of the inventory in the Japanese arsenal, with a few more added, but warplanes, and their expendable pilots, were the kamikazes main weapon of choice. Zeros, Oscars, Vals, Kates, even Betty bombers and other crafts of many types were used in kamikaze suicide attacks.

Documents captured after the war revealed that the pilots were required to be volunteers so Emperor Hirohito had plausible deniability, and could not be charged with war crimes, since he could claim he knew nothing of the Tokkō tactics and strategies.

6 Bomb-Laden Midget-Submarines Called Kiaryu (Sea Dragon) and Koryo (Japanese Meaning Unknown)

At first the Kiaryu and Koryo were thought of as the conventional offensive weapons they were first conceived as, but later it was discovered that the torpedoes or other explosives packed into them, came equipped with a manual hair-trigger, proving conclusively that they were meant to be used tactically as only a kamikaze could—in suicidal attacks against Allied warships—making them nothing less than cousins to the kaiten, which were the human-guided, Type 93, suicide torpedoes. There was a variety of these weapons made, most starting life in the Japanese Navy’s midget submarine fleet, some of them the same type that participated in the attack on Sunday morning of 7 December, 1941, at Pearl Harbor. Ironically, a foreshadowing of what the horror would later come to in the Pacific Theater, had first occurred long before America even declared war on their newfound enemy, when the U.S.S. Curtiss was struck by a Japanese fighter in an intentional suicide attack, causing 54 casualties after being hit just below her bridge. There is not much information on the use of the Kiaryu and Koryo since they were apparently held back in large numbers in preparation for the inevitable Allied attack on the Japanese mainland. There are pictures of many of these crafts floating in docks in Japan ready to strike out against their enemies.

5 “Scubacidal Maniacs” Called Fukuryu (Crouching Dragon)

Imagine if you will, a 1940s era, suicidal frogman, or “fukuryu,” silently slipping into the murky sea. He carries a huge anti-shipping mine packed with high explosives, and a very long pole to attach it to. He swims stealthily down below a giant steel ship, invisible and submerged in the inky darkness, where he plans to detonate his death-dealing device; by standing on the bottom with it extended upwards on his pole, to sink the steel behemoth looming ominously above him. This is yet another potential horror story that the Allies would have dealt with, had they needed to invade Japan by conventional means as they had originally planned. After the end of the war, Japanese records indicated that they had 1,200 fukuryu suicidal frogmen trained, but that they had no mines for them when they surrendered. This lack of ordinance is thought to be due to their commanders not anticipating the atom bomb strikes, and the quick destruction of two of their major cities, and subsequent surrender aboard the U.S.S Missouri. Military historians feel that the these fanatical early suicidal scuba divers most certainly would have been armed had the Allies invaded, and may have caused considerable casualties and damage to ships at anchor.

4 Human-Guided, Cruise Missiles Called The Ohka (Cherry Blossom)

The kamikazes actually flew a bomb-laden, jet-powered, human-guided cruise missile, called the Ohka. The word is Japanese for “cherry blossom,” but they sure weren’t pretty. To Allied servicemen they were “bakas”, which is Japanese for “fool” (referring to their pilots, who they thought were “idiots”). These literally were flying human bombs with a rudimentary warplane built around them, and barely enough room for a pilot to sit and fly it into the nearest Allied ship he could find. They were propelled by three powerful rocket engines, and came in several models. They carried 550 pounds (250 kg) of high-explosives, and could fly as fast as 650 mph (1046 kph)! Most men on the ships they were targeting could barely even see them, let alone shoot at them. They were dropped from underneath the bellies of Betty bombers and came in just above the waterline so the ohkas were difficult enough to see as it was, but at these speeds they were almost impossible to hit with a cannon or machine gun, especially at such a low angle to the gunners up on the ships. Fortunately for the Allies the Betty motherships were big and slow and easily shot down by Allied fighters long before becoming a danger to Allied warships, although there is one reported sinking of an Allied warship by a “baka.”

3 Human-Guided, Anti-Aircraft Missiles Called The Taiatari (Body Strike)

By 1944, when the American B-29 Superfortress began pounding Japan from the air, the Japanese air forces were in tatters, but what they still had to work with was the “taiatari,” which was a stripped-down, Ki-44 single-seat, “Tojō” fighter plane. It was the most feared and heavily armed Japanese fighter of the Allied bomber crews, sporting two very dangerous 40-mm cannons. The taiatari may have been conceived with the German’s Sonderkommando Elbe in mind, which was a German fighter stripped of much of its weight, except for 60 rounds of ammunition to gain altitude in order to get high enough to physically ram Allied bombers in mid-air. The Japanese had the same thing in mind when they modified the Ki-44 Tojō in the same way to attack the B-29s over Japan. The idea was to get in close, get as many rounds off as accurately as possible, and then ram the nearest bomber they could find! Since the Japanese air force was so decimated by this time in the war, this tactic can only be viewed as a last ditch effort, and so obviously had little, if any effect on the Allied bombing campaign of the Japanese home islands.

2 Human-Guided Torpedoes Called The Kaiten (Return to Heaven)

Now imagine, you’re a Japanese “kaiten” pilot. It’s a gorgeous day in the South Pacific in August, 1944, as you climb up into your slender and sinister craft—a Type 93, “Long Lance” torpedo, with a cockpit carved out of the hull just big enough for you to be squeezed into. Your mission: First, get in the torpedo, then find the nearest Allied ship, and steer the giant bomb into it. “Piece of cake, right Joe?” You may find the concept anything but “simple,” but to the Japanese the kaitens were one of the most effective suicide weapons of WWII, second only to their kamikaze warplanes in effectiveness.

The Japanese Type 93 Long Lance was a very reliable and powerful, oxygen-propelled torpedo, that was 2 feet (61 cm) in diameter, just shy of 30 feet long (9 m), weighed 6 tons (2,721 kg), and carried a 1,080 pound (490 kg) warhead, with an effective range of 24,000 yards (22,000 m), at 59 mph (96 kph), around 52 knots—or as fast as a respectable family speedboat. After a rigorous training period involving a lot of dangerous diving (in which 15 trainees were killed), and maneuvering around an underwater obstacle course, these 17 to 28-year-old suicide pilots were, later in the war, literally locked inside their coffin so they couldn’t escape their horrific demise if even they wanted to. But then in later models the pilots were afforded a self-destruct mechanism, just in case their mission “failed.” Thank goodness for small favors, right?

1 Human-Guided, Bomb-Laden, Speedboats Called The Shin’yōs (Ocean Shaker)

Both the Japanese Navy and Army used suicide speedboats (called motorboats officially back then), and had several different versions, but with the same outcome in mind—destruction. The navy version of these human-guided, suicidal speedboat bombs had a crew of one (imagine that), and could reach speeds of close to 34 mph (55 kph), or 30 knots. They were equipped with a 660 pound (299 kg) charge installed in the bow, that was wired to blow at the flick of a switch should the pilot deem it necessary. These vessels also came equipped with two rocket launchers loaded with anti-ship ordinance for an added “punch.”

The army version was similar, and called the Maru-ni, but wasn’t a suicide weapon per se. The army’s idea was to run up close to an Allied ship, dump off one of your two depth charges, then turn around and run, hoping to escape the return fire that’s going to rain down on you, and/or the wave from the explosion rushing at you from behind, on the way out of danger. Having two depth charges onboard gives you twice the chances at succeeding at this harrowing activity. There apparently were reports of crewmen actually returning alive, but this was extremely dangerous at best, and most would think it suicidal to even consider it as anything but a suicide mission.

+ The Biggest And Baddest Battleship In Naval History Was Used As A Kamikaze

This warship was the pride and joy of both the Japanese Navy, and her people, and was named accordingly. The Yamato was named after the ancient Yamato State which was the name of first Japanese empire in their long and storied history. This battle wagon was one of just two on the planet that ever sported a set of nine Type 94, 18-inch naval rifles. These exquisitely engineered ginormous main guns had an effective range of 26 miles (74,029 km), and fired a 3,220 pound (1,460 kg) shell. All nine were quite capable of loading and shooting a projectile as heavy as a large car as far the eye can see and successfully hitting a target, making the Yamato a very formidable weapon—if used properly that is—if not, then you end up with 7 April 1945 and the results of Operation Ten-Go. Prior to this, the Japanese were so reluctant to use this ship, that she only fired shots in anger at her enemies once the entire war, and this was before Operation Ten-Go.

The Yamato and her sister ship, the Musashi, were the most powerful battleships ever to float, and the Musashi had already been lost at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines over a year earlier. At 80,248 tons (36,476 kg) fully loaded, the Yamato class of battleships boasted nine of the Type 94, 18-inch (460 mm) naval rifles, which were the largest ever put to sea. Only two of the three ships in the class had these massive main naval guns, and one of them was on the bottom. Before Operation Ten-Go—the last Japanese offensive naval operation of WWII—but on this day in April 1945, she was being sent with her crew to be sacrificed in a kamikaze attack on Allied forces already fighting in Okinawa.

Operation Ten-Go turned into a complete disaster when the Japanese force was jumped by carrier-borne Allied fighters long before they were in position to attack. In a strong show of Allied air superiority, in the resulting deluge, Yamato, along with at least 3,700 of her crew, were lost to the sea when her powder magazine exploded. Several other Japanese ships were sunk, and many others were damaged. Sailors drowned, planes were destroyed, and their precious pilots lost, along with Japan’s ability to ever wage offensive warfare ever again in WWII.

Note: Operation Ten-Go is sometimes referred to as “Operation Heaven One.”

++ There “Would Be No Civilians In Japan”

A flyer nailed to a telegraph pole in Japan may have read, “ATTENTION! On 23 March, 1945, We, The Japanese Imperial Government, Have Passed THE VOLUNTEER ENLISTMENT LAW, requiring every Japanese male between the ages of 15 and 60, and every female between the ages of 15 and 40, to begin military training in the use of primitive weapons and suicidal tactics…,” This statement, or something like it posted by the Japanese government, in effect transformed Japan into an entire nation of kamikazes by “weaponizing” the bulk of the population, and no doubt contributed to the use of atomic weapons by the Allies to end the war.

Had they not developed the atomic bomb, Allied military leaders had already made plans to invade a country consisting almost completely of combatants, with the possibility of suicide bombers as young as 9 or 10 armed with satchel charges to blow up troops or tanks. Or at least that’s what the military feared, but then there is the passing of the Volunteer Enlistment Law, which militarized a huge proportion of the population, none of which would have had proper uniforms, and all of which would have blended in with the general population. This meant that the Allied soldiers on the ground wouldn’t have been able to tell civilian from combatant, so any Japanese would have been a potential kamikaze. It would have been the most gruesome guerrilla and urban warfare the world would have ever known.

10 Horrific Experiments Conducted By The Evil Japanese Unit 731

Some songs tell a creepy story by means of dark lyrics and haunting music. Others tell a creepy or disturbing story using catchy melodies and thumping beats. On this list are just some of the many upbeat songs out there that tell a terrifying story or two.

10 “Copacabana” – Barry Manilow

A conversation about whether or not there was an existing song called “Copacabana” between Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman at the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro sparked the idea for the now-infamous “Copacabana” song recorded by Manilow, which was released in 1978.

The disco tune became a tropical foot-tapping hit, but beyond the upbeat music, the lyrics tell a truly dark story. It centers around the life of a Copacabana showgirl named Lola and her lover named Tony, a bartender at the club. Tony attacks a gangster who tries to seduce Lola and is killed in the ensuing fight. The lyrics pick up again 30 years after the tragedy, and the club is now a disco. But Lola still sits at the bar dressed in her showgirl attire, pining for Tony and drinking herself “half blind.” ^[1]

9 “Mack the Knife” – Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin recorded his version of “Mack the Knife” as a single in 1958, earning him two Grammy Awards. Before this, Louis Armstrong brought his own version of the song to the U.S. in 1955. There are many more notable recordings of the song, originally composed by Kurt Weill and included in the 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera.

And in the same way as “Copacabana,” the catchy tune accompanies some truly disturbing lyrics. Mack is portrayed as a rapist, arsonist, and murderer with sociopathic traits, especially around women. There is blood on the sidewalks, bodies in the river, and missing victims, and the story is told in an almost carefree manner.^[2]

8 “One” – Metallica

“One” starts out pretty calm, but soon the music is ramped up to intense levels, and there is not a sad note to be found.

However, the lyrics tell a deeply sad story, and the music video only serves to deepen the feelings of despair. The song was released in 1989 and relates the harrowing story of a WWI soldier who suffered catastrophic wounds from an exploding landmine. The soldier has lost his arms, legs, and jaw and cannot move or speak. His only wish is that God would take his life.

The music video shows the soldier trying to communicate in Morse code, forcing out the words ‘kill me’ by jolting his entire body inside his hospital bed.^[3]

7 “Fast Car” – Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman is one of the best singers in the world. All her songs are noteworthy, and they all tell a story. In particular, “Fast Car” is an earworm that you won’t stop humming after hearing it on the radio.

“Fast Car” is a song inspired by Chapman’s parents, as she explained to a local newscaster, and how difficult it was for them to start their lives as newlyweds with a lack of higher education and career opportunities. The “fast car” symbolized the way out of this less-than-ideal situation.

The lyrics themselves also tell a sad story about a girl stuck in a small town, taking care of her father, who is an alcoholic and a deadbeat. She finally escapes this life with her boyfriend, and they start what she believes will be a better future. But then the boyfriend turns out to be just like the girl’s father, an unemployed alcoholic, while she goes to work every day and takes care of their children.^[4]

6 “Goodbye Earl” – The Chicks

The country song “Goodbye Earl” is the definition of a chipper tune. It was released as a single in 2000 and was recently included in Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Best Songs of All Time.

And the lyrics are befitting of what is still a terrifying scourge worldwide today. In a black comedy kind of way, it tells the story of best friends Mary Ann and Wanda, who go their separate ways after high school. Wanda marries a man named Earl, who starts physically abusing her. The lyrics go on to describe how Wanda filed for divorce and got a restraining order, but Earl still put her in intensive care.

Then Mary Ann returns to help Wanda kill Earl… by poisoning his food.

The song stirred up controversy at the time because of the violent themes, but it remains one of The Chicks’ most popular releases.^[5]

5 “Run for Your Life” – The Beatles

A fantastic comical cover of “Run for Your Life” exists in an Ally McBeal episode in which a choir singer “warns” a fellow choir member not to mess with her man.

The Beatles released the song in 1965, and it remains a memorable melody to this day. But the lyrics also remain disturbing. They are basically a repeated threat to an unnamed girlfriend that the singer would rather see her dead than with another man. It exposes possessiveness, obsession, and jealousy, all set to a cheerful tune.

The lyrics were mainly written by John Lennon and based on a line taken from an Elvis Presley song, “Baby, Let’s Play House.”^[6]

4 “Follow Me” – Uncle Kracker

Uncle Kracker’s “Follow Me” was playing on the car radio the day I heard about the 9/11 attacks. It was cut off right in the middle of the mellow chorus as the shaken-up newsreader related what was happening in the U.S.

It was only years later that I really listened to the song and its lyrics again, read up on it, and realized that it basically depicts drug addiction, specifically heroin addiction. Uncle Kracker, during an interview in 2001, stated that the song was about both drugs and infidelity. This then also led many fans of the song to become convinced that Uncle Kracker was singing about his own infidelity with a married woman, as opposed to cheating in general.^[7]

3 “Skinned” – Blind Melon

There are dark lyrics, and then there are the lyrics of “Skinned,” which are downright nightmare-inducing.

“I’ll make a shoehorn outta your shin
I’ll make a lampshade of durable skin
And, oh, don’t you know that I’m always feeling able
When I’m sitting home and I’m carving out your navel?
I’m just a-sitting here carving out your navel”

If that reminds you of one Ed Gein, it might be because the song was inspired by this terrifying killer. The lead singer of Blind Melon, Shannon Hoon, wrote the lyrics after reading a book about serial killers. His thinking behind the idea of the song was that all stories have two sides, and he wanted to show the “comical” side of the Ed Gein killings.

So the song is indeed memorable, but very much for all the wrong reasons.^[8]

2 “Every Breath You Take” – The Police

“Every Breath You Take” is a popular dance floor staple. You’ll hear the lyrics pouring through speakers at weddings and school dances and straining through earphones on the bus or train. It is the definition of a sing-along song and a very popular karaoke tune.

But it’s also a song about a possessive lover watching every move their partner makes—jealous over everything they do. The lyrics basically detail the partner being stalked, which makes the song sound like it’s being sung from the perspective of the stalker.

Sting once stated, “I think the song is very, very sinister and ugly, and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle little love song when it’s quite the opposite.”

He also said that he wrote the song lyrics while he was going through a separation from his first wife and starting a relationship with her best friend.^[9]

1 “Adam’s Song” – Blink 182

All Blink 182 songs are instantly appealing.

“Adam’s Song” is appealing and heartbreaking at the same time. It is a song about depression, loss, loneliness, and suicide. Bassist, Mark Hoppus, read about a teen’s suicide in a magazine, which inspired the lyrics of “Adam’s Song,” which reads like a suicide note. Some of the lyrics also allude to Nirvana’s “Come as You Are.”

In a tragic real-life echo, the song was playing on repeat when Greg Barnes hung himself in his family’s garage in 2000. Barnes had survived the Columbine High School massacre one year earlier but had lost a close friend and mentor of a teacher.

However, the song has also been instrumental in helping hundreds of people overcome suicidal feelings, as is evidenced by the constant stream of thank-you letters the band has received over the years.^[10]