Magic tricks have been tools of entertainment for centuries, awing children and adults alike with pure showmanship and excitement. Sitting in the crowd and witnessing one of these stunts can be an amazing experience. Most of the time, regular folks have no idea how the trick behind the illusion works. But we all know it’s not real magic, right?

Well, these 10 tricks have been unexplainable, so they may as well be real magic.

Of course, plenty of expert magicians are most likely familiar with these tricks, especially with the more famous and simple ones. But that doesn’t in any way mean that the secrets are out. Here are 10 magic tricks and illusions with secrets that are really well-hidden.

10 David Copperfield—Portal

Teleporting is something that’s widely considered impossible. Although scientists have produced many theories on how it could be done, so far it just remains an element of sci-fi and a pure feat of magic.

In the video above, David Copperfield seeks to demonstrate the latter of the two as he goes onstage. He prepares to awe the audience, pulling up a live video from Hawaii and claiming he’ll attempt to teleport himself there. Sounds crazy, right?

The footage shows otherwise. An audience member writes his initials on Copperfield’s arm with a marker. A Polaroid picture is taken of other audience members.

These items of proof go with Copperfield and his assistant as they disappear from a simplistic portal at the magic show. Nothing is near the portal—not on any side or above or below—that could remove the trick’s seeming legitimacy.

Moments later, Copperfield and his assistant appear on a beautiful beach in a seemingly live video from Hawaii. The magician proudly shows his signed arm and the picture of the audience members.

While it’s obviously not real magic, the explanation has yet to be found. Some have attempted to debunk it, but nothing has proven to be quite this perfect and satisfactory.

9 The Indian Rope Trick

The infamous Indian rope trick is an exciting stunt where the magician commands the rope to actually do his bidding!

In the video above, a man is outside in a fenced circle. With a crowd gathered around, he shows a rope so that everyone can see that nothing has been done to alter it.

Afterward, he proceeds to place the rope in a basket and commands it to “come alive.” It rises from the basket by itself like a snake would. This is accompanied by the magician’s funky music, which adds quite a lot to the performance.

If this wasn’t enough, a boy then climbs the rope that seemingly isn’t attached to anything. Shortly after he gets down, the rope collapses on command like nothing ever happened.

So far, no one has debunked this trick with complete success.

8 Penn & Teller—Shadows

Penn & Teller are a wonderful duo of magicians and entertainers who constantly amaze fans with new tricks and a lack of explanations. This time is no different!

This simple, beautiful trick has Teller practically deflowering a shadow—yes, a shadow!

With a simple knife, he attempts to cut the flowers off the shadow as if he was doing the same to the actual flower casting the shadow. Of course, he succeeds.

The flowers begin falling, both from the shadow and the real plant.

After this spectacular display, blood begins dripping heavily from Teller’s hand. It’s only visible on the shadow at first. Then his hand moves closer to the canvas where the real blood appears. He proceeds to actually smear it.

This simple but largely unexplainable trick is surely memorable and should get plenty of folks interested in the world of magic. Such a wonderful world indeed!

7 Berglas Effect

Originally created by David Berglas, the Berglas Effect has attained legendary status among fans of the art. A small number of people can pull it off, and they do so consistently.

The trick is simple on paper. It’s a card trick, something you’ve seen plenty of times. But this one definitely takes the cake.

The cards are visible before the magic begins. Then a random spectator freely names any card from the deck of 52. Another participant chooses a number between 1 and 52. Afterward, a third random spectator, who is holding the deck, counts out cards to the specified number.

And voila, when the third spectator counts out the number of cards specified by the second participant, the last card shown is the same card that the first spectator named—without the performer ever touching the cards at all!

This wonderful trick may never be released, but we definitely think it’s much better that way.

6 Richard Osterlind—Penny Bender

This is the seemingly simplest trick on our list, but it’s still sure to cause plenty of headaches. The performer, Richard Osterlind, asks for a nice, sturdy, regular penny, which is confirmed by the audience to be completely ordinary.

After this is done, Osterlind places the penny in the palm of his hand, lightly pressing it with one finger. Suddenly, the penny magically bends. He releases the bent coin and shows it to the audience. Then, with only a bit more effort, he bends the penny back to its normal state.

Richard may not have the muscles to attempt such a feat, but he surely has the skill. As simple as this trick is, it’s still a mind-boggling magician’s secret to this day.

5 Reza—Switchblade

Another exciting trick involving cards comes from a young illusionist called Reza. As usual, the trick starts out really simple. He asks a girl to pick a card, any card, and to sign it with a marker. So far, so good.

Reza places his hand on the girl’s hand as they’re holding the card together. Once he lets go, the card isn’t there. Fun trick, you might think. But as usual, this is very far from being all of it!

He takes a switchblade from his pocket and proceeds to stick it into a nearby door. As the knife hits the door, the card appears right where the knife entered.

It’s unclear how he does it, but it is fun to watch!

4 Cyril Takayama—Lacoste

Lacoste is a fascinating illusion by Cyril Takayama, a young Japanese magician who certainly has a knack for showmanship. Even at first glance, this trick is far more complicated than the ones before, but it really pays off!

Takayama goes into a clothes shop, picks up a plain orange shirt, and places it on a glass counter. He puts his hand on the shirt. However, once he lifts his hand, a small plastic alligator appears on the shirt.

Then he takes a simple, old-school flip phone and places it on the shirt while using his finger to command the little plastic alligator to enter the phone. As it does, it eats a digital hamburger on the phone screen. But this is definitely not enough for Takayama!

The alligator disappears from the phone, and a larger plastic cutout of the animal appears outside of the phone instead. Takayama places a pamphlet with pictures on top of the plastic alligator (which is sitting on the shirt). Lo and behold, a real alligator scurries out from under the pamphlet.

Even though the audio is in Japanese, we recommend watching this one. It’s absolutely fascinating!

3 David Blaine—Teeth

The amazing magician David Blaine has certainly made a name for himself, but this is his most unexplainable trick—as well as the author’s personal favorite.

Blaine approaches a crowd and asks a random girl if he can pull out two of her teeth. Yes, two of her actual teeth. After he does, the girl stands there with visible, confused annoyance and two of her front teeth clearly missing. But not to worry. David isn’t done yet!

He takes her two teeth and places them in his own mouth. Then he actually spits the teeth back into the girl’s mouth perfectly where they belong as if nothing had changed.

It’s a confusing and very fun trick, although we don’t recommend that you try it out on your friends.

2 Liu Qian—Coins

Liu Qian is a fairly well-known Taiwanese magician who starts his trick out simply. He sits near a plexiglass table and places a black mat on top. Then he drops some ordinary coins through the seemingly solid mat and plexiglass effortlessly.

A woman sitting near him thinks that the trick may have something to do with the mat. Liu is definitely looking for an opportunity to show off a bit, so he removes the mat entirely and does the trick again.

Then he repeats the trick without his hands covering the coins at all. Liu lets the lady choose one coin and the spot where it will go through the table, and he succeeds again.

Still not enough, he decides to take everything one step further. Slowly, he slides his hand through the supposedly solid plexiglass. He grabs some coins from another man’s hand beneath the table. Then Liu slowly slides his hand out of the plexiglass and spills the coins on the table.

1 Penn & Teller—Magic Bullet

Penn starts the show by getting some real bullets out of his pocket and asking for audience members who have experience with firearms. Two men decide to help out. They’re asked to sign the bullets to make sure that there is no funny business going on. Of course, they do.

Then Penn and Teller are suddenly pointing real Colt Pythons at each other with the signed bullets loaded. They aim at each other’s mouths and fire.

With a loud bang, their protective helmets fall off and we see them completely fine with the signed bullets in their mouths. The thin sheet of glass in front of each magician is visibly shattered. They even show the bullet casings to the two previously mentioned audience members who can easily tell, even by smell, that the guns were fired.

How they did it is unclear, and that’s part of what makes it so amazing. But beware: Never attempt to perform this trick with a real firearm. You could easily hurt yourself or someone else.

Just a curious guy who loves writing!

According to UNESCO, there are approximately three million shipwrecks scattered across the Earth’s surface.^[1] The ocean is a vast place, and sea travel can be a hugely isolated and dangerous endeavor. Some ships are destroyed by storms, others run out of supplies or hit land, and some just outright vanish, never to be seen again.

For every shipwreck we understand, there are at least ten which are still shrouded in mystery. They are uniquely haunting places, catastrophes frozen in time and preserved hundreds or even thousands of feet below the surface. Here, we delve into some of the strangest shipwrecks that are still unexplained today.

10 The World Trade Center Ship

One of the greatest tragedies of the modern world happened on September, 11, 2001: Four commercial aircraft were hijacked by terrorists and flown toward key landmarks in the US. Two of these planes hit the 110-story World Trade Center towers, which collapsed later that day.

The disaster resulted in the total destruction of the World Trade Center, which had to be cleared of debris ahead of reconstruction plans. The ground was broken as part of a scheme to build an underground security and parking complex. But excavation had to be halted in 2010 when diggers encountered something very unusual 6.7 meters (22 ft) below ground level, slightly south of where the two towers had once stood: a shipwreck.^[2]

Later analysis discovered that the trees used to build the ship were cut down in 1773, a few years before the Declaration of Independence. It was built from the same white oaks that also supplied builders with the materials they needed to construct Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Archaeologists later found that the ship had almost certainly been built in Philadelphia, which was the center of the American shipbuilding industry at the time. As a result, the vessel was probably sailing during those key few years when America broke away from Britain.

Archaeologists still aren’t sure how the ship ended up there, but it is commonly understood that the area was still sea at the time of the American Revolution. The ship may have been scrapped and buried on purpose as part of a conscious attempt to extend the Manhattan coastline, or it could have just been another unfortunate victim of the fickle ocean.

9 The Mary Rose

The Mary Rose was undisputedly the pride of the English navy for over 30 years. When it was first launched in 1511, the Age of Sail was only just beginning. It was the largest ship in the English fleet and one of the most advanced in the world: It took full advantage of the recent invention of the gunport and was one of the first ships in history capable of firing a broadside. It fought in numerous battles against England’s primary enemy at the time, France, before sinking in the midst of battle in 1545.

The circumstances of the Mary Rose’s demise still aren’t understood.^[3] On the day of the battle, the English fleet was docked at Portsmouth harbor, making it especially vulnerable. The French galleys launched a surprise attack, and the Mary Rose and another warship sailed out to drive them off. According to a contemporary report, the Mary Rose suddenly leaned right, causing water to flood in through the open gunports. The ship sank quickly after that, taking over 90 percent of her 400-man crew down with it. It sank within full view of Southsea Castle: Today, a buoy marks the site, which can easily be seen from the castle walls.

A number of theories have been put forward to explain the tragedy, none of which are entirely satisfactory. One theory suggests the ship had been made too heavy by the most recent refit, which added more men and guns, but the refit was nine years before the sinking. A French captain present at the battle said it was sunk by a cannonball, but no evidence found at the wreck conclusively supports this. Another contemporary said that it was hit by a gust of wind while it was turning, and it had just fired its guns, which, added together, tipped the ship too far to the right. The Mary Rose has since been recovered from the seabed and is preserved in a museum in Portsmouth, but even now, analysts disagree over exactly what caused the sinking.

8 The Jenny Lind

In 1850, the Jenny Lind was more than 480 kilometers (300 mi) from the Australian mainland when it suddenly struck land. The ship had hit a small ridge which lay just below the water. The crew then survived for 37 days on a small, sandy quay while they built a new ship, before sailing over 600 kilometers (370 mi) to Moreton Bay on the Australian mainland. All 28 crew members survived.^[4]

The feat was widely recorded in the newspapers at the time, and shortly after that, the surprise bit of land, known as Kenn Reefs, started appearing on navigation maps. After that, travel past the ridge—which lay right in the middle of a busy trade route—was much safer. But even today, we don’t know quite how many ships the ridge has actually claimed. The Bona Vista crashed into it in 1828, and a record made in 1857 states that the southern end of the reef was already “strewn with wrecks” even then. Modern estimates assume that at least eight ships have met their end on this deadly atoll.

The main problem is the incessant strength of the sea which batters the atoll. A trip to Kenn Reefs in the 1980s found that both the Jenny Lind and the Bona Vista were still half-visible above the water, but another trip in January 2017 found that they had since been destroyed. The tropical weather and powerful currents quickly reduce any ships that wreck there to their metallic parts, making it impossible to tell just how many have been claimed. The investigators are persistent, though: They’re currently in the process of cataloguing all the material still visible and checking contemporary shipping records in an effort to come up with an estimate.

7 The Waratah

The SS Waratah was an advanced passenger liner that was built in Glasgow. Intended to ferry people between the UK and Australia, it was expected to be a hardy and durable oceangoing vessel. However, it first raised concerns during its test voyages, when the captain complained that it sometimes felt top-heavy and struggled to maneuver.^[5]

The ship remained in use. It departed Durban in July 1909, expected to take three days to reach Cape Town. The ship was sighted at sea over the course of the first day but then disappeared without a trace. One sailor who saw the ship go by thought it might have been giving off a lot of smoke, while another later reported seeing two bright flashes in the night. He was used to seeing them, however, since they were often caused by bushfires along the South African coast, and didn’t even think to record them in his log until he heard of the ship’s loss.

Since then, multiple efforts have been made to try to locate the ship. After nearly a century of searching, the South African National Underwater and Maritime Agency reported that they’d found it in July 1999, even performing a deep-sea dive to confirm it. Months later, however, they discovered that it was the wreck of a different ship—the military transport vessel Nailsea Meadow, which had a similar profile. To this day, no trace of the Waratah has ever been found. Its sinking led to the complete collapse of the Blue Anchor Line, which owned the ship, and they sold off their fleet the following year.

6 The Andrea Doria

The waters of the world emptied over the course of the World War II, as fewer and fewer people were willing to take the risk of traveling or vacationing in wartime. The end of the war brought with it a new golden age of cruise liners and luxury passenger ships. Bright and expensive, they crisscrossed the Atlantic in their droves, taking many people further than they’d ever traveled before. One of these vessels was the SS Andrea Doria. Its hull was split into 11 watertight compartments to prevent sinking, and it had completed 100 transatlantic journeys by the time it sank in 1956. Many people had considered it unsinkable, until it crashed straight into another ship, the Swedish vessel Stockholm.^[6]

The circumstances of the crash are still unclear. Both vessels were failing to follow the conventional rules of sea travel: The Andrea Doria was sailing faster than normal through heavy fog in order to make it to New York by morning, while the Stockholm was traveling north of the usual eastbound route in order to shave time off its journey. Both captains saw the other ship on their radar but somehow failed to avoid a collision. Either one or both of them must have misread the data, and by the time they could see each other through the fog, it was too late.

Despite a desperate last-ditch effort to prevent a crash, the Stockholm plowed straight into the Andrea Doria’s flank with its icebreaker prow, penetrating 9 meters (30 ft) into the hull and killing dozens on impact. The Stockholm weathered the crash and remained seaworthy despite its mangled prow, but the Doria quickly began to sink. The collision threw it so far off balance that it couldn’t use its own lifeboats. What followed was one of the greatest maritime rescues in history, and most of the passengers were eventually saved. The Doria remains on the seabed today, and we’ll probably never know which of the two captains put her there.

5 The Zebrina

The loss of the Zebrina’s crew remains one of the strangest unexplained naval disasters of the 20th century. It was a three-masted sailing barge which was first put to sea in 1873. It sailed for decades without incident until September 1917, when it departed Falmouth in the UK with a shipment of coal, bound for the town of Saint-Brieuc in France.

Just two days after its departure, it was seen drifting just outside the port of Cherbourg, France. It was later found washed up on the coast south of the city. When the French coast guard boarded the vessel, they found it completely deserted despite it being in otherwise perfect condition: Even the table was neatly laid. The captain’s log had last been updated when the ship left Falmouth. Beyond that, there were no records.^[7]

After an initial investigation, it was decided that a German U-boat attack was most likely. At the time, it was standard U-boat practice to board ships and take their crews captive or force them onto lifeboats before sinking the ship in order to prevent casualties. However, the crew never appeared on any German prisoner of war lists, and it was also standard practice for U-boats to sink their targets and to take their logbooks as proof of the sinking, both of which didn’t happen in this case. Because of the ongoing war, the French government didn’t pursue the investigation any further, and the ship was eventually broken up. The fate of the crew still remains a mystery.

4 The San Jose

The San Jose was a 64-gun galleon of the Spanish navy. First launched in 1698, it was used as a part of the annual Spanish treasure fleet. On its final voyage, it was serving as the flagship of the southern portion of the fleet, and its goal was to collect treasure along the coast between Colombia and Panama.

The fleet ran into trouble when it encountered a British naval squadron on June 8, 1708. The British fleet was victorious but failed to seize any meaningful treasure: Of the three ships they defeated, one was burned onshore by its crew, and another, the San Jose, exploded in the midst of battle. What caused the explosion is unclear, but it resulted in the deaths of all but 11 of its 600-man crew and the immediate loss of the ship. The rest of the Spanish fleet retreated to the safety of nearby Cartagena. The San Jose sank carrying more than $17 billion worth of treasure (in modern terms), a failure for which the British captains were eventually court-martialed when they returned home.

Any number of things could have caused the explosion, from a stray cannonball to a spark from a musket. We know for sure, however, that the San Jose is one of the most valuable wrecks in history, and it has long been referred to as the “Holy Grail of shipwrecks.” The site of the San Jose was a mystery until 2015, when it was discovered.^[8] Colombia has stated its intention to recover the wreck and display the treasure in a museum: The ship’s exact location remains a state secret to ward off looters.

3 The Baychimo

The SS Baychimo had a very conventional history: Originally built in Sweden in 1914, it was owned by the German navy and sailed between Hamburg and Sweden until it was transferred to Britain as part of Germany’s war reparations. In 1921, it was acquired by the Hudson’s Bay Company and was frequently used to travel the northern reaches of Canada, collecting fur pelts to be transported back to Europe.

Ship crews operating so far north were used to dealing with ice, so when the Baychimo became stuck on October 1, 1931, they thought little of it. They abandoned the ship and took shelter in the town of Barrow and returned to their vessel when the ice had cleared.^[9] The ship continued to get caught, however, and eventually, the company flew half the crew home. The other half, who were ready to wait out the winter if necessary, built a wooden shelter nearby. They were hit by a powerful blizzard on November 24, and when it cleared, there was no sign of their ship. The crew were ready to leave, but a week later, a local Inuit from Barrow told them he’d seen the ship drifting. They eventually located it, but it was so heavily damaged that they abandoned all hope of sailing it. They salvaged what cargo they could and left, expecting the ship to sink soon after.

But it didn’t. Instead, the ship continued to drift in the northern waters for years, eventually becoming a local legend. A whole host of stories have appeared over the years, some claiming that it became stuck in a glacier. The last credible sighting, however, dates to 1962, more than three decades after it was abandoned. It was allegedly seen drifting along the Alaskan coast by a group of Inupiat, who were traveling in kayaks. Despite several searches, not a single trace of the ship has ever been discovered.

2 The Patriot

The Patriot was a nimble schooner which saw action in the War of 1812. Before it was drafted for naval service, the Patriot had been a pilot boat, so it was very fast. This made it a good privateer, and it was employed to successfully raid and harass British shipping. By December 30, however, it had been repurposed and was refitted as a civilian ship. It departed Charleston after months of successful operations, intending to dock in New York. On board was Theodosia Burr Alston (pictured above), daughter of Aaron Burr and wife of the governor of South Carolina.

Despite painting over the ship’s name and carrying an authoritative letter, the crew were met by a British patrol, who stopped the ship on January 2, 1813. The ship’s guns were stowed just below the deck, and the hold was full of booty gleaned from months of privateering, but the patrol eventually allowed it to continue.^[10]

Soon after that, however, it must have disappeared, because the ship never arrived in New York. There were immediate speculations about its fate. Many believed the ship must have been captured by pirates, since dozens of them prowled the North Carolina coastline. Several newspapers reported “deathbed confessions” from pirates and others over the next few decades, each of whom claimed to have been involved in capturing the ship. One man even claimed he’d helped to lure the ship ashore, where he and his companions looted it and killed the crew.

The most likely scenario, though, is that it sank during a storm: According to the log of a blockading British fleet, a severe storm struck on the night of January 2, which continued into the next day. Experts predict that the area where the storm was most fierce was where the Patriot likely was at the time. The case, however, remains uncertain.

1 Le Griffon

Thousands of ships have sunk in the Great Lakes over the centuries, but the very first one of note, Le Griffon, still eludes explorers even today. It has become the target of many famous searches, each one fruitless. Many today joke that it is the most found ship in North America, but its fate remains a mystery even today.

It was built in 1679 by Rene Robert Cavalier (better known as La Salle) at Cayuga Creek, as part of his expedition to discover the Northwest Passage. At the time, the French suspected that the Great Lakes fed into the Pacific. La Salle and his crew of 32 departed on the ship’s maiden voyage on August 7, planning to map the Great Lakes. He and many of his crew disembarked on an island on September 18. The ship was sent with six crew back to Niagara, but it disappeared along the way.^[11]

There have been many theories to explain the ship’s disappearance, from a Native American attack to a vicious storm. Over time, dark rumors surfaced among the native tribes that La Salle met: sightings of men who looked a lot like the missing crew members, wearing pelts which sounded like the ones that had gone missing. La Salle himself was convinced that the crew sank the boat on purpose and seized the cargo for themselves, but he was never able to prove it.

Today, finding the ship is a lifelong quest: Several explorers have dedicated decades of their lives to finding Le Griffon and have investigated dozens of potential claims, all achieving nothing. The rabid, sustained public interest has led to a torrent of myths, legends, and half-truths that have only gotten in the way of uncovering Le Griffon’s real fate.

[WARNING: This list contains disturbing recordings.] In 2017, a pilot flying over Western Australia noticed an SOS made of rocks in a remote location. Realizing that somebody could be stranded in this hostile environment, the pilot reported it to police, who launched an investigation.

The mysterious SOS was later revealed to have been created four years earlier, when a couple became stranded on their yacht in Swift Bay. They survived on meagre rations before being rescued by a passing yacht days later.

Despite this SOS signal not aiding their survival, it was certainly a smart way to increase their chances of rescue, however not all SOS stories have such a positive and logical conclusion, so here are 10 Chilling SOS Calls That Have Never Been Explained.

Top 10 Absurd Emergency Calls

10 Kenji Iwamura

In July 1989, two hikers from Tokyo visited the Daisetsuzan National Park in Hokkaido where they planned to hike to Mount Asahidake. During their trek, the men became stranded and when they didn’t return home as scheduled on July 24th, a search was launched. An SOS sign made from birch tree logs was spotted from a helicopter and the lost hikers were eventually rescued. During their recuperation, the hikers were commended by the rescue pilots for building the SOS signal they had spotted. This clearly baffled the men who denied any knowledge of the signal, so the rescue mission was relaunched the next morning because of fears that more people were stranded on the mountain.

After another search of the area, a backpack was found containing a tape recorder and the driving license of 25 year old Kenji Iwamura. On the tape recorder was the recording above.

Five years earlier, Kenji had decided to hike a similar route but when he failed to check out of his hotel two days later, the owner called the police and a search party was launched. It was called off after 30 days as no trace of Kenji was found.

After reinvigorating the search following the discovery of the backpack, rescue teams found human bones not far from the SOS signal which they eventually announced to be Kenji’s. Investigators couldn’t determine the cause of death from his remains so the investigation was closed. Some reports suggest that the police originally identified the body as that of a woman with type O blood before re-analyzing it and concluding that it was a male with type A blood, which matched Kenji.

Many people still question the police explanation of Kenji’s final moments. How did Kenji move the gigantic birch logs used to construct the SOS signal? The trees were also apparently felled with an axe, although no large bladed object was ever found nearby.

9 Anthonette Cayedito

Anthonette Cayedito was living with her mother and two sisters in Gallup, New Mexico when, at 3am on the 5th of April 1986, she went to investigate a knock at the door. As soon as the door opened, Anthonette was snatched by two men and bundled into a van which sped off into the night. Anthonette’s Mother didn’t notice her daughter was missing until the next morning, at which point she contacted police.

With little for the police to go on, the trail quickly turned cold until almost a year later, when Gallup PD received a chilling phone call from a young girl which you can hear above….

The call was too short to be traced but Anthonette’s mother, Penny, confirmed that it was her daughter’s voice. Despite this brief call raising the family’s hope that Anthonette was still alive, nothing was heard from her for nearly five years until 1991, when there was an unconfirmed report from a Waitress in Carson City, who noticed a teenage girl matching Anthonette’s description dining with an unkempt looking couple. After they left, she found an SOS scrawled on a napkin under the girl’s plate that simply said… ‘ Help me!’ and ‘Call Police’.

That was the last anyone ever saw of Anthonette and Penny died in 1999, never knowing the truth about her daughter’s fate.

8 Henry Mccabe

On September 6th, 2015, Henry Mccabe’s wife and kids left Minnesota to visit family, leaving him alone. Henry decided to enjoy his free time with two friends and they spent the night in a local nightclub. By 2am Henry was clearly in no fit state to drive, so his friends decided to drop him off at home. On the way, Henry insisted on being driven to a gas station to get food before walking home. Reluctantly his friends agreed, unaware that it would be the last time anyone saw Henry alive.

At 2.28am, Henry’s wife received a voicemail from his phone. Only part of the message has ever been released to the public but you can hear that clip above.

Obviously disturbed by this, Henry’s wife called the police. The investigation revealed that after calling his wife, Henry also called his brother, who claimed he could hear sobbing down the line before the call cut out. Later that night, Henry’s phone pinged once more from a cell tower 4 miles away and that is the last record we have of him.

Nearly two months later, Henry’s body was discovered in a lake not far from the cell tower where his phone last pinged. There were no signs of injury on his body so his death was recorded as either suicide or accidental drowning. He had recently been given a poor performance evaluation at work and his rent cheque had bounced, leading people to believe he chose to end his own life, however none of these details explain the chilling noises you can hear in the SOS call he made that night.

7 Brandon Lawson

At 11.30pm on August 8, 2013, Brandon Lawson called his father and announced that he was on his way to visit him in Crowley, a 3 hour drive from his home in San Angelo, Texas. At 12.30am, Brandon called his brother Kyle and told him he had run out of gas on Route 277. Following this call, Brandon also called 911 asking for help, above is a recording of that call.

Kyle arrived at 1.18am and was greeted by an officer who was attending the scene because of other 911 calls made by passing motorists regarding Brandon’s abandoned car. Kyle didn’t mention anything to the deputy as Brandon had outstanding warrants. Unfortunately both Kyle and the officer were unaware that Brandon had already called 911 asking for police, so whatever predicament he found himself in clearly outweighed his fear of being arrested.

Many theories suggest that Brandon had relapsed and was high on drugs, or he decided to disappear and start a new life but the case is still open and unsolved and his family remain convinced that he was the victim of foul play.

6 Joanne Pederson

On February 19th 1983, Joanne Pederson was visiting a mall in Chilliwack BC, with her sister and cousin. On the way back home, the sisters had an argument which led to the two older girls running into the house and locking the door behind them, leaving 10 year old Joanne outside in the cold, dark night.

After failing to convince her sister to open the door, Joanne made her way to a payphone and at 8pm she called her parents and asked to be picked up. Her father answered and said they would leave immediately before handing the phone to his wife so she could comfort the distressed girl. However when Joanne’s mother took the phone, she heard a gruff, irritated male voice who told her if they were not there in 30 minutes he would call the police, then the call ended.

Joanne’s concerned parents raced to the payphone, but when they arrived Joanne was nowhere to be seen. Witnesses claim to have seen Joanne at the payphone with a caucasian man in his 30s, wearing a dark jacket. Another witness claimed to see Joanne and the strange man in a cream coloured car with a green roof, however that’s as far as the trail goes and 35 years later no trace of Joanne has ever been found.

5 Brandon Swanson

Brandon Swanson was a 19 year old student at Minnesota West Community College when on May 13th 2008 at around 2am, he crashed his car into a ditch on the way home from a party. Apparently unhurt, he called his parents so that they could come and get him. His parents agreed and stayed in contact with him over the phone while they drove to pick him up.

Despite being unsure of his exact location, Brandon decided that he must be near the town of Lind as he could see lights in the distance. He told his Dad over the phone that he would walk there and meet him in the car park of a local bar. Brandon stayed in contact with his Dad on the phone for 47 minutes until eventually he uttered his last words ‘Oh shit!’ before the call disconnected.

After hearing this and not managing to find their son despite searching desperately, Brandon’s parents contacted the Lind police to declare him missing. Cell phone tower data was examined and it was found that Brandon had been calling from a town called Taunton, almost 25 miles away from Lind. A search was launched in the area and soon his Chevy was found north of State Highway 68. After a 30 day search of the area, Brandon and his phone could not be located and his fate remains a mystery to this day.

4 Ruth Price

Details are few and far between when it comes to this recording but it is reported that in 1988, Ruth Price was an elderly lady living alone in the U.S. when she called 911 to report a prowler outside her property. Not long after Ruth explains that she is home alone, she lets rip with a blood curdling scream while muffled thumps can be heard over the receiver. The operator sits in stunned silence as Ruth screams for help at the top of her lungs before the call ends abruptly. You can hear the recording above.

Many who trained as 911 operators in the 90s claimed to have heard this recording during training. They were informed by their instructors that the recording was real and that Ruth was battered to death in her home. Apparently it was a very effective way of demonstrating correct emergency operator procedure, as the operator heard everything but still had no address that she could send emergency responders to.

3 Japanese City’s Mystery Emergency Calls

In the Akita prefecture of Japan, emergency calls from landlines have recently been proving such a mystery that local firefighter chiefs submitted a letter of enquiry to the local phone company to begin an investigation. In 2020, emergency responders were called out 9 times to properties where residents were unaware that their landline phone had dialled the emergency services.

The calls didn’t contain an audible language, but were described as robot-like noises by those that heard them. Due to them being considered ‘mute emergency calls’ firefighters were dispatched to the locations where the calls originated from, only to find bemused residents with no idea why the fire service was interrupting their dinner. Over half of these calls were made when residents were not even home!

2 SS Ourang Medan

The Ourang Medan SOS is one of the most famous mayday calls in maritime history, yet the details of this case are heavily disputed. Even a date cannot be agreed on for this event, with most people agreeing it happened some time between late 1947 and early 1948. What makes this story interesting is that the SOS was received by two American ships who both separately understood the communication to say..

‘All officers including the Captain are dead. Lying in chartroom and the bridge. Possibly whole crew dead. I die.’

Upon hearing this ominous message, the Silver Star was immediately dispatched in the direction of the stricken vessel and several hours later the Ourang Medan was spotted with no signs of life on board. Once all efforts to make contact were exhausted, the crew of the SIlver Star boarded and were faced with a grisly scene. The corpses of the Dutch crew littered the decks, their faces contorted in agony and/or horror but with no signs of any injuries. The radio operator who sent the message was still at his station, as were the engineers who appeared to have died where they were working. Crewman who boarded the Ourang Medan reported an eerie chill on the ship despite the warm climate of the Malacca Strait where it was found.

Eventually the crew of the Silver Star tethered the Ourang Medan ready to tow it to safety, at which point it promptly burst into flames from the lower decks, before exploding and sinking to the bottom of the ocean, dragging any chance of discovering what happened to the crew down with it.

1 1990 Washington State Bigfoot calls

Our final entry contains two phone calls to Washington State emergency operators that were recorded some time in 1990. Both recordings are edited but they both clearly come from the same confused and distressed gentleman in his home. He is obviously at a loss to explain what is happening but he is also clearly a sober and logical person. He does his best to describe what he is witnessing in human terms, however it is clear he doesn’t really understand what he is seeing.

The biggest problem with “providing proof” of paranormal beings and incidents is the lack of clearly visible photographs or video footage. Ever since the shaky Patterson-Gimlin footage depicting an alleged Bigfoot started making the rounds, the world has been inundated with blurry photos and out-of-focus footage of ghosts, Nessie, aliens, and demons.

Even in our ultra-modern times, spooky social media posts and conversations about the paranormal on online forums have the ability to divide people. There are those who staunchly believe that any and all captured footage must be legit, and then there are those who refuse to be convinced, no matter what is presented to them.

Related: 10 Strange But Interesting Early Photography Fads

10 Faces in the Water

In December 1924, James Courtney and Michael Meehan, crewmen on the oil tanker SS Watertown, were given the task of cleaning an empty cargo tank. A freak accident during the cleaning saw both men being overcome with gas fumes. Chief mate Kosti Taviola realized the men were in trouble and did his best to save them. Unfortunately, by the time he reached them, they were already dead. Taviola, too, was overcome by the fumes but was revived 30 minutes later.

As was the custom, Courtney and Meehan were given a sea burial, and the SS Watertown continued on its journey towards the Panama Canal. However, the remaining crew members soon started to report seeing something strange in the water. Upon closer inspection, the shocked crew realized they were staring at the faces of the two dead sailors. For several days, the faces appeared and bobbed in the water as the ship continued moving along. The captain of the oil tanker, Keith Tracy, snapped a now-infamous photograph as “proof” of the incidents.

While most people are convinced that this photograph is part of an elaborate hoax, there are many who believe that the spirits of the dead men kept watch over the oil tanker until it reached its destination.^[1]

9 Angel, Demon, or…Palm Tree?

Ghostly images often go viral on social media. This was the case with an admittedly creepy photograph posted by Richard Christianson, who snapped the picture in Phoenix, Arizona, on January 1, 2017. He captioned it, “What the hell do you see in this picture for reals??? Anybody”

The photo depicts something that looks like an evil angel roaming an empty street. In the comments however, people were warring about whether it was an angel or a demon. Some were even arguing that it was evidence of the elusive Mothman. A few voices of logic tried to speak up, saying that it was clearly a palm tree, but they were overpowered by those who feared that supernatural beings were roaming around Phoenix.

A couple of commenters sniffed around Christianson’s profile and discovered that he made a living out of being a stagehand.^[2]

Can anyone say prop?

8 Is That You, Freddy?

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Victor Goddard, an Air Marshal in the Royal Air Force, was no stranger to the realm of the paranormal. He claimed to have had a clairvoyant episode in 1935, during which he saw what the abandoned Drem Airfield would look like in 1939.

Long before that, however, Goddard was present when a photograph of the so-called “Goddard Squadron” was taken in November 1918. The photo of the large group of servicemen was snapped at a training facility known as HMS Daedalus. When it was developed, Goddard spotted the ghostly image of a face half-hidden behind the fourth airman from the left. The man was the only one in the photo who was not wearing a cap and was identified as air mechanic Freddy Jackson.

The kicker, however, is that Freddy allegedly died three days before the photo was snapped—after he walked into the whirling propeller of a plane. Research has revealed that a Freddy Jackson did indeed work as an air mechanic for the RAF and that he died in April 1918, which would have been seven months before the photograph was taken.^[3]

7 “Your Government Is Lying to You”

In 2011, a video purporting to show a dead alien found in a “UFO hotspot” in Russia made huge waves on the internet. Within a week, the footage had been watched by over one million people. A message that appeared on the YouTube video stating, “Your government is lying to you about UFO & alien visitation,” gave many viewers chills.

But many tore the video apart, saying it was clear that the alien was a rubber doll and that the “discovery” had been staged. The lack of a spacecraft and the “posed” position of the alien had thousands convinced that the two Russian men who supposedly happened upon the dead creature had planned the entire thing.

Once again, however, there are also many people who believe that the video and images of the alien are 100% legit and that they serve as evidence of extra-terrestrial life.^[4]

6 A Strange Beast

In 2018, yet another blurry photograph and short video were captured of a monster…camel. The creature was photographed roaming the streets of Santa Fe, Argentina, and was blamed for killing a German shepherd and a pitbull. Joining the tales of the Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster, this small-headed, long-necked beast has been described as being half animal and half human.

The over 30 000 commenters on the video mostly expressed their fear that the camel-like creature could be real, while one commented that he’d come across a similar-looking beast in 2005. Another viewer claimed that it could have been a man that had turned into a monster dog, while yet another stated that he’d believed the beast to be a Chupacabra, which forms a major part of Latin folklore.^[5]

5 Watching Over You

In 2016, a woman named Lynda sent a historical photograph to Belfast Live. She noted that her grandmother, Ellen Donnelly, was one of the 15 women in the photo. The women were all linen mill workers in Northern Ireland and seemed happy and relaxed while getting their photograph taken in 1900.

Much like the Freddy Jackson photo, however, there is something strange about this one too. On the shoulder of the first girl on the right, in the second row, rests what seems to be a disembodied hand. The girl is Lynda’s grandmother.

Everyone surrounding the girl has their arms crossed, so the mystery of the hand remains. Is it a hoax? Highly likely. Has it been confirmed as a hoax? Not yet.^[6]

4 The Unexplained UFOs of Salem

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Salem, Massachusetts, has a dark enough history without unexplained flying objects darting around in the sky above it.

On August 3, 1952, Shel Alpert spotted four glowing objects in the morning skies brightening up the city of Salem. Mesmerized, he snapped a photo of what he saw, and the result was a photo that disturbs people to this day. The objects hovered over Winter Island and Cat Cove, and the photograph was taken from the Salem Coast Guard Air Station.

There isn’t much more information about this photograph, other than people stating that the UFOs were probably just the reflections of the window through which the photo was taken. Some, however, were convinced that this image depicted alien crafts, in line with several others that were taken throughout the 1950s.^[7]

3 The Flying Dutchman of Lake Superior

Photo: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ghost-ship-spotted-on-lake-superior/
In 2016, Jason Asselin was shooting a music video along the shore of Lake Superior in Michigan. After a full day of work, Asselin and his crew enjoyed the sunset, with Asselin filming a rainbow that had formed over the lake. To his surprise, he saw something shimmer in the distance and soon realized he was looking at what seemed to be a massive “ghost ship.”

With a history that includes more than 200 shipwrecks in the Lake Superior area alone, it made sense to many people that a ghost ship would appear on the horizon. Many even claimed to have seen the ghosts of sailors off the coast of Whitefish Point after the 1975 Edmund Fitzgerald sinking.

But scientists are not convinced. Associate professor of psychology, Mark Becker, said that the sighting was likely just the Granite Island lighthouse shimmering in the setting sun.^[8]

2 The Nun Who Can’t Let Go

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

In 2021, a Reddit user, who works as a real estate photographer, posted a blurry image on the popular platform and claimed that he’d taken the photo outside a house in Tennessee that was once a Civil War army hospital. He further claimed to have been warned by the homeowner that the house was haunted.

As for the image itself, it seems to show an indeterminable figure standing in between the trees that surround the house. The man stated that he’d been told patients would have been operated on inside the hospital and moved out to the field (where the figure was snapped) to die inside makeshift tents.

But not everyone is on board with the idea that the figure is that of a Civil War ghost (or nun) who likes living in the past and doesn’t want to move on. Most of the comments on the post mocked the user, saying that the figure could be anything from a garden statue to a bird to a plastic bag stuck on the fence.^[9]

1 The Little Girl Visiting Her Own Grave

Saundra Gonzales often placed toys and other small belongings at the grave of her deceased two-year-old toddler, Faviola, in 2020. One morning she noticed that some of the items had gone missing overnight. She requested other families visiting the Masonic Cemetery in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to keep an eye out for suspicious behavior as she believed a thief to be responsible for the disappearance of the items.

What she didn’t know, however, was that another family whose son’s grave was near Faviola’s had set up a camera in the hopes of catching the person vandalizing their beloved child’s grave. They didn’t see any vandalism, but what they did capture was the footage of a small girl walking over to the grave and bending over to have a look at the items placed there. The family showed the video to a cemetery worker who recognized the girl and immediately called Saundra.

Saundra burst into tears when she was shown the video, saying that it was Faviola standing there. In one of the images taken from the video, the girl seems to be holding the hand of a tall man, who is claimed by the family who gathered the footage to be their murdered son.

While Saundra fully believes that the images portray the spirit of her daughter, others are of the opinion that someone has let their own child into the cemetery and allowed her to take the toys from Faviola’s grave.^[10]