The story of Bela Kiss sounds like something straight out of a horror movie. This unassuming Hungarian citizen of the 1900s killed as many as 24 young women and kept their remains in big metal drums.

Although his motives are something of a mystery, many stories have swirled around this straight figure. Was he a vampire, feeding off his victims? What other sinister purposes led him to kill and kill again? And, most ominously of all, what happened to him?

The Story of a Murderer

Although Kiss was born in 1877, there is no evidence of the killer he was to become in his early life that we know of. His killings did not start until he was in his forties, but which time and according to records he was an amateur astrologer and a pleasant man to interact with.

It was a testament to his cunning wit that his psychopathic nature remained hidden for a long time. Kiss lived the ordinary life of a tinsmith in Cinkota, near Budapest in Hungary, until his horrific deeds revealed an otherwise extraordinarily cruel personality.

But maybe there were clues which hindsight offered to the investigators. Kiss was also known for his interest in occult practices and astrology. There is a possibility that the many murders committed by the man had a connection to the occult.

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Sightings of aliens come in many shapes and sizes. Most commonly these take the form of witnesses who see something in the sky that they do not recognize, and such encounters often have rational, well understood explanations.

These UFOs usually turn out to be of terrestrial origin, weather balloons or other unfamiliar airborne objects. Similarly they often can be explained through our understanding of meteorology as naturally occurring phenomena, or in the case of recorded footage turn out to be lens aberrations or other in-camera artifacts, if not outright hoaxes.

However not all encounters are at such a distance, and in the cases where witnesses see something up close almost all of the above explanations fall away. Stranger still are those close encounters of the third kind, where aliens themselves are met face to face.

In such cases, the only explanation usually offered is that the witness is mistaken, or lying. And in the case of multiple witnesses, where a conspiracy of fabrication would be required, such explanations barely hold water at all.

So it was with the Zanfretta UFO Incident, perhaps Italy’s strangest brush with the extraterrestrial.

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One of the most famous of the many magnificent structures built in Ancient Egypt is the Great Sphinx of Giza. The Sphinx was carved out of a giant block of limestone and depicts a reclining mythological sphinx with the body of a lion and the face of a human.

The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most recognizable statues in the world and is on most people’s Egyptian bucket lists. However another sphinx may have been uncovered in Pakistan along the Makran Coastal Highway.

While scientists and journalists almost all agree that the Sphinx of Balochistan is nothing more than a rock structure shaped by time and natural elements, others believe that the rocks are a sphinx that guards the remains of a Hindu temple that the scientific and historical world is completely ignoring.

The Balochistan Sphinx

The Balochistan Sphinx, also referred to as the “Lion of Balochistan,” is a large rock structure that looks very similar to the Great Sphinx of Giza. The Balochistan Sphinx is located in the Hingol National Park, along the Makran Coastal Highway, which connects Karachi to Gwadar in Pakistan.

Hingol National Park is known for its unique rock formations, which became a popular tourist attraction not long after the completion of the Makran Coastal Highway. A prominent theory about the Balochistan Sphinx is that it is not a fantastic example of erosion but a man-made structure.

For those who believe the Balochistan Sphinx is not a natural rock formation, several details about the structure itself support the man-made theories. The Balochistan Sphinx’s most notable detail is pretty much that it looks like an Egyptian Sphinx.

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In photos, the Balochistan Sphinx appears to have a chiseled and well-defined jawline and facial features, including eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Much like Egypt’s sphinx, the Balochistan Sphinx looks like it is wearing a headdress too.

A Nemes Egyptian pharaoh head-dress that the Great Sphinx wears on its head. A Nemes head-dress is a striped head cloth covering the back of the head, neck, and crown of the head. Two flaps on the side hang under the ears, in front of both shoulders. The Nemes is held in place with a headband, and the Balochistan Sphinx has a horizontal groove “across the forehead which corresponds to the pharaonic head-band that holds the Nemes in place.”

The Balochistan Sphinx also has identifiable forelegs in a reclining position and “very well-defined paws.” These details are hard to blame on nature alone; for many there is no other explanation except that human hands must have been involved.

There is more to the site of the Balochistan Sphinx than meets the eye. Bibhu Dev Misra, a history of ancient civilizations writer who has written extensively on the Balochistan Sphinx, points out that located near the sphinx is a structure that looks like a Hindu Temple with features of temples found in Southern India.

Misra points out that this structure has a Mandapa (entrance hall) and a Vima (temple spire). However, the top of the Vimana is missing. Misra writes, “a closer look at the Sphinx-Temple shows clear evidence of rock-cut pillars carved on the walls of the temple. …above the entrance, one can make out the contours of a sculpted persona. Overall, there can be little doubt that this is a man-made, rock-cut, temple of immense age, which has been heavily eroded and covered with sediments.”

Misra suggests that the facade of the Balochistan Sphinx shows carved images of what appears to have once been the Hindu deity Kartikey with a spear. Next to that, the second sculpture is believed to be a walking Ganesha.

A feature of the Balochistan Sphinx temple complex is a series of stairs that are evenly spaced and of uniform height, something nature can not do. Looking at the Balochistan Sphinx, it does appear to be a weathered sphinx guarding what remains of a Hindu Temple. Nature blurred the lines, but men cut the stone. Right?

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Issues With the Balochistan Sphinx

There are a lot of issues with the Balochistan Sphinx and the theory that it was man-made. One of the first issues, which Misra mentions in his writings, is that there has yet to be an archaeological survey conducted on the site.

If there were this sphinx and the remains of a temple, there would have been an archeological survey by now. There hasn’t been because there is nothing significant there. A second issue is that Bibhu Dev Misra is the only person to produce writings about the Balochistan Sphinx, which is a big hit to credibility.

The next hit is that Misra is an information technology consultant and an “independent researcher.” There is nothing wrong with being an “independent researcher”, one wrote this very article. The problem is that Misra is his only source.

His articles appear on multiple conspiracy theory websites and in magazines like Science to Sage, Esamskriti, and New Dawn. Peer-reviewed publications with supporting primary sources are two necessary parts of researching history, and there is only one man’s writing. In addition, Misra has written in several articles that he, himself, has never been to see the sphinx.

In several articles, Misra even writes, “It is ridiculous to suggest that nature has carved out a statue which resembles a well-known mythical animal to such an extraordinarily high degree.” While the Balochistan Sphinx seems sphinx-like, what is occurring is a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia.

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Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Some examples of pareidolia are seeing faces or animal shapes in clouds, seeing a happy face on an outlet, or Elvis on a piece of burnt toast. It is a normal phenomenon, and it leads to suggestive thinking.

Tourists have called the rock structure Balochistan Sphinx for many years. When you visit something with “sphinx” in its name, you expect it to look like a sphinx. That is what is occurring here.

Suppose this natural rock structure was called The Balochistan Thumb. Would you see it and think, “nope, that’s an Egyptian sphinx in Pakistan.”? Misra mentions the entire temple is covered in sediment that has eroded the structure. If sediment eroded the structure, why is it absurd to suggest the whole site is shaped due to sediment erosion?

The Makran Coast of Balochistan is known for its significant seismic activity. These earthquakes produce gigantic tsunamis. An earthquake off the coast of Makran in 1945 triggered a tsunami with waves that reached as high as 13m (4ft).

In addition to the ground shifting, massive and incredibly fast water surges, the area has mud volcanoes. The mud volcanoes erupt and spew a relatively large amount of mud which, like lava, flows down its sides. Scientists have known for a long time how powerful the forces of erosion are. Look at the Grand Canyon in the United States, for example. Misra suggests that near the Balochistan Sphinx is a structure that appears to be a Hindu Temple, similar to those found in South Asia. This is problematic because the Balochistan Sphinx is in Pakistan; why would an ancient southern Hindu temple be built in Pakistan?

The site is located in what was once the Indus Valley; the Indus Valley Civilization (Harappans) and the following civilization, the Vedic Civilization, have been extensively studied, and at no point in the region over 9,000 years of existence did a southern India empire or kingdom rule the Indus Valley.

The Harappan culture is more closely related to that of the Mesopotamians in Iraq than the Dravidian culture found in Southern Asia. Along that line of discussion, the claims that there are carvings that look like Kartikeya and a striding Ganesha are potentially another example of Misra’s pareidolia twisting things around.

Kartikeya, Ganesha, Shiva, and other Hindu deities were not worshiped in the Indus Valley Civilization, which was active from ~3000 BC – 1900 BC. After the Indus Valley Civilization came the Indus Vedic Civilization which did not worship those deities. This is confusing since the Indus Vedic religion produced the Rig Veda, one of the canonical four sacred Hindu texts of the Veda.

There is a significant difference between Pakistani Hinduism, which came from the Vedic religion, and Indian Hinduism. The Rig Veda describes the Indus Vedic people eating beef, worshiping no idols, burying the dead, and there was no caste system.

Caste “varna” was a term forbidden in the Vedas as a form of idolatry. The Indus Vedic gods in the Vedas are different from the more prominently known “modern Hindu gods”, they are incredibly similar to Avestan Zoroastrianism deities.

If the Balochistan Sphinx were part of a Southern Asia-Esque Hindu temple, it would be much younger than what we see in Hingol National Park today. Misra cannot suggest who built the structure or when it was built because it is ancient.

Even when considering the effects of erosion, the structure would need to be almost prehistoric to have been man-made and worn down into what it is today. While the Balochistan Sphinx is interesting and can inspire creative thinking, when archeologists, geologists, and historians all say that the sphinx is a natural rock structure, trust the experts.

When the only information about the Balochistan Sphinx comes from one non-credible source, it is clear that there is nothing man-made about the structure.

Top Image: Some believe the Balochistan Sphix to be merely a curious mountain, while others are convinced it is an ancient temple. Source: Bilal Mirza / CC BY 2.0.

By Lauren Dillon

References

Misra, B. 2017. The Sphinx of Balochistan: Is it a Man-made, Rock-cut, Architectural Marvel? Scientia Pakistan. Available at: https://scientiamag.org/baluchistan-sphinx-is-it-a-human-made-rock-cut-archaeological-marvel/

Basham, A. 2008. The Wonder that was India: A survey of the history and culture of the Indian sub-continent before the coming of the Muslims. University of Michigan Publishing Office. Available at: https://books.google.com/books?id=6OF-PwAACAAJ

Archeology World Team. 2021. A 12,500 – Year- Old – Sphinx Discovered in Pakistan. Archeology World. Available at: https://archaeology-world.com/a-12500-year-old-sphinx-discovered-in-pakistan/

When someone is described as a “toxic” person, the individual is considered poisonous, harmful, controlling, narcissistic, and prone to gaslighting those around them. But for one woman the term meant something much more literal.

Gloria Ramirez died in 1994, and at the time of her death was literally toxic. Something strange had been observed happening when doctors and nurses were trying to save Gloria Ramiez’s life. Staff started fainting, vomiting, convulsing, and having trouble breathing.

Something about Gloria Rameriz or something happening to her was releasing toxic gas, making people sick. While there are many possible theories about what happened in the ER on the last night of Rameriz’s life, the incident is still considered an unsolved mystery. What was happening to Gloria?

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Gloria Ramirez

On February 19, 1994, at 8:15 pm, 31-year-old Gloria Ramirez arrived via ambulance at the Emergency Room at the Riverside General Hospital in Riverside, California. She was experiencing a rapid and irregular heartbeat and decreasing blood pressure, was almost incoherent, and was having trouble breathing.

Gloria Ramirez was already a very sick woman. She had been suffering from late-stage cervical cancer, and was dying.

Gloria Ramirez’s condition rapidly declined, and she needed to be defibrillated. That is when the medical staff began noticing strange things about their patient. When her shirt was removed, several ER staff saw Gloria Ramirez’s body was covered in what was described as an “oily sheen”.

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Imagine you were told that over 140 different illnesses, including blindness, asthma, hysteria, stomach issues, cancer, and impotence, could all be treated by a single miraculous drug. Sounds too good to be true, and indeed it was.

People waited in line to purchase Radithor, a super drug that was advertised as having almost universal cures. Not even reports of people’s jaw disintegrating would be enough to deter people from using this radioactive medicine.

Why did people believe that this medicine could treat so many different diseases? Surely people would question whether this was possible. The special ingredient that launched Radithor into global success was a newly discovered element taking the world by storm: radium.

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Before Jack the Ripper birthed a new era of serial killers when he bloodied the streets of Victorian London, another monster was causing a similar storm of unsolved murders in America. Between 1884 and 1885, a perpetrator dubbed the Servant Girl Annihilator killed and mutilated seven young women and one man in Austin, Texas. Not only was Austin’s Annihilator one of the first serial killers in U.S. history, but he was also one of the most brutal.

A Name in Infamy

Although the term “serial killer” wouldn’t be used for another 75 years, police soon linked the murders to the work of a lone perpetrator. Acclaimed short-story writer O. Henry had moved to Texas only three years before, and it was Henry who unknowingly coined the title of Servant Girl Annihilator.

In a letter to a friend, Henry wrote that Texas was “fearfully dull, except for the frequent raids of servant girl annihilators who make things lively in the dull hours of the night.”

Police originally referred to the unsolved murders as the Austin Axe Murders, but after Henry’s letter became public knowledge, the new title became popular. Servant Girl Annihilator became obsolete, though, as the killer deviated from his modus operandi and claimed more than servants.

Austin Before the Servant Girl Murders

By 1884, Austin, Texas, had evolved into a bustling urban utopia that saw incredible growth and population year on year. Only two decades before, Austin had been a barren cattle down with less than 5,000 residents, but through the reconstruction projects in the wake of the Civil War, Austin was now one of the most appealing cities to live in the United States.

Locals referred to the city as the “Athens of the West.” It was a place where workers and students thrived, with its three colleges and an increasing number of factories, restaurants, and establishments. Austin had become a place of prosperity. Criminals were rare, and the law enforcement of the day promptly captured offenders. However, on December 30, 1884, everything changed.

Never before had the city of Austin known such atrocities. The terror of an ax-wielding murderer prowling their streets prompted early curfews, early closing times, and a constant police presence on every road in the city. All bars began to shut at midnight, and the police force tripled in size.

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Victims of the Servant Girl Annihilator

Mollie Smith

Mollie Smith was a 25-year-old black girl who, along with her husband, Walter Spencer, cooked and cleaned for a wealthy local family. Both Mollie and Walter lived in the family’s home on West Pecan Street.

That night at the end of December, Walter woke up in screaming agony. He looked in the mirror and saw a deep gash sliced into his face, still dripping with fresh blood. He composed himself, then realized that someone had trashed his and Mollie’s dormitory, and a trail of blood led out the door to their outhouse. There, Walter found Molly’s dead body, with stab wounds on her face, chest, arms, and legs.

On a thorough search of Mollie and Walter’s room, police discovered an ax coated with dried blood.

Eliza Shelly

A six-month cooling-off period followed, with the killer remerging on May 6, 1884. Eliza Shelly, another black cook who worked for a state legislator, was discovered dead by her employer in her cabin behind his house, where she lived with her three children.

The murder was almost a carbon copy of the first, but the brutality had escalated. The assailant pulverized Shelly’s head with such force that it had split in two. Beneath her were blood-covered bed sheets, suggesting that her attack occurred while she slept. The perpetrator subsequently dragged her onto the floor.

Mysteriously, Shelly’s eight-year-old son claimed that he saw a man enter their cabin in the middle of the night. However, the boy didn’t remember anything after that until he woke up the next morning.

Irene Cross

Two weeks later, the perpetrator killed the third woman under similar circumstances. Irene Cross was yet another black girl working as a servant. Once again, the attacker struck during the victim’s slumber. However, this time, the murder weapon was a knife instead of an ax.

Police who first arrived on the scene of Cross’s attack allegedly spoke to Cross before she succumbed to her horrific wounds. The murderer had cut her arm so severely that it nearly detached from her body. Moreover, he had practically scalped her, which left her with a massive head wound.

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Rebecca Ramey

In August, the killer returned, attacking another servant named Rebecca Ramey. Curiously, he didn’t kill Rebecca. Instead, he focussed on her 11-year-old daughter, Mary, who he dragged outside where he raped her and stabbed her through the ears with an iron rod. Mary initially survived the attack but died a few hours later from her wounds.

Gracie Vance and Orange Washinton

The next victims marked the first – but not the last – time that the Annihilator killed two people at once. Gracie Vance, who lived with her husband, Orange Washington, lived and worked in the home of a local attorney. In the early hours of September 26, Vance awoke to the horrifying sight of a stranger standing over her. She screamed, and her husband jumped to her defense. However, the killer incapacitated Washington with an ax-blow to the head, obliterating his skull and leaving him motionless.

Before turning his attention to Vance, the killer also assaulted two other servants living in the same quarters. They both survived rapes and ax blows. Finally, the killer dragged Gracie Vance out into the yard and bludgeoned her to death with a large brick. Inside their cabin, he left his ax for police to find.

Lucina Boddy, the servant who was attacked but not killed, reported seeing some strange things. She alleged that the killer spoke to her just after he murdered Vance, screaming, “don’t look at me!” Furthermore, when officials found Vance, she was clutching a gold watch that did not belong to anyone living at the house.

Orange Washington died the next day. Police discovered that the killer accessed the cabin through a window.

Susan Hancock

In an act that echoed the future crimes of Jack the Ripper, the final two victims of the Servant Girl Annihilator died on the same night.

Until this point, all victims had been young black servants who were asleep during the Annihilator attacks. There were two anomalies in the case, Mary Ramey and Orange Washington, but these two deaths likely occurred out of convenience.

On December 24, 1885, the killer made a drastic deviation from his modus operandi when he killed the first white woman, Susan Hancock, described as “one of the most refined ladies in Austin.” Her husband was sleeping in a different room when the intruder grabbed her from her bed. He dragged her outside into the garden where police later found her. A sharp metallic object protruded from her skull, and her head lay open in two pieces.

Eula Phillips

Less than an hour after Hancock’s death, in a completely different part of the city, Eula Phillips became his second white victim. She lay dead in an alleyway of one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Austin. Police found her lying face-down with her head bludgeoned.

Interestingly, the perpetrator had placed pieces of heavy timber on her, possibly to restrain her while he slaughtered her.

The End of Austin’s Serial Murders

As suddenly as he arrived, the Texas Annihilator vanished. In total, he had claimed eight victims and attacked at least another five who managed to escape with their lives. Over the ensuing months, police interviewed a total of 400 suspects, but none who police could confidently charge with any involvement in the killings.

Although most investigators believed that the same hand committed all the murders, the nature of Eula Phillips’ murder suggested that a team was perpetrating the killings. Several gang theories surfaced involving possible financial or racial motivations, but nothing substantial came of them.

Who Was the Servant Girl Annihilator?

The most prominent suspect in Austin’s serial killings was a Malaysian cook named Maurice. Maurice spent most of his life cooking on ships, but he landed a job at an Austin hotel in 1885. Every death occurred somewhere near this hotel. Interestingly, Maurice left the hotel job in January 1886 – the month after the murders stopped – and never surfaced again.

Investigators thoroughly probed the boyfriends and husbands of several of the victims, but they discovered nothing concrete. Jimmy Phillips, the husband of Eula Phillips, was accused and convicted of killing his wife using the Servant Girl murders as cover. However, the courts deemed him innocent and acquitted him after six-months in prison.

Similarities to Jack the Ripper

As the Annihilator and Jack the Ripper’s crimes boasted eerie similarities, it was only natural that the two would eventually coexist in the same breath. Some researchers believe that one person is responsible for both reigns of terror. Maurice, the cook, mentioned above, is an ideal candidate.

After leaving Austin in 1886, Maurice purportedly moved to London and lived there during the Ripper’s murder spree. As it was with the Servant Girl Murders, the Ripper killings stopped only weeks after Maurice left London. However, any further evidence which links the two infamous monsters is sorely lacking.

America’s First Serial Killer

Quite often, H.H. Holmes receives the credit as the first serial killer of the modern era, but the Servant Girl Annihilator’s crimes came six years prior.

Austin’s serial murders were a preview of the kind of atrocities that gripped America over the next century. Although the identity of the killer is unknown, we can glean that he was a deranged murderer with an uncontrollable thirst for violence. His bloodlust knew no bounds or race, beginning with servant girls and progressing to wealthy privileged women within twelve months.

He gripped Texas with fear, as so many others have since, and vanished as mysteriously as he arrived. The sad truth is that we’ll probably never know who the serial killer of Austin was or why he committed such deeds. Was he a servant himself? Was he a misogynistic bigot, taking out his frustrations on those he deemed below him? Or was it something else entirely?

Even today, researchers are no closer to uncovering the truth. Theories about the unsolved murders have come and gone, but the case remains as enigmatic and haunting as ever. Over 135 years have passed since the murders, but this serial killer story remains one of the most perplexing, horrific, and fascinating in true-crime history.

By Joe Turner

Joe Turner is a freelance writer of crime with a passion for unsolved mysteries. He is the author of a series of published mystery novels and holds a degree in criminal psychology. He lives in the West Midlands, UK with his wife and son.

Kōfu is the capital city of the Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The city is located between the city of Nagoya and Tokyo, and is known as a peaceful and attractive place to live. But it is known for something else, as well.

This beautiful city was the site of an encounter of the third kind, aliens. Two little boys witnessed two UFOs and a strange, terrifying alien they never forgot. What was the Kōfu Incident, and what did the boys see?

The Kōfu Incident

In February 1975, two 7-year-old boys, Masato Kawano, and Katsuhiro Yamahata, were roller skating near the Hinode Housing Estate in Kamimachi, Kōfu, when they saw something strange in the sky. The boys said they spotted two “glittering orange UFOs frolicking in the sky above” as they put it.

Like anyone who just saw not one but two unidentified flying objects, the boys stood transfixed, watching the glittering UFOs dance across the sky. One UFO took off and flew towards Mount Atago in the distance, and the other began to lower to the ground before finally landing amongst rows of grapes in the vineyard behind the estate.

One strange thing the boys said was that the UFOs made a strange crackling or ticking sound. Apparently it was just like the sound a Geiger counter makes when reading a radioactive environment.

As soon as the second UFO landed, the boys kicked off their skates and took off running to the back of the estate to get a closer look at the mysterious craft. The young boys said that when they got closer to the UFO, they realized it wasn’t orange like it appeared in the sky; instead, it was a domed silverish disc-shaped spacecraft.

The children claimed the craft was around seven feet (2 m) high and almost 15 feet (4.5 m) in diameter, with “strange characters” engraved onto the ship’s hull. While the boys were getting a closer look, they saw a hatch open up on the side of the UFO open and a ladder extended onto the ground.

According to the boys, one humanoid creature descended the steps disembarking the craft. Then the shocked kids saw a smaller humanoid creature that looked like a little version of the first creature that remained in the craft, sitting in a control room for the ship.

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In the remote Oklahoma Panhandle, a cluster of caves may conceal a story capable of overturning one of history’s most familiar narratives. Their walls bear enigmatic symbols interpreted by some as Ogam and Libyan script, alongside images linked to gods Anubis and Mithras, and the movements of the equinox sun. Some believe these clues point to Old World travelers reaching North America long before Columbus. But do the Anubis Caves really hold evidence of a forgotten transatlantic journey, or are they merely a compelling tangle of natural marks, modern graffiti, and wishful thinking? Here’s what we know so far.

The Anubis Cave Conundrum

The Anubis Caves are a site situated in the Oklahoma Panhandle, in the far west of the state. These strange caves, and what has been found in them, are seen by some as one of the most significant examples of “Old World” contact in the “New World”.

If the contents of the caves are what they seem to be, this is evidence that people from Europe and other continents made it to the Americas before Columbus did. The myths and epigraphs inscribed within the cave reveal an interwoven and quite elaborate chart, a tool calibrated for the Sun’s equinox.

Phrases have been found within that resemble Celtic sayings but written in Ogam and Libyan scripts. The scripts mention Bel and Grian, the Celtic gods of the Sun. As well as this, the cult of Mithras, extremely popular in Rome and the Persian Empire, has been found in these caves.

What could be the explanation for such a variety of out of place inscriptions all in one place in the middle of the USA?

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Imagine adopting a little girl, and it turns out that the child is actually a psychopathic, murderous adult who disguises herself as a child to lower her victim’s guards. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that was the plot of the 2009 psychological horror movie Orphan, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.

Orphan tells the story of the Coleman family and their newly adopted Russian daughter, Esther, who tries to kill the family. In the film, Esther is a 33-year-old Estonian woman named Leena Klammer, a violent serial killer who was born with a hormonal disorder that stunted her growth and caused what is described as “proportional dwarfism”.

The film is, of course, a work of fiction, which is why it stunned the country when it suddenly crossed into reality with the case of an Eastern European child with dwarfism, Natalia Grace, who it was claimed was an adult who was trying to kill her family. Natalia claims she is a child, but who is telling the truth?

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In the final months of WW2 the Imperial Japanese Navy was facing a situation they once thought impossible. Their mighty fleet had been destroyed, their aircraft carriers and battleships sunk by US torpedoes and bombers.

Worse, the inviolable Japanese homeland was herself under threat. On one thing the Japanese were clear: the US Navy could not be allowed to reach Japan, and in her defense everything should be considered.

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This is the thinking which led to the Kamikaze attacks on US warships, Japanese pilots willingly crashing into the US fleet and committing suicide in order to bring death and destruction to the enemy. And this is the thinking which, in a similar vein, led to the Kaiten.

In many ways the Kaiten was an even more horrific strategy than that of Kamikaze. Japanese engineers modified a type 93 torpedo, equipping it with 1.5 tonnes of explosives and a human crew.

The Kaiten went down in history not due to technological innovation but because of the tragic fate of its operators. Unlike conventional torpedoes, the human torpedo was operated by Imperial Japanese Navy soldiers, who used these suicide crafts to target enemy vessels directly. Once in the Kaiten, there was no escape for the men.

The weapon’s name, “Kaiten,” held significant meaning, translating to “the heaven shaker” or “the turn toward heaven” in English, symbolizing its intended impact on the enemy’s resolve. The torpedo was used by the Japanese military despite its great human cost when they believed they were losing power and their prospects of winning the war.

A Monstrous Weapon

The first Kaiten was an innovative suicide weapon designed by Japanese naval engineers using an existing type 93 torpedo. This was a large torpedo with a warhead containing nearly a tonne of explosives, but all that explosive power would often go to waste as it could easily miss its target.

To resolve this problem, and to make it even more deadly, it was scaled up and a human crew added to guide the torpedo to its target. This was The Type-1 human torpedo with a larger-warheaded oxygen-fueled torpedo, and 50% more explosives.

A tiny periscope, driving controls, and remote explosion mechanisms for the weapon were all placed in the pilot’s cabin. There were batteries to power these controls, and an air filter inside the craft to prolong the longevity of the pilot.

This Type-1 torpedo comprised impressive specifications, including a substantial 3,420-pound (1,550 kg) warhead, a cruising speed of 12 knots, and a maximum speed of 30 knots. It could operate at a maximum depth of 250 feet (76 m) and had a long range of up to 42 nautical miles (78 km).

Hiroshi Kuroki, a talented young lieutenant and submariner, invented the powerful torpedo, Kaiten. He got the idea of creating the torpedo after the devastating Japanese defeat at Midway in June 1942.

Hiroshi came to believe that Japan needed an important and powerful weapon for winning the war as a result of the Japanese imperial navy being almost completely destroyed at Midway. Therefore, shortly after, he came up with the idea for the torpedo submarine.

Despite the heavy defeat at Midway, Hiroshi’s innovative concept of the Kaiten torpedo faced reluctance from the Japanese high command. His suggestion was at first rejected with sorrow and respect for his devotion to his nation since it was thought to be too excessive within Japan’s warrior culture.

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Hiroshi didn’t give up and kept trying for over two years to get the military ministry and his superiors to approve of him. To support his project, he once went so far as to write Admiral Yamamoto, the mastermind of the assault on Pearl Harbor, a letter in his own blood.

The war seemed to go out of hand in Japan, and the future appeared to be extremely hopeless. That’s when Hiroshi was allowed to develop a model for the torpedo. The actual construction of the torpedo started in 1944 at the Kure Naval shipyard, approximately 12 miles (20 km) from Hiroshima.

It was designed to be launched from a submarine, meaning that if the circumstances were right, it could attack the US Navy without any warning at all. Torpedo testing started on Tsushima Island, which today serves as the Kaiten Memorial Museum.

And the converted Type 93 torpedo was just the start: over time, Japan developed six distinct human torpedo variations, each based on different torpedo types. However, the principal Type 1 based on the Type 93 was the most common, and the most effective.

It is believed that some 420 torpedoes were manufactured in total, each crewed.

The Kaiten in Battle

For these were not some rare or theoretical weapon. The Kaiten saw action in the Pacific, becoming known as the “Long Lance” due to its exceptional range. With a capacity for twice as many warheads and the extraordinary ability to hit targets up to 42 miles (78 km) away while moving at 36 knots, this torpedo significantly outperformed its American contemporaries.

Additionally, it could be programmed to go at an amazing 49 knots for half that distance. No American or Allied torpedo could match the Long Lance’s exceptional performance, and defending against such a fearsome weapon was extremely difficult.

On November 20, 1944, a loud explosion echoed through the Ulithi Atoll in the West Caroline Islands at around 5:45 am in the morning. The USS Mississinewa, an oil tanker stationed near the entrance of the Ulithi lagoon, serving as a vital refueling base for over 200 US Navy vessels fighting against the Japanese in the South Pacific, was directly struck by a new top-secret weapon of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

One of the Kaiten torpedoes’ creators, Lt. Sekio Nishina, took charge of the weapon on a particular morning in November and fired it from a mothership submarine. It is believed that his human torpedo collided with the USS Mississinewa.

The massive 3,000-pound (1,360 kg) warhead of the human torpedo caused a spectacular explosion, creating a major hole in the port side of the Mississinewa. Then, an aviation gas tank’s vapors caught fire and caused another explosion.

Over 100 of the torpedoes would go on to be used in suicide missions against the US Navy. The Kaiten became among the most feared of Japanese weapons, due to its exceptional range, its potential to deal enormous damage, and its terrifying accuracy.

The Imperial Japanese Navy carried out eleven significant human torpedo actions during the course of the remaining fighting. One significant achievement was the July 1945 destruction of the destroyer escort USS Underhill, which resulted in the deaths of 113 crew members.

Additionally, the army’s landing craft LCI-600 was sunk by the torpedo attack, leading to the deaths of three men. Attacks by human torpedoes also caused damage to a number of other ships, causing the US Navy to adopt more defensive tactics for fear of losing their precious fleet to this new Japanese assault.

A 1945-developed Type-4 human torpedo is currently on display at the USS Bowfin Submarine Park & Museum in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. There were between 45 and 50 Type-4 Kaitens manufactured, but they were never put into service.

But the losses to Japan were severe. In addition to 900 submariners or support staff, the Japanese torpedo program also lost eight motherships of torpedo submarines.

But even though the Japanese believed their strategy could change the outcome of World War II, it was all for naught. They had no answer for the two nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. These even more terrifying weapons would demand their surrender.

Top Image: A Kaiten from the movie The Human Torpedo, 1968. Source: Pouazity3 / CC BY-SA 4.0.

By Bipin Dimri

References

Combined Fleet, 2023. KAITEN SPECIAL ATTACK SUBMARINE Available at: http://combinedfleet.com/ships/kaiten

War History Online, 2023. This Is What You Should Know About the Kaiten – Japanese Suicide Torpedo. Available at: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/kaiten-japanese-suicide-torpedo.html?Exc_TM_LessThanPoint001_p1=1

WW2 DB, 2023. Kaiten-class Midget Submarine. Available at: https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=489

Fratus, M, 2022. THAT TIME THE JAPANESE LAUNCHED KAITEN SUICIDE TORPEDOES TO TRY TO WIN WORLD WAR II. Available at: https://coffeeordie.com/kaiten-suicide-torpedoes

Mukherjee, S, 2019. Japan’s human torpedoes. Available at: https://farbound.net/japanese-submarine-i361-with-the-killer-kaiten-1945/

On February 14, 2017, the dead bodies of two young girls, Liberty German and Abigail Williams, were found near Old Monon High Bridge in Delphi, Indiana, in the US. According to local police, the 13- and 14-year-old girls had gone for a walk, and their final moments can be pieced together from recordings the girls made on their phones.

What makes this case stand out is the fact that an audio and video recording of the person who is believed to be the killer was found on the smartphone of one of the murdered girls. This man can clearly be seen and heard as he approaches the girls. Yet despite releasing the recording to the public, the man in the video was not identified for five more years before being arrested and charged with the murders.

The full gut-wrenching truth was concealed until a trial in 2024 led to a sentence of 130 years’ imprisonment.

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The Kensington Runestone is a large stone with runes carved in it that some believe it may have been carved by Vikings. It is 31 inches tall, 16 inches wide, six inches thick and it weighs 202 pounds. This might seem very cool, but unexceptional, there are a fair few runestones around. The interesting thing about the Kensington Runestone is that it was discovered in Minnesota. If it is authentic, it would change the history of the United States as we know it. On the other hand, its authenticity is a mystery. Many people believe it to be a hoax. Let’s dig in and see what we know.

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Many visitors to York in the United Kingdom will stop by the Jorvik Viking center. Alongside the depictions of Viking and medieval life and the artifacts on display, one name stands out for its bloodthirsty sound: Eric Bloodaxe!

This ruthless-sounding Viking and his story is fascinating. A fierce warrior by all accounts, he was dethroned from his homeland but won himself a new kingdom overseas, in northern England.

Such legendary tales often attract embellishments and stories of fantastical deeds can easily spring up around great leaders. In these instances it can be very hard to separate fact from fiction.

Who was this man therefore, who it is claimed won two kingdoms and who carved his name into history? Who was the real Eric Bloodaxe, behind the myth?

A Real Man?

From the start, details on Eric Bloodaxe are scant, and it is unclear whether he is a single figure or multiple people. Living in the first half of the 10th century and dying in 954 AD, he is believed to have been a king of western Norway and of Northumbria, in the far north of England.

There was certainly a king of Norway called Eric during this period, ruling in the 930s. But the sources on this king come from sagas and therefore it becomes almost impossible to separate fact from fiction.

There were also stories of this Eric ruling as king of Northumberland for two periods in 947-8 and again in 952-4 AD. The accounts of this ruler are much more reliable, coming from contemporary sources and other attestations, but are fragmentary and offer little detail.

The two Erics have been considered the same since the 12th century and are traditionally considered to be one man, as explicitly mentioned in the sagas. However, some modern historians dispute this, citing the unreliability of saga sources and the fact that “Eric” was a common name.

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The Journey to Become a King

In the sagas, Eric was the son of the legendary First King of Norway, Harald Fairhair, being therefore born as Eric Haraldsson according to Scandinavian naming customs. Eric, Harald, and Harald’s other son Haakon probably existed, but the stories about their deeds are less certain.

As per the sagas, Eric Bloodaxe became king after the death of his father, the favorite of Harald’s sons. Four of his elder brothers also fought for the crown and Eric killed several of his brothers to keep the throne. Finally, his brother Haakon was successful and Eric was deposed.

Cast off the throne of Norway by his victorious brother, Eric fled to England where he was received by King Aethelstan, one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings of England. Some stories tell of his piratical adventures around the Orkney islands off the coast of northern Scotland, which he eventually conquers.

A powerful interloper on the British Isles, Eric faced an island in turmoil. Northumbria had been won by Aethelstan and consolidated his position by the late 930s AD, but faced strong opposition from Irish and Viking claimants to the territory.

King Aethelstan died in 939 AD, leaving an 18-year-old son Edmund as his heir. After 7 years fighting to consolidate his kingdom, Edmund died in 946.

The people of Northumberland preferred an Irish or Scandinavian king to rule by the Anglo Saxons from the south. Edmund had successfully curtailed these wishes, but his successor Eadred was less lucky when, in 947, the people of Northumbria chose Eric as their king.

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A Kingdom Soaked in Blood

Eric’s seat was at York, known to the Vikings as “Jorvik”, creating at a stroke a defiant kingdom and taking over much of the northern lands claimed by the English King. Eric’s reputation was savage, even by Viking standards, but Eadred’s response was swift and brutal.

The Anglo Saxons launched a raid into Northumbria, laying waste to the countryside and destroying the minster at Ropin dedicated to St Wilfrid. The Archbishop of York, Wulfstan, met with Eadred and swore loyalty to him, no doubt frightened by the ferocity of the advance.

Eric harried the English army as it retreated southwards and inflicted heavy losses, but this wasn’t enough. The people of Northumbria, seeing at first-hand what Eadred could do, rejected Eric and sued for peace. His reign of less than a year was over.

Eric’s removal cleared the way for Eadred’s cousin Amlaíb Cuarán, the Irish king of Dublin, to return as king of Northumbria. It is not clear whether this was opportunistic or part of Eadred’s plan, but the Anglo-Saxon king did not intervene.

However, Eric was far from defeated and built up a force of “northmen” who invaded Northumbria again. Eric won back his kingdom, either with a victory on the battlefield or by exploiting the political situation, in 952. Once again the Bloodaxe ruled from York.

This rule too was to be short-lived.

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The Death of Erik Bloodaxe

Much is written about the death of Eric Bloodaxe, but almost all of it comes from the traditional sagas and is therefore of questionable authenticity. Several stories about his death in 954, two years after he won back his kingdom, appear in different texts.

The sagas talk of his death in a grand battle, one of five kings of England who died on that day. Other records tell of his death in Spain, leading an expedition to win another kingdom, although this may be a mistranslation.

The true end of Eric, according to English sources, may have been more prosaic. Betrayed on the bleak moors of Stainmore by a chieftain called Osulf who would later rule Northumbria, he was apparently slain by a man named Maccus, deposed and in frustrated exile.

According to legend, Erik Bloodaxe was buried at Rey Cross in Stainmore. But no evidence of a burial has been found at the site and the cross itself may just be a marker stone, making this attribution also only a legend.

A Real Man

Therefore, the burial site of Erik Bloodaxe is currently a mystery. But history records him as a real man and the burial ground might be somewhere out there still, on the Stainmore moors.

Modern archaeology is certainly sure that he is real. On the 3rd February 2009 archaeologists found 31 coins minted at York and inscribed with his name. Alongside the inscription was a sword symbol, a tribute to his warlike nature.

Two different styles of coins were found and it was first thought that these two types of coins represent two different reigns of Erik Bloodaxe. However this has not been confirmed, and the only current evidence for the two reigns of Eric Bloodaxe comes from ancient sources.

So, who was this man who twice conquered a kingdom in the British Isles? Was he the same eric who ruled another kingdom, in Norway, before being defeated by his brother?

If you consider the sagas to have no basis in reality, as ephemeral as tales of King Arthur, then all we know of Eric Bloodaxe is of his brief, bloody rule in Northumbria. But if we accept the sagas as based on fact, then we start to see a clearer picture of this violent and bellicose man.

Eric Bloodaxe would therefore be a warrior who fought his way to two kingdoms before being betrayed and killed. A great man in history, well worthy of the Viking Center on York that bears his name, and his depiction, today.

Top Image: A King of Norway and a King in England? Source: Warpedgalerie / Adobe Stock.

by Bipin Dimri

References

English Monarchs, 2022. King of Northumbria and Norway. Available at: https://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/vikings_8.html

York Museums Trust, 2022. Eric Bloodaxe. Available at: http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/viking/eric-bloodaxe

Wikipedia, 2022. Eric Bloodaxe Family background. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Bloodaxe#Family_background

Britannica, 2022. Erik I, king of Norway and Northumberland. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erik-I

Mingren, W, 2021. Eric Bloodaxe: Murderous Viking King of Norway and Northumbria. Available at: https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/eric-bloodaxe-0011327

London, a city drenched in history, resonates with tales of rebellion, regal reigns, and somber executions. Eight historic streets, each a silent witness to London’s vivid past. Tower Hill, a site of gruesome executions since 1381, holds dark echoes of the past.

Whitechapel Road carries the enigmatic aura of Jack the Ripper’s deeds and the haunting presence of the Elephant Man. Cornhill, beautifully preserved at the center of the old City, leads to the Royal Exchange and ancient St. Peter’s Church, emblematic of London’s enduring spirit. Thule Street, once ablaze, gave rise to the fire brigade and saw Shackleton’s polar ship.

Trafalgar Square, where the Romans once roamed, now resonates with protests and political discourse. Whitehall, the heart of government, silently observes centuries of transformation and turmoil.

Marlborough Street’s legacy encompasses Dickens, Wilde, and legends of rock and roll, while Piccadilly heads arrow-straight past grand houses and embassies to the great parks which surround Buckingham Palace. These streets narrate London’s intricate story, embodying its enduring history amid the currents of change.

Top image: The center of London is a patchwork of old cobbled streets, narrow alleys and hidden treasures. Source: uhdenis / Adobe Stock.

By Robbie Mitchell

Most people consider the idea of lizardmen to be the last word in unlikely conspiracy theories. The idea of reptilians who can pass as human, usually tied into some overarching conspiracy and espoused by those who feel dispossessed or have an axe to grind, is enough of a challenge to rationality to put almost anyone off.

But as a phenomenon, for whatever reason the concept of lizardmen has become more and more popular in recent memories. There have been many theories based on their origin and their motives.

Such theories include classifying them as living dinosaurs that have evolved through the reptilian hierarchy to match the path that primates took millions of years ago. To give credence to the theory, at one point in time, it was lizards, in the form of dinosaurs, that were the apex predators of Earth.

Thus, some consider it not possible that a small number of them have evolved but remained hidden. After all, the ancestor of homo sapiens millions of years ago was a small, rodent-like creature, markedly different from our species today, and it follows that lizards could have evolved in the same fashion.

However, there is no evidence to justify this theory. The only really tangible piece of testimony that exists today comes from Lee County in South Carolina, where a strange reptilian humanoid was seen on multiple occasions by various people.

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Before Jesus and the God of the Hebrews, before Jupiter and Zeus, before even the gods of the Egyptians, there were the Anunnaki. And, as far as we can tell, these were the group of gods that were worshipped in the earliest of civilizations like the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians.

In the earliest writings about them from the Sumerians in the third millennium BC, writing after the Akkadian period, the Anunnaki are a pantheon of gods that are descended from the god of the heavens An and the goddess of the Earth Ki. Their primary function was to dictate the fates of humanity, a tradition which appears to have lasted far further into the past.

The word Anunnaki word can be translated into “princely seed” in Sumerian but as a term it remains poorly defined. There is also little evidence of an exact number of these gods and their various functions as the historical texts all deviate from each other. However, they are fascinating as the first family of gods ever.

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The rock bears an intricate, embossed pattern that remarkably mirrors a crop circle found nearly a decade earlier in England. This peculiar artifact, boasting bizarre magnetic properties and microscopic precision that defies simple sandblasting, challenges conventional wisdom and leaves investigators grappling with its origins. Is it an elaborate hoax, a terrestrial anomaly, or a key left behind by ancient visitors to our planet?

Strange Magnetic Properties

Ridge noted that the rock had a strong magnetic field that emanated from somewhere within it. When coming into magnetic contact, the rock slowly revolved in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, depending on which pole was being manipulated. The rock was also somehow able to remain in physical contact with one’s hand when that hand was being held in a vertical orientation.

Similar Design to a 1996 Liddington Castle Crop Circle

The most eye-catching feature of the rock is the design itself; similar to a crop circle found in Swindon, England about a decade before the rock’s discovery. A pilot and his passenger discovered the crop circle as they flew over the field twice within half an hour. The first time they passed there was nothing but a standard field of corn. When they returned, the circle had formed. Crop circle investigators carried out extensive studies of the circle and eventually came to the conclusion it was not only a genuine example but a near-perfect formation. A comparison of the rock and the circle indicate they are both designed to scale with one another. One perfectly overlays the other.

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Is it an Elaborate Hoax?

Skeptics of the Roswell Rock say that it is either some elaborate hoax or some kind of anomaly that has somehow managed to beat the million-to-one odds of becoming sensitized to magnetism. According to conventional wisdom, the best way to fabricate the rock would be sandblasting an existing stone using a stencil designed placed upon the top of it. While such an endeavor would create an external design, testing of this hypothesis produced an example of lesser quality than that of the rock. With enough time and dedication, it is surely possible to create a definitive example, but then why leave it out in the middle of nowhere and hope it would be found?

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Analysis of the Roswell Rock

The rock is 1.5 inches thick and 2 inches wide. The rock is triangular in shape and the design protrudes above the surface of the rock. Studies of the stone determined the rock itself is not native to Cedar Hill where it was found. In this particular region, limestone is the predominant rock. Further studies also determined the rock is of considerable age, completely solid with no internal cavities where a small magnet could be inserted. The beveling on the design is microscopically clear and defined, which suggests some advanced laser cutting tool carved it. Sandblasting alone would not be able to achieve the same results.

If this rock is as ancient as believed, how long had it been here? Where did it originate and did it have something to do with the alleged Roswell UFO crash just after the war? Could extra-terrestrial visitors have deposited it here eons ago and came to retrieve it one stormy day in 1947? If so, was the crop circle in England a further attempt to locate the rock? Will they make another attempt? Is the rock some sort of key?

Or maybe someone is trying to tell us something different.

By Les Hewitt

What if you cracked open a rock that you thought was 500,000 years old and found a perfect mechanical object inside? This is the Coso Artifact, an "out of place artifact" (OPART) that was found in 1961 and unsettled the fields of both archaeology and alternative history. The Coso Artifact was found in what looked like an old Geode, and the metal and ceramic cylinder within led to decades of speculation regarding advanced prehistoric societies and ancient technology. However, recent detailed investigations have eventually concluded that the Coso Artifact was indeed made on Earth, rather than being a remnant of an advanced prehistoric civilization. So how did it become embedded in a seemingly ancient rock?

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The President of the United States is one of the most important and powerful people in the world. Such a person attracts admiration and respect, but can also draw hatred and some even say that the office has been cursed.

The curse of Tippecanoe or Tecumseh’s Curse has been linked to the death of no fewer than seven of the Presidents of the United States. All of the presidents were elected in years ending in zero and all of them died in office.

The legend goes that the Shawnee chief and warrior Tecumseh created the curse due to a dispute with William Henry Harrison, future President of the United States. Was it just a coincidence or was there something more sinister at work?

The Origins of the Curse

Before William Henry Harrison was president, he was the governor of Indiana. Whilst in that role he opened up many negotiations with indigenous peoples to gain more land for the United States administration.

He hoped that this land would allow for future settlement and increase the population of his territory. The increase in population would give him a case for statehood for Indiana. This would not only be good for the US citizens living there but also personally for Harrison and his associates.

In 1804, William Henry Harrison was able to conclude the Treaty of St. Louis with chiefs of the local Native American population such as Quashquame, which required the tribes of Sauk and Meskwaki to cede much of their lands in Western Illinois. Unsurprisingly, many resented this treaty, and tensions between the two sides were fraught throughout the next few years.

However, Harrison continued with his divisive plan unchecked for more than 6 years. Finally, he faced serious resistance from the Native American population in 1810.

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Tecumseh and the Battle of Tippecanoe

By 1810 the Native Americans were sick of the greed and aggression of Harrison, and two Shawnee brother leaders named Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa gathered forces to launch a resistance. Tenskwatawa, which means the prophet, promised his troops that they would come under no harm as the “Great Spirit” would protect them.

One way in which they sought to stir up problems was to encourage a trade war. They said to their troops only to pay half of what they owed to the “white man” for goods such as muskets, whiskey, and clothing.

It did not take long for Harrison to hear of this. He had established a spy network throughout the tribes and upon hearing of this resistance sought to get the president to intervene. James Madison, the president at the time, was less keen to get involved.

Harrison was left with nowhere else to turn and as such chose to negotiate. However, the letters that he sent to the brothers were quite provocative. He boasted of the number in his army and that he had voluntary militiamen that were “like the leaves of forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash”.

Tecumseh responded by leading 400 men down the Wabash River to meet Harrison. They were in the attire for war, painted to inspire fear. It worked as when they approached Vincennes, where Harrison was located, the warriors frightened the US troops.

Tecumseh was escorted to meet Harrison so that they could negotiate. When he arrived, he berated Harrison and told him that all treaties regarding land had to be agreed upon by all tribes and as such all treaties conducted by the US government were void.

Harrison responded in kind by saying that if tribes wanted to negotiate separately, they could, and if the Great Spirit wanted the Indians to form a nation, then they would all speak the same language. Tecumseh was not amused by this and began to create a stir with his impassioned response. Calm only came when the US troops raised their weapons and forced the Native Americans to stand down.

Tecumseh sought help from the British and left his cohort under the command of Tenskwatawa. Harrison utilized this opportunity to attack. However, before he could, the tribe’s forces ambushed the US troops.

After a hard-fought battle at Tippecanoe, the US came out on top, and Harrison was hailed as a US hero. Tenskwatawa fled to Canada with his promise of protection destroyed and his forces scattered.

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The Curse

Tecumseh was not put off by the loss at Tippecanoe and continued resistance for a couple of years. It is suspected that he was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. When Tenskwatawa heard this news, he cursed the United States Government.

The curse targeted presidents who were elected in years ending in 0, and under the curse all such presidents would die in office. So far the curse has claimed the lives of seven presidents, the first of which was William Henry Harrison who was elected in 1840 and died only one month later.

Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 and was assassinated in 1865 whilst James Garfield was elected in 1880. He only lasted four months before dying after an assassination attempt. William Mckinley won his second term in 1900 and was assassinated the following year.

Warren Harding was elected in 1920 but died of a stroke in 1923. Even Roosevelt who won his third term in 1940 suffered a brain hemorrhage in 1945 causing his death. The most famous example is John F Kennedy who was elected in 1960 and was murdered in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Is It True?

Whilst it can be easy to pick out examples of presidents who were elected on years with a 0 and who died, it can just be a coincidence. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 and despite being shot in 1981 survived as did George Bush who was elected in 2000 and survived two assassination attempts.

Joe Biden, elected in 2020, certainly survived the curse, so all evidence seems to suggest that the curse is merely a coincidence or was broken by Reagan.

It is not surprising to hear of presidents being assassinated or at least attempts being made. It is thus hard to conclude that a theory of a curse is killing presidents depending on their inauguration years has any merit. Whilst it may be an exciting story, life tends not to be so simple or superstitious.

Top Image: The battle of Tippecanoe, where the losing Native Americans cursed William Henry Harrison. Source: Library of Congress / Public Domain; Albert Sands Southworth / Public Domain.

By Kurt Readman

References

Deutschmann, J. 2021. TECUMSEH’S CURSE FULLY EXPLAINED. Available at: https://www.grunge.com/709874/tecumsehs-curse-fully-explained/

Kelly, M. 2021. Did Tecumseh’s Curse Kill Seven US Presidents? Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/tecumsehs-curse-and-the-us-presidents-105440

Ksander, Y. 2008. Tecumseh’s Curse. Available at: https://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/tecumsehs-curse/

Newman, M. 2016. Curse of Tippecanoe. Available at: https://www.c-span.org/video/?407561-1/curse-tippecanoe

Purdy, M. 2011. The End of the 20 Year curse. Available at: https://presidentialhistory.com/2011/08/the-end-of-the-20-year-curse.html

Snopes. 2000. Presidential 20-Year Death Curse. Available at: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-curse-of-tecumseh/

You were thinking Tutankhamun, weren’t you? Certainly when modern readers are told to think of a cursed tomb, the first thing that comes to mind is the famously treasure-filled chambers of King Tut.

Howard Carter’s 1922 discovery was however not the first time an Egyptian tomb had been rumored to be cursed. The rise of excavations and rash of discoveries as the necropolises of ancient Egypt were opened came with increasing uneasiness amongst the populace and warnings not to disturb the dead.

Curses also appear to be baked into the human psyche, as many disparate civilizations across the globe have formed the concept independently of each other. It seems the need for an invisible warning, from the ghost fences of ancient Celtic druids to the witches of northern European folklore, permeates human development.

Curses can of course be levelled at an individual or placed more generally on an object. Happily, some of these cursed objects survive to this day. Here are eight.

1. The Tomb of Tutankhamun

Okay. let’s start with the big one. Howard Carter and his team, sponsored by Lord Carnarvon, uncovered something almost unbelievable in 1922: an intact tomb of an ancient pharaoh that had not been plundered by graverobbers.

Strange things started to happen almost immediately after Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened. Carter’s canary was killed in its cage: a cobra had somehow climbed in. Then Lord Carnarvon died unexpectedly when an insect bite became infected, and the rumor mill went into overdrive.

Three more members of the expedition, including Carter would die in the following years (although in fairness Carter died in 1939, 16 years later) as well as a tourist who entered the tomb. Carter himself never believed in the curse, but the rumors have persisted ever since.

2. The Tomb of Casimir IV Jagiellon

When, in 1973, permission was granted for King Casimir IV Jagiellon’s burial coffin to be exhumed, Polish archaeologists were ecstatic. Such permission is given only in extremely rare cases, and they would be offered a privileged opportunity to inspect the tomb of a dead king.

Researchers opening the tomb found the wooden coffin had rotten away and what remained were sections of the king’s decaying corpse. But the curse was quick to strike. Four researchers who had been working in Wawel Cathedral on the exhumation of the tomb passed away from infections in the following few days.

Unlike the Egyptian tomb however, a material cause was found for this curse. From a 1999 study of mummified remains it was uncovered that most of them contained a saprophytic and pathogenic fungus called Aspergillus Flavus. These fungi infect animals and cause allergies, asthma, and other respiratory problems in healthy individuals, but if they were to enter the body of an immunocompromised person, they most likely be fatal.

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3. The Hope Diamond

The Hope Diamond is one of the most famous and beautiful gemstones in the world, a 45.52-carat blue diamond which comes from Guntur, India. It can be traced back to the 17th century and was once in the possession of the King of France.

Rumors started to circulate in the 19th century that the diamond had originally been the eye of the Hindu goddess Sita in a colossal statue, hidden in a secret sacred shrine. Over the years dozens of people who owned or wore the diamond started to experience ill fortune, and it was whispered that the diamond was cursed.

Honestly, the story of a giant statue was likely inserted into the narrative to increase fascination with the stone, and maybe therefore its value. The rest could be confirmation bias and seeing a pattern in random events. Or maybe there truly is something to the tale.

4. The Crying Boy

From the 1950s, many British houses had a picture hanging somewhere or what was known as The Crying Boy. This mass-produced print was extremely popular and many were bought over the next few decades.

Then, in 1985 British newspaper The Sun ran a story about a firefighter who had noticed something weird. Having attended dozens of fires in houses over the years, he had noticed that these pictures, whenever they were found in houses after the blaze, were mysteriously undamaged. Stories that the man who had painted the picture referred to the boy in the painting as “Diablo” did not help.

Was the painting cursed, able to withstand the hottest fires of hell? Or was the fire-retardant varnish on the surface of the prints, combined with such pictures often falling face down as the string holding them burned through, leading to them being protected from the blaze? Who can tell.

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5. The Gold of Tolosa

The French city of Toulouse has an extremely long history. Two millennia ago it was Tolosa, home of the Volcae, a large federation of Gaulish tribes who dominated the area and fought as far afield as Thermopylae in 279 BC where they defeated the Greeks.

Dominant at least until the arrival of the Romans, who had heard about all the gold and plunder the Gauls were bringing back from their adventures in Greece and fancied taking that for themselves. So when the tired Gauls finally made it home, leaderless and war-weary, they found the Romans blocking their path.

In truth, some stories say the Gauls already knew the treasure to be cursed and had thrown some of it in a lake. They still retained a horde of treasure however, and when the Romans took Tolosa they confiscated it and headed back to Rome. They were never seen again, and the cursed gold remains out there somewhere hidden to this day.

6. The Black Prince’s Ruby

This giant red gemstone, actually a spinel if we’re going to split hairs, has brought misfortune and death to a string of people through its long history. Taken from the body of a murdered Muslim prince, it came into the possession of Don Pedro the Cruel of Spain.

Pedro would almost immediately face an uprising led by his usurping brother and was forced to seek the assistance of England to avoid being deposed. English assistance was duly provided and the English captain, Edward Black Prince of Wales, demanded the ruby as payment.

Edward was wearing the ruby when he died on the battlefield, as was Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. Henry V wore it in his crown at the Battle of Agincourt and nearly lost it, having his helmet and the ruby dashed from his head by a mighty axe blow.

Still not convinced of the curse? Well, the ruby today is mounted on the Imperial State Crown worn by the monarch of England. And every single king or queen to have worn that crown, apart from the current one, is dead…

7. The “Little Bastard”

On 30 September 1955 James Dean’s Porsche 1955 Spyder would crash almost head on with another car, killing the rising movie star and cementing a legend. The Spyder itself was already considered a cursed car before the crash, with Dean’s friend Alec Guinness warning him not to drive it only a week before.

The Spyder itself was almost totally destroyed in the accident, but it was rebuilt and passed through several owners into the 1960s. As time went by, people started to notice strange things happening around the car. It caught fire for no reason, for example, and was involved in a string of accidents. On one occasion the car carrying the transplanted engine crashed and killed its driver.

Many of these stories may have come from an attempt to drum up interest in the car as a piece of pop culture. However, as the 1960s progressed American tastes shifted to larger, more powerful “muscle” cars and as the Porsche fell out of fashion the stories stopped.

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8. Portrait of Bernardo de Gálvez

A prominent landmark in Galveston, Texas, the Grand Galvez Resort & Spa is a historic 226-room resort hotel dating back to 1911. At the end of one of the corridors hangs a painting of Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez which is said to be cursed.

It is said that the painting resists attempts to take photographs of it. The painting itself is not well lit but if you try to use flash photography your photos will have the image of a skull on them. The skull itself can never be found in the original painting.

Happily though there is a way to circumvent the curse. If visitors are to politely ask permission of the painting to take a photo, then the skull will not appear and the reproduction will be flawless.

Top Image: Voodoo dolls are a common curse in some cultures. Source: DedMityay / Adobe Stock.

By Joseph Green

References

Petr H, 2021. 25 Creepy Cursed Objects that Actually Exist. Available at: https://list25.com/25-creepy-cursed-objects-that-actually-exist/

Srivastava, A, 2019. 21 Cursed Items From Around The World You Wouldn’t Want Anywhere Near You. Available at: https://www.scoopwhoop.com/culture/cursed-items-from-around-the-world/

Puchko, K, 2016. 10 Allegedly Cursed Objects. Available at: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/59504/10-allegedly-cursed-objects-throughout-history