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6 months ago

a print of an eye splashed with paint and stains on brown paper, in the style of noir comic art, gothic black and white, angura kei, monumental ink paintings, chiaroscuro portraitures, biomorphic, oil painter --ar 1:2 --stylize 750 --v 6 history | science | news | Today In History Members True Scary Stories 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 Whether it's ghosts, UFOs, or monsters, these creepy real-life stories represent the scariest tales from the annals of human history. While horror movies can surely leave us terrified, it’s the true scary stories from history that really burrow into our brains and stay there. From true crime to the paranormal to the just plain eerie, the real-life creepy stories are the ones that provide a lasting fright that fictional ones cannot. Perhaps Mark Twain put it best when he said, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t. ” History’s most chilling scary stories of aliens, murder, and monsters indeed remain far stranger than fiction. They take uncanny turns and deliver startling scares that no writer or filmmaker could dream up in quite the same way. Discover some of the creepiest stories that are entirely true — and are all the more terrifying because of it. True Scary Stories: The Mystery Of The Enfield Monster Henry Mcdaniel And His Broken Door The Reading EagleHenry McDaniel looks at the torn screen door of his home following his encounter with the Enfield monster. One night in 1973, the two young McDaniel children of Enfield, Illinois claimed to see a weird creature lurking in their yard and trying to get in the house. But father Henry McDaniel chalked their creepy story up to the active imagination of childhood. However, he changed his mind later that night. After being awoken by strange scratching sounds, McDaniel grabbed a gun and a flashlight and peered outside his front door. There, between two rosebushes, he saw a creature that was “almost like a human body, ” just as his kids had described. “It had three legs on it, a short body, two little short arms, and two pink eyes as big as flashlights, ” he recounted to a reporter. Creepy Stories Enfield Monster Mt. Vernon Register-NewsNews clipping of McDaniel’s eyewitness account of the Enfield monster. McDaniel said he fired four shots and was sure he hit the creature at least once, causing it to make a hiss “much like a wildcat’s” before it ran off toward a railway embankment. McDaniel was stunned when he saw the monstrous beast jump 80 feet in three jumps before quickly running out of sight. The police found scratches on the door screen as well as footprints in the dirt near McDaniel’s home that looked dog-like with six toe pads, yet no clues pointed to an unusual creature. McDaniel’s sighting made the Reading Eagle but it was clear most people didn’t believe it was true. It didn’t help that a 10-year-old neighbor faked his own eyewitness account of the beast, only to later admit that his testimony was a prank against the McDaniels. True Scary Stories Enfield Monster Creative CommonsA rendering of the Enfield monster, highlighting the glowing red eyes seen by Henry McDaniel. McDaniel reported two more sightings of the alleged beast to local cops but he said they eventually threatened him with jail time because nobody believed what he saw had been real. But McDaniel was adamant and stood behind his scary true story. “If they do find it, ” McDaniel said in an interview, “they will find more than one and they won’t be from this planet, I can tell you that. ” After McDaniel’s public testimony about the Enfield monster, other eyewitness claims began to surface. Monster hunters swarmed the town and at least five men were arrested after firing shots in the area and claiming to have photographed the creature. To this day, no explanation has been uncovered for this small-town creepy story. Previous Page 1 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091 a print of an eye splashed with paint and stains on brown paper, in the style of noir comic art, gothic black and white, angura kei, monumental ink paintings, chiaroscuro portraitures, biomorphic, oil painter --ar 1:2 --stylize 750 --v 6

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 The 1969 Berkshire UFO Incident Creepy Stories UFO Stock PhotoOn September 1, 1969, the Reed family claimed they were abducted by a UFO in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Today, Berkshire County, Massachusetts is famous for its wide-open countryside that makes it a popular vacation destination. But the rural territory was once heralded as a hotbed of UFO activity following the alleged sighting that took place on the evening of Sept. 1, 1969. More than 50 years later, the true scary story of the Berkshire UFO incident remains perhaps the most chilling tale of an alien abduction on record. According to witnesses’ creepy stories, a disk-shaped craft was seen performing acrobatic maneuvers in the sky above the Berkshires that night. Others say they didn’t just see the craft but were taken aboard it. It’s unclear exactly how long the phenomenon lasted but many who claim to have witnessed the Berkshire UFO describe losing time, unable to account for an hour or so during the incident. “Everything got really calm,” said Thomas Reed, one of the most well-known witnesses of the 1969 Berkshire UFO phenomenon. “It was like being in the middle of a hurricane. There was like a barometric change in pressure. It was just like a dead silence. Then there was an eruption of crickets and frogs and it got really loud and that was it.” It was estimated that at least 40 residents, including children who are now adults still living in the Berkshire area, saw the alleged alien aircraft. Some of them reportedly called in to the local radio station to share the bizarre phenomenon that they had just seen. Sheffield Bridge Bryan Pocius/FlickrAbout 40 people in the Berkshires shared their creepy story of witnessing a UFO in 1969. Today, a monument to the incident stands near the Sheffield Bridge (pictured). “We had listeners call the radio station that evening,” said David Isy, general manager of local radio station WSBS. “At the time they didn’t know it was a UFO, they just, you know, called the station to say something bizarre has happened.” The large number of simultaneous witness accounts during the UFO Berskhire incident has made it a distinct case among alleged sightings in recent decades. The witness accounts were so plentiful and compelling that the Great Barrington Historical Society decided to officially recognize the incident as “the first off-world/UFO case in U.S. history” some 45 years after it happened. Following the stunning recognition, witnesses formed the non-profit UFO Monument Park Inc. to build a monument in the area. The monument, meant as a landmark to honor the alleged UFO encounter that residents saw in 1969, was erected by the group and signed by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. Scary Stories Reed Brothers Reed FamilyThomas Reed (left), who saw the Berkshire UFO when he was nine years old, and his brother. Despite the significant eyewitness accounts of the event, some residents of the town have fought to keep scary stories of the alleged UFO incident under wraps. The monument was removed following contentious arguments between the group of witnesses that built the structure and local officials in 2019. Still, the eerie aftermath of the unexplained encounter stays with residents who bore witness that fateful night and who continue to share the creepy story to this day. After exploring these true scary stories, discover some more real-life horror stories. Then, read about the best horror movies of all-time — and the creepy stories behind them. Previous Page 9 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 Creepy Stories Of Those Who Had The Deadly Phone Number Man Talking On The Phone PixabayThe number was eventually pulled from circulation after it was linked to multiple deaths. Some superstitions hold that certain numbers are bad luck. One cellphone number issued by a Bulgarian mobile phone company in particular actually seems to be connected to the deaths of at least three people — all of whom had used the same number before their ominous deaths. Whether a coincidence or not, the unlucky cell phone number 0888-888-888 has since become synonymous with deadly bad luck. The first victim, in fact, was the former CEO of the mobile phone company MobilTel named Vladimir Grashnov. He died of cancer at the age of 48 in 2001 shortly after receiving the number from his former company. Rumors suggest the real cause of Grashnov’s death was that he was being slowly poisoned by a competitor. Two years later, the alleged curse hit the next victim of the unlucky mobile number. Konstantin Dimitrov, a Bulgarian mafia boss gunned down while having dinner with his model girlfriend, was killed at the age of 31. Investigators suspect it was a hit job by a rival drug boss. Man Passes Mobiltel Sign Valentina Petrova/AFP via Getty ImagesAfter being linked to three deaths in five years, many believe this phone number is cursed. The third and final victim to hold the ill-fated number was Konstantin Dishliev, who was shot to death while sitting down at an Indian restaurant in 2005. Dishliev, like the previous owner of the mobile phone number, was engaged with the underground criminal world. He was known as a crooked businessman who operated a secret drug-trafficking operation. It might strike an observer of this true scary story that these high-profile victims would likely have died with or without the number, particularly those who were entangled in drug trafficking. But the fact that all three men died within a five-year period was enough for the mobile phone company to pull the number out of circulation. Yet the creepy stories of the deadly number live on to this day. Previous Page 8 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 True Scary Stories: The Beast Of Gévaudan True Scary Stories Beast Of Gevaudan Wikimedia CommonsAccording to centuries-old creepy stories, the Beast of Gévaudan killed some 300 people. In 18th-century Gévaudan, an idyllic country territory in France, a horrific series of slayings and scary stories about a killer had residents up in arms. But the perpetrator was believed to be, not a man, but a beastly monster that resembled a wolf. The first victim was Jeanne Boulet, a 14-year-old shepherdess who was mysteriously found dead in 1764 with her throat ripped out. Then, another teen victim was discovered a month later. The second victim allegedly described their killer as “a horrible beast” before taking their last breath. Listen above to the History Uncovered podcast, episode 32: The Beast Of Gévaudan, also available on Apple and Spotify. Hundreds more were mauled with their throats or chests ripped out. Creepy stories from those who claimed to have survived or witnessed the attacks described an enormous wolf-like animal with black fur, a large chest, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. These witness accounts peppered the newspapers which quickly dubbed the murderous creature as the Beast of Gévaudan. Beast Of Gevaudan Attacking A Woman Wikimedia CommonsFrench hunters spent three years chasing the bloodthirsty beast. Locals organized hunting parties in the wake of the brutal killings. Jean Baptiste Duhamel, an infantry leader of the local militia, organized 30,000 volunteers to hunt down and kill the beast with the promise of a year’s salary as the reward. Still, the hunting campaigns were unsuccessful and the body count continued to grow. According to the scary stories that spread across the countryside, a farmer named Jean Chastel, who lost many loved ones to the Beast of Gévaudan, decided to take matters into his own hands. He allegedly wandered into the mountains armed with nothing but a pistol and some silver bullets. After taking a rest to read the Bible in the hopes of luring in the creature, the alleged beast appeared in front of him. Somehow Chastel managed to shoot and kill the beast, triumphantly presenting it later to the king. Some claim that a cornucopia of human remains tumbled out of the wolf’s stomach when it was cut open. Creepy Stories Beast Of Gevaudan Rendering Wikimedia CommonsAn 18th-century rendering of François Antoine killing the Beast of Gévaudan in 1765. These creepy stories famously inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1879 book Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes and pop culture adaptations like Christophe Gans’ 2002 horror film Brotherhood of the Wolf. But was there really a supernatural wolf terrorizing France? Historians have yet to agree on what exactly happened at Gévaudan. Some say it was simply mass hysteria and the murderous pack of wolves or lions that likely caused the killings were exaggerated into a monster. Nevertheless, one thing remains clear: an estimated 300 people were brutally killed during that tragic period. Perhaps the true scary story is that nobody will ever know what may have caused those very real deaths. Previous Page 7 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 The Tucker Telephone Torture Device Scary Stories Tucker Telephone Encyclopedia of ArkansasThe creepy story of the Tucker Phone became so controversial that it was depicted in numerous films, including Brubaker, starring Robert Redford. Of all the true scary stories about life inside America’s jails, the Tucker Telephone is surely the most awful. And for inmates doing time at the Tucker State Prison Farm in Arkansas in the early 1960s, there was nothing more terrifying than the Tucker Telephone. The Tucker Telephone was a sadistic method of punishment frequently used on prisoners at the state prison which is now the Tucker Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction. The torture device was the brainchild of prison physician Dr. A.E. Rollins and prison superintendent Jim Bruton. On its face, the device looks like an old crank telephone. But with the addition of an electric generator and two dry cell batteries, it became one of the most notorious torture machines in the history of U.S. incarceration. Hooked up to a source of immense electric power, the Tucker Telephone functioned as an electric shock device attached to the private parts of victims. Inmates sent to the “hospital room” were strapped down to a table with two wires applied to their skin. The ground wire was wrapped around their big toe while the hot wire — which the electricity ran through — was strapped to the inmate’s genitals. Once the doctors turned the crank on the Tucker Telephone, their victims were brutally shocked by torrents of electricity. Sometimes these torture sessions dragged on for long periods, known as “long-distance calls.” Old Sparky At Tucker State Prison Wikimedia Commons The Tucker Prison Farm also whipped inmates, beat them with five-foot paddles, put needles under their fingernails, and executed them using “Old Sparky,” an electric chair that was used 104 times. The sheer barbarism of this punishment method was described in Tom Murton’s shocking 1970 book Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal: “In ‘long distance calls’ several charges were inflicted — of a duration designed to stop just short of the inmate’s fainting. Sometimes the ‘telephone’ operator’s skill was so defective and the sustained current not only caused the inmate to lose consciousness but resulted in irreparable damage to his testicles.” Tragically, many of the prisoners not only ended up with permanent organ damage but also suffered from mental illness following the torture. But the Tucker Telephone wasn’t an isolated incident. A Newsweek report from 1967 revealed that prisoners were routinely beaten with paddles, had needles stuck under their fingernails, tortured with pliers, and punished using an electric chair. The brutality of the prison became so famous that the Tucker Telephone eventually found itself depicted in the 1980 film Brubaker. Unfortunately, even after the torture device was no longer deployed against inmates, the Tucker Telephone was repurposed by the Chicago violent crime unit under Lieutenant Jon Burge to torture suspects in the 1980s. American interrogators abroad have also reportedly used the device to torture their captives. Previous Page 6 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 The Terror Of Operation Wandering Soul American Troops In The Vietnamese Jungle Wikimedia CommonsU.S. troops in Vietnam would blast ghost sounds on loudspeakers as they fought their way through the jungle. If there’s anything more effective than physical weapons to defeat enemy soldiers in a war, it’s psychological terror. That’s just what U.S. troops employed during their invasion in the Vietnam War. In Vietnamese culture, giving a proper burial to a loved one in their birthplace ensures their contentment in the afterlife. If not, it is believed the deceased’s soul will wander aimlessly as it tries to find its way home. U.S. forces in the Vietnam War were aware of this belief and took advantage of it to cause terror. Knowing that the Vietnamese people were worried many of their soldiers would die far from home and unable to be properly buried, U.S. forces employed a freaky psychological scare tactic known as “Operation Wandering Soul.” The 6th Psychological Operations Battalion (6th PSYOP) of the U.S. Army broadcasted disturbing moans of disembodied voices throughout the Vietnam jungle where the battles took place. These fake tapes were played on a series of loudspeakers or dispatched from overhead planes. For many Vietnamese soldiers, hearing the cries of supposedly lost souls piercing through the dark was nothing short of terrifying. A copy of the Wandering Soul tape used to petrify the Vietnamese soldiers included the tormented voices of children. The scare tactic was inspired by the “Ghost Army” of World War II, a unit of inflatable tanks and personnel carriers used to fool German intelligence forces into thinking the Allies had more troops and tanks than they actually did. These hair-raising messages that played in the Vietnam battlefield successfully convinced many nervous Vietnamese soldiers that their fallen comrades were skulking invisibly among them. Many of the fake ghost messages recorded were created with the help of South Vietnamese allies and voiced pleas to the soldiers to give up the fight: “My friends, I have come back to let you know that I am dead… I am dead!” “Don’t end up like me. Go home, friends, before it’s too late!” The tapes were convincing enough to send hundreds of men fleeing from the mountains. Of course, not all Vietnamese soldiers fell for this spooky psychological operation. But even in the midst of a war, it still struck a chord. The soldiers who remained fired in the direction of the eerie voices, reminding them of the very real possibility of death that awaited them if defeated. Previous Page 5 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 Scary Stories Of The Hotel Del Salto, Colombia’s Cliffside Suicide Palace True Scary Stories Hotel Del Salto Wikimedia CommonsThough it was a popular vacation destination in the 1920s, the Hotel del Salto soon garnered a far darker reputation. Thrill-seekers traveling to Colombia will likely be attracted to the true scary stories surrounding the Hotel Del Salto, a former hotel-turned-museum purported to be one of the most haunted places in the country. Hotel del Salto, which translates literally to “hotel of the leap,” has allegedly been haunted since it was first constructed as a mansion in 1923. It was designed by architect Carlos Arturo Tapias, who was inspired by the French architectural aesthetic that was popular during the time. Its location overlooking the famous Tequendama Falls gave the mansion breathtaking views. But, according to some creepy stories, the falls may also be the source of its alleged hauntings. Hotel Del Salto At Tequendama Falls Wikimedia CommonsThe once-abandoned and allegedly haunted hotel has since become a popular museum, but locals still tell creepy stories about what goes on at the hotel after dark. The mansion was the scene of many lavish parties and, by 1928, was turned into a popular hotel. But then, the horrific tragedies began. Hotel patrons inexplicably leaped to their deaths out of their windows. At least one homicide took place there, when a guest brutally murdered a young socialite in one of the rooms, splattering the walls with her blood. Meanwhile, guests of the notorious Hotel Del Salto claimed to witness spooky apparitions that appeared around the hotel at night — including the ghost of the murdered socialite. In local legends, Tequendama Falls is said to have been where many people of the Indigenous Muisca tribe escaped from Spanish colonizers by leaping off the nearby cliff centuries before. True Scary Stories Hotel Del Salto Luis Alveart/FlickrThe Hotel del Salto sits on cliffs as tall as 500 feet. Though the native legend says the Muisca were incarnated into flying eagles as they jumped off the cliff — thus surviving the brutal plunge — locals believe the land has since been cursed by the Muisca, some of whom may have not survived their attempts to escape the Spanish invaders. Even after it was shuttered in the 1990s, scary stories about the hotel continued to emerge. Some claim that loud screams can still be heard coming from the abandoned hotel. Additionally, they say that the constant mudslides on the road to reach the property and the stench from the heavily polluted river water further prove paranormal activity on the grounds. Today, the once run-down hotel has been converted into a sleek and stylish cultural museum. Curious visitors can tour the former hotel but only during business hours — which end at 5 p.m., well before scary stories say the ghosts appear. Previous Page 4 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 The Unexplained “Numbers Stations” Creepy Stories Numbers Stations PixabayRadio listeners around the world have been puzzled by mysterious broadcasts emanating from so-called “numbers stations.” At the height of the Cold War, when radio was still a top medium for disseminating news and information, many listeners accidentally stumbled into some rather unnerving programming. These creepy broadcasts would typically begin with a strange melody or several beeps and were followed by the voice of a woman or child reciting seemingly random numbers. These transmissions played routinely and lasted for several minutes on frequencies that listeners dubbed “numbers stations.” The discovery of these strange numbers stations quickly gained attention among those who were unfortunate to find themselves listening to these mysterious broadcasts. The phenomenon also spawned a fringe group of radio listeners dedicated to solving the mystery of who was sending these broadcasts — and why. Each numbers station they discovered was given a name depending on the nature of its broadcast. Among the most well-known were the Nancy Adam Susan, The Gong Station, and The Lincolnshire Poacher. They were all uniquely bizarre in their own way, spurring a number of creepy stories about who could possibly be behind them. It wasn’t until the 1980s that amateur sleuths tracking these numbers stations hypothesized that the mysterious broadcasts were actually coded messages used in espionage operations across the globe. The idea has been supported by figures like Rupert Allason, an author who specializes in espionage and writes under the pen name Nigel West. One of the countless ominous messages from an Australian numbers station called Cherry Wipe. “Nobody has found a more convenient and expedient way of communicating with an agent,” Allason said. “Their sole purpose is for intelligence agencies to communicate with their agents in denied areas — a territory where it is difficult to use a consensual form of communications.” Remarkably, these shortwaves of alleged coded messages can still be found on the radio today, so long as one is diligent enough to search for them. Espionage tactics may seem like the most plausible explanation for these ghostly signals but the true intent of some of these numbers stations have never been cracked. One station known as The Buzzer has been sending out mysterious broadcasts since the Cold War. It features two buzzes at the top of every hour followed by a monotonous drone between every 21st and 34th minute during daylight hours. A voice follows, reading a string of numbers, words, or names in Russian like “Anna, Nikolai, Ivan, Tatyana, Roman.” It was initially believed that the broadcast was set up by Soviet authorities. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the strange radio broadcast only became more active. To this day, nobody knows who started it, what it’s about, or why it continues. The true scary story of the numbers stations goes on. Previous Page 3 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 Creepy Stories Of People Literally Being “Saved By The Bell” Catalepsy Study Wikimedia CommonsPatients suffering from catalepsy were once frequently mistaken for dead and thus buried alive. The term “saved by the bell” is an idiom commonly used to describe people who escaped difficult situations thanks to a last-minute solution. But the light-hearted phrase actually may have a true scary story behind it related to a medical condition known as catalepsy. Catalepsy is a medical condition in which a patient endures an uncontrolled state of muscle rigidity and unresponsiveness. The condition is often linked to episodes of catatonia. Although the disease is widely understood now, in the past it caused sufferers to be mistakenly buried alive. After newspapers reported on these tragic endings, writers like Edgar Allan Poe built similar incidents in his own creepy stories. Creepy Stories Safety Coffin Public DomainA design for a safety coffin featuring an above-ground bell that could be rung from the inside. The frequency of catalepsy patients being mistaken for dead people led to a string of quick-fix solutions by doctors and gravekeepers, though many of these ideas created new horrors of their own. One well-intentioned yet morbid solution was the creation of “waiting mortuaries.” In these “hospitals for the dead,” the bodies of suddenly catatonic patients were kept under observation for a few days to make sure they were actually dead. Waiting mortuaries were well-stocked with food, wine, and cigars in the event that a patient woke up. Another more gruesome “solution” to avoid burying those who were still alive was to perform examinations to “test the deadness” of the patient. People thought to be dead had their fingers hacked off or endured smoke being literally blown up their butt. The assumption was that if the person didn’t wake up then that meant they were unequivocally dead. Otherwise, the procedure was used to revive those who were on the edge of death via tobacco’s supposed restorative properties. Scary Stories Person Being Buried Alive Wikimedia CommonsA rendering of a person being buried alive by Swedish painter Odd Nerdrum. There was only one problems with such test: Catalepsy prevents patients from feeling pain during their catatonic state, so employing extreme measures proved to be an ineffective method of confirming whether a person was dead or alive. True scary stories of being buried alive also spawned the creation of “safety coffins.” In 18th- and 19th-century Europe, especially Victorian England, enough people were being mistakenly buried alive that coffin-makers came up with a number of solutions. These caskets were designed with above-ground horns or bells that a person who found themselves mistakenly buried alive could ring from the inside when they woke up trapped underground. Some of these safety coffins also came equipped with a stash of poison in case the person figured out they wouldn’t be saved. Other models used glass panes that would fog up if the person was still breathing. Some had tubes that gravekeepers would have to sniff each day to confirm that the body inside was actually decomposing. Other people were simply buried with the keys to their own coffin in their pocket. But the bell models were among the most pervasive. 0These morbid contraptions were allegedly where the phrase “saved by the bell” came from, according to some. It’s unclear whether safety coffins did any good to reduce the number of people who were accidentally buried alive. But the thought of being trapped with no escape for eternity is enough to send a chill down your spine. Previous Page 2 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

history | science | news | Today In History Members True Scary Stories 9 True Scary Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy To Believe By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski Published September 13, 2023 Updated November 9, 2023 Whether it's ghosts, UFOs, or monsters, these creepy real-life stories represent the scariest tales from the annals of human history. While horror movies can surely leave us terrified, it’s the true scary stories from history that really burrow into our brains and stay there. From true crime to the paranormal to the just plain eerie, the real-life creepy stories are the ones that provide a lasting fright that fictional ones cannot. Perhaps Mark Twain put it best when he said, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” History’s most chilling scary stories of aliens, murder, and monsters indeed remain far stranger than fiction. They take uncanny turns and deliver startling scares that no writer or filmmaker could dream up in quite the same way. Discover some of the creepiest stories that are entirely true — and are all the more terrifying because of it. True Scary Stories: The Mystery Of The Enfield Monster Henry Mcdaniel And His Broken Door The Reading EagleHenry McDaniel looks at the torn screen door of his home following his encounter with the Enfield monster. One night in 1973, the two young McDaniel children of Enfield, Illinois claimed to see a weird creature lurking in their yard and trying to get in the house. But father Henry McDaniel chalked their creepy story up to the active imagination of childhood. However, he changed his mind later that night. After being awoken by strange scratching sounds, McDaniel grabbed a gun and a flashlight and peered outside his front door. There, between two rosebushes, he saw a creature that was “almost like a human body,” just as his kids had described. “It had three legs on it, a short body, two little short arms, and two pink eyes as big as flashlights,” he recounted to a reporter. Creepy Stories Enfield Monster Mt. Vernon Register-NewsNews clipping of McDaniel’s eyewitness account of the Enfield monster. McDaniel said he fired four shots and was sure he hit the creature at least once, causing it to make a hiss “much like a wildcat’s” before it ran off toward a railway embankment. McDaniel was stunned when he saw the monstrous beast jump 80 feet in three jumps before quickly running out of sight. The police found scratches on the door screen as well as footprints in the dirt near McDaniel’s home that looked dog-like with six toe pads, yet no clues pointed to an unusual creature. McDaniel’s sighting made the Reading Eagle but it was clear most people didn’t believe it was true. It didn’t help that a 10-year-old neighbor faked his own eyewitness account of the beast, only to later admit that his testimony was a prank against the McDaniels. True Scary Stories Enfield Monster Creative CommonsA rendering of the Enfield monster, highlighting the glowing red eyes seen by Henry McDaniel. McDaniel reported two more sightings of the alleged beast to local cops but he said they eventually threatened him with jail time because nobody believed what he saw had been real. But McDaniel was adamant and stood behind his scary true story. “If they do find it,” McDaniel said in an interview, “they will find more than one and they won’t be from this planet, I can tell you that.” After McDaniel’s public testimony about the Enfield monster, other eyewitness claims began to surface. Monster hunters swarmed the town and at least five men were arrested after firing shots in the area and claiming to have photographed the creature. To this day, no explanation has been uncovered for this small-town creepy story. Previous Page 1 of 9 Next Natasha Ishak author Natasha Ishak A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab. John Kuroski editor John Kuroski John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime. ATI About Advertise Jobs Privacy Policy PO Box 24091 Brooklyn, NY 11202-4091

6 months ago

Taken from The Illustrated Man collection (Flamingo) - which may be the finest collection of short stories out there - this is a moving and masterful vignette based upon two lines in Psalm 139: “Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there.” Captain Hart and his rocket crew are colonising the universe in the name of human progress. Landing on a new planet, they find the inhabitants uncommonly disinterested in their arrival. The reason: they have just received the Messiah. Captain Hart refuses to believe the testimony and sets off across the galaxy to track down this suspected fraud. But ‘The Man’ never left. He was there the whole time, ready to be received. Bradbury’s displacement of humanity into future space frames the beauty of the incarnation wonderfully. Though the application of the gospel may look different to alternative cultures, there is no corner of the universe where Christ cannot offer redemption.

6 months ago

A travelling entertainer, Barnaby, grows weary of his troubadour lifestyle and decides to enter a monastery. Despite his best efforts to be pious and devout, Barnaby experiences guilt and shame that he cannot read or pray as the other monks. Discovering a statue of Mary in the crypt, he resolves to show his devotion in the only way he knows - juggling. Dancing, flipping and twirling his way to win divine favour, he exhausts himself and collapses - only for the statue to come to life and wipe the sweat from his brow. The message: worship is simply using the gifts that God has given you. Whatever your gifting, no offering is too meagre to place before the Lord. As the story’s final line says: “Blessed are the simple-hearted, for they shall see God.” Come as you are.

6 months ago

A powerful tale of forgiveness and salvation told with a deftness of touch from the man who wrote King Kong. A jilted man plans to murder his wife when a mysterious figure appears to accompany him through the night. “A man has thought and will of his own,” the stranger insists, and yet the innermost thoughts of the would-be murderer are exposed even in darkness: “The stranger knew all.” Never explicitly recognised as Jesus, this story nevertheless carries the moral that darkness is as light to God, nothing is hidden and, even in our bleakest, most carnal moments, he is there, often silent, whispering redemption.

6 months ago

14-year old Hyacinthe, a carpenter’s apprentice, is left alone on Christmas Eve to finish crafting a cabinet for Madame. Fearing his master’s thrashings and emitting great sobs of despair, Hyacinthe is interrupted by a knock at the door. “Let me help you…I was also bred a carpenter,” says a man. The message is perhaps a little twee in its transparency, but Pickthall wasn’t trying to bamboozle; she was simply writing a cosy, reverent tale about how God is ever-watchful and how his help, even when given at the eleventh hour, can transform the messiest situations into something beautiful.

6 months ago

A Bishop insists his ship is steered to a remote island, whereupon three elderly hermits live a spartan existence focused on seeking salvation for their souls. Upon meeting the hermits, the Bishop learns that their search for God is confined to the prayer: “Three are thee, three are we, have mercy on us.” The Bishop proceeds to teach them the Lord’s Prayer before leaving the island. In a bizarre moment of magic, the hermits chase the ship down on foot, remorsefully confessing they have forgotten the prayer. Seeing their faithfulness, the Bishop humbly tells them: “Your own prayer will reach the Lord, men of God. Pray for us sinners.” The message is clear: God doesn’t need our fancy words; simple faith has supernatural power.

6 months ago

To be ‘between Scylla and Charybdis’ is, if you will, to be caught between a rock and a hard place – in other words, between two equally unappealing dangers or prospects. The phrase derives from two dangerous entities found in the Mediterranean sea, which Homer tells us about in his Odyssey. They were supposedly found on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria, with Scylla being a monster with six heads and Charybdis being a deadly whirlpool. Ships had to navigate between these two dangerous forces when travelling through this part of the Mediterranean sea.

6 months ago

The poster-boy of existentialism, Sisyphus has become associated with laborious and pointless tasks, because he was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill, only for the boulder to roll back down to the bottom just as he was about to complete the task. He was thus doomed to repeat this action forever.

6 months ago

Narcissus was a beautiful youth – so beautiful, in fact, that he fell in love with his own reflection, which he saw while gazing down at the surface of the water while drinking one day. Echo loved Narcissus, but he shunned her because he only had eyes for himself, and Echo pined away until only her voice remained. Echo found it hard to tell Narcissus how she felt for him, in any case, because she had already been cursed so that she could only repeat what others said, rather than speak for herself. Although we feature this classic mythological tale on this list of best Greek stories, the introduction of Echo into the tale of Narcissus appears to have been the invention of a Roman poet, Ovid, in his Metamorphoses. But the figures are so closely associated with Greek myth that we felt they should be included here.

6 months ago

Better-known as Hercules (the Latin version of his Greek name), Heracles was the all-round action hero of Greek mythology. He was ordered to carry out his famous ‘Twelve Labours’ as penance for the murder of his own wife and children, while he was in the service of the king Eurystheus. A few of them are quite famous – Heracles killing the Nemean lion, or stealing the golden apples of the Hesperides – but others, such as slaying the Stymphalian birds, are more obscure.

6 months ago

Perseus’ defeat of Medusa, one of the Gorgons, is well-known. Famously, to look upon snake-haired Medusa (the snakes were her punishment for being vain and proud of her hair) was enough to turn the viewer to stone, so Perseus cunningly used a mirrored shield to approach Medusa in her cave so that he could cut her head off without looking directly at her.

6 months ago

The story of Icarus is one of the most famous tales from Greek myth. Icarus was the son of Daedalus, the craftsman who built the Labyrinth from the Minotaur story recounted above. Ever the inventor, Daedalus fashioned some wings out of feathers and wax, for him and his son to use to fly their way off the island of Crete. However, Icarus got carried away and flew too close to the sun, which melted the wax in his wings. He fell to his death, drowning in the Aegean. Now, Icarus’ name is a byword for one of the Greeks’ most favourite themes: hubris, or overreaching oneself.

6 months ago

In the vast Labyrinth on the island of Crete, built by the cunning Daedalus for King Minos, there dwelt the Minotaur: a man with the head and tail of a bull. Minos demanded seven Athenian men and seven Athenian maidens be given to the Minotaur to be devoured on a regular basis (some accounts say every seven years, while others state this was an annual treat for the Minotaur). This mythic story, by the way, inspired Suzanne Collins’s idea of ‘tributes’ in The Hunger Games. Anyway, Theseus was a brave Athenian man who, with the help of Ariadne (who gave him a ball of thread so he could find his way back out of the Labyrinth), went into the Cretan maze and slew the Minotaur. Unfortunately, after Ariadne had helped him to accomplish his task, his abandoned her … but that’s another story.

6 months ago

As well as explaining where man came from and how we came to create civilisation, the Greeks also used their myths to explain the origins of natural phenomena, such as the seasons. Why do we have summer and winter? For the ancient Greeks, it was thanks to Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Persephone was abducted by Hades, god of the Underworld, and taken away with him; because she was connected to vegetation, Persephone’s absence from the land led to the failure of crops, and everyone began to starve. Hades was told by Zeus to return Persephone to Demeter above-ground, but (thanks to Hades’ trick which involved, effectively, drugging Persephone with some pomegranate seeds), eventually a compromise was reached, whereby Persephone would spend the winter months in Hades and the rest of the year with Demeter. And this explains the origins of the seasons.

6 months ago

Another important ‘origin-story’ from Greek myth, the tale of Prometheus – whose name literally means ‘forethought’ in some interpretations – is well-known because it explains how mankind came into possession of fire, thus enabling man to form civilisation as we know it. Prometheus, a Titan or god, stole fire from his fellow gods and gave it to humanity, and for this act he was punished by Zeus: chained to a rock and then subjected to the agonising ordeal of having his liver pecked out by an eagle. His liver would grow back every night, so Prometheus would have to endure the same fate every day for eternity. Ouch.