Archive for 2012-02-12

5 Halloween monsters explained

The classic Halloween monsters: vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies and witches. Go to any party on October 31st and we guarantee you that someone will be dressed like them (or at least a slutty version). But where did the myth and legends surrounding these ghoulish monsters come from?

1. Vampires


Vampires from Bulgarian legends only have one nostril, which they use to suck blood out.

There have been many explanations for vampires. Reasons from ignorance to premature burials can lead to mass hysteria and rumors of vampires. But the most comprehensive one traces back to pre-Christian Europe’s vampir.
In pre-industrial Slavic societies, demons played a large role in their religion. These vampirs exhibit many of the characteristic of vampires: sucking blood from humans, the ability to turn into animals, hatred towards humanity. These beliefs would eventually make their way all over the world.

2. Werewolves


Ancient Asian clans respected and revered werewolves, who they believed were shamans in a different form.

Werewolves were originally used to explain serial killings; the comparison between a serial killer and a werewolf is fairly obvious: mass murder, violent, cannibalism, mutilation and cyclic attacks. Until recent modern times, wolves attacking humans were extremely common, especially in Europe. Not surprisingly, wolves, being naturally feared, were given supernatural attributes by the superstitious and ignorant.
Interestingly enough, historians have speculated that the origin of werewolves may be based on real life: that historical accounts of werewolves were simply human beings suffering from porphyria. The symptons of poryphyria include psychosis, an aversion to light and red teeth.

3. Ghosts


Tibetan Buddhists explicitly recognize and belief in ghosts. In fact, one of the main rifts in the religion currently is whether or not the ghost of a powerful 17th century monk is good or evil.

Ghosts are extremely common in all cultures. The mystery and fascination of death and the afterlife means there are hundreds of explanations. But the oldest form of ghosts were called “shades”, the spirit of a dead person living in the underworld. These shades trace all the way back to Homer’s Odyssey, circa 8th century BC.
Funnily, ghosts also spawned the ever popular Halloween monster of the mummy. Ancient Egypt was extremely superstitious, and there was a consensus on ghosts and the afterlife.

4. Zombies


Some people see Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as the first proper zombie that would spawn the later pop culture.

Zombie movies have been increasingly popular over the past few decades, but did you know they trace all the way back to 2000 BC’s Epic of Gilgamesh? But the introduction of zombies to the western public actually came from real life examples! “The Magic Island” by W. B. Seabrook chronicled the true tales of Haitian voodoo cults. West African Voudun believes that a dead person can be revived by bokors (sorcerers), completely mindless and obedient to their master.
Scientists investigating this phenomenon posit that the bokors heavily drug their targets, sapping them of their willpower. The “zombie” is then buried and reawakened, creating a psychological trauma where the victim truly believes he is a zombie.

5. Witches


In Japanese folklore, witches are defined by their familiar: either a fox or a snake.

Witchcraft has its roots in religion, culture and legend. Witch hunts are still prevalent today, in areas like the Sub-Saharan Africa. Women who use spells and magic for their own gains have always been prevalent in myths. But the first witch hunts were from ancient Egypt and Babylonia, where there were cruel punishments for sorcery.

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5 Weird Facts about the Founding Fathers

The founding fathers are regarded as a pantheon of extraordinary men in American culture, a cabal of freedom fighters who turned a wild expanse of land into a powerful empire driven by liberty. They are glorified by popular culture and history books because their ideas still hold a great deal of influence over our society, but they were anything but perfect. They were often hypocritical, preaching equality for all men while disregarding the rights of blacks and women, endorsing slave ownership, and getting involved with sleazy political deals. However, they were anything but bland and no one can deny that the US was founded by a rich and interesting cast of characters, flaws and all. Here are some of the coolest facts you may not know about the founding fathers, free of any unfounded rumors or misinformation.

5. George Washington’s ‘wooden’ teeth weren’t made of wood
One of the most  frequently joked-about facts about the founding fathers is that old George Washington had a set of wooden teeth. However, his teeth were actually made of gold, ivory, lead, and animal teeth. This makes more sense considering that a man of Washington’s stature and fame had more than enough money to treat his mouth with care- one would imagine that wooden teeth would be quite uncomfortable. The dentures even had a spring and bolt system to help him open and shut his jaw.
4. Thomas Jefferson was in severe debt and died that way
That’s right, Jefferson had financial troubles for a large part of his life and died very deep in the hole: about $107,000 of debt to be exact. In case you’re wondering what that would be with modern-day inflation, it’s roughly estimated to be from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000. So how did he get himself into such financial straits? There were a few factors in play that had a vicious cycle effect that quickly drained what funds he had. He inherited a great deal of debt from his father-in-law John Wayles when he passed in 1774. His main source of income was some farmland he owned being worked by slaves, but the profits were inconsistent. He also loaned out portions of his own money as a creditor, but like himself, they frequently missed payments and caused him further distress. All of this was exacerbated by Jefferson’s lavish lifestyle, he lived well beyond his means splurging on wine, constructing new buildings, and furnishing his home expensively. His family sold much of his property after his death to make up for his stagnating debts.
3. Alexander Hamilton and his son both died in duels to the death (at the same location)
Who says American history can’t be badass? Alexander Hamilton and sitting vice-president Aaron Burr had a stormy relationship for years because of their political differences and several incidents of public defamation and criticism. Things got especially bitter after Hamilton convinced Jefferson to exclude Burr from the 1804 election ticket, publicly criticizing Burr both politically and personally as a dishonest and selfish man. One thing led to another, and the two men found themselves shooting pistols at each other in a clearing until Hamilton was mortally wounded. This was at a time when such duels were in the process of being outlawed in northern states, so this event made a big political splash- Burr’s political career was completely ended and he endured much criticism, some even calling him a murderer. Interestingly enough, Hamilton’s son died from a duel in the same spot in 1801.
2. The George Washington cherry tree story is a complete lie
If you went to elementary school in America, chances are you’ve heard the famous tale about our fearless leader George Washington when he was just a little lad. Apparently, he had cut down his fathers valuable cherry tree with a hatchet. His father was furious and asked George if he knew anything, to which he famously replied, ”I can’t tell a lie, Pa; you know I can’t tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet.” This touching tale of youthful honesty is really a complete and utter fabrication by the writer of his first biography, Parson Weems. In all likeliness, he made the story up because he was a shrewd businessman- he know what the people wanted from a book like this and maximized his profit by spinning tales about the American hero. The weird part is that this story is still told as fact by many schoolteachers today who don’t bother researching their lessons.
 
1. Thomas Jefferson fathered several illegitimate children with one of his slaves
Chances are you’ve heard about Jefferson’s sex scandal with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. It remains a topic of debate and one of the most prominent political scandals in American history. After years of analysis, most historians agree that Jefferson fathered 6 children with Hemings and tried to hide them from the public eye. A DNA analysis was performed in 1998, but it was inconclusive- however many genealogists familiar with the involved family trees say that it is highly likely that Jefferson was indeed the father.

Source : http://urbantitan.com/5-weird-facts-about-the-founding-fathers/ 


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Sweeney Todd the demon barber

image Sweeney Todd grew up in the shadow of the infamous Tower of London
Todd and he really did use a trapdoor and straight razor to rob and kill customers.  What's more, his victims did end up as filling for meat pies.
Sweeney Todd was a very angry and bitter man who lusted for the  money and lifestyle of the upper class and and had no qualms about killing to get it.
Life was hard, dirty and cheap in 18th century London. The industrial revolution was gaining momentum and folks from the countryside flocked to London in search of work. The city was still recovering from the plague years and was completely unprepared for the great influx of people. Poverty, disease, and misery  were widespread, and the separation between the haves and have-nots was distinct.
The ambivalent attitude toward law enforcement and the common law, which was basically a code of social ethics, made it easy to get away with criminal activity because those in power were dead set against codifying offenses in writing. 18th century London was a criminal's play ground, because it was the responsibility of the victim to catch and bring witness against the criminal. Since both murder and theft were capital offenses for which the accused could be executed, most victims were murdered to make sure they could not testify.  Though the many of ruling elite were trying to set up some sort of police force to handle the widespread lawlessness, the corruption rampant in the ruling classes made it nearly impossible to establish an orderly society that left little chance for getting out of the lifestyle of poverty. For these reasons and more, many saw no other alternative than resorting to a life of crime. It was this sort of life into which Sweeney Todd was born in the year 1748.
Sweeney Todd was the only child to be born to a husband and wife who were silk industry workers. They lived in the Stephney slums and were both alcoholics who had a love for gin, and Sweeney quickly learned where he ranked in order of importance to his parents. Unfortunately, Sweeney wasn't the only child to suffer in this regard. Gin, which had recently been introduced to England from the Netherlands, was increasingly becoming the drug of choice for the masses. Sweeney Todd's childhood was obviously an unhappy one  and ended when he was forced to go to work helping his family load silk threads onto bobbins for the clothing mills, probably around the age of 6 to 8 years of age.
Sweeney Todd grew up in the shadow of the infamous Tower of London, which by now had been converted into a museum, as well as  the Royal Zoo.  Young Sweeney Todd spent as much free time as he could get in the tower, where he was fascinated by the instruments of torture that were on display, the dark and often gruesome stories told by Tower employees, and he would watch the cruelty  inflicted on zoo animals by the keepers. Sweeney's taste for violence increased during the 1758 Silk Workers Riots, when the impoverished workers incest over the importation of cheap calico, went on a rampage and attacked any women that were wearing the cheap cloth imported from India.
The defining moment that helped turn Sweeney Todd into the man he became occurred when he was 12 or 13 years of age. During one of the coldest winters on record in London, Sweeney's parents, driven by their desire for gin, left one dark and bitterly cold evening, leaving their son alone at home. They never returned.
Young Sweeney Todd was then turned over to a local parish charged with finding Sweeney an apprenticeship.  Shortly after he became a ward of the court, Sweeney was turned over to a cutler by the name of John Crook, which, ironically, did the  manufacturing and sharpening of knives and razors.
John Crook had a shop called the Pistol and C. His trade was fashioning any number of articles from gunpowder, musket balls, and many other things; but he specialized in razors. Unfortunately, apprentices were usually maltreated, and orphan apprentices even more-so. Any money an apprentice made was property of the master. The life of apprenticeship was a harsh, cruel and dispiriting life for those who were condemned to it. Most ended up turning to a life of crime and many ended up with the hangman's noose around their neck.
Young Sweeney Todd almost fell into that common trap, when two years after he joined Crook's shop he was arrested and convicted of petty larceny. The details of the crime are scarce, whether Crook was the victim or co-conspirator was never recorded. Sweeney could have walked the steps to the hangman's noose for a theft conviction, but since he was just 14 years old, the judge at Old Bailey took pity on the orphan and sentenced him to five years in Newgate Prison. The mercy shown to Sweeney Todd was, as noted above, unusual. Children trained as pickpockets were hanged for as little as the theft of a handkerchief, and any kind of shoplifting was punishable by death.
Sweeney ended up in prison for petty larceny, but some how managed to escape being hanged. While in prison Sweeney Todd managed to convince the prison barber that because of Sweeney's apprenticeship with the cutler he would make a good soap-boy for the barber. It was imperative that Sweeney find a means of support while he was in the prison, because the prisoners had to pay bribes to their guards for even the most basic of needs, such as water and food. Prisoners with no money usually died.
Sweeney learned how to shave as well as how to be an excellent pickpocket from Mr. Plummer, who while he was a very good barber, was also an inmate serving time for a larceny charge. Sweeney's dark personality blossomed in prison and when he was released, an angry, bitter, vengeful and murderous man was unleashed on an unsuspecting London. He was 19.
After several years spent working as a fly-barber, Sweeney Todd had finally managed to scrape together enough capital to buy a small shop on the now infamous Fleet Street near the Temple Bar.  St. Dunstan's church and Sweeney Todd's shop were on the north side of Fleet Street. The small two story building served as Todd's shop and residence.  He fashioned himself the now famous barber chair that would flip and drop his unsuspecting victims into the dark catacombs that had been built underneath the area hundreds of years before.

Usually, the fall would kill the victim,but on occasion Sweeney would be forced to hurry down to the area to finish the victim off with a quick slice of his razor. The only problem Sweeney had was figuring how dispose of the bodies once he was finished with them. This is around the time he met infamous Mrs. Lovett. By all accounts, Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, (her first name is given variously as Margery or Sarah...history seems unclear on this point), hit it off very well.  Mrs. Lovett was a widow, and, like Todd, had a taste and lust for the finer things in life, as well as a cold and calculating personality.  Todd and Mrs. Lovett hit upon a rather gruesome idea to not only get rid of the bodies but to turn a profit on the meat as well.
By now, Sweeney was a prolific murderer and was running out of room in the catacombs to dispose of the bodies.  He helped Mrs. Lovett set up her meat pie shop close to his barber shop.  They installed a false wall that could be slid back for Todd to deliver the 'long pork' to Mrs. Lovett to use in her pork pies.  With in a very short period of time, the fame of Mrs. Lovett's meat pies spread all over London. Rich and poor alike clamoured after Mrs. Lovett's meat pies, raving about how delicious they were. Thomas Prest, a well known writer of the day, expounded upon these marvelous meat pies: "There was about them a flavour never surpassed and rarely equaled; the paste was of the most delicate construction, and impregnated with the aroma of delicious gravy that defied description."  One must wonder what Prest's reaction was when he found out that he, and a huge part of London, found out that they had unwittingly been turned into cannibals; on top of the fact that Mrs. Lovett had expanded her business to also shipping the meat to all over parts of England.
However, Todd and Lovett got greedy and soon could not keep up with the amount of bodies that kept piling up, and by now people were starting to notice that many who entered into Sweeney's shop never came out again.
The clergy and the parishioners of St. Dunstan's church began to notice a horrible stench that was permeating the whole church and particularly the sacristy, and not knowing where it was coming from finally called in the authorities to investigate.  Sir Richard Blunt and a man known only to history as Mr. Otton began to conduct the investigation into the bowels of the church and the catacombs. It was clear that the stench was emanating from catacombs, but no bodies of animals or humans were found.  While the first investigation revealed nothing, but Blunt was smart, and after hearing the many rumours floating around about Todd, decided to do another investigation of the catacombs and probe further into them than he and his team did the first time.  This time, they found the source of the sickening reek.
Bits and pieces of bodies were strewn all over the area, decapitated heads were found piled up to nearly the ceiling, skeletons with the meat stripped from them where thrown about, also nearly piled to the ceiling. Blunt and his men found a set of bloody footprints leading away from the area and followed them right to Sweeney's shop. Blunt quickly came to the realization that Todd was murdering his clients, and even more horribly, was disposing of the evidence in Mrs. Lovett's meat pies.
Blunt and his men wasted no time making a sweeping search of Todd's premises and found the additional evidence needed to bring Sweeney to justice; which was the numerous items that had belongs to many of his victims.

Blunt wasted no time in dispatching a group of his men to arrest Mrs. Lovett, and sent another squad to pick up Sweeney Todd.  When the squad arrived to arrest Mrs. Lovett, she was in the middle of serving quite a few of her regular customers.  When these people found out what they had been eating they tried to tear her away from the squad and hang her. However, Blunts men managed to get her out to a waiting carriage and took her off to Newgate prison.  Sweeney, on the other hand, was arrested without any fuss. He was already sitting in a cell in Newgate prison before the public knew of his role in these hideous crimes.
Mrs. Lovett quickly confessed her role in the murders to the governor of Newgate Prison. She told the governor everything; how she and Todd had plotted and executed their hideous plan.  While it seems clear that Mrs. Lovett was going to make sure that Todd was going to swing with her, she apparently had a plan of her own and nearly destroyed the case against Sweeney Todd.  In December of 1801, Mrs. Lovett was found dead in her cell. She had committed suicide by poisoning herself.
However, the trial commenced and Sweeney Todd was found guilty of multiple counts of murder and sentenced to hang. On January 25, 1802, in the prison yard at Newgate, Sweeney Todd was led to the gallows in the Newgate prison yard and hanged. By the accounts of the papers of the day, Sweeney did not go easy, but as it was reported, "...died hard...". After his execution, his body was given over to a handful of  "barber-surgeons" where it was dissected for the purpose of educating students about the anatomy of the body. Ironically, and perhaps fittingly enough, Sweeney Todd ended up like his victims, as nothing more than a bloody pile of meat and bones.

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Haunted Alcatraz

image Long before the prison was shut down, ghostly happenings were going on in Alcatraz
Alcatraz, one of the most infamous prisons known in American history, has now become known as one of the most haunted places in America.
During the daylight hours, the old prison is a hopping tourist attraction,  with tour guides leading groups of tourists around to see the cells and other parts of the prison that once housed some of the 20th century's most violent criminals, many of whom died violent deaths at the hands of the prison guards or other inmates, or went mad from the mental anguish and stress caused by the horrible conditions of this prison that gained the well deserved nickname, "The Rock".  Apparently, the tormented spirits of these prisoners still linger in the cold, dank hallways and cells of Alcatraz.

In 1946, 3 notorious criminals by the name of Joseph Paul Cretzer, Bernie Coy and Marvin Hubbard were the ring leaders for the bloodiest escape attempt in the history of Alcatraz. In the attempt, Coy, Cretzer, and Hubbard ran for the utility corridor on Cell Block C where they were killed by a combination of gunfire and grenade explosions.  Today, a large steel door that looks as though it had been welded shut at one time blocks this corridor from anyone going into it.  However, many tourists, the caretakers and night watchmen have reported hearing the sounds of screaming, shouting, moans, strange clankings, as well as the sounds of gunfire and explosions, coming from the area.

Many of the night watchmen who patrol through Alcatraz say that they have heard the sounds of men running or walking around coming the from the upper tiers. As usual, the watchmen will go and check out to see if some of the tourists have tried to hide away in an effort to stay over night on the island and, as always, they never find anyone or anything that could have made the sounds.

Many of the guides, tourists, and night watchmen have also often mentioned that they get a really weird feeling from one of the "hole" cells, the one numbered as 14D. 14D is always cold, no matter how hot the rest of the old prison gets, and always has a feeling of heavy foreboding and fear about it.

Oddly enough, long before the prison was shut down, ghostly happenings were going on in Alcatraz. A number of still surviving former guards and some of the still surviving former inmates from the prison also told tales of spooky and sometimes terrifying happenings down in the 'holes', and particularly, Cell 14D.

One of these incidents was around 1944 or 1945 when one of the inmates was locked in 14D on some sort of infraction of the rules. The former guard said that the inmate started screaming as soon as the door was shut and locked. He kept screaming that there was a monster with red, glowing eyes, and then as suddenly as the screaming started it abruptly stopped.  The next day, when the guards opened up the cell the inmate was found dead with the clear and unmistakable hand marks around his throat.  The autopsy showed that these marks were not self-inflicted.  On the following day after the man's death when the guard's were doing one of the daily head counts noticed there were too many people in the line. They looked towards the end of the line and saw the man who had been killed just the day before in 14D.  He looked at the guards with a look of pain and anger, accusatory in it's expression, and then turned and disappeared.

With all the pain and violence that went on within the boundaries of the infamous 'Rock', it is easy to see why many of those who saw their last days there have never left, seemingly forever trapped in the hell known as Alcatraz.


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Milwaukee Serial Killer Caught After 23 Years of Killing

image Images source - Stock.XCHNG
DNA testing and solving crimes can only be as good as it is if it is collected and entered into the database.
The murders date back to 1986. The latest murder occurred in April of 2007. The first victim was Deborah Harris, 31 years old, that was found in the Menomonee River. The next day, police found Tanya Miller, 19 years old, between a house and a garage. Florence McCormick was found nine years later, in 1995 in a vacant home. Shelia Farrior was found in a vacant home in 1995 and Jessica Payne, a 16-year-old runaway was found in 1995 behind a vacant home. In 1997, two years later, police found the body of Joyce Mims in a vacant home that was being renovated.

On April 27, 2007, Quithreaun Stokes was found in a vacant house by Burleigh and 7th. She would be the last murder victim of Walter E. Ellis and also a victim that should have never been. Since 1996, DNA samples are to be taken for all persons entered into the justice system and entered into the national database. However, it appears that about 12,000 persons that should be in the database are missing. Walter Ellis was one of them, in a way.

Since police started looking at Ellis, they found that Ellis' name was in the database, but with the wrong DNA and fingerprint. There are theories as to how this happened, but it may never be known if it was a clerical error or an error at the time of collection. Someone at one of the correction departments that housed Ellis ever time he was jailed should have noticed that he didn't have a complete DNA profile.

Police found the same DNA on Mims and Strokes from 1997 and Payne from 1995. However, the DNA did not match the DNA of Chaunte Ott, who was convicted of killing Payne in 1996. He was the wrong man. He was an innocent man serving life in prison, although police still think that he killed Payne. He was convicted with other collected evidence, but no DNA. The DNA found on Payne's body matched the same DNA on the other two victims. Ott was freed after this information surfaced after serving 13 years in prison.

So far, nine murders have been linked to Ellis through DNA. Stroke's family have commented that if the DNA database would have been updated and records check more carefully, Strokes would still be alive and Ellis would be been caught earlier for his crimes of murder instead of the charges he was imprisoned for over the 23 years.

More murders could be solved in Milwaukee once the database is updated and cold cases checked against it. There are more unsolved deaths of women in Milwaukee, all being considered prostitutes, which all of Ellis' victims were except one, and detectives are entering data and checking all cases to see if they can solve more murders in the city that already has so much crime. 

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mystery of jack reaper

image In 1888, London, England, the five women were murdered in a surgical method.
Who was this person police called Jack the Ripper? Where there any suspects in the murders? What made Jack the Ripper such a highly sought after person?
What has caused the interest of many detectives throughout the years? Why is Jack the Ripper as famous as all of the world's unsolved mysteries? Jack the Ripper was a serial killer that gained attention for killing Mary Jane Kelly, Catherine Eddowes, Elizabeth Stride, Annie Chapman and Mary Ann Nichols. Were there more murders that were never discovered? Why did Jack the Ripper kill these five women? Was prostitution there only connection to each other and the Ripper?

In 1888, London, England, the five women were murdered in a surgical method. The bodies were mutilated and the throats were cut. All of the women had one thing in common with each other they were prostitutes. There was a lack of blood at the crime scenes and three of the women had their internal organs removed. Were the murders that happened into the year 1891 connected to Jack the Ripper? Although there was never any connection between the other murders and the five prostitutes, one officer received a kidney in the mail. Although there are eleven murders that were similar, only five are believed to be done by Jack the Ripper.

Was it possible that Jack the Ripper actually killed more women or was there copycat killers out there trying to mimic the Ripper. Did these killers want national attention for the killings? Did they just kill for fun so the Ripper would stay in the news? What would make people do something so horrendous to women? Although the crimes are years and years old, the unsolved mystery of Jack the Ripper still intrigues sleuths today. Everyone has a different scenario concerning the deaths and others deaths that happen after the first five.

There were many suspects interviewed in connection with the murders, but no one was ever charged. Some had alibis and others did not fit the criteria fro the murders. Detectives wondered at times if there might have been more than one person committing the murders of these five women. At other times, it appeared to be one person doing the murders. Is it possible that Jack the Riper was one person that killed two women and another Jack the Riper killed the last three women or did Jack the Riper advance in his methods of killing?

The first two woman were not mutilated, but the last three had organs removed. The killings after the first five seemed to be copycats because there was no specific way of killing the women. It was different at times and the same or similar at times. Who was Jack the Riper? Was he a visitor to England? Did he die without telling anyone about his killings? Is there someone that knew Jack the Riper that pasted the story down through time? Does someone know who he or she was? Was Jack the Riper male or female? Does anyone know for sure?


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Jeannie Saffin - Spontaneous Human Combustion

image In an effort to save Jeannie's life, her father disfigured his own hands while pulling her to the kitchen sink.
61 year old Jeannie Saffin, with a mental age of 6 years old, was terrified of open flames. In 1982, at her home in England while sitting in the kitchen at about 4pm she suddenly bust into flames with her father, Jack, sitting nearby at the table.
He saw a sudden flash and when he turned to ask Jeannie if she had seen it he noticed she was surrounded by flames, mostly around her face and hands. According to Mr Saffin. his daughter did not move or cry, but simply sat there with her hands in her lap.
In an effort to save Jeannie's life, her father disfigured his own hands while pulling her to the kitchen sink. Putting out the flames surrounding Jeannie, her father began calling for his son-in-law Donald to help, screaming “Jeannie's burning!” Donald stated that he ran into the kitchen seeing Jeannie with roaring flames around her face and abdomen while contacting EMS.
When the flames were extinguished, Jeannie began to whimper. Upon an inquest, it was found that due to her mental condition, shock, and endorphins that resulted from the incident her pain was minimized. The EMS personnel who escorted Jeannie to the hospital testified that the kitchen and its contents were unharmed. Both Donald and Jack testified that the flames coming from Jeannie displayed a roaring sound.
In the reports from the incident, Jeannie's injuries were listed as facial burns as well as burns to the chest, neck, shoulders, left arm, abdomen, thighs and left buttock along with both sides of both hands. Some of these were full thickness burns in which the skin is destroyed down to fat tissue. Jeannie's face afterward was described as horribly disfigured. Soon after, she went into a coma and died from pneumonia due to burns.
PC Marsden from the Edmonton Police Station, in a report to the coroner's office, stated that no cause for the flames had been found. This report also states that the chair and walls of the kitchen were undamaged by fire and smoke, that the closest source of ignition (a gas stove) was at least 5 feet away and that Jeannie was still burning when he got to the residence. He helped put out the flames with a towel. In conclusion of his report, which was accepted by the coroner, Jeannie was a victim of spontaneous human combustion.
In 1995, Marsden reiterated his belief in the cause of death and that years after the incident he had been questioned  by a senior officer. In John E. Heymer's 1996 book titled “The Entrancing Flame”, Jeannie Saffin's case is discussed among others who may have been victims of spontaneous human combustion. Upon examining these cases, familiarities include that the victims do not seem to struggle, show no signs of awareness, do not cry out and survivors such as Jack Angel and Wilfred Gowthorp, have no memory of the event which leads researchers to believe they are not conscious while they are burning.
Heymer alleges that defective mitochondria are to blame, insisting that they allow hydrogen to build in the cell. This allows the cell to burst into flames due to the 0.225 volts of electricity that is generated across the inner membrane which sets off a chain reaction in other cells of the body.

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Waverly Hills Sanatorium

image Tuberculosis patients enjoying the fresh spring air.
One of the most haunted places in the world is Waverly Hills sanatorium.
The sanatorium was built in 1910 and was to provide hospital care for up to fifty people suffering from tuberculosis. Before the hospital building was complete, people suffering from advanced cases of tuberculosis were sent to the hospital grounds and put up in tents until the hospital was done. By 1916, the hospital could house one hundred and thirty people. In 1926, the hospital was five stories high to house even more people until a cure for was found for tuberculosis, which resulted in the sanatorium closing in 1943.

Waverly reopened in 1962 and was called Woodhaven Geriatrics Hospital, but had to close due to patient abuse allegations in 1981. It was said that the patients in the hospital had mental problems and was duped the insane asylum. There was a tunnel constructed on the grounds from the hospital to the bottom of the hill. It was said that as patients died, their bodies were carted to the tunnel and placed on the railroad line discreetly so that no other patients would see.

It is said that people that visited the old uninhabited hospital have heard doors slamming, a child crying and seen a woman with bleeding wrists. They have also seen a hearse appear in the back of the hospital dropping off coffins. Many have seen lights in the windows even when the power was turned off.

Ghost hunters have spent hours in the hospital and are drawn to the fifth floor. It seems that room 502 is where people have jumped to their deaths, saw movement of shapes in the window and heard a voice order them out of the room. It is said that the mentally insane tuberculosis patients were housed away from the rest of the patients on the fifth floor.

Besides ghost hunters seeing these strange occurrences, homeless people that have called the abandoned hospital home, have heard many people crying and walking through the halls, especially on the fifth floor by room 502. However, the fourth floor has an eerie feeling about it.

Although new owners have opened the hospital to ghost hunters, they are also making it a haunted house. With all the haunting that seems to be happening already, one has to wonder if it is indeed safe to have people moving around the floors when ghosts could be watching and disproving.
Before the new owners brought the hospital, they were aware of the secrets that lie behind the doors of Waverly Hills. Ghost hunters continue to visit the hospital and seek out the fifth and fourth floors to capture any sign of ghosts walking the halls.
Fortunately for them, there are many ghosts that appear to be haunting Waverly Hills and it would have to be the patients that were once imprisoned in their rooms and used as guinea pigs in the once talked about human experiments. They died horrible deaths and were discarded through the tunnel that leads to the hill.

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Unsolved Mystery Of The Phoenix Lights

image Was it a space ship flying over the earth seeing what we were doing? Was it looking for someone to analyze?
How could thousands of people be so wrong about what they saw on that night back in March of 1997? In Nevada, Phoenix and Tucson, you could se the lights that lit up the sky.
No, it was not the city lights of Nevada, it was something in the sky. This mystery was called the Phoenix Lights. The span of the lights was said to be three hundred miles. The lights were seen between 7:30 PM and 10:30 PM. Two things were reported. A triangle shape appeared to be passing over the state while stationary lights were seen in Phoenix. The government described the Phoenix stationary lights as flares being dropped from a A-10 Warthog, many people had doubts.

One of the persons that saw a UFO, carpenter square shape in size, was the governor of Arizona at that time. The reports would soon become hot conversation as people described what they had seen. People in Prescott Valley and Prescott described seeing a large object blocking the stars in the sky. It was described as being huge. The cluster of lights that everyone had seen could not have been a plane or flares. The National UFO Reporting Center did receive a confirmation from an astrophotography that saw a V-shaped clutter of lights move from the northwest to the northeast.

An experienced aircraft flyer reported that he knows it was not a plane because it was moving slower than a plane and was only about one thousand feet above ground. Everyone saw the magical lights move across three states. No one was more surprised than the governor was. He never came forward. He held a press conference to say that they caught the person responsible. Of course, he would later go onto say that it was bigger than any aircraft he had ever seen and he knew his aircrafts. He said there was no way that what he saw was flares or an aircraft.

Was it a space ship flying over the earth seeing what we were doing? Was it looking for someone to analyze? Because there seems to be a logical explanation to the lights, we may never know what the truth is and what is not. One pilot for the National Guard said it was he that night dropping flares. The report of this explanation was not published until July of 1997. Everyone that seen the lights no it was not flares or an airplane. They saw lights in the sky that moved differently than planes and were shaped differently.

Is it possible that some day we will experience first hand an alien encounter? Could the government prevent this? Is there a cover up to hide the truth from us? If so, why? Why should we not be allowed to know that aliens have landed or that they are indeed visiting our skies? The Phoenix Lights are a mystery that may have already been answered behind closed doors. Will it be to late when we are finally told about all the mysteries around the world that come from the skies? It may already be to late.
Read More Other Unsolved Mysteries article!

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Are There Extraterrestrials Walking With Us?

image Did the RAAF really discover a UFO with aliens inside or dead from the crash?
A question that no one can answer for sure is if extraterrestrials walk with us every day. If we have never seen them nor have any idea about their capabilities, how could we know if they walk with us or not.
We only have accounts from people that claim to have been abducted by aliens or saw aliens. Their accounts of what an alien looks like are all we have to go by. Is it possible that there are aliens walking the earth every day? What would an alien look like if they changed their features to look like earthlings do? This makes one wonder about extraterrestrials and where they are today.

What about the Roswell, New Mexico incident? Papers reported that a UFO crashed on a ranch around Roswell, but the government said it was a weather balloon that had crashed. The first thing that makes you wonder about the truth is that the Roswell Army Air Field first reported it as a flying disc that had crashed. Later on that day, the statement was revised to say that a weather balloon had been found. The Eight Air Force Commanding General gave that statement. Why was the first report given as a flying disc?

Did the RAAF really discover a UFO with aliens inside or dead from the crash? How could grown men confuse a weather balloon with a flying disc? For years, no one thought about the incident in Roswell. Then, Jesse Marcel was interviewed by Stanton Friedman, an ufologist about that day in 1947. Marcel believed that the military cover up a real UFO crash. Marcel was one of the recovery agents that night. The credibility of the UFO may have been tainted when the National Enquirer picked up the story.

Although some rancher found debris from the crash that could have been linked to the flying disc, it was confiscated by RAAF and another plainclothes man. The government officials confirmed the debris to be a weather balloon. Many books have been written and many stories have circulated, but no one can forget about the crash in a field in 1947 Roswell. Was there a cover up to protect the people? Were there aliens on the flying disc? Are there any truthful answers one can believe? Why so much fuss over a weather balloon? Were there aliens on the crash site that lived and wondered off?

Have more aliens come to see what happened to their missing ship? These are all questions that need to be answered. The answers will tell us if aliens really do exist. Without knowing what is being held on the Roswell Navel Base, no one will ever know for sure if others accounts of alien abductions and sightings are true and really happening every day. It is hard to believe that the people who have had alien encounters have all lost their minds. Some of these people are respected people of their communities. Is there an alien walking with us? Wouldn't you want to know for sure?
Did the RAAF really discover a UFO with aliens inside or dead from the crash? How could grown men confuse a weather balloon with a flying disc? For years, no one thought about the incident in Roswell. Then, Jesse Marcel was interviewed by Stanton Friedman, an ufologist about that day in 1947. Marcel believed that the military cover up a real UFO crash. Marcel was one of the recovery agents that night. The credibility of the UFO may have been tainted when the National Enquirer picked up the story.
Although some rancher found debris from the crash that could have been linked to the flying disc, it was confiscated by RAAF and another plainclothes man. The government officials confirmed the debris to be a weather balloon. Many books have been written and many stories have circulated, but no one can forget about the crash in a field in 1947 Roswell. Was there a cover up to protect the people? Were there aliens on the flying disc?  Are there any truthful answers one can believe? Why so much fuss over a weather balloon? Were there aliens on the crash site that lived and wondered off?
Have more aliens come to see what happened to their missing ship?  These are all questions that need to be answered. The answers will tell us if aliens really do exist. Without knowing what is being held on the Roswell Navel Base, no one will ever know for sure if others accounts of alien abductions and sightings are true and really happening every day. It is hard to believe that the people who have had alien encounters have all lost their minds. Some of these people are respected people of their communities. Is there an alien walking with us? Wouldn't you want to know for sure

Read More Other Unsolved Mysteries article!

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Mystery of Bigfoot

image Is Bigfoot a creature of breeding? Is Bigfoot some other form of life that is unknown to us?
If you think about all the news reports and sightings that have occurred as of late, you have to believe that there is something roaming around out there, but what is it?
The reports find larger than normal human footprints and they are larger and different shapes than that of a bear. The only logical explanation is that there is indeed a Bigfoot or even a few of them. Bigfoot sightings have occurred in Wisconsin, Canada and other parts of the world. The sightings have continued through the years and people that report the sightings are very believable. It seems that not everyone can be seeing things or even making the stories up.

Although there are no known attacks on people to date, people have reported being followed and felt that something was watching them when they were in wooded areas. The sightings that have occurred are not science fiction as once thought. They are real and real people from all walks of life are reporting the sightings. The Bigfoot mystery may never be solved since the people that see this creature are usually too afraid to approach it or even talk to it. The one thing that everyone can agree on is the footprints and in some areas the coloring and cowlick.

Is Bigfoot a creature of breeding? Is Bigfoot some other form of life that is unknown to us? The questions are ones that many believers are trying to answer. The problem is that the stories and sightings happen in so many different areas and are not very common. How can something this big, hide from humans for as long as it has. Where does it get it food and where does it sleep or live. Many people say that the creature can run very fast. Where does it disappear to when people are looking for it? The Bigfoot clubs are constantly seeking answers. They follow up on sightings trying to get a glimpse of the creature. 

The real question to answer is if Bigfoot is real or not. The answer has to be yes. However, more research and information is needed to determine who Bigfoot is and how long has he been on earth. With the way scientists experiment with different cloning techniques and everything else, who can say that someone did not create this creature or more than one? Is it possible that Bigfoot is the product of a scientific experiment gone bad? Would you admit it, if you created a monster?

There are many pictures and videos circulating showing a creature running away, but you never see one running towards someone. The pictures are always from a distance and not close up. If someone could produce a clear and sharp picture with a high tech camera, it might be easier to see who Bigfoot really is. Until more evidence other than footprints, one can only speculate as to what the creature is or if Bigfoot really exists. The people who search for Bigfoot have not found conclusive evidence to say whether Bigfoot is an unexplained mystery or something of a paranormal sighting.

Read More Other Unsolved Mysteries article!

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Lizzie Borden

image Lizzie Borden faced trial for killing her father and stepmother with an ax.
Who really bludgeoned to death Andrew and Abby Borden? Was the crime planned so well that authorities had no physical evidence linking anyone including Lizzie Borden to the crimes?
Why is it that the maid, Bridgette, never heard anything and claimed to have been washing windows outside? Since the murders happened during the day, how could she have missed a murder that must have made some commotion? Was this murder so well calculated that no one would ever be convicted of the gruesome murders? Did Lizzie Borden kill her father and step mother?

August 4, 1892 was a day in the history of Fall River that no one will ever forget. Andrew Borden was found on the sofa in the sitting room of the house, bludgeoned to death. Lizzie came in from the barn she said, and found her father. She called Bridgette in the house and asked her to call Dr. Bowen from down the road. She also told her to call the neighbor Adelaide Churchill. The arrival of the police prompted a search of the house for Abby Borden. Abby was found upstairs in a sewing room. Abby had been bludgeoned to death as well.

Lizzie Borden did say that she went to her room with some clothes after Andrew returned home. She was in her room long enough to sew some tape on one of her garments. Was that long enough to bludgeon Abby to death? Why was there no blood on her clothes?

Lizzie returned downstairs and found out that her fire had died out for her flats that she was using to iron, so she was waiting for it to heat up and went to the barn to find a lead sinker for fishing that she planned to do the following Monday. Was she gone long enough for someone to come into the home and kill Andrew and search out Abby and kill her? Lizzie was only gone for twenty minutes she told authorities. That would be twenty minutes for someone to enter the home, find Andrew, kill him and search out Abby in an upstairs sewing room, then kill her and leave.

Wouldn't someone, such as a neighbor or a child outside playing have seen a person leaving the home covered in blood? Where was Bridgette all this time? Surely, she would have seen or heard something. Where were the bloody clothes that Lizzie Borden would have been wearing? If she had done this grizzly crime, she should have had some blood on her clothes, in her hair or on her body somewhere. Why was there no blood anywhere on Lizzie or anywhere else in the house?

Emma was out of town visiting friends, so she was not suspected in the murders of her parents. Still, one must look at Bridgette also. What was she doing and where was she doing it? Abby Borden did not treat Bridgette very nice, could she have been the one to take care of Abby and Andrew because of her caring and love for Lizzie? Maybe there were two people involved in the crime and cover up. Maybe Bridgette and Lizzie did the killings. What happened to Bridgette after the killings and trail? 

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