That is Bizarre!

Human Stampedes and Crushing Deaths at the Hajj

2013-05-14T20:35:00.002-07:00

Crowd around the Kaaba
Courtesy of Bluemangoa2z from Wikimedia Commons

The Hajj is a very famous and widespread pilgrimage that is required by Islam. If you are Muslim, able-bodied and can afford to make your way to Mecca, you must go. It is your duty to your religion and your god. With more than one billion Islamic people on the Earth today, it is not surprising that things get a bit crowded at the holy place during the four days of Hajj every year. Unfortunately, in the fervor to throw stones, kiss/touch a stone and do other obligatory rituals, people are crushed and thousands have reportedly died over the years.

A field in Kansas
Courtesy of FEMA

Several million adherents are expected each year at the Hajj. Thanks to the inherent issues in controlling such a crowd and the inability thus far to create structures that would support such a crowd and corral it in useful ways, collapses and stampede-like incidents are common. In fact, if you do not want to be trampled to death or die in a ramp or overland bridge collapse, this is about the worst place you can go. Sure, millions get away unscathed, but you are far less likely to be trampled by people in say a field in Kansas.

To be fair, attempts have been made to make the journey a much safer one. They are just only as effective as a massive crowd of religiously moved people allow them to be. You can only do so much to stem human crushing behavior when the people involved are motivated by an obligation they feel they owe a god.

Bizarre Human Experimentation: Unit 731

2013-04-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

Unit 731 Complex
Photo Copyright Expired

When it comes to bizarre human behavior, Unit 731 is one of the most revolting and horrific examples. Of course, all human experiments beyond the most benign have something strange about them, but this was extreme. Unit 731 operated from the 1930's until the mid-1940's. It was a branch of the Japanese Imperial Army that was charged with developing chemical and biological weapons. This unit carried out some of the most heinous war crimes in history and this was around the same time Nazi doctor Josef Mengele was conducting his infamous experiments on twins, so that is saying something.

In order to give you a better idea of what kind of scumbags we are talking about here, let's take a look at what happened in a single camp. Thousands of Chinese and Russian prisoners were sent to Pingfang Camp. There, some 3,000 to 12,000 of them died at the hands of Japanese military researchers, many of them doctors. Most of the victims were Chinese. In one establishment, nearly 200 American POWs were killed in a medical experiment. It would be nice to say it was, "a medical experiment gone awry," but these people were not in the business of saving lives.

Among the examples of what Unit 731 did in its quest for knowledge are vivisections. In case you are unaware of what a vivisection is, think of it as an autopsy on the living. The procedure is not quite the same, but the point is to cut into the living person just to see what is going on inside of them. These procedures were not done humanely, if such a thing were even possible. Pregnant mothers were sliced into. Some of the victims were infants. Other atrocities include intentional freezing of limbs on live subjects, intentional spread of disease, unnecessary amputations, partial and total organ removal, attempts to infect prisoners using parasitic insects and germ warfare. Germ bombs dropped on China around this time killed up to 400,000 people. They even used humans to test the results of explosives on people.

Once World War II ended, so did Unit 731. Some of the doctors who were involved were taken to the Soviet Union to stand trial. Those caught by the United States were given immunity, of all things, because they coughed up what they learned in their experiments. Make of that what you will.

Missing Moon Rocks

2013-04-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

Apollo 11 Moon Rocks
Public Domain NASA photograph

One of the biggest achievements of humankind was the moon landings. That humans were able to walk on a celestial object was and still is an astounding feat of genius and bravery. The most famous result of said feat was roughly 850 pounds of moon rock or 270 rocks. Of these 270 rocks, 180 are missing as of early 2013.

Token moon rock pieces were given to countries all over the world and each of the United States. These rocks love to go missing or get stolen. As of now, quite a few are still missing, but more than that have been lost and recovered. One of the biggest problems with recovering lost moon rocks is that people try to pass of Earth rocks as moon rocks. That, and people are careless. For example, one moon rock is known to be somewhere in a landfill in Ireland.

One group of stolen material was taken right out of the Johnson Space Center by a few ambitious students. Several more have been stolen from educators charged with bringing the rocks to schools and the like. Oddly, they are usually taken right out of the safes in the vans that are carrying them, but they keep getting stored in safes in vans. Go figure.

The Human Stampede at Khodynka Field

2013-04-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Khodynka Stampede victims
Public domain -- copyright expired

This story is really about a bizarre aspect of human nature. In large groups, we can become like cattle, trampling without thought or regard to the people around us. This is particularly true when there is desperation in the group, though herd behavior has happened for something as ludicrous as pop music. In the case of the Khodynka Stampede in Moscow, it was about food and beer.

On May 30, 1896, a group that has been estimated to number upwards of 500,000 gathered at the Khodynka Field where pubs and giveaway stations had been set up to celebrate the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. You may know him as the father of the famous Anastasia and the last emperor of Russia. He was only four days into his reign when his people gathered to collect their gifts from the tsar. They amounted to some scraps of food and a cup. That people were so eager to collect these things is indicative of the state of Russia at the time.

Some time into the celebration, a rumor got out that there would not be enough pretzels and beer for the entire crowd. Astoundingly, this led to a massive human stampede. Nearly 1,400 people died and almost as many as that were injured. It was an appalling tragedy that now seems portentous of what was coming for Russia and its last royal ruler.

Nicholas tried to handle the issue with respect, but it appears that some factions were determined to hate him and others as determined to control him. In the end, the royal family paid out to the families of victims and tried to help the survivors, several employees involved in the celebration were fired and life went on until a revolution changed everything.

Bizarre Coincidence: Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Parker and Cannibalism

2013-02-24T15:10:00.001-08:00

Title page of "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon
Pym of Nantucket" by Edgar Allen Poe

In 1838, Edgar Allen Poe published his first and only novel titled, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket." In it, Pym, a stowaway aboard a whaler, sees all manner of events, including one horrific one connected to a bizarre coincidence. It is a somewhat gruesome tale that features the killing and eating of the cabin boy by the rest of the crew aboard the "Grampus." The cabin boy's name was Richard Parker, a name that would become as involved with cannibalism in reality as it is in fiction.

Roughly six years after "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" was published, a yacht called "Mignonette" sank roughly 1,600 miles from the Cape of Good Hope. The four-man crew abandoned ship and took off in the lifeboat with no fresh water and only a few cans of turnips to sustain them. The 17-year-old cabin boy Richard Parker appears to have gone into a coma from drinking seawater, according to the testimony of his shipmates. They killed him by stabbing him the neck while he slept so they could eat him and drink his blood. They spotted rescue roughly four days later.

Bizarre Disappearances: The Peking Man Fossils

2013-02-03T21:34:00.001-08:00

Casts of the Peking Man Skulls
Photo: Public Domain

During the 1920s, a group of famous fossils was found near Beijing. These fossils were mainly of the skulls, jawbones and teeth of a step in the human evolutionary chain dubbed Homo erectus pekinensis. They were one of the biggest scientific finds of the early 20th century. A man named Davidson Black is known as being the man who researched these fossils the most and it is a good thing too. He, and others, left copious notes regarding the fossils, which date back to roughly 750,000 to 780,000 years ago. These notes and some casts of the fossils are all that is left. The fossils themselves disappeared in 1941.

The Peking Man fossils were in a safe at the Peking Union Medical College when the decision was made to move them to the United States. The Japanese were advancing on the area and World War II was reaching its height. They were to be sent to the United States only for safekeeping until the end of the war, but they never made it there. As far as anyone knows, they never left China.

The fossils were meant to leave China via the U.S.S. President Harrison, but it was sunk by the Japanese before it reached the pick-up point. The fossils presumably left the college, but there is no record of them past there. They may have reached the Marines that were meant to escort them, but there is no record of that. There are rumors that they sank aboard a Japanese ship, were destroyed by the Japanese during a train raid or actually were secreted away to the United States. No one knows, but they would certainly be the find of yet another century if someone found out.

Football Team Killed by Lightning

2013-01-26T16:58:00.000-08:00

This bizarre story is as much sad as it is strange. It comes out of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the late 1990s, like so many sad stories. However, this is not the kind of tragic tale that one would expect from a war zone, as the DRC was at the time and still is in many ways. This is about the sudden and immediate death of an entire football (soccer) team in Basanga on October 28, 1998.

The report came out of Kasasha soon after the group of 11 men in their 20s and early 30s died. There are definite missing details, but that is not surprising given the other news coming out of the area at the time. The incident took place when the now deceased team and Basanga's team got together for a game. Suddenly, lightning struck, killing the entire visiting team and burning 30 other individuals. Not a single member of the Basanga team was so much as singed.

Shrunken Heads

2013-01-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

Authentic shrunken head MOS London
Photo in the public domain

In all of our forays into all that is bizarre, we have yet to touch on tribal, old-school oddities. In pondering this unfortunate lapse, I could think of nothing better to introduce this topic to this blog than shrunken heads. This is no legend. People can and often did shrink heads -- human heads. To be honest, I'm trying to start this off with a witty pop culture reference and am finding it tough. I'm sure I have seen them in movies, but I must have blocked it out. Beetlejuice? Indiana Jones? Ah, well. Let me know in the comments if you can think of any shrunken heads in film.

To give you an idea of what exactly a shrunken head is, apart from the obvious, I'm going to partially describe the process. You can refrain from telling me that I do not have it all quite right because I'll be darned if I'm going to write a recipe for shrinking heads. My love for the bizarre has its limits. Of course, shrinking a head involves the removal of the head. Then, the skin is taken from the head. This is what becomes the shrunken head through a process of drying and sewing a la Ed Gein. So, if you are thinking how odd it is that a skull shrinks like that, perish the thought. The skull is presumably given to the village witch doctor for use as a mortar with a femoral pestle or tossed aside like trash.

Thankfully, you do not have to worry about your head being shrunk. Well, you don't have to worry too much. It seems that the ever-frightful Amazon and the Nazi party are the only areas/groups responsible for shrinking heads in history. However, the cutting off and collecting of heads is pretty universal throughout all of the cultures in history. It's a madman thing.

If you want to see one of these macabre creations, many museums have them.

Bizarre Creatures: Haast's Eagle

2013-01-01T20:41:00.001-08:00

In light of a new viral video that is apparently a hoax, but still very creepy, we are going to talk about a creature that is scarier than a horror movie monster. You may have seen the video of a boy nearly being carried off by a predatory bird. While it may not seem feasible, it really is. Golden eagles in particular are savage and strong, but there are few existing birds that pose a danger to very small children. However, less than a thousand years ago, New Zealand was home to a bird that would have made you poop your pants if you were unlucky enough to see it coming before it dive bombed you -- the Haast's Eagle.

The Haast's eagle was a dinosaur of a bird. It stood up to six feet and weighed about 35 pounds. You might scoff at the idea of a 35-pound predator. If you can read, you likely outweigh it. Let us not forget that this is 35 pounds of predatory bird with a sharp beach and four-inch talons. You cannot fight it. It can fly. You probably will not see it when it decides to eat you. It can dive at a speed of up to 60 miles an hour. That means you probably will not be able to fight it once it plows into you anyway. Imagine being hit by a car on the highway and then trying to fight it. Well, a car that eats people.

The Haast's Eagle had a nasty reputation as a baby snatcher. It would dive bomb Maori and make off with the smaller ones. Yes, according to their stories, which are not even as old as the Bible, people were once carried off by eagles to be eaten. Thankfully, the King Kong of birds did not know that native New Zealanders are absolutely insane. They killed off the Haast's eagle and all of its favorite flightless meals around 1400 CE.

Bizarre Swarms of Jellyfish: Danger or Natural Cycle?

2012-12-28T21:17:00.001-08:00

The Earth's oceans have an abundance of jellyfish. However, it appears that they are becoming even more abundant. In the past 10 or so years, fishermen, scientists and even nuclear power plant workers have been noticing dense blooms of jellyfish that can number in the billions. Some species also seem to be venturing further from their natural waters. This is adding up to several dangers and there is no consensus regarding the potential consequences of these blooms.

Large jellyfish blooms can hinder or even destroy certain industries. In 2007, it was impossible to fish Irish salmon, as jellyfish were actively attacking the cages that were meant for the fish. Fishing has been a problem in other areas of the world thanks to this as well. Because the blooms are capable of clogging the inlets leading into nuclear power plants, which are necessary to their proper functioning, they have closed several power plants in various countries.

Researchers, laymen and scientists have posited several possible explanations for the increase in jellyfish populations. As usual, global warming is one possible explanation. Overfishing creatures like turtles that eat the same food as jellyfish could also be the problem as jellyfish move to fill in the gap in the food chain. Jellyfish are more resilient to unbalanced water than some food fish, which is another possible explanation or one of a few reasons.

While it seems that this could lead to a problem and possibly a jellyfish filled ocean such as has not been seen in millions of years, some experts think it is no problem at all. The populations of jellyfish, like many other things, ebbs and flows. The population may correct itself, as competing species are replenished, normal temperatures return, predators move in to take advantage of the abundance, etc. It is either that or we'll be swimming in tentacles.

Bizarre Entertainment: A Real Mummy Becomes Carnival Fodder

2012-12-15T20:11:00.001-08:00

Oh, the scares we subject ourselves to. We will walk through a "haunted house" at an amusement park almost hoping that we will be sent into fits of fear or at least get to see a hysterical person run screaming or crying out of the realistically innocent building. Really what we are afraid of are mere facsimiles of the things we dread. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, mummies -- they are all just fakes for our sick amusement. Or are they? Alright, I will spare the theatrics. They typically are, but just once that I know of, the mummy in an amusement park house was real.

In December of 1976, a film crew was at the Nu-Pike Amusement Park in Long Beach, California when a member of the crew moved one of the pesky spooks out of the way. When he did, the mummy's dry, old arm snapped off and I imagine a puff of skin dust filled the air and only when the epidermal exhalation of death cleared did the man notice that there was a bone in the arm. Not a pig bone. Not a sheep bone. It was not even a really good fake bone. It was a freaking man's freaking arm bone.

It turns out that the sick and twisted carnies of old school Nu-Pike thought it would be cool to rip a dude off and steal the mummy he had been parading around for profit. It was the body of Elmer McCurdy, who was shot and killed in 1911. The funeral home did not find an owner for the body so put it on display and sold views for a nickel. Five years later, the creepy carnies claimed to be related to the deceased and the previous "owner" was forced to give up the corpse. The new "owners" continued to use it for profit until it wound up in the fun house where I presume countless people touched it, not realizing it was a dude who died decades earlier. Bizarre? You might say that.

The BC Feet Mystery

2012-12-01T21:27:00.000-08:00

The so-called "BC feet mystery" began around 2007, when a man's foot was discovered still wearing a sock and sneaker. The rest of the body was nowhere to be found. Other discoveries were made around the Salish Sea in Canada and Washington State amounting to a few more than a dozen with the bulk coming from Canada. Obviously, the discovery was more than a bit disturbing and people quickly came up with morbid explanations.

The two most popular explanations for the feet that have turned up in British Columbia and Washington are murders and the 2004 tsunami. The feet have obviously come from bodies that decomposed, coming loose naturally at the ankle or the knee. It has been suggested that the feet turn up and not the bodies because the sneakers help make them buoyant. It would take a heck of a lot for a foot to travel all the way across the ocean, though. It is presumably not impossible, given that trash has a way of making its way around the world on currents, but it is unlikely.

Investigators took to trying to identify the feet as they appeared. Four of the feet were matched into two pairs. That eliminates the idea that a serial killer is leaving a single foot of each of his or her victims to taunt locals and authorities. The more likely answer is equally as sad. In 2011, one of the pairs was linked to a woman who was known to have jumped off the Pattullo Bridge in Westminster. Her feet obviously floated along the river and reached the shore. Another of the identified feet belonged to a man who was known to be depressed. Does this mean that is what happened with all of the feet? No, but it is a start.

Nearby, there is a river -- the Fraser River -- that goes out to the Salish Sea. Over that river are numerous bridges and many suicides occur in the area every year. Some experts believe that this is the most likely source of the mysterious feet.

Can Living at a Higher Altitude Lead to Suicide?

2012-11-23T09:52:00.002-08:00

Suicide is an unfortunate result of being extremely depressed or apathetic for one reason or another. Known reasons for suicidal behaviors are some medications, depression, extreme loss, certain mental illnesses, etc. Other times, a strange trend is seen in suicides. One of these strange trends is the apparent correlation between high altitude and higher than normal suicide rates.

In 2012, a psychiatry professor from the U School of Medicine and his team found that suicide rates appeared to be higher in states with higher altitudes. They found that the risk of suicide was roughly one-third higher than normal at an altitude of 6,500 feet. The study focused on data available from NASA, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the Centers for Disease Control.

We know that the western states tend to have higher altitudes than eastern states. In 2006, all 10 of the states in the top 10 for suicides were western states. This was what led to the research. They wanted to see what the common denominator was and it was altitude. The conclusion was that the higher risk may have something to do with mild hypoxia and may just make already depressed people more depressed. Similar data is appearing at high altitudes in other countries, such as South Korea.

Book Bound in Human Skin: "Narrative of the Life of James Allen"

2012-11-11T17:19:00.000-08:00

The Boston Athenaeum, among its many interesting volumes, holds an autobiography that is bizarre and intriguing on a number of levels. The book, known to most simply as "Narrative of the Life of James Allen," is the deathbed confession of a young criminal who was torn between a life of crime without god and a death with forgiveness from god. At least, that was how the warden put it in his notes in the book. Regardless of the man's struggle, he made a macabre decision to have this confession/biography bound in his own skin after his death. A man named Peter Low did the arguably disgusting deed.

Thanks to the story behind the story, "Narrative of the Life of James Allen" is widely available. It is also in the public domain, so readers can download it free online. Even without the dead skin of the author adorning its pages, it is a worthy read. Young James Allen, who went by a number of aliases, gives the reader a glimpse into the life of an early 19th century highwayman. He only lived from 1809 until 1837, but James Allen had more than just a confession to offer. He confessed the failings of his parents, his guardians and his employees as well. The book turned into a guidebook on how to turn a young man into a criminal.

The skin of "Narrative of the Life of James Allen" is treated so it looks like deerskin. However, that is little consolation to viewers who know it is the skin of the man whose life story is told within its pages. The cover is adorned with a rectangle of black leather on which "HIC LIBER WALTONIS CUTE COMPACTUS EST" is stamped in gold.

It might add to the story to say that James Allen was executed in Massachusetts State Prison. However, he died of what the warden called consumption. Today, we would call it pulmonary tuberculosis.

The Gruesome Show of John Charles Fare

2012-10-24T15:48:00.001-07:00

The story of John Charles Fare is most likely purely urban legend or an exaggeration of factual events. Whatever the case may be, the story is highly unlikely, entertaining and tragic. Like most fictional illusionists, John Charles Fare had an aura of mystery, whether he was real or not.

In 1968, N.B. Sheen published the first known account of John Charles Fare in a poetry journal. Roughly four years later, Tim Craig published the same story, but elaborated greatly on the plot. According to Craig, Fare was a Canadian by birth, but he moved to London to go to university. That obviously did not work out, as he moved quickly to Copenhagen. Apparently, he flashed his privates there and landed in a mental institution for a time. When he got out, he glued some things to Golni Czervath's car. The two became friends and the show of John Charles Fare was reportedly born.

The act the two devised involved a surgical table that is beyond even technology decades later. It had robotic parts that would operate on Mr. Fare. The story had it that John Fare's first act was to allow the table to perform a lobotomy on him. How he managed his later performances after that surgery is anyone's guess. In subsequent shows, the table reportedly removed some of his toes, an eye, some fingers, some flesh, his testicles and his right hand. The last performance was a beheading, allowed by Fare.

There are no pictures of John Fare, no paperwork, no records. The only evidence is the testimony of two writers, one of whom claimed that Fare was still performing up until 1972. If he were real, one could say that he was less an illusionist than a victim. The story has it that he was in a mental institution and then partnered with a man to allow a table to torture him. His partner would probably be arrested were such a thing to be discovered today.

The Sad and Bizarre Story of David Reimer

2012-10-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Quite often on That is Bizarre!, the stories are funny. Sometimes they are even tragic, but it is rare for a horrible, personal tragedy to be pointed out as bizarre here. I would like to think that is because, despite the inherent flaws of humanity, it is rare for bizarre treatment to be carried out on an individual. I could be wrong. It could be quite common. In fact, one could argue that it is, depending on what you think is bizarre. Whatever the case may be, it is certain that what happened to David Reimer was bizarre. It was a case of taking a tragedy and making it significantly worse by allegedly trying to "help."

David Reimer and his twin brother Brian were born on August 22, 1965. They were both healthy boys. When they were eight months old, their parents noticed that they were having trouble urinating properly. It was decided by doctors that the twins needed circumcisions. David went first, and the surgery went horribly wrong. His penis was destroyed. Doctors held off on Brian's circumcision, and he wound up not requiring it.

Worried that their son would be confused, Janet and Jon Reimer went to John Money, a doctor specializing in gender identity. It can easily be said that John Money did more to ruin David's life than even the doctor(s) who botched his surgery. Money and his colleagues thought that Reimer should have gender reassignment. He did not have surgery, but over time, he underwent estrogen therapy, was treated like a girl, dressed like a girl and underwent an arguably abusive form of therapy with John Money.

Reimer's parents renamed him Brenda and dressed him in dresses, even in the cold Canadian weather. He was increasingly confused, scared and angry as he got older, but his parents and doctors turned a blind eye to his suffering. His parents may have feared they had no other choice, but his doctors were certainly neglectful. Some workers later tried to blame the parents for not reporting David's progress correctly, but his issues most certainly came forward during what John was doing to him and John reported that David was turning into Brenda quite nicely. He was wrong.

John Money used Brian to aid in his "treatment" of David. He had the twins come in and take up sexual positions to reinforce gender roles with David. He had David spread his legs and Brian lay between them. He also had David bend over and had Brian press his groin against David's rear end. On at least one occasion, Money took pictures. They were also made to be naked during some of these treatments. Later, David became increasingly depressed and threatened suicide as a teen. Brian developed schizophrenia.

Money suggested that the Reimers have a sex change done on David. David stopped going, whether because he refused or his parents realized what they were doing is unclear. Reimer eventually reversed the damage done by estrogen and had two operations to give him a penis. He got married, as well. Sadly, Brian died of an antidepressant overdose in 2002. In 2004, David's wife said she wanted to separate. Days later, David killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head.

Hysteria and the Villejuif Leaflet

2012-09-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Villejuif Leaflet, which was sent out far and wide in Europe, was a list. On the list was a bunch of substances one commonly finds in food. These substances were listed as carcinogens. In defense of whoever made the list, many of them were potentially harmful. However, citric acid was on the list, and it is decidedly safe.

The Villejuif Leaflet was named thus because it was reportedly sent out by a hospital in Villejuif, France, but this turned out to be false. Nonetheless, the leaflet's origins were most certainly in France, though the precise location and distributor have never been discovered. It first appeared in 1976 as one page that was put together on a typewriter.

What is bizarre about the Villejuif Leaflet is not that it contained misinformation. This is common. What is bizarre is that it made enough rounds to reach roughly 7 million people, many of whom became very scared. It caused mass hysteria that lasted for years.

Bizarre Experiments: The Broken Toy Experiment

2012-09-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Often cited as a cruel psychological experiment, the Broken Toy Experiment was designed to produce guilt in children who had done nothing wrong. The children were left to stew in their negative emotions so researchers could study their reactions. This was meant to show them meaningful things about moral awareness and feelings. Yes, it might have, but it reeks of being unnecessary, given that parents of children of any age can tell how, when, where and why guilt manifests in children.

In this test, the children were given a "special" toy to play with. They were told to be careful with the toy. It was also rigged to fall apart when they touched it. The adults said nothing of the fact that the toy was a trap and just watched the kids for a full minute before finally leaving and coming back with the same toy, but not broken. To be fair, the children were then told that it was not their fault and they did not seem traumatized. Nonetheless, one has to wonder who they got to sit there all stoically while the kids squirmed. Darth Vader perhaps?

In the end, this is not the kind of experiment that will go down in history as evil. It was just a bit mean, and some of the kids probably do not even remember it. Then again, there is no long-term damage if you steal candy from a toddler and make it cry, but that does not mean psychologists should do it just to take notes on how the kid reacts in order to ostensibly collect meaningful data on the tears of children.

The Robbers Cave Experiment

2012-08-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, bizarre experiments were par for course, particularly in the field of psychology. One of these bizarre experiments was masterminded by Muzafar Sherif. Sherif was trying to prove the principles of realistic conflict theory. The theory is that separate groups that have opposing goals or have to compete for limited resources will inevitably become hostile with each other. To prove this point, Sherif pitted 22 boys, ages 11 and 12 and split into 2 groups, against each other. In other words, he fixed it so the two groups would get overly competitive.

The experiment consisted of a three-week camping scenario. Boys were given no contact with their parents throughout the experiment. For the first week, the boys were placed with their respective group and given activities that built camaraderie among them. Neither group had any idea the other existed. At the end of that week, the group saw each other from a distance.

Week two was perhaps the worst of the weeks. The groups were put into intense competition with each other. Whichever team one would get a group of coveted prizes, while the losers got nothing. This put the boys into hostile mode. There was only one set of prizes and each group was determined to get it. Sherif noted a lot of name-calling and hostility at this point. One team even burned the flag of the other team.

The last week of the experiment, the researchers put all of the boys together and had them work as one team toward a common goal. This seemed to restore their natural social behavior and some of them even made friends with members of the opposing team. So, as long as you make them work together at the end, it is cool to purposely make 22 adolescent boys go at it Lord of the Flies style.

The Bizarre Case of Benjamin Kyle

2012-08-26T15:44:00.001-07:00

What is bizarre about Benjamin Kyle is that he is not real, but he is real. No, he is not fictional or dead. Benjamin Kyle is living the life of a character in a thriller. Some would probably say it was poorly written or unbelievable. The thing is that truth is at least as strange as fiction in this man's case.

Benjamin Kyle's true identity is unknown. Benjamin Kyle is not his real name, though it is the only name this roughly 60-year-old man knows. He is listed as missing, but the authorities know exactly where he is. He is unemployable, at least legally, as he has no social security number. He is treated as an American, though he could be from anywhere, despite his memories of growing up in America. Enough enigma for you?

Benjamin Kyle has amnesia and he was unlucky enough to get it while alone in 2004. It has currently been eight years since he came down with amnesia and still no one has claimed him. He was found behind a Richmond Hill Burger King on August 31, 2004. He was unconscious, facedown in the dumpster area. He had no identification, though he may have suffered a head injury. He had cataracts so bad he was nearly blind. The amnesia could be from mental illness or from a head injury, but he can remember no such thing. DNA tests and fingerprinting have turned up nothing. He is a man without a past.

Perak: The Spring Man of Prague

2012-08-13T11:21:00.001-07:00

The Spring Man of Prague or "Perak" is some sort of man or creature who reportedly appeared in Czechoslovakia between 1939 and 1945. This being was very similar in both appearance and behavior to Spring-Heeled Jack of British legend. The reason for both of their names was their ability to jump over tall structures and the assumption that they did so with the help of springs or some other device.

Perak would supposedly jump out at people and scare them. This is decidedly less sinister than the cutting and terrorizing done by Jack, but there was a man reportedly attacking people with razors in Prague around the same time they say Perak was active, so the two legends may have merged. Either way, there seem to be no police records whatsoever of the Spring Man of Prague.

Interestingly, unlike with Spring-Heeled Jack, Perak was later portrayed as a hero in fiction. He was initially a figure who teased the SS who were occupying Prague at the time. Later, he went on to have other adventures, but his first appearance in fiction might give a clue as to why the Spring Man of Prague came about to begin with. Prague was then occupied by the Nazis, and its people were likely living in fear. It is not unusual that an urban legend spring, pun intended, from such circumstances.

Twin Cluster in Brazil Because of Nazi Doctor?

2012-08-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

Candido Godoi is a relatively small town in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Only roughly six to seven-thousand people live there. However, they have a hugely inflated number of twins when compared to most of the rest of the world. Because of this, and the attention brought to the town by the Nazi "Angel of Death," this quiet little town is the focus of some disturbing and amazing theories. If true, it would be both horrifying and a game-changer for genetic science.

Ten-percent of all pregnancies in Candido Godoi result in twins. Only fewer than two-percent occur on most of the planet. This excess of twins has been around since near the beginning of the 20th century. A reported 34 of the original settlers were twins. This indicates that there is a genetic factor behind this deluge of twins. The rate began to increase in the early 1960s. This may indicate that the genes behind the twins is becoming more prominent in the population. It could also mean someone starting messing with the families there around that time.

Doctor Josef Mengele was a psychopath Nazi doctor who conducted experiments on prisoners at concentration camps during World War II. His particular area of interest was twins, on which his experiments were particularly gruesome. After World War II, he went into hiding. He first hid in his native Germany before fleeing to South America. While there, he is known to have lived in Brazil, which is also where he died. Historian and writer Jorge Camarasa posited that the twin birth rate in Candido Godoi was due to Mengele's presence in the area. In other words, he went there to play with twins some more. However, there is currently no evidence. There is only correlation.

Bizarre Crimes: The Assassination Attempt on President Andrew Jackson

2012-07-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

When it comes to United States presidential assassinations attempts, Richard Lawrence's attempt on the life of Andrew Jackson is the first known and one of the weirdest. Richard Lawrence bore a grudge against the 7th President of the United States based on delusions. The grudge got worse and worse until the deranged man tried to shoot Andrew Jackson outside of the Capitol Building on January 30, 1835.

Richard Lawrence was born sometime in 1800 or 1801 in England. The details of his childhood are unimportant to this story. What is important is that he came to the United States and got sick. He worked as a painter in his adult life, but was so ill by the time he was in his 30s that he stopped working. You see, Richard Lawrence believed that he was King Richard III, a man centuries in his grave by then. He thought that he would be given his rightful place on the throne and that he had no need to work.

It is assumed now that Richard Lawrence suffered from paranoia and delusions, possibly linked to schizophrenia. Even then, it was known that he was not in his right mind. He started dressing differently and talking to himself. He told people that the United States owed him money that would get him back home so he could assume the throne. He believed that Andrew Jackson was withholding the money from him and that the man had killed his father.

Lawrence haunted the steps of the president for weeks before going to the Capitol Building and making his attempt on the life of Andrew Jackson. He brought two pistols with him and fired once with each at the president's back. However, neither pistol would fire. They were both defective when wet. The crowd quickly subdued the would be assassin with the help of Jackson himself, who hit him with his cane. Richard Lawrence was not found guilty, as he was quite insane. He spent the rest of his life in mental institutions.

Bizarre Creatures: The Loveland Frog

2012-07-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

The Loveland Frog is a cryptozoological creature reportedly spotted near Loveland, Ohio in 1955 and 1972. Both accounts vary. They put the creatures between three and four feet tall. They stand erect like humans and have humanoid bodies, but they have bald heads, green, rough, lizard-like skin and gaping, lipless mouths. One account said they were hairless with wrinkly heads. Another supposedly said that they were covered in hair, but it was matted down as if they were wet. One man might have even seen one riding a bicycle. However, given the ambiguity of the report, it might have been the man riding the bicycle when he saw the creature.

The first sighting of the Loveland Frog was of a group of the creatures on a bridge in May of 1955. There were roughly four of them. The man who reported seeing them gave the hairless, green and leathery description. He also said they had frog-like features. Flash-forward to March 3, 1973 and a police officer reportedly saw the same thing in the area, but this one had matted hair. However, it must be noted that the police officer later stated that he saw no such thing. It was a slightly large lizard on all fours crossing the road. The media inflated and changed his story. Therefore, the only sighting that has not been debunked appears to be the 1955 sighting.

The thing about this cryptid is that it is reportedly humanoid and was only ever seen once in Ohio. Humanoid creatures have a tendency to be obvious because they are bipedal and, well, look like people. Unlike Big Foot, this creature has not been seen all over the world, so it seems more likely that Mr. 1955 was very drunk than that there are human frogs hanging out near Loveland.

The Shag Harbour Incident: UFO in the Gulf of Maine

2012-07-18T12:11:00.002-07:00

Shag Harbour (The Gulf of Maine is where "Atlantic Ocean"
is marked on this image.)

The Shag Harbour Incident was a supposed UFO sighting near Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. It occurred in the waters of the Gulf of Maine, according to witnesses. However, despite all indications that the object had crashed into the water, no evidence that anything had crashed was ever found.

The incident occurred on October 4, 1967 at about 11:20 p.m. A few locals saw an object flying through the sky over the gulf. It was flying along fine and then a whistling noise indicated that something was wrong. Witnesses likened the sound to that of a bomb, which begs the question: Was it a bomb? There was then a whooshing sound and the sound of impact. Initial reports from some 11 witnesses stated that the object was an airplane, so authorities responded as such.

Rescue workers scoured the area where the plane reportedly went down. They found no survivors. Even stranger, they found no wreckage, no bodies and nothing to indicate there had even been a crash. Nonetheless, several Canadian law and military organizations continued the investigation. Dive teams looked for wreckage beneath the water and checked to see if any planes had gone missing. There was nothing.

In the end, there was nothing to do but label the incident a UFO case. In this instance, one might substitute the f for "falling." Of course, there were a lot of conspiracy theories that came out of it, but none seems to pan out with physical evidence, of which there is none. Then again, the physical evidence might just be locked up in a Canadian version of Area 51.