Bigamist, conman, and serial killer, H. H. Holmes is said to have killed anywhere between 20 and 200 people, many during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago where

Holmes lured victims to a hotel he owned near the fairgrounds.

Holmes was eventually captured and convicted of the murder of his accomplice, Benjamin Pitezel, unfortunately not before horrifically killing

three of Pitezel’s children. He was executed in 1896 and buried in a coffin that was, at Holmes’ request, encased in cement and buried 10 feet deep to dissuade grave

robbers.

If you’d like happy memories of Chicago, try some deep dish pizza, but if you’d rather learn more about Holmes and his “murder castle,” check out his page.

In 1922, a German farmer and his family, along with the family’s new maid, were murdered on their farmstead.

Days before the murders, the farmer discovered footprints leading

from the nearby woods to his farm… but no returning prints. Over the next few days the house keys went missing, mysterious footsteps were heard, and an unfamiliar newspaper was

found on the property.

When police investigated the deaths, they discovered an incestuous relationship between the farmer and his daughter and learned that the previous maid had left because

she thought the house was haunted. What they never found was the killer.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to eat another human being? No? Well, German repair technician Armin Meiwes did, so he took the next logical

step. He advertised on the internet for a willing victim. Posting on a website for people with cannibal fetishes (because those are apparently a horrifyingly real thing), Meiwes got in

touch with Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes.

Let’s just say that things did not end well for Mr. Brandes.

Meiwes was finally arrested and convicted when he started posting for new

victims. Sentenced to life in prison, he has reportedly become a vegetarian.

Eating lunch? I’d suggest stopping if you go on to read more about Meiwes’ gruesome crime.

An ancient form of execution, scaphism makes waterboarding look like a walk in the park.

Although sources are a little sketchy on exact details, the practice apparently involved

trapping a victim between two hollowed out tree trunks or rowboats so that only the hands, feet, and head were exposed. While encapsulated inside this shell, the prisoner was then

covered in honey and made to wait to be devoured by vermin attracted by the sweet offering.

Perhaps you’d like to throw out any jars of honey you might have

in your pantry before continuing to read more about scaphism.

Nine college students head into the mountains for an extended hiking and camping trip. A month after they leave, their bodies are found frozen and with mysterious signs

of trauma that no one can explain.

It sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it actually happened in 1959 in the Ural Mountains. Their tent in shreds,

seemingly torn apart by the hikers as they tried to escape it, six of the students died of hypothermia while the other three showed signs of severe trauma, one body

even missing its eyes and tongue.

If you’re starting to rethink that weekend hike you had planned, great! More time to read up on the mystifying Dyatlov Pass Incident.

A notorious child rapist and cannibal, Albert Fish was said to “have children in every state.” Whether or not that statement was true, Fish was known to have

raped and killed three children, with five more victims suspected.

Claiming he was abused as a child in an orphanage where he briefly lived and that it was this

abuse that led to his taste for torture, Fish was also a self-mutilator who often embedded needles in his groin and abdomen as well as a practitioner of urolagnia (drinking

urine) and coprophagia (eating feces).

Feeling the crazy yet?

Although it has its skeptics, 50 Berkeley Square has become widely known as one of the most haunted houses in London. Since its construction in the late 18th

and early 19th centuries, the house has become the epicenter of stories about ghostly apparitions, strange occurrences in its attic, and people who have, some claimed, literally died of fright

on its premises.

And none of that even includes the mysterious “Mr. Myers,” a recluse who purchased the house and never went outside, slowly going mad while rambling through the

townhouse's halls.

Planning a trip to London? Then you should probably read up on the house.

Or not.

Elizabeth Báthory was a Hungarian noblewoman who lived during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Born into great privilege, she could read and write in four languages

and enjoyed a very high position in Hungarian society. When she was married at age 15, approximately 4,500 guests were invited to the wedding.

Báthory also holds the Guiness World

Record for most prolific female murderer, having tortured and killed hundreds of young women before being arrested, tried, and imprisoned in 1609.

Maybe you’d like to look up other Guiness

record holders now. Fastest marathon runner? World’s longest wedding dress train? Or you could keep reading about Elizabeth Báthory’s blood orgies.

Bubbly Creek. The name sounds so pleasant. Maybe it conjures images of a picnic next to a happily babbling brook or a lively mountain stream winding gently through

the hills.

Or maybe you think of the Chicago River, which has a south fork where, during the early 20th century, the meatpacking industry dumped leftover animal blood and entrails

that are now decomposing, creating gases, and… bubbling.

Not so pleasant now, is it?

Check out Upton Sinclair’s description of Bubbly Creek in his 1906 book The Jungle, or

just read more about Bubbly Creek’s flatulence problems.

Although stories about missing children are always tragic, there are few that are as odd as the story of Johnny Gosch, a paperboy who went missing in 1982

at the age of 12. The police investigated and his disappearance was labelled a kidnapping. Unfortunately, Johnny was never found, and over the years the case became a flashpoint for

rumors and theories about child sex rings.

However, in 1997 Johnny’s mother, Noreen, claims that she was visited by a man who she believes was her son. No one

else can verify that the meeting took place, but Noreen maintains that Johnny is alive and currently living in hiding.

Weirded out yet?

Ever been terrified by fictional monsters like Leatherface, Norman Bates, or Buffalo Bill? If so, meet Ed Gein, the real life inspiration for those characters.

Gein lived on

an isolated farm in Plainfield, WI and was arrested in 1957 for the murder of local hardware store owner Bernice Worden. When investigators searched Gein's house, they discovered pieces of

human bone, skulls, various pieces of clothing made from body parts, and a lampshade made from the skin of a human face, all of them salvaged from both his murder

victims and bodies he had dug up in the local cemetery.  

Try Psycho if you'd like a scare without the real life trauma.

When contemplating suicide, it’s likely that the one method that does not immediately come to mind is death by roller coaster, but that’s exactly what the euthanasia coaster

is designed to do.

Taking on passengers who want the ride of their lives (literally), the coaster is designed to kill its riders through prolonged cerebral hypoxia, or insufficient supply

of oxygen to the brain. With a design that includes a 500 meter drop and seven inversions that reach lethal 10g speeds, the coaster would eventually pull back into the

station loaded with the corpses of its once living passengers. Luckily, the deathly ride has never actually been built.

While working a construction site in 1888 London, crews stumbled on the dismembered remains of a mysterious woman. Her torso had been wrapped in cloth and placed inside

an unlocked vault at the site while other pieces of the body were scattered at locations around the city.

The woman was never identified and the crime never solved.

The

strangest part about this mystery? The construction site at which the body was found was for the new location of London’s Metropolitan Police, otherwise known as Scotland Yard.

Get your

Sherlock on by reading more about the Whitehall Mystery.

When Zona Heaster Shue was found dead in her home in 1897, her husband, Edward, was inconsolable and wouldn’t allow anyone near the body, not even the local

doctor. Zona’s cause of death was officially listed as “everlasting faint” and attributed to “female trouble.”

However, a month after her death, Zona’s mother approached the police with the claim

that her daughter’s ghost had appeared to her and accused Zona’s husband of murdering his wife. When Zona’s body was eventually exhumed, it was discovered that Zona’s neck had actually

been broken and Edward Shue was arrested.

The moral of the story? Don’t murder your wife.

Located in San Jose, CA, the Winchester Mansion is the former home of Sarah Winchester, widow of the heir of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. After the death

of her husband and young daughter, Sarah, supposedly on the advice from a spiritual medium, moved from the family’s Connecticut home to California in 1884, purchased an unfinished farmhouse, starting

building, and…

… never stopped.

Driven by the belief that she would be haunted by the victims of the Winchester rifle if construction ever ceased, Mrs. Winchester continued to build,

creating a house with no master plan, doors that lead to brick walls, and staircases that go nowhere.

Take the haunted home tour by reading more about the mansion.

Between May of 1918 and October of 1919, New Orleans was terrorized by a killer known only as the Axeman of New Orleans. Hunting primarily those of Italian

descent, the Axeman would break into a victim’s house and murder the residents with, you guessed it, and axe.

When a letter supposedly from the Axeman surfaced in 1919 threatening

to kill a new victim and only sparing those in places where jazz music was playing, jazz music poured out of every house and bar in the city throughout the

night.

The axeman’s murders mysteriously ceased in 1919, but the jazz continues to this day…

After his parents and four younger siblings were found shot to death in their home in Amityville, Long Island, New York, Ronald DeFeo Jr. was arrested and tried

for the crime. His story changed numerous times, from claims of innocence to saying one of his younger sisters was also involved with the crime. Nevertheless, he was convicted of

the murders. However, to this day, inconsistencies and questions remain surrounding the horrific deaths.

The case would go on to inspire the story of The Amityville Horror after the Lutz

family came forward with a terrifying tale of their brief stay in the house.

Thinking about taking a nice walk through the forest this weekend? You may want to avoid Aokigahara, located near Japan’s Mount Fuji. Also known as the “Suicide Forest”,

Aokigahara has a reputation for being home to “yūrei,” ghosts of the dead in Japanese mythology.

If running into some ancient apparitions isn’t bad enough, Aokigahara has also gained international

infamy as one of the top destinations for suicides. Authorities even conduct annual body searches in the area, although they have stopped publicizing the yearly death count in hopes that

Aokigahara’s association with suicide will fade.

Still interested in exploring the green and leafy trails of the “Suicide Forest?”