In 1931, The Arrival Of A Man Claiming To Be Named Albert Johnson Stirred Intrigue In The Secluded Town

Grave of Dr. Timothy Clark Smith

In New Haven, Vermont lies a unique grave. Because of the prevalence of accidental burials in the 1700s & 1800s, many people used preventative measures such as bells should someone find themselves buried alive. Dr. Smith decided that wasn’t enough, and deemed that a window be installed on his grave in the event of his death. When he did eventually die, a secret vault for his wife was also built under his grave. Today the window is blurry with condensation and mold, but if a person shines a flashlight down into the grave at night, the body is still visible. Tales of hauntings also follow this grave, and the surrounding cemetery. People have made reports of an eerie green light within the grave at night and peering into the window and seeing a living face staring back at them. An old urban legend also says if you knock upon the window three times, you will hear screams and the doctor himself will appear.

Photos by J.W. Ocker

The Cannibal House Part 2 (pt. 1) — This is part of Armin Meiwes’ kitchen, where he cooked the flesh of Bernd Brandes, his voluntary victim, over a period of 10 months. Upon Meiwes’ arrest, the police found 20 kgs (44 lbs) of human flesh stored in this deep freezer amongst boxes of pizza. If you look closely, you can see still the police label on the freezer from when it was taken into evidence (dated 12.12.02). 

The doll that grows human hair

This story goes that in 1918, in Hokkaido, Eikichi Suzuki purchased for his young sister, Kikuko, a traditional Japanese okappa (bob cut hairstyle) doll. Sadly, Kikuko died from a cold, and the family kept the doll in a shrine to their daughter and named it Okiku. However, the family noticed something odd about the doll over time—its hair was getting longer.

The family believed the doll possessed the restless spirit of their deceased daughter and so looked after it until entrusting it in the care of Mannen-ji Temple. There the doll remains, slowly growing human hair.

You can visit Okiku, but photography isn’t allowed. Today, even after a few trims from the temple’s priests, the doll’s hair has grown past its knees. It has also supposedly upped its terror. The priests claim to have nightmares of Okiku and visitors say the doll’s mouth is slowly opening—and sprouting baby teeth.

The Inherited Dresser

This old photo isn’t much to look at on the surface. It shows a window in a dark room, but the bright light coming from outside causes a glare that makes it difficult to see much happening outside the window. The only clear part of the photo is the man’s face in the upper left corner.

However, the woman who snapped this photo insists that she was alone in the house when she took it. To make matters even eerier, she asserts that the face in the corner strongly resembles that of her stepfather, who had died by suicide years before. She adds that the dresser where the face appears to hover used to belong to her stepfather; it was the very place where he stored the gun that ended his life.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the man who created the AK-47 assault rifle, wrote a letter in which he professed his guilt and regret over his creation shortly before his death in 2013. He explained that he felt responsible for all of the deaths caused by his creation: “The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my assault rifle took people’s lives that means that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, … am responsible for people’s deaths.” He expressed that he wished he would have created a tool to benefit farmers instead.

The Crimes of Kate Webster & Murder of Julia Thomas

June 19, 2023

In a two-storey villa in Richmond, London, a former teacher named Julia Martha Thomas lived. Having been widowed twice, she had lived on her own at 2 Mayfield Cottages in Park Road since 1873, after her second husband died. 

At the time, Julia was about 54 years old, and was described as well dressed and eccentric. She would often leave and travel around, and her friends would have no idea where she was for periods of time. These periods could last for a couple weeks or even months. 

Though Julia was not extremely wealthy, it is said she would often wear jewellery to make people believe she had money. It was also said that Julia was not the nicest employer, often making it hard for her to keep a live-in domestic maid for long periods of time. 

On January 29, 1879, a woman named Kate Webster was employed as Julia’s servant. Kate was born around 1849 in Killanne. There is not much information known about Kate’s life, but it was believed that she had claimed to have been married to a sea captain called Webster and had 4 children with him. Kate said that both her husband and all of her children had died.

Kate had also spent time in prison in Wexford in December 1864 for larceny (stealing) around the age of 15. Kate came to England in 1867, and was sentenced to 4 years of penal servitude for larceny in Liverpool in February 1868. 

It is often hard to know much about Kate’s life because it appears her reputation is one full of deceit. Kate claimed to have been released from prison in January 1872, and later became friends with a family named Porter. On April 18,1874, Kate gave birth to a son, but the father is unknown as she named 3 possible men that it could be. 

Kate moved around quite a bit and used a number of aliases, including Webb, Gibbs, Gibbons and Lawler. She was again convicted of larceny in May 1875, facing 36 charges. Again, in February 1877 she was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison for larceny. Her son was taken care of by her friend Sarah Crease during the times Kate was in prison. Sarah worked as a charwoman for a woman named Miss Loder.

In January 1879 Kate took over for Sarah when she became ill and while working, Miss Loder who knew Julia was looking for a servant, recommended Kate. It is believed that when Julia met Kate she did not ask any questions about her past. 

It didn’t take long for the two women to begin despising one another. Julia would often complain that Kate’s work was not satisfactory, and it got to the point where Julia would try to get friends to stay in the house with her because she did not like being alone with Kate. About one month after beginning to work for her, on February 28, Kate was fired. 

However, Kate had convinced Julia to allow her to work for a few more days until March 2. 

On March 2, Julia and Kate got into a big argument as Kate had made Julia late for her service at the local church. When Julia returned home from church around 9pm, Kate later confessed that they had fought more and Kate ended up throwing Julia from the top of the stairs to the bottom. Kate then choked her.

Julia hitting the ground made a large thud, which neighbours did hear, but they ignored it as they believed it to only be a chair falling over. Kate then began to dismember and boil and burn Julia’s remains. 

Within the next couple of days, Kate cleaned Julia’s house and clothes. She also began packing the remains into a black Gladstone bag and a corded wooden box. There was not enough room for the head or one of the feet, so Kate threw the foot into a garbage heap and buried the head under the stables, close to Julia’s house. 

On March 4, Kate went to see her old neighbours, the Porter’s, who she had not seen in 6 years. She was wearing Julia’s clothes and was carrying the black bag that she had put some of Julia’s remains in. Kate called herself “Mrs. Thomas” and told the Porters she had married, had a child and was widowed. She also told them she had been left a house in Richmond. 

Kate asked Porter and his son if they wanted to go to a pub, and while doing so she assumingly dropped the bag of remains into the River Thames, where it was never found. She also asked Robert, the son, if he would help her carry a heavy box to the station. Kate then dropped the box into the Thames. 

The next day, on March 5, the box was washed up next to the river bank. The man who found it originally believed there to be items of a burglary and when opening the box he found what appeared to be body parts wrapped in brown paper. A doctor was called immediately to determine the remains appeared to be that of a woman. 

Around this time, a foot and ankle were found in Twickenham, where Kate had thrown the foot that wouldn’t fit. The remains were all believed to be from the same person but there was no way to identify said person. The remains were burned on March 19 and there was speculation that the remains had been used for anatomical purposes. 

Kate kept living at Julia’s house, posing as her, and on March 9, she made an agreement with a man named John Church to sell Julia’s furniture to him for his pub. 

By March 18, neighbours suspicions kept raising as they realized they had not seen Julia around for almost 2 weeks. Julia’s neighbour asked who had Julia’s furniture removed from the property and they replied that it was Julia herself, indicating Kate. Kate, now knowing that her charade was up, fled back to Ireland. 

Police were called to the property and found blood stains, burned bones and a letter left by Kate that had her home address on it. A wanted notice was put up and detectives soon found Kate and her son back in Ireland. 

Kate was arrested on March 29, after the head constable in Wexford recognized her to be the same person they had arrested 14 years prior for larceny. 

Kate’s trial began on July 2, 1879 at the Central Criminal Court. The case was huge – people from all over were very interested in Kate and her crimes, with the trial attendance being crowded. Kate had actually tried to implicate John Church and her friend Porter, though both men had solid alibis. 

She pleaded not guilty, and the defence argued she could not be capable of murder due to her having a young son. After only an hour and 15 minutes of deliberation the jury decided that Kate was guilty of murder and it had been premeditated. Kate actually pleaded and said she was pregnant, trying to avoid the death penalty. 

Kate was taken in for an examination to determine if she truly was pregnant, and it was said that she was not “quick with child” though that meant she could still be pregnant. 

Right before she was executed, Kate made a statement stating that the father of her child was the one who participated in the murder of Julia and was the reason she had lived a life of crime to begin with. On July 28, the night before her execution, she recanted the statement, taking responsibility, and also stating that John Church, Porter and her child’s father were not to blame. 

On July 29, 1879, Kate Webster was hanged at 9am at Wandsworth Prison. She was buried in an unmarked grave in one of the prison’s yards. The crowd waiting at her execution cheered when a black flag was raised over the prison, meaning the execution had gone through. 

Julia’s property was auctioned off, the day after Kate had been executed. John Church managed to still get Julia’s furniture, as well as the knife that she had been dismembered with. Julia’s house was unoccupied until 1897, and even then, servants did not really want to work there given the history. 

There have been folktales of a “ghostly nun” that has been seen over the place where Julia is buried. 

In 1952, Sir David Attenborough and his wife Jane bought a house by the Mayfield Cottages and the Hole in the Wall pub. The pub had closed in 2007, but was going to be redeveloped. On October 22, 2010, workmen doing an excavation at the rear of the old pub uncovered a woman’s skull. 

It had been buried underneath the foundations and was immediately believed to be the skull of Julia Thomas as her head was never found. Carbon dating estimated the skull to be from sometime between 1650 and 1880, though it was on top of a layer of Victorian tiles, suggesting it was from the end of this estimate. 

The skull had fractures that matched with someone being thrown down stairs, and also had low collagen levels, possibly from being boiled. In July 2011, it was confirmed that it was the skull of Julia Thomas, 132 years after she had been murdered. 

In September of 1990, the Dugard family moved from from Los Angeles to South Lake Tahoe in California under the presumption it was a safer community to raise a family. Unfortunately, they couldn’t have been more wrong. Jaycee Dugard was close to her mother, Terry, and her half-sister, Shayna. The couple lived with Jaycee’s stepfather, Carl, who was married to her mother. She never knew her birth father. He had no involvement in her life whatsoever.

It was a prickling hot day on 10th of June, 1991, when Jaycee was 11-years-old. On that morning, Jaycee got up for school and left the family home to walk the short distance to the bus stop. However, she never made it. In full view of Carl, who was watching Jaycee from the garage, a man and woman pulled up alongside her in a grey car and rolled down the window. Assuming they were looking for directions, Jaycee walked over. Next, the man produced a stun gun and zapped Jaycee before bundling her into the car. Carl, who didn’t have a car at the time, jumped onto his bike and peddled as fast as he possibly could. It was no use, however, and Jaycee was gone.

Over the forthcoming days, weeks, months, and years, Jaycee was in the forefront of her families mind. Despite an exhaustive search, Jaycee could not be found. As the years passed, hope began to fade that she would ever be found. But then, on the 24th of August, 2009, 18 years after her disappearance, there was a breakthrough. A man and two young girls appeared at the University of California, where witnesses said they were acting very peculiarly and the two girls seemed sullen and extremely pale, as if they hadn’t seen sunlight in a prolonged period. The man told an employee he wanted to hold an event in which he would speak about “God’s Desire Church” which he explained involved mind control. After leaving his name, a background check was ran and it was discovered he was a registered sex offender and on federal parole for kidnapping and rape. The man was Philip Greg Garrido, who in 1976 had kidnapped and raped a young woman. As part of his parole, Garrido could not be around minors.

Thinking something was awry, the employee contacted police who drove to Garrido’s home and arrested him. On the 26th of August, Garrido went to the parole office with his wife, Nancy, and the two girls who had been with prior. Also in attendance was Jaycee who initially claimed her name was “Allissa” and defended Garrido. She was showing signs of Stockholm Syndrome in which she sympathised with her kidnapper. Eventually the truth came out - both Phillip and Nancy had abducted Jaycee on that hot summer’s day 18 years ago. The two young girls were Jaycee’s and were a product of rape from Garrido.

Over the past 18 years, Jaycee had been raped numerous times. Initially, she was kept in handcuffs and had to use a bucket as a toilet. Garrido would often go on methamphetamine binges in which he would tell Jaycee ludicrous tales of him being a chosen servant of god and that she was kidnapped due to “demon angels” granting him permission to use her as a sex slave. By the age of 13, Jaycee was pregnant. She gave birth while locked up and took care of her two daughters with information learned from watching tv. Eventually, Jaycee was granted more and more freedom. The handcuffs disappeared and the bolts on the doors were dismantled. Never did she once mention to anybody her true identity due to Stockholm syndrome.

After her eventual discovery, the Dugard family were ecstatic. While they had never given up hope on Jaycee, as the day’s passed, it seemed more and more unlikely that she would ever return home. Jaycee and her two daughters were in well health despite their living condition. In 2011, Jaycee wrote a book titled “A Stolen Life” in which she details her abduction. Phillip was sentenced to 431 years to life while Nancy was sentenced to 36 years to life.

“ Okmulgee, Oklahoma fire crews say they had a bizarre lightning strike call at the Oxford Apartments overnight. They say lightning came through the vent in the roof and struck the toilet, shattering it.“

I will accept precisely one form of toilet humour and it is jokes about these three pictures.

There are 5 temples in Kyoto, Japan, that have blood stained ceilings. The ceilings are made from the floorboards of Fushimi Castle where Torii Mototada and his remaining 380 samurai warriors killed themselves, in 1600, after a long hold-off against an army of 40,000 for 11 days

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