fascinatinghorror posts
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The Terrifying Fulton "Skyhook"
Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hVzWOCsbAYAYou might already have seen the Fulton Recovery System in action in, of all places, a James Bond movie. At the end of Thunderball, 007 and his companion are retrieved using a modified version of the system.Here's a little clip I found of the relevant scene.In the movie the whole process looks pretty easy - they're not even both harness...
The Mississauga Miracle
This was a surprisingly enjoyable story to research. Not that the event was enjoyable, at all, but there are lots of vivid and interesting accounts available online to draw from. Here are two sources that I found particularly interesting.The wedding receptionThis piece starts with an account of a wedding reception in nearby Toronto on the night of the disaster. The bride and her guests noticed a r...
The Catacombs Beneath Paris
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mGNRIjWW4yoI came across plenty of stories about people getting lost or doing strange things in the Paris catacombs while I was researching this short. Here are two that I found quite interesting.The first is a relatively recent (2017) story about two teens getting lost in the tunnels. Apart from anything else, this story shows just how much of a maze th...
The Sunshine Skyway Bridge Disaster
As always, here are just a few of the notes and errata I accumulated while researching this story...Naming the Sunshine SkywayThe Sunshine Skyway Bridge was very nearly given a different name. I mention in the video that it was named by a competition... and some of the entries give the bridge a rather different character.This article lists some "notable rejects", which include: the Magic C...
The Truth About Laika
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3whwLfg1Bi0Although her time was brief, Laika really did capture the hearts of people all over the world. You can still find her today in comics, in prints and pictures, mentioned in songs, and even referenced in films and on television.She even seemed to make an impression on the scientists running the program that would ultimately end her life. Here...
The Piper Alpha Disaster
There’s a lot to this story, and I couldn’t by any means fit everything into the video. Here are two of the stranger tangents I found while researching.Piper Alpha MonopolyBack in 2018, a PR firm came up with the idea of releasing a Piper Alpha monopoly set, with individual squares on the board sponsored by various gas and oil companies. All the profits from sales of the board game would go to...
Is Lucid Decapitation Real?
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YWVEmEoX-lgThe idea of lucid decapitation has fascinated and horrified me for quite a long time. Even though we have more answers today than we did back in the 1700s, it's still not entirely certain whether it's real or not.Here's an account of a decapitation from 1905 that I always found particularly haunting. It's the words of Dr Gabrie...
The Vajont Dam Disaster
While researching this video, I came across some interesting errata about the way this disaster is remembered.The grave markersIn the video I showed an image of the graveyard where many of the victims of this disaster are buried. There is some controversy surrounding this place, which you can read about in this BBC article.Basically, the graveyard used to be a jumble of different grave markers, ea...
The Deadliest Toys (Part Three)
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BL7OwRMAK9EHere's an image I found that I didn't end up including in the video. It shows some of the contents of the kit and what could be done with them.The most interesting part of this image for me was the text in the bottom right - which talks about a $35,000 government award for anyone who discovers a new uranium ore deposit.It even suggests...
The Mystery of Flight 823
Here are a couple of extra notes from my research into this story.Memorial servicesIt's been many years since this disaster took place, but there are still often memorial services each year in the town closest to where the plane crashed down. Here's a video of one of them.The ongoing memorialisation is really something that local residents have taken on, and worked hard to keep going. They...
The Story of Anthrax Island
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UTqs2cJLus4It's odd to think about Britain experimenting with biological weapons during World War II, but this story shows that it was very much something that was on the table.There is actually some footage from the experiment. I didn't include it as I couldn't get the rights (and it's also not very pleasant to watch). If you're inte...
The Dive Boat Conception
Here are a couple of interesting notes on this story, including an extra photo from the NTSB report.The escape hatchIn the video I show a couple of pictures of the escape hatch on board the Conception - one taken from the passenger bunk room, and one taken from the salon which the hatch exited to.One photo I didn't have the chance to include was this one:That's an NTSB investigator attempt...
The Shortest Search and Rescue
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/otfoaRZJLycThis was a story that particularly resonated with me when I first came across it while researching my video about falls into the Grand Canyon.I've been on tours of a few caves and other underground areas, and there's almost always a moment when they turn out the lights to show you just how dark it is down there.Before I ever experience...
The 1900 Big Game Disaster
It was quite difficult to find information on this relatively forgotten disaster, but nonetheless I came across some interesting errata while reading up on it.The Story of TJ ParkerThis old Google site has a number of clippings from newspapers published at the time, including one that tells the story of fireman TJ Parker. Mr Parker attended the scene of the disaster to help the injured... only to ...
The Man With a Plant In His Lung
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CdNzlDcUoz8A seed surviving and sprouting inside the human lung is an extraordinarily rare occurrence. In fact, I could find only one other remotely credible story about it.In 2009 Artyom Sidorkin made international news when surgeons apparently removed a tiny fir tree sapling from his lung. Here's a tabloid news article, which includes a (slightly b...
Juliane Koepcke and the LANSA Disaster
While making this video, I read Juliane's autobiography, When I Fell From The Sky. It contains a wealth of details that I couldn't fit into the video. Here are two of the most interesting.Werner HerzogEven before he decided to make a documentary about Juliane's survival story, Werner Herzog had a strange connection to the fateful LANSA flight. When it departed from Jorge Chavez Interna...
Mad Hatter Disease
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CUf1ua6NWbgThe medical name for mad hatter disease is erethism, and thankfully it's very rare today. The harmful properties of mercury are well-known, and so people who have to work with it take suitable precautions.Not so during the 1800s, though. In fact, the man who shot President Abraham Lincoln's assassin (rather than capturing him alive as ...
A Brief History of Hazing (Part One)
This is a video I've been wanting to make ever since I read about the KDND Hold Your Wee for a Wii accident, which included a reference to a hazing death. Here are some of my notes from the video.The Hazing Deaths DatabaseDuring the video I show the US Hazing Deaths Database, maintained by Hank Nuwer (an author who has written several books on the history of hazing). It's an unofficial res...
The Most Terrifying Film Ever Made
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/E--rA9mAoUkI really can't recommend Threads highly enough. It's an incredibly powerful, incredibly raw and realistic film about nuclear war. It was made on a shoestring budget more than 30 years ago, and it still hits hard today.You can watch it online via the Internet Archive if you haven't yet seen it. Although - a word of warning - it real...
The Amagasaki Derailment
Here are a couple of side notes from this story, including a bit more on "Dayshift Education"."Dayshift Education"Some reports of things that went on as part of JR West's re-education program are really quite shocking. It was totally commonplace for drivers to be fined, humiliated, and taken away from their regular work as a punishment for making a small mistake.But sometimes i...
The Origin of Roller Coasters
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JVKFSNYCcg8Russian mountains were every bit as popular with the aristocracy as they were with regular citizens. In fact, many of the richest people in Europe had slides of their own built to their specifications.Some were inside, and used polished wood and soapy water to reduce friction. Others were outside, making use of wheeled carts or ice.Catherine t...
The Stockline Plastics Disaster
There were a few interesting errata for this story. Here's a little bit about each of them.Student risk assessmentIn the video I mention that risk assessments were carried out... but missed the hazard of the buried pipes. One interesting detail that some sources mention is that at least one of these assessments was carried out by a student who had never done one before.While that might (unders...
The Chernobyl Elephant's Foot
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wStH9jDk5aAOne of the best resources on the Elephant's Foot of Chernobyl is this website, which has a wealth of information and media, including a short video of the mass itself taken about ten years after the disaster.Among other things, it goes into more detail about the various attempts made to chip off a sample of the foot for testing:"The su...
The Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire
Here are a couple of footnotes from this episode, concerning the Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire.The International Brotherhood of TeamstersI thought it would be worth mentioning some of the other work of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.Their connection to this fire is one of the darker things from their long and storied history. But they've done some truly amazing work in their time.On thei...
The Secret of Pirates of the Caribbean
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-aGmcAAPHiALike many of Disneyland's older rides, Pirates of the Caribbean has had an interesting life. Actual human skeletons aside, it started out with rather darker tone that it has today.In the original ride (there's a mocked-up video of it here) the pirates were more murderous... and were also shown chasing women (or "wenches" as it ...
Poganica Bay: A Cave Diving Disaster
There are a couple of sources I have to highlight when it comes to this strange and fascinating story.The statement of Tomáš SládekArchived on an old website dedicated to diving, you can find this (translated) statement by Tomáš Sládek, one of the dive instructors who was present on the trip.It's a shocking read - especially his words about how unprepared the police divers who turned up ...
Crow Funerals
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AAJ7rVlVkZkIt probably doesn't come as a surprise that crows are my favourite animal, given that I picked one to represent my channel. There are lots of reasons to love crows.For one, they're amazingly smart. Some sources compare their intelligence to that of a seven-year-old child... which is maybe not that helpful a comparison!But certainly the...
The Mount Erebus Disaster
Here are a few notes on things I couldn't quite find space for in the video, but which truly fascinated me nonetheless...The recovery operationI mention the recovery operation that took place on the slopes of Mount Erebus... but the story of what was done there could almost be a video in and of itself.Volunteers, police officers and other rescuers had to deal with incredibly difficult conditio...
Europe's Hidden Hunger Stones
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dLezJB8LU8UHunger stones aren't the only thing which recent severe droughts have revealed. Shipwrecks, broken bridges and other structures have also come to light as water levels drop. In Waldeck in Germany a whole village has emerged from a reservoir, having last been seen when it was flooded during the construction of a new dam in 1914.This Guardia...
The Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash
There's a wealth of information available about this historic accident, and so it was inevitable that I couldn't fit everything into the video. Here are a couple of my favourite errata...What happened to Gilbert Powell?In the video I mention that 14-year-old Gilbert Powell (very conscientiously) asked for a note to excuse his absence from school before leaving the scene of the accident. Wh...
