Here's a short list of some of the strangest, weirdest, and scariest stories found on Wikipedia.
Departure-19
To warm up your nerves, I propose to start with the incident that took place on December 5, 1945 in the Bermuda Triangle, which was called "Departure-19".
On the most calm and cloudless day, a squad of 5 single-engine Avenger bombers took off for a training flight … and disappeared without a trace. No debris, no witnesses, no bodies of the dead - nothing. As if this link did not exist at all.
The incident is frightening in its inexplicability: none of the hypotheses can give a 100% answer to what happened to the pilots. The mystical effect is added by the fact that the catastrophe took place in the famous Bermuda Triangle, which itself is an inexplicable "living" legend.
Added fuel to the fire of mystery is the fact that the rescue "Mariner" PBM-5 and "Mariner" PBM-3 aircraft, sent in search of the missing pilots, also disappeared without a trace. How it all happened, read the full version on the Wikipedia site.
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Abandoned by the crew of "Maria Celeste"
Have you all heard the stories about ghost ships? For example, the legend of the Flying Dutchman. But these stories did not appear out of nowhere. The world's most famous ghost ship is the Maria Celeste, which is a classic example of an unexplained incident.
Imagine the horror experienced by the superstitious crew of the Dei Grazia when they discovered the ship drifting 400 miles from Gibraltar on December 4, 1872. Having disembarked on board the "Maria Celeste", the sailors did not find a single living soul on the ship. The entire environment on the ship looked like everyone was hastily evacuated, but the ship itself was not damaged.
The compass was destroyed, presumably during an unsuccessful attempt to hastily remove it. In the captain's cabin, the jewelry box and two wads of money remained intact. Toys were scattered on the floor of the cabin, the sewing machine of the captain's wife stood with unfinished sewing.
Why was it necessary to hastily leave the ship, which was afloat, regularly and with a six-month supply of provisions? The hypotheses put forward by various experts also cannot provide a complete explanation of the incident. The missing crew, passengers and the ship's captain were also not found.
Such ghost ships are found in the waters of the oceans almost every year - here is a whole list. For the most part, such deserted ships find explanations, such as a torn off the mooring line due to a storm or a ship that has run aground, which then took off. But there is no explanation for other ghost ships to this day.
The death of the tour group Dyatlov
This ominous and mysterious incident was filmed and a game created. But the true events turned out to be worse by an order of magnitude.
On the night of February 2, 1959, in the Northern Urals, on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl, a tourist group of 9 people, led by Igor Dyatlov, was killed under unclear circumstances.
After the group did not return a week later, rescuers were sent to look for the missing tourists. The discovered missing group shocked the rescuers.
The tent of Dyatlov's tour group was set up on the side of the mountain, but it turned out to be empty and with a cut wall. The search group first found 5 corpses, and by May 4 more. Something or someone made the guys jump out of the tent without clothes, into a night snowstorm at -30 ° С.
On some of the victims, experts found scraps of clothing, and burned with traces of radioactivity! Despite the absence of signs of a struggle, all of them noted abrasions, soft tissue injuries, wounds, and one tourist even had II-III degree burns.
According to the conclusions of the investigation, the death was caused by "a natural force, which people were not able to overcome," and the details of the death of the tourist group are still debated, expressing versions from natural to the most paranormal.
It is also worth noting this picture, which was developed from one of the cameras of the tour group. There is also no explanation for this picture, although it could reveal the details of the incident.
Talking Mongoose Jeff
This story gives me goosebumps every time. A documented story in the 1930s about a strange creature that the inhabitants of the village of Dalby on the Isle of Man called "Jeff the talking mongoose."
The Irving family of a nearby farm encountered an unusual mongoose-like creature who could speak and forced people to shelter him through blackmail and intimidation.
A short war ended in complete defeat for the owners. Jeff did not fail to demonstrate his ability to masterfully handle matches with his furry four-fingered paw: what could prevent him from burning down the house if he wanted to? The thought did not horrify the Irvings for too long, until they realized that Jeff desperately needed them. In the human world, they were his only allies, breadwinners and teachers.
The creature turned out to be so famous that it was actively discussed in the pages of the British press and even went to the proceedings in the British Supreme Court.
Researchers of the phenomenon could not come to a final conclusion as to who Jeff really was: a kind of poltergeist, a cryptid, or a character in a local legend created by the owners of the house, members of the Irving family.
Disappearance of Frederic Valentich
On October 21, 1978, an event occurred with the disappearance of a 19-year-old pilot of a Cessna 182L aircraft during his flight over the Bass Strait in Australia. It is one of the most extensively studied and documented incidents of a pilot encounter with a UFO.
Especially in this story, it's creepy to read the transcript of Valentich's negotiations with the controller, in which the pilot encounters something inexplicable in the air. The missing Frederick has not yet been found.
Solway Firth cosmonaut
In 1964, firefighter and photographer Jim Templeton went outdoors with his family in Solway Firth, England.
During the development of the film, a mysterious silhouette of a man appeared in one of the photos behind his daughter, whom none of the family had seen nearby. The strange figure resembled a hominid dressed in a spacesuit, which is why he was nicknamed "Solway-Firth astronaut."
The image was widely disseminated in the press and won the attention of ufologists around the world. The mystery of the photo has not yet been solved.
Flatwood Monster
On September 12, 1952, the first case of close contact with an alien was recorded in Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia.
Almost all the inhabitants of the town were eyewitnesses of UFOs over Flatwoods, and three children aged 10 to 13 years old reported that they witnessed the landing of a UFO from which an ominous-looking alien emerged.
Descriptions of the second object are different. Most of them say the creature was at least 10 feet tall and had a red face that glowed from within and a green body. Witnesses described the creature's head as having bulges, inhuman eyes, and either a heart shape or a large heart-shaped edema behind it. The creature's body was described as humanoid and wearing a dark pleated skirt, and was later described as green.
After meeting with the alien, the guys showed strange symptoms: irritation of the nose, swelling of the throat, vomiting and seizures, which were caused by the influence of a strange fog, which they got into during landing.
Taman Shud case
A mysterious and almost mystical story with strange coincidences, which has not yet been solved.
On December 1, 1948, a corpse was discovered on one of the Australian beaches, the body of which has not been identified to this day. In the pocket of the deceased, a piece of paper was found with the inscription "Taman Shud", which can be translated from Persian as "completed" or "finished."
The Taman Shud case is one of the strangest incidents in the entire history of Australia, and interest in the personality of the man discovered half a century ago and the circumstances of his death have not subsided to this day. Many suspect the involvement of special services in this murder.
Hinterkaifeck Farm Incident
In 1922, 6 members of the same family were killed with a hoe near Munich. The murder remained unsolved and to this day is one of the most mysterious cases in the entire history of Germany.
Kaspar Hauser
This mysterious foundling is the biggest mystery of the 19th century. The young man was found in Nuremberg, famous for the fact that he practically did not know how to walk and speak, who barely revealed his secret at an early age, was killed by an unknown 5 years later.
Kaspar Hauser was able to tell only vague memories from his childhood, when, at the age of 4, he was imprisoned by an unknown person in an underground cell, where he lived all alone until the age of 16, until he was found and taken to Nuremberg.
Despite all the efforts and the huge award appointed by the Bavarian king, neither the real name, nor the origin of Kaspar, nor the reason for his murder, nor the identity of the murderer has been established until now.
Finds of human feet in the Selish Sea
In 2007, from the Selish Sea area, reports began to come in about extremely strange finds - shoes with the remains of human feet inside them.
The investigation found that the feet found belonged to at least five men, one woman and three others of unknown gender; only two pairs of feet were matched.
The feet were found until 2012. As of February 2012, only four victims (5 feet) were identified.
Who the rest of the victims, why only the feet came to the shore, and most importantly who the killer is, it has not been possible to establish to this day.
Boy in a box
This nickname was given to an unidentified murder victim, approximately 4-6 years old, whose body was found in a cardboard box in the Fox Chase area of Philadelphia, PA on February 25, 1957. The identity of the child, like his killer, has not been established to this day.
Stranger from the Seine
A documented case of an unidentified corpse of a 16-year-old girl found in the Seine River, from whose face a plaster cast was taken. The pathologist was so fascinated by the girl's appearance that he made a plaster cast. The cast became famous as an example of female mystery and beauty.
Locked man syndrome
This syndrome is characterized by an almost complete lack of patient response to external stimuli, often accompanied by almost complete paralysis. Doctors often mistake this condition for a coma, discussing with the patient his chances of returning to life or the likelihood of death, which, coupled with helplessness, inflicts severe psychological trauma on the patient.
