We all know that Wikipedia is the perfect
place to go to kill an hour ... or 6. On this comprehensive compendium of the internet’s
knowledge, one page can quickly lead to another, and another, and another … and before you
know it, you’re so far down the rabbit hole that you can’t remember what brought you
to Wikipedia in the first place! For all its interesting and entertaining information,
there’s also a dark side to this online encyclopedia, and the creepiest stories from
Wikipedia will be sure to keep you up at night! #7 - List of Missing Aircraft
We might prefer to imagine that instances of disappearing aircraft are a relatively
rare phenomenon, but a quick glance at this anxiety-inducing Wikipedia page is a chilling
reminder that that might not be as true as we would hope. This grisly page attempts to list every commercial
and military flight that’s ever gone missing, going all the way back to the dawn of the
age of flight in the 1850s. Although at first glance, this distressingly
extensive list may appear to be complete, the page’s authors are careful to note that
the list is far from comprehensive and happily invite contributors to add to the list. That’s less than reassuring, to say the
least. According to the International Civil Aviation
Organization, an aircraft is considered missing when the official search has been called off
and the majority of the plane’s wreckage has not been located. Since 1948, more than 100 aircraft have vanished
without a trace, as per the Aviation Safety Network. Among the many hundreds of tragic disappearances
included in the Wikipedia page’s list is one of the earliest aviation disappearances,
the 1879 disappearance of a Pathfinder hydrogen balloon which tragically vanished without
a trace over Lake Michigan, killing ballooning pioneer John Wise and his passenger George
Burr, whose body was pulled from the lake, though no sign of the downed balloon was ever
found. In May 1927, while attempting to win the Orteig
Prize for the first nonstop trans-Atlantic flight between Paris and New York, the Levasseur
PL.8 piloted by Francois Coli and Chares Nungesser disappeared somewhere over the frigid expanse
of the North Atlantic. No sign of the plane or the aviators was ever
found. Perhaps the most famous aviation disappearance
of all time was the devastating 1937 disappearance of Amelia Erhardt’s Lockheed Electra during
Erhardt’s attempted around-the-world flight, which prompted the largest search in history
at the time, though no trace of Erhardt, her navigator Frank Noonan, or her plane was ever
found. And of course, there is the tragic and mysterious
disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370. In 2014, the Boeing 777 disappeared somewhere
over the Indian Ocean, far off of its planned flight path, with 239 souls on board. No trace of the plane has been found, despite
a huge search effort, and it remains the largest commercial disappearance in history. Perhaps don’t go down this particular rabbit
before getting on a plane… But if you think you’re safer on a boat,
well our next entry might change your mind about that too… #6 - Titanic Passenger List
The tragic fate of the ship Titanic is a well-known tale - the luxury ocean liner was supposed
to be unsinkable, but that claim was proven wrong when she struck an iceberg and sank
on her maiden voyage in 1914. Thanks in large part to a shortage of lifeboats,
1,503 of the 2,208 people on board the Titanic died in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. The numbers are staggering, but a quick look
at the Wikipedia page that lists each of the passengers by name really brings the horror
to life. The Titanic’s passengers were divided into
3 distinct classes. First Class passengers were predominantly
from the wealthy upper class, and included prominent businessmen like Macy’s department
store owner Isidor Straus, wealthy industrialists like real estate billionaire J.J. Astor and his 18 year old pregnant wife, and
even British aristocracy, like the Countess of Rothes. Second Class passengers were mostly middle
class professionals and tourists, while the Third Class passengers were mainly poor immigrants
moving to the U.S. or Canada in search of a better life. The Wikipedia page includes the names of every
single passenger who travelled on the Titanic, as well as some startling photos and the unbelievable
stories of some of the survivors, like the 2 boys who had been kidnapped by their father
and taken across the ocean under assumed names. They survived, but their father did not, and
they were dubbed “The Titanic Orphans”. There’s the story of the Laroche family,
the only black family on board, who were moving from France back to their homeland of Haiti,
where father Joseph’s uncle was president, hoping to escape rampant racial discrimination
in Europe. There’s also the account of Millvina Dean,
who was just 2 months old at the time of the sinking, and when she died in 2009, she was
the last living survivor of the Titanic disaster. If you’re looking for more creepy death-realted
entries, you really can’t beat our number 5 creepiest wikipedia story…. #5 - Last Meals
In many countries around the world, it’s customary to give condemned prisoners their
choice of a final meal before their execution. This fascinating yet gruesome Wikipedia page
compiles the very last meal eaten by some of the most infamous death row inmates from
around the world before they were executed for their horrendous crimes. John Wayne Gacy, Chicago’s “Killer Clown”,
ordered a dozen deep-fried shrimp, a pound of strawberries, a diet Coke and bucket of
Kentucky Fried Chicken - which was extra creepy, considering that he worked at a KFC during
his brutal murder spree. Danny Rolling, the Gainesville Ripper who
murdered 5 students in Florida, feasted on lobster tail, butterfly shrimp, baked potatoes
and strawberry cheesecake before he was put to death for his heinous crimes. Oddly, serial killer Ted Bundy declined a
special last meal, and he refused to eat the prison’s traditional last meal of steak,
eggs, hash browns, toast, coffee and juice. Bundy went to the electric chair on an empty
stomach. This fascinating page lists the final meal
of hundreds of evil murderers, but it’s probably best not to visit this one before
eating… And if you’ve got a weak stomach, then definitely
skip out on our next creepy wikipedia story... #4 - Robert J. White
Robert J. White was one of America’s foremost neurosurgeons. He graduated from Harvard Medical school and
went on to have an illustrious career, earning honorary doctorates from a number of prestigious
schools and getting invited to speak all over the world. He was also a devout Catholic with 10 children,
and was even an advisor in medical ethics to the Pope. But Dr. White also had a dark side. In 1970, he performed a controversial head
transplant surgery on a pair of monkeys. Because the surgery involved severing the
spinal cord, the monkeys were paralyzed from the neck down, but after the operation they
were able to hear, see, smell, eat and taste, and follow movement with their eyes. Sadly, immune rejection ultimately led to
the death of both monkeys 9 days after the operation. Amazingly, Dr. White appeared to be undeterred
by the death of his subjects - or by the backlash he received from the outraged medical community
and horrified public. He made plans to repeat this outlandish experiment
on human subjects in the 1990s, but, thankfully, it seems he never went through with it. Inhumane medical experiments are terrifying,
but our next entry has haunted the residents of a small English village for over sixty
years! #3 - Bella in the Wych Elm
In 1944, ominous graffiti began appearing around the English village of Hagley. Scrawled across stone walls and on local monuments
were the menacing words: “Who put Bella in the wych elm?”. The message was particularly sinister in light
of the fact that, just a year before it first appeared, the body of an unknown woman had
been found inside the trunk of an elm tree in the nearby woods by a group of young local
boys. The body appeared to have been dead for at
least a year, and as time went on with no breaks in the case, many bizarre theories
about who the woman was and exactly how she died circulated through the town. Some believed that the body belonged to a
Birmingham sex worker named Bella who had been known to work on Hagley road and who
had disappeared 3 years before the body was found, but in the days before modern DNA technology,
police were unable to prove this theory. Others, like Margaret Murray, an anthropologist
and archaeologist from the University College London, claimed that the fact that one of
the victim’s hands was severed was proof that the murder was the result of a gypsy
witchcraft ritual called The Hand of Glory. The most intriguing theory came to light in
1953, when a woman named Una Mossop told police that her ex-husband Jack had confessed to
family members that he and a friend had put the women in the tree. He claimed that she was alive when they placed
her inside the trunk, that she was simply so drunk that she had passed out, and Jack
claimed that he had been hoping that she waking up in the tree would prompt her to see the
error of her ways. Years before his ex-wife’s went public with
her tale, Jack had been committed to a mental institution after being plagued by recurring
dreams of a woman staring out at him from inside of a tree, and he died there years
before the body was found. Despite this apparent confession, the murder
was never solved, and to this day, graffiti continues to appear near where they body was
discovered, always asking, “Who put Bella in the wych elm?” It’s unlikely we will ever know… Speaking of the supernatural, our next entry
goes from possible with ritual and ghostly graffiti straight to the world of the walking
dead…. #2 - Mercy Brown Vampire Incident
In Rhode Island in 1892, tragedy struck the Brown family. Multiple members of the family contracted
tuberculosis, a much dreaded and feared disease at the time, and as one after the other succumbed
to the dreadful illness, friends and neighbours began to whisper. Popular folklore at the time held that multiple
deaths in one family were linked to the sinister activity of the undead, and the locals were
convinced that the Brown family was plagued by a vampire. Matriarch Mary was the first to die, followed
by her eldest daughter Mary Olive. Daughter Mercy succumbed in 1891 at the age
of 19, and soon after, her younger brother Edwin fell ill. Desperate to stop the disease from destroying
what was left of his family, George Brown ordered the exhumation of the bodies of his
wife and daughters. Both Mary and Mary Olive’s bodies showed
an expected level of decomposition, but when the body of young Mercy was removed from her
grave, her corpse showed almost no signs of decomposition and her heart was still filled
with blood. To the locals, this was a clear sign that
Mercy was the undead cause of her family’s tragedy (ignoring the fact that she had been
stored in freezer-like conditions in an above-ground crypt for 2 months after her death, which
likely slowed decomposition and preserved her corpse). In keeping with local superstitions, Mercy’s
heart and liver were removed from her dead body and burned, and the ashes were mixed
into a tonic for Edwin to drink in an attempt to halt the influence of the undead on the
poor Brown family. Unfortunately, Edwin died 2 months later,
and poor Mercy’s body - what was left of it, anyways - was reburied in the local graveyard. Finally, our number one spot- and proof that
nothing is more terrifying than normal, everyday humans… #1 The From Hell Letter
On October 16, 1888, George Lusk received a most gruesome delivery in his daily mail
- a bloodstained letter, containing half of a preserved human kidney. Mr. Lusk was, at the time, the head of the
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, a group of local volunteers who patrolled the streets
of London’s Whitechapel district by night during the reign of terror of the notorious
serial killer known only as Jack the Ripper. The letter, which was postmarked October 15,
1888, read: “From Hell. Mr. Lusk, Sir. I send you half the kidney I took from one
woman. Preserved it for you. The other piece I fried and ate, it was very
nice. I may send you the bloody knife that took
it out if you only wait a while longer. Signed, Catch me when you can Mr. Lusk.” This was just one of a number of horrible,
taunting letters believed to have been sent by the killer. He was also purported to have sent the “Dear
Boss” and “Saucy Jacky” letters to local newspapers, and was believed to be behind
the Openshaw letter sent to another investigator. Despite these careless attempts to engage
with investigators, Jack the Ripper was never caught, and his identity remains a mystery
to this day. This is one Wikipedia rabbit hole with a wealth
of gruesome information to explore! This sampler of just a few of the creepiest
stories from Wikipedia is a great reminder that you never know what creepy tales of horror
await at the bottom of the rabbit hole. If you thought this video was fascinatingly
creepy, be sure and check out our other videos, like this one called “Malaysian Air Mystery
- What We Now Know About Missing Flight MH370”, or perhaps you’ll like this other video.
