Top 30 Normal Looking Pictures with Disturbing Backstories

it is a picture his best friend says Hadley claimed would be his last welcome to watch Mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the most unassuming snapshots with the darkest backstories and explanations when the police found that camera and they said oh the camera is destroyed it's been through the washing machine but they take that little memory card and they find these photos number 30 John Edward Robinson's family portrait at first glance this seems like a normal family photo depicting the classic nuclear setup complete with a baby sitting on her father's lap however the reality is much darker the man in the picture is John Edward Robinson later exposed as a con man and a serial killer who operated in Kansas city in 1985 Robinson cunningly befriended the infant struggling mom under the guise of providing them with a better life soon afterwards he killed the mother and gave her baby to his brother to raise they thought everything was on the up and up they had the papers they had the adoption forms that looked like been signed by judges and attorneys they had no clue to make things worse Robinson remained in the girl's life posing as her uncle until he was finally arrested over a decade later this portrait captured a final moment of Peace before the lives of several people were irreparably changed forever John Robinson's got that baby and posing for pictures in his house with that baby bouncing on his knee with his brother and sister-in-law there who have come down to Chicago to um get their new adopted baby number 29 his m Master's Voice who knew a logo could be so devastating while the sight of a cute dog listening to a photograph seems adorable upon first glance the story behind it is much sadder according to the original artist his inspiration came from watching the pooch listening to his late owner's voice and seemingly trying to figure out where it was coming from that explanation immediately takes the painting from cute to tragic the thought of a pet still being able to recognize the people who raised them even long after their deaths is Bittersweet at best there's no doubt at all just how good of a boy he truly was and his unwavering loyalty to his late master has been immortalized forever number 28 hiking tragedy do you notice anything unusual in this photo of someone climbing a waterfall while it looks like a regular landscape there's one thing that sticks out a sudden shock of red hair that color saved a young woman who had fallen off the same cliff in Santa Barbara County in 2014 and been badly hurt she Blended in with the scenery so so much so that the photographer had captured their friends climb without realizing she was in the background although they eventually noticed her and assisted in her rescue it was an extremely close call we can only imagine the horror the photographer would have felt had they not noticed her in time and instead found her in the shots when it was too late number 27 last photo of Abigail Williams in 2017 teenager Liberty German innocently posted an image of her friend Abigail Williams crossing a bridge in Deli Indiana looking at it you wouldn't think anything was a Miss just a couple of Pals having fun later that same day they were both captured and subsequently killed by an unknown as salent this is the bridge that we've all seen in the images released to the media you can see now some flowers left behind in memory of the girls a video on German's phone showed an unknown man ordering them down a hill this provided police with a lead and on October 31st 2022 they charged a Suspect with the murders who has since confessed to his wife while in prison according to court documents it was Libby who managed to take a cell phone picture of a strange man on the bridge he's the prime suspect while the case is still unsolved the pictures have been vital to the investigation and will hopefully be enough to help put the murderer behind bars for good number 26 James Bulger and his abductors some images highlight just how cruel the world can be upon first glance seeing a couple of young kids walking hand inand wouldn't trigger any suspicion to many it would just look like an older and younger sibling however that idea was turned on its head after one horrifying instance on February 12th 1993 in merys side England security footage captured two children walking together an older boy and a toddler James was being led Away by two young boys immediately then it confirmed the witness that it stated earlier that there were two boys on the Canal bank it then became very worrying unbeknownst to adults nearby the toddler James buer was being kidnapped he lost his life later that day at the hands of the older child and his friend looking at the original footage no one would have guessed his true intentions Justice was swiftly served but the incident shook the nation and started a larger discourse about punishing miners number 25 scuba diving death what was supposed to be a fun peaceful activity suddenly became a crime scene while going scuba diving a man took a photo of his wife underwater this could have been a cool shot but their attention swiftly shifted to a shocking Discovery in the background behind his partner was the body of another diver lying on the floor of the reef this belonged to Tina Watson who had been on her honeymoon in Australia before her untimely death on October 22nd 2003 the news caused immediate speculation that culminated in her husband being convicted of manslaughter they argue he planned to kill his new wife also so he could collect on her life insurance policy the fact that this was all caused by one seemingly innocent picture is harrowing had it not been taken her body may not have been discovered until much later number 24 Haiku stairs Hawaii boasts a plethora of gorgeous scenery both natural and human-made this includes the captivating Haiku stairs which unfortunately have been closed off to hikers for decades due to their dangerous State despite this many adventurers still Brave the trk in early 2015 teenage hiker dalan Pua walked the trail and posted photos of the view after he went missing those posts became the only Clues his parents soon made a chilling Discovery a hidden figure camouflaged within the greenery seemingly stalking their son this Revelation transformed the case from a simple disappearance to something more Sinister while the trail has gone cold the family is still determined to identify the man pictured and get closure on what happened to their son number 23 Franklin Delano Floyd and Suzanne Marie svaca what seems like a wholesome portrait of a father and daughter is actually much more twisted and horrific the man in the photo Franklin Delano Floyd abducted Suzanne sakis as a young girl and raised her as if that wasn't Twisted enough he ended up marrying her when she grew up even forcing her to take on a series of aliases to keep the police at Bay Floyd knew the law enforcement would be looking for a man his daughter and her child they would not be looking for a man and his wife in their child and that's why they stopped and got married he ended up taking her life when she tried escaping as an adult when looking at an image of them many wouldn't even fathom that so much evil could be Brewing just beneath the surface although he was eventually imprisoned for his crimes the chilling snapshot shows how long he had gotten away with his Twisted Deeds number 22 class of 1999 class photos are not A New Concept they've been around for decades and show a glimpse of the graduating cohorts this one looks to be completely normal until you look at the top left corner there it's easier to notice a few kids pretending to point guns at the camera those students Dylan cold and Eric Harris the perpetrators of the horrific Coline Massacre kids grab your friends hold them tight and never be mad at people because it could happen in a second that they'll be gone their pose served as an early red flag prior to their act but the group was so large that they completely slipped into the background once the shooting had occurred the picture was seen in a new light now it serves as a reminder that monsters can be anywhere even hiding in plain sight in the high school gymnasium number 21 Harold agnu holding fat man hbomb it's interesting how even culturally significant and controversial moments can have the most benal Beginnings before the nuclear bombs were dropped in World War II they had been worked on by top scientists during this developmental phase they looked nothing like the weapons of mass destruction they're known to be today actually we did not witness Hiroshima we were busy with our instruments in fact they appeared so innocuous that when physicist Harold agnu was photographed holding one of their cores people didn't even realize what it was his smile and the seemingly ordinary object in his hand masked the Project's true intentions this picture of agnu holding the plutonium is a stark reminder of the people behind some of the most devastatingly powerful objects in human history number 20 20 Tragedy by the Sea at first glance this photo might appear romantic after all it shows a couple on a Windswept Beach but look closer and the woman's distraught expression says it all right before photographer John elgant took the shot the couple's 19-month-old son had been happily playing in their yard but he wandered off and disappeared into the waves the couple is standing on the shore realizing their son is gone this photo actually won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize and given the backstory it's a haunting shot of sudden and unexpected tragedy number 19 the space shuttle Challenger crew it's unclear where the astronauts in this photo are going but they appear excited and optimistic about whatever's on the horizon doing some digging you'll find that the crew was walking out of the operations and checkout building they were headed for pad 39b where the space shuttle Challenger was about to take off the STS 51 L mission was notable for its diverse crew although that's sadly not what it's best remembered for let go of the 25th space shuttle mission and it has cleared the tower only a minute after launching the space shuttle exploded 73.5 seconds Challenger's engine shut down the last data from Challenger is Radio to Earth while nobody knows precisely when each crew member died nobody survived after the spacecraft hit the ocean this photo was taken on January 28th 1986 mere hours before the crew unknowingly embarked on what would be their final mission number 18 Christopher mandas with a grin across his face the man in this picture appears to be content and healthy this bearded Explorer is Christopher mandas the subject of the 2007 biopic into the wild is anybody here leaving his old life behind mandas decided to fend for himself in Mother Nature's backyard eventually seeking refuge in an abandoned Fairbanks bus 142 in August 1992 the 24-year-old mandas died at Stampede Trail Alaska most likely due to starvation based on the last self photo he took it's evident mandas knew his days were [Music] numbered while it's hard to make out the paper mandas is holding is his Farewell message reading quote I have had a happy life and thank the Lord goodbye and may God bless all number 17 lightning strike while the numbers vary the the odds of getting struck by lightning are relatively slim that doesn't mean you shouldn't take lightning safety seriously though this photo of 18-year-old Michael mcquilkin and his 12-year-old brother Shawn has served as a cautionary tale ever since it was taken in 1975 posing together at Morrow Rock the brothers were goofing around with their hair standing on end their static hair and those storm clouds in the background were more for boing than either realized as lightning struck them shortly after their sister took the picture another hiker died and while the brother survived Shawn was left with third degree burns and took his own life in 1989 Michael continues to spread awareness about the dangers and warning signs of lightning number 16 another day in om looking at this photo the first thing you're inclined to notice is the man standing in the street and the child on his shoulders meanwhile the red car parked on the side of the road appears inconsequential what you might not realize is that the photo was taken in ma a Northern Ireland town on August 15th 1998 not not long before this car blew up the real Irish Republican Army a splinter group executed this car bombing 5 days after the Good Friday agreement was signed although the real Ira claimed that innocent civilians were not their target 29 lives were lost in the bombing and roughly 220 were injured it was the biggest loss of life in a single attack in Northern Ireland while the man and child thankfully survived the bombing the person behind the camera did not number 15 David a Johnston why while not a household name David a Johnston was a revered vulcanologist who along with the United States Geological Survey helped save thousands of people through his on-site work tragically Johnston lost his own life in the process all seems well in this photo as Johnston sits in a chair outside looking into the camera little did anyone know that within the next 13 hours Johnston would perish in the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens the eruption preceded by seismic activity was first reported by Johnston who radioed the message quote Vancouver Vancouver this is it within the next seconds the signal went out and Johnston was never heard from again so I guess I had the realization right away that um this was some kind of a tragedy and uh on the one hand it was this huge exciting and interesting magmatic eruption and on the other hand it was I was pretty certain that something terrible had happened to Dave while his remains were never found it's believed that Johnston died at Cold Water 2 a post that wasn't as safe as anticipated I think one of the things to put in perspective is that 234 square miles of that area of Washington were devastated by that blast so 5.7 mil yeah that was within that Devastation Zone the Blast Zone number 14 Mark Jackson's basketball card for dieh hard sports fans you'll recognize the player on this basketball card as Mark Jackson who started his NBA career with the New York Knicks and later coached the Golden State Warriors at first glance this card would likely blend in with the rest of your collection take a closer look at the lower left hand Corner though you see those two young fans sitting in the front row they are Lyle and Eric Menendez two wealthy brothers who took the lives of their allegedly abusive parents on August 20th 1989 the brothers who were thought to have it all at times acting out even going as far as robbing houses until they were caught the brothers weren't arrested for these crimes until March 8th 1990 and in between that time they spent an extravagant amount of money so at the time nothing seemed suspicious to you about them no but soon to detective shifted their focus the brothers were out there spending money like it was water it appears that some of that fortune went towards Nick's tickets before their apprehension number 13 Rodney Alcala if we asked you to name the man in this photo you might take a wild guess and say Christof Waltz if he had Weird Al's hairdresser in reality he's Rodney Alcala The Dating Game Killer how did he get such an outlandish nickname because Alcala appeared on The Dating Game prior to his 1979 arrest the woman who won a date with him ended up backing out saying she found him creepy come on over [Applause] here her intuition probably saved her life others would not be so fortunate well his total victim count could be as high as 130 Alcala was tried for five murders in 2010 almost 31 years after his apprehension Alcala represented himself in court as seen in this picture even more bizarre Alcala was his own defense witness asking himselfe Rodney would you please tell us about your hair Alcala ultimately received the death sentence but died of natural causes while awaiting execution number 12 Ayan tokumasu remember that scene in Superman 2 where a little boy Falls over the rail at Niagara Falls oh my god well that sort of thing happens more often than you think but Superman sadly isn't around to save the day on the surface there doesn't seem to be anything particularly special about this photo which sees several people gathering at Niagara River the woman in the red sweater is Ayano tokumasu an exchange student from Japan if you think standing on that pillar seems kind of dangerous you'd be right not long after the photo was taken she lost her balance and fell over the edge ultimately going down Horseshoe Falls tokumasu was swept from the river's Canadian side to its American side where her lifeless body was discovered people just go too far you know I don't blame anything on the park I just think people wanted to get that extra Edge get closer get closer and unfortunately things happen number 11 the SS gonong the SS Gom may not be a household name like the Titanic but it's forever linked to the Texas city disaster and this photo captured the vessel just before tragedy spiraled out of control on April 16th 1947 smoke was seen emitting from the docked ship in Texas City a fire had broken out with about 2,200 tons of ammonium nitrate aboard this naturally amounted to an explosion but that was only the beginning Texas City Texas was joined by a tremendous blast the blast ignited a subsequent explosion on the high flyer another ship carrying ammonium nitrate and about 8:15 they house me have come aboard the ship that they had a fire Down in the Hole went aboard the ship and we seen smoke coming up from between the cargo and the side of the ship the ensuing Chain Reaction resulted in a loss of 5 81 lives with only one Survivor from the local fire department number 10 Apollo one Pool Party the space pod in the swimming pool is only the second weirdest thing about this photo like how often do you see astronauts lounging on water floats while wearing their space suits surely there must be a humorous story behind such a surreal image unfortunately it's quite the opposite the suited up astronauts in this photo were Gus GM Ed White and Roger B chaffy they were training for the Apollo 1 Mission which was planned to commence in February of 1967 on January 27th of that year a fire broke out in the cabin during a pre-launch test unable to open the hatch door the three men perished in the fire which was caused by electrical problems thus the mission ended before it even started the pad where gram chaffy and wi died is now a memorial Lieutenant Colonel Virgil gram US Air Force and Lieutenant Commander Roger chaffy are buried at the Arlington National Cemetery lieutenant Colonel Edward White is interred at West Point Military Academy Number Nine bear photographer there are countless photos of bears out there and this one doesn't look much different from all the rest since the picture was taken from a distance and the bear isn't charging the photographer seemingly isn't in any immediate danger after Dar Patel snapped this pick using his phone however the bear started to follow him and his friends the group split up as the bear began to close in on them ultimately pursuing Patel his phone was eventually found with animal teeth marks while Patel's body was discovered at a nearby Ravine a Scenic Sunday afternoon ended in horror when five hikers crossed paths with a 300lb black bear that looked similar to this one the bear was still hanging around the 22-year-old's fatally mauled remains and the authorities took the wild animal out we believe this bear was about 4 years old it was not a tagged beer meaning it had no history with the de there was no research done on this beer that we know of it had no previous incident of aggression that would have called it to our attention this photo op came at a steep price for Patel and the bear number eight what are you smiling at the two men being escorted in this photo are Richard Hickock and Perry Edward Smith although handcuffs are visible the Jolly smile on Smith's face suggests they're only in for a mild offense this couldn't be further from the truth ever hair of a book called inold blood well Hickock and Smith provided the basis for this best-selling True Crime novel The Two criminals were convicted for the Clutter family murders and sentenced to death Richard Hickok the first to be executed decided by a coin toss Perry Smith's was second in this chilling photo Hickok and Smith can be seen leaving the courtroom right after receiving the guilty verdict much can be said about Smith's haunting grin if there's one takeaway from the image though it's that this crime was indeed coldblooded number seven BTK at graduation Dennis Raider was his Church's president a cub scout leader and an allaround pillar of the community as you can tell from this photo Raider was also a family man who seemed quite proud of his daughter Carri at her college graduation this would all be overshadowed though when Raider was exposed as the BTK Strangler the letter standing for bind torture kill his preferred Mo when BTK came forward everybody's life changed he would see a woman walking and he would say she's next over the course of multiple decades this seemingly ordinary guy took 10 lives in 20 5 the authorities used Carrie Raider's DNA to link her father to a crime scene culminating in his arrest Carrie had graduated from K State and while there had tests at Health Services both a pap smear and a biopsy investigators traveled to Manhattan with a subpoena in hand for those smears her DNA a direct match to DNA left at BTK crime scenes Raider pled guilty and was subsequently sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences about 14 years after her father was captured Carrie released a book entitled a Serial Killer's daughter my story of Faith love and overcoming that's been like a cathartic process of having to go do really hard work and find those memories again of my father that I had lost and to try to separate my dad back out as my dad and remove the BTK from it number six Dutch girls of Panama scrolling through Instagram chances are you'll stumble across a number of pleasant photos like these standing against a colorful backdrop with Green Hills and blue skies 22-year-old lisana FR appears to have a lovely day ahead of her FR was on vacation with 21-year-old Chris Kramers a fellow Dutch student seen in another photo at the same spot the two set out for a hike in Panama on April 1st 2014 when these picks were taken this was also the day that FR and Kramers disappeared resulting in a grueling search 10 weeks down the line fr's backpack was uncovered with her camera inside FR and Kramer's remains were eventually found scattered across the jungle with the cause of death still up for debate number five Travis Alexander Travis Alexander was 30 when this photo was taken of him in the shower the person behind the camera was jod Aras with whom Alexander had a shaky romantic relationship this was the last photo ever taken of Alexander alive as his friends found his body in the shower a few days later it was only a matter of time until the authorities connected the dots and arrested his ex-girlfriend Aras constantly changed her story originally pleading innocence later claiming that two Intruders broke in and ultimately testifying that she killed Alexander in self-defense why um the simple answer is that he attacked me and I defended myself in the end Aras was deemed guilty of first-degree murder receiving a life sentence we the jury duly impanel and sworn and the above entitled action Upon Our Oaths do find the defendant as to count one first degree murder guilty Alexander appears off guard in this photo he clearly had no idea what was was coming number four the Eternal Shadow at face value this dark outline of a person could be chocked up to some harmless graffiti while we wish that were the case this shadowy figure resulted from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 the US dropped two nuclear weapons little boy and fat man that resulted in anywhere between 129 and 226,000 deaths at 8:14 it was a sunny day at 8:15 it was a hellscape whoever this person was it appears they were using a walking stick during their final moments when the blast hit as a result of the bombing an imprint of this unknown Soul was left on the steps this wasn't an isolated incident as numerous Shadows can still be found around the bombing sites forever immortalizing those horrifying days number three the happy creepy Killer without any background information the wide-eyed kid in this picture probably wouldn't strike you as very threatening when you know the whole story however that innocent smile of his will quickly turn into a ghastly grin this curly-haired 17-year-old is Jeffrey Franklin who killed his parents and attacked his three siblings following a car chase the authorities cornered Franklin at a dead end the photo shows Franklin in the back of a police vehicle not appearing especially distraught over the atrocities he's committed or his impending future Behind Bars claiming he felt like a quote evil being had taken over him Franklin pled guilty and received three consecutive life sentences I I don't blame anybody for the reactions to me because I feel that I Justified most of them number two goodbye John Lennon we're all familiar with the music of John Lennon as well as his tragic fate photographer Paul gorish couldn't have predicted it at the time but this would reportedly be the last picture anyone took of Lennon the image seems innocent enough as the former Beetle signs his autograph for an apparent admirer Lennon's impending demise was creeping up in the photo's Corner however the man standing next to him is none other than Mark David Chapman the one responsible for Lennon's untimely demise hard to get to write at first then he wrote his name John Lennon and then underneath that 1980 and he looked at me as I mentioned earlier he said is that all do you want anything else 6 hours or so after this photo was taken Lennon and Yoko Ono encountered Chapman again outside of their apartment building the Dakota with Lennon's back turned Chapman drew his firearm and the music world would never be the same again so I called The Daily News he said to me um you you think you have what and he said pa are you sure that this is the man that that you believe killed him and I said well that's the man named Mark from Hawaii who was waiting out there all day with the album who got the autograph before we continue be sure to subscribe to our Channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos you have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them if you're on your phone make sure sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications number one Tyler Hadley and the Red Solo Cup mere hours before raising his Red Solo Cup in this pick 17-year-old Tyler Hadley hid his parents cell phones and shut their dog in a closet Hadley proceeded to end his mother's life and then did the same to his father after cleaning up the mess Hadley shared on Facebook he was throwing a party that very night at said party Hadley told his best friend Michael Mandel all about his heinous actions after he told told me I didn't believe him because he's been my best friend forever I would never suspect anything like this and I was looking around he told me if I look it enough I could see signs I looked on the floor I could see signs of blood and that's when I went around back and looked in his parents bedroom using his phone Mandel subsequently took this picture with Hadley knowing it would be the last time they ever saw each other leaving the party Mandel called Crimestoppers this led to Hadley's arrest and life sentence without parole nearly 3 years of pain and worry now starting to slowly subside with the stroke of a gavel have you ever been shocked by a supposedly inconspicuous picture let us know in the comments below you could see the horror on this in its face

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Keywords: caught, caught on camera, creepiest, creepy, creepy photos, crime, criminal, disturbing, disturbing backstories, disturbing photos, disturbing pictures, disturbing stories, history, killer, list, mojo, photo, photos, picture, pictures, pictures with disturbing backstories, scariest, scary, scary photos, scary story, serial killer, shocking photos, top 10, true crime, true crime stories, watch mojo, watchMojo

Id: wEatHqzaHk8

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2024