Titus Andronicus: Performed In Japanese, It Is A 2006 Production By The Ninagawa Company Staged In Stratford-upon-Avon.

This painting known as “The Anguished Man” was kept in Sean Robinson’s grandmother’s attic for 20+ years before Sean Robinson inherited this painting from her. She warned him about the painting, and said it was “haunted.” She told him that the man who painted this, mixed his own blood with the paint and after he was finished, killed himself (why would you keep this).

After Robinson took this home with him, he started experiencing some strange things as well. His wife felt her hair being stroked from time to time, they would see this shadow figure walking around the house and crying, and Robinson was even pushed down the stairs by something. There is also a video you can watch.

Whether this is true or fake, this has to be one of the creepiest paintings I have ever seen.

Saponification is the process of the human body partly or completely turning to soap. The fatty tissue and the liquid from putrefaction gradually form into adipocere, which is also known as grave wax. This process can happen to embalmed and non-embalmed bodies. It is most common with those who are overweight. The photograph above is of “The Soap Lady” who is housed at the Mutter Museum. She is entirely composed of grave wax.

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

Unique case of Fake Persian Princess Mummy - Unexplained Mysteries

A "mummy" that duped archaeologists and nearly sparked a diplomatic row between Pakistan and Iran is finally being laid to rest.

The Persian Princess or Persian Mummy is a mummy of an alleged Persian princess who surfaced in Pakistani Baluchistan in October 2000. After considerable attention and further investigation, the mummy proved to be an archaeological forgery and possibly a murder victim.

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. 

De Loys’ Ape This creature was killed on the Venezuela/Columbia border in 1917 by Francois De Loys and his party.  This creature appears to be a very man-like ape.  It has never been identified as a known species.  De Loys group was attack by these creatures and they shot and killed one of them.  The creature was about 5 ft tall and had a very human like appearance and movements.  The size and shape of the creatures forehead show that it isn’t even closely related to known primates of South America.    Could this creature be the missing link between man and ape ?  Is this creature or one of it’s relatives responsible for the bigfoot/yeti sightings ?

Jane Bielawski and her doll “Missy”. Following the suspicious death of some of her playmates in New York tenement, police attempted to interview Jane. According to reports, the young girl went ‘crazy’ and accused her doll of the murders, before throwing the doll out of her apartment window while screaming “Bad dolly. Naughty dolly!” Jane was taken to Bloomingdale Asylum to be treated for ‘hysterica’. She was never to leave the institution, dying there an old woman in 1968.

Throughout the 18th and 19th century, grave-robbing was quite prevalent. Due to this, many cemeteries were protected with cemetery guns. The one above is from the Museum of Mourning Art. The gun sits on a turret, allowing it to move freely. It would be set up with a tripwire, meaning that when the unsuspecting grave robber got close to the grave that he intended to rob, he would trigger the weapon, killing him.

The Cannibal House Part 3 (pt. 1 | 2) — Armin Meiwes had a lonley childhood. His father left when he was young, with his two half-brothers following soon after. This left him alone with his controlling and strict mother that would often criticize him in public and insist on going everywhere with him. After his mother’s death in 1999, he was given ownership of their large mansion. It is rumoured that he created a shrine for his mother in the house, which included a mannequin that he would lay on a pillow each night. Even to this day, her closet is still filled with her clothes. Meiwes was arrested only three years after his mother’s passing, which suggests that her death may have fuelled his obsession with cannibalism.

“ 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.