Listverse.com's Ultimate Book of Bizarre Lists: Fascinating Facts and Shocking Trivia on Movies, Music, Crime, Celebrities, History, and More

By Jamie Frater

Another incredible collection of unusual trivia sure to shock and amaze, from the people who brought you The Ultimate Book of Top Ten Lists.

Discover freaks of nature, odd crimes, shocking deaths, devastating disasters, blood-curdling rites, crazy conspiracies and much more. Here are just some of the lists full of fascinating facts awaiting you inside:

•Gruesome Torture Devices

•Mass Hysteria Outbreaks

•Unbelievable Miniatures

•Disturbingly Scary Clowns

•Outer Space Mysteries

•Astonishing Aphrodisiacs

•Disgusting Ancient Jobs

•Spooky Sports Curses

•World-Famous Penises

•Mail-Order-Bride Shockers

•Brutal Pope Deaths

•Outrageous Wedding Locales

•Grossest Edible Animals

•Appalling Religious Practices

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781569758854

Jamie Frater

Jamie Frater was born in Naenae, a suburb of Lower Hutt, New Zealand, in 1974. He studied postgraduate music at the Royal College of Music in London, after which, due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts, he created listverse.com where he presents a new top ten list every day. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations in the United States and Great Britain. Jamie now writes full-time for his California-based website from his home.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Life and Death

10 STORIES OF BIZARRE BIRTHS

10 TWINS WITH DIFFERENT FATHERS

Mia Washington had twin boys, but her husband is the biological father of only one. Washington had an usual case of birthing fraternal twins with two separate fathers. This story has become more common because of occasional in-vitro-treatment tales of lab error in which a few eggs were contaminated with the wrong sperm; however, Washington’s story unfolds much more naturally. She first became pregnant when having a little fun with either her husband or her lover. Very soon afterward, she met up with the other man and a second egg was released and fertilized. This is a medical rarity known as heteropaternal superfecundation, and only a handful of cases have ever been documented. When the two babies were born and one looked nothing like the father, the truth was discovered. Mr. Washington adopted Mia’s other son and took the fatherly role for both children.

9 DIFFERENT COLORED TWINS

The chances of a mixed-race couple having twins who look as if they are of different races are a million to one, but there are occasional stories that pop up about them, like Kian and Remee Hodgson and Ryan and Leo Gerth. A British couple has become even more of an exception by having two sets of twins who look remarkably different. Miya and Leah Durrant were born in December 2008, and their older sisters, Hayleigh and Lauren, were born seven years earlier. Miya has the black hair and dark complexion of her father Dean Durrant and older sister Hayleigh, while Leah has blue eyes and paler skin just like mom Alison Spooner and older sister Lauren.

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8 OLDEST MOTHER

In 2008 and at the age of 70, Rajo Devi became the oldest woman to give birth. She and her husband had unsuccessfully tried to conceive all throughout their 50 years of marriage and thought it was impossible after she went through menopause in her late 50s. However, after entering a fertility program at an in-vitro clinic, Devi was successfully impregnated by a donor egg that was fertilized with the sperm of her 72-year-old husband. On December 6, she gave birth to a baby girl, and both mother and daughter are healthy. Latest reports claim that the happy septuagenarians are attempting in-vitro fertilization again in hopes of having a baby boy.

7 YOUNGEST MOTHER

Lina Medina of Peru holds the record as the world’s youngest mother. When she gave birth to her son on May 14, 1939, Lina was only five years old. Her son, Gerardo, spent his childhood believing his grandmother was his mother and his true mother was his older sister. He died at the age of 40 from bone marrow disease, but there was no indication that his unusual birth had anything to do with his problem. Although studies about the pair are hard to find, what is known is that both mother and son were both healthy and suffered no visible affects of such a bizarre birth. Lina married in 1972 and gave birth to her second child that same year—33 years after Gerardo was born. To this day, Gerardo’s biological father is unknown and Lina refuses to disclose that information.

6 TINIEST BABIES

James Elgin Gil was born May 20, 1987, in Ottawa, Canada, and is the world’s youngest surviving premature baby. He was born 21 weeks and 5 days into gestation (more than 18 weeks too early). To understand the gravity of the situation, one should know that the survival rates for premature babies born at 22 weeks is less than 10 percent. Many hospitals will refuse to give medical attention to babies born before the 22-week mark. This baby lucked out by weighing a hefty 1.1 pounds (482 grams) at birth, which increased his chances of survival. The title for tiniest single baby goes to Amillia Sonja Taylor of Florida. She was born at 21 weeks and 6 days but weighed only 10 ounces (283 grams). Remarkably, the hospitals where both of them were born decided to bring the babies to the intensive care units, and they are now both healthy and doing fine.

5 BIGGEST BABIES

The record for birthing the world’s heaviest (surviving) newborn belongs to Sig. Carmelina Fedele of Aversa, Italy. In September 1955, she gave birth to a baby boy who weighed 22 pounds 8 ounces (10.2 kilograms), but not much else is known about the boy. Second place belongs to a boy born in September 2009 weighing 19 pounds 3 ounces (8.7 kilograms). The name of the child wasn’t released, but what is known is that he was born to an Indonesian woman with a history of diabetes. Due to insulin problems, diabetic women tend to have larger-than-average babies. Her three previous children were also heavier-than-average kids, but this little boy was significantly bigger!

4 TOILET BABY

There’s an alarming number of stories to be found of babies born near or even in the toilet, but Bhuri Kalbi’s daughter has the distinction of being born while mom was on a toilet of an Indian train. Kalbi was only seven months pregnant when she rode this particular train, so she hadn’t anticipated the outcome of her trip to the bathroom. She felt like she needed to use the toilet, but what actually happened was a precipitous birth, or a quick birth commonly associated with pregnancy complications. Toilets on Indian trains are chutes that empty directly onto the tracks, so after the precipitous birth, Kalbi’s baby fell through the hole and onto the tracks as the train was in motion. After receiving the alert, staff at a nearby station found the baby girl still alive on the tracks.

3 BORN IN A TREE

Carolina Chirindza gave birth to her baby, Rositha, in a tree. In 2000, Chirindza’s home in Mozambique was overcome by rapidly moving high floodwaters, so she climbed up a tree to avoid the crocodile-infested waters. For four days without food or water, she waited for rescue. Baby Rositha was born on the fourth day, and fortunately, a South African military helicopter rescued them shortly thereafter. There is also a tree-birth story from Papua New Guinea. The pregnant Nolan Yekum and her husband were hung from a tree after being accused of witchcraft. She gave birth mere moments before she and her husband freed themselves from their nooses and went into hiding. Both tree babies and moms were eventually admitted to hospitals and given good bills of health.

2 A COUNTRY’S QUINTS

Their names are Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie, and Yvonne, but they are better known as the Dionne Quints. They are the only recorded set of identical quintuplets and one of the very few sets of naturally conceived high multiples to survive infancy. On May 28, 1934, the Dionne Quints were born to the impoverished Elzire and Oliva Dionne of Canada. When the quints were nine months old, they were taken from their parents and became wards of the state to live in an estate that became known as Quintland. There, they lived a rigid schedule consisting of either medical testing or structured playtime outdoors in the observatory field where tourists could watch them without interacting with the children. In fact, they had very little contact with people, aside from the nurses and house staff. When they were nine years old, their parents won back custody of the children, but they continued the girls’ fish-bowl existence with various engagements, photo-ops, and tourist attractions to turn a profit from the publicity. The sisters claimed they never saw any of the purported millions of dollars made by the government and their parents from this bizarre upbringing. With their privacy severely abused and their childhoods traumatized, the Dionne Quints severed ties with the rest of their family, and the three surviving sisters currently share a modest house and an intensely private life in Montreal.

1 THE GREAT STORK DERBY

Charles Vance Miller had an ordinary birth and never had children of his own, but he certainly deserves a spot on a list of bizarre birth stories. By the time of his death in 1926, the Canadian lawyer amassed a large fortune but had no one to leave it to. He was a strange fellow whose puckish attitude was reflected in his will. Among his many oddball bequests was that his Jamaican vacation home be given to three lawyers who absolutely hated each other. When the last lawyer died, the house would be sold and the money given to Toronto’s poor. The will also stated that any extra money was to be given to the mother who gives birth to the highest number of legitimate children within the ten years after his death. The event became known as the Great Stork Derby, and by the end of the ten-year period, six moms split the fortune: $125,000 each to four women who gave birth to nine children apiece, and $12,500 to two women, one of whom had two stillbirths and the other who had children with someone who was not her husband. The prizes may not seem like much now, but each was a fortune given the Great Depression of the early ‘30s. Happily, all of the families used their money wisely, and the children’s educations were the top priority.

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10 BIZARRE BIRTH DEFECTS

10 SIAMESE TWINS

We are all familiar with the tales of Siamese twins (named for the country of birth of the first known conjoined twins). It is, of course, a rare disorder in which twins are born joined together at one or more parts of their bodies. In the most rare cases, children can be born joined at the top of their head. Sometimes Siamese twins can be separated, allowing both to live full lives, but more frequently, this is not possible.

9 AMBRAS SYNDROME

Ambras Syndrome is a disorder that causes someone to be born with excessive hair over the face and body. This is fortunately a very rare disease; in fact, there are only 40 humans in the world with it at present. The disease is extremely debilitating for children, as they are often rejected by their peers.

8 FUSED LIMBS

Fused limbs are two limbs which are joined together. This can happen in some cases with toes or fingers, but in a recent case in Peru, a young girl was born with her legs completely fused, giving her the appearance of a mermaid. One in every 70,000 babies has this disorder.

7 CYCLOPIA

Cyclopia is named for the famous mythical creature the Cyclops. Children born with cyclopia have one eye in the middle of their head. It is believed that the cause may be related to certain cancer treatment drugs taken by pregnant women.

6 CRANIOPAGUS PARASITICUS

Craniopagus parasiticus is a condition in which a child is born with a parasitic extra head from their unborn twin. There have only been ten cases of it in documented history, with only three surviving birth. In one bizarre case, the second head was able to smile, blink, cry, and suckle.

5 FETUS IN FETU

Fetus in fetu is when a child is born with his twin inside him, giving the appearance of pregnancy. Both twins are usually formed from one egg, but during the pregnancy, one is absorbed by the other and it begins to live off it like a parasite. Surgery can usually remove the undeveloped twin from the stronger one with no ill effects.

4 FIBRODYSPLASIA OSSIFICANS PROGRESSIVA

Children who are born with this disease grow bone in areas that are hurt. Where a child is injured and would normally scar or have their skin grow back, the child suffering from fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva develops bone in sufficiently large quantities that it can become debilitating, with the excess bone fusing joints. The bone cannot be removed in surgery because it would cause more bone to grow in the surgery wounds.

3 PROGERIA

Progeria occurs in one in eight million births. It causes a child to look aged well beyond their years. Children with progeria lose their hair, develop wrinkles, and take on the facial characteristics of the very old. Severe arterial damage caused by the disease means that most sufferers die by the time they hit adolescence.

2 VESTIGIAL TAIL

Vestigial tail is when a child is born with a semi-functional tail, complete with muscles, nerves, skin, and blood vessels. It is believed to be caused by a mutation of the genes that exist in infants to cause the cellular death of body parts that are not needed.

1 ANENCEPHALY

Anencephaly is the absence of a brain and spinal cord. There is no cure and most anencephalic babies die during childbirth. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a baby born with anencephaly is usually blind, deaf, unconscious, and unable to feel pain. Although some individuals with anencephaly may be born with a main brain stem, the lack of a functioning cerebrum permanently rules out the possibility of ever gaining consciousness. Reflex actions such as breathing and responses to sound or touch occur.

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10 PAINFUL RITES OF PASSAGE

10 SEPIK SCARIFICATION

The tribes living along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea have used the tradition of scarification to mature their boys into men for decades. The ceremony requires the youth to be cut along his back, chest, and buttocks in elaborate patterns to mimic the coarse skin of a crocodile. It is thought that this reptilian divinity consumes his youth during the bloody process, leaving behind a man in his place.

Before he can be treated as a man, though, the boy is subjected to humiliation in a ritual that can take weeks. In fact, the boys are referred to as women and regarded that way in order to psychologically toughen them. The scarification, parallel to the taunts, strengthens them physically because it requires a vast amount of discipline to go through the ritual, withstanding hundreds of cuts. The raw wounds are cleaned after the scarification is complete but the pain endured continues for days as their bodies heal.

9 NAGHOL—LAND DIVING

In the South Pacific Ocean on Pentecost Island, tribe members construct a tower 60 to 90 feet (20 to 30 meters) high made from the trees surrounding a clearing. Rocks and wood are removed from the ground and the soil is tilled before the tower is built. The rickety structure is then used as a foundation for the world’s most extreme form of bungee jumping, with only two vines and faith supporting a diver.

The ritual is done to ensure the yam harvest that year will be successful; the higher they dive, the better the harvest will be. It’s also thought to strengthen participants spiritually as they take the leap of faith. While diving is not required, those that do are revered in the community and seen as true warriors. After all, to dive means to sacrifice your life for the tribe. They embrace the possibility of death during the initiation; it would be like taking one for the team. Boys around seven and eight (once they are circumcised) can participate, and they’re considered men after they survive the fall.

The risks are obvious. Divers are prone to concussions and broken hips and necks, and that’s if the vines don’t snap (and if they don’t impale themselves). If the vine is measured correctly, the only pain a diver will experience is the sudden harsh pull at his ankles once he drops, a painful feeling which will stay with him for days. It’s common to see tribe members’ heads hit the ground after a jump, but for the most part, they survive unscathed.

8 MARDUDJARA ABORIGINAL SUBINCISION

In Australia, a Mardudjara Aboriginal youth must go through a lengthy process to become a real man. Between six and eight years of age, he’s considered dead, prohibited from speaking. He travels with the men of his tribe to neighboring communities where he’s given a special ceremony around a bonfire. Elders dance and chant for him to ensure a successful initiation. He lies down on the backs of his brethren who form a human table so that the surgeon may sit on his chest. The boy is offered an object to bite down on as the foreskin of his penis is sliced off. To complete this stage of the rite of passage, he must then swallow the severed foreskin, without chewing, so that it may strengthen him from within.

Several weeks later, the final phase is ready to be undertaken. Lying down, he’s given yet another object to bite while his penis is held erect. Another surgeon cuts along the underside of the penis. To ensure that the incision is done properly, a thin wooden stick is inserted into the urethra to guide the blade. Cut lengths vary, some only an inch while others go as low as to the scrotum. Once the operation is complete, the boy is guided to the fire so that the flames may heal his fresh wound. He is now a man.

7 ROMAN INFIBULATIONS

Speaking of penis, the ancient Romans also had their own initiation method. Infibulation is the process of suturing the foreskin. Using string or a metal clasp, the foreskin was closed and the penis was drawn to the side. Most infibulations were self-inflicted.

This was done for several reasons. For singers, infibulations helped keep their voice through the years. It also was thought to capture and retain gladiators’ might and vitality. In some cases, an exposed penis was thought to be vulgar, especially the head of the penis, so infibulations were done to show modesty and restraint. Youths were exposed to the process to keep them from masturbating and to help them abstain from sexual intercourse. It was a show of maturity to suture your own foreskin.

6 MENTAWAI TEETH CHISELING

Female Mentawaians of Sumatra experience an agonizing practice known as teeth chiseling. A local shaman sharpens a crude blade as best he can to make the chiseling as least painful as possible. The young girl is given nothing to numb the feeling in her mouth before he takes a rock and begins to hack away. Using careful strikes, the blade carves the corners of the teeth, leaving behind pointed ends similar to shark teeth. To finish the process, her teeth are filed to achieve the desired shape.

This is done to young girls because it is believed to make them more attractive. It’s also said that sharpened teeth please the spirits the tribes believe in and bring balance to a female’s life. It’s an old tradition the Mentawaians have been following for years, but the practice isn’t as common anymore. Today, it’s up to the girl to decide if she wants her teeth chiseled to become beautiful.

5 XHOSA MALE CIRCUMCISIONS

It’s a celebration when a boy has the opportunity to become a man for the Xhosa people of South Africa. The abakwetha (male initiate) is shaved, and he’s given a feast before he’s taken to the mountains, where a hut is built for him by his family. The hut will be his home for the next several weeks, so it’s fortified to keep insects and animals away (primarily to protect from disease).

Without any preparation, the surgeon appears and conducts the circumcision. The foreskin is removed, often with a dull blade, and the boy is left alone. He takes refuge in his hut, where he cannot eat or drink water until he’s healed. The risk of infection is high. The blade alone, which is used on multiple boys transitioning into men, can often carry STDs. One of the big fears of the boys going into the procedure is news of previous abakwetha that have been hospitalized because of the circumcision.

4 FULANI WHIP MATCH

The Fulani people from Benin live nomadically in West Africa. For their boys to be considered men, they must endure a tormenting, bloody whip match that will test their strength, self-control, and bravery. The initiate picks a long stick and sharpens it in a way that will guarantee the most painful blow with every whip. Once he has his weapon, clans from all over gather for the ceremony, in which two youths are pitted against each other.

His goal is to hit his opponent the hardest and to wince the least when he’s struck. Three blows are given by each boy. The crowd decides who has shown the most courage through the ordeal and is the winner of the match.

3 SABINY FEMALE CIRCUMCISIONS

Girls of the Sabiny tribe in Uganda go through genital mutilation to achieve womanhood. The pain that comes with the tradition is part of the experience that can’t be matched. If a girl can survive the ordeal, she proves herself strong enough to endure any and all obstacles that she may face in the rest of her life. Female circumcisions are complete when the clitoris is partially cut or completely removed. The Sabiny believe this will make a woman faithful to her husband and keep her from sexual promiscuity. Infection and likeliness of death is high. This, among other health complications, is just part of the tradition that a woman must withstand to prove herself.

2 MATAUSA BLOOD INITIATION

Papua New Guinea isn’t known just for the crocodile scarification ritual, as seen earlier in the list. Deep in the highlands, an equally gruesome rite of passage exists. The Matausa believe that if a boy doesn’t complete the blood initiation, he may suffer the consequences his entire life. He will never be seen as a real man and he won’t experience the vigor and strength that the others have. That’s why boys are eager to go through the initiation, regardless of pain, to become warriors.

In order to do this, they must cleanse themselves of any remaining female influences left in them from their mothers. First, they must slide two thin wooden canes down their throats to induce vomiting several times to empty their stomachs. Afterward, a collection of reeds are inserted into the initiate’s nose to further expel bad influence. Finally, they must endure repeated stabbings to the tongue. This bloody ritual thus purifies them and they are truly men afterward.

1 SATERE-MAWE BULLET ANT GLOVE

The Brazilian Satere-Mawe tradition that makes young boys into warriors has become notorious in recent years. Explorers, adventurers, and documentarians flock to the Amazon to catch a glimpse of what is considered to be one of the most painful rites of passage on earth. What makes the initiation so torturous? The culprit is the bullet ant.

According to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, the bullet ant has the worst known insect sting. A single sting is comparable to being shot with a bullet (hence the name). The intense pain lasts a full 24 hours and can lead to vomiting, nausea, and cardiac dysrhythmia. And that’s all from one sting. The Satere-Mawe don’t use just one ant.

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More than 30 bullet ants are submerged in a liquid natural sedative drug until they are unconscious. A glove weaved from leaves is fashioned and then completed by placing the ants in the tight openings, stingers pointed inward. Once the ants are conscious, they struggle to free themselves from the weaving, growing more anxious and desperate with each passing second. The boy being initiated has his hands coated in a thin layer of charcoal before slipping on two bullet-ant gloves. He must endure their stings for ten minutes. The goal is to keep from screaming or showing signs of weakness. He and the tribe members present chant and dance to take his mind off the pain. Once the ritual is complete, he will suffer from the stings for days, but he’s one step closer to being a warrior; this process must be repeated an additional 20 times in the following months for it be officially complete.

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10 TRULY BIZARRE DEATHS

10 THE DONATISTS

Donatism was an early Christian heretical movement that was named after Donatus Magnus, Bishop of Carthage, in AD 313. The Donatists believed that the church should be a church of saints and not sinners. This view led huge numbers of followers to seek out martyrdom, either by suicide or by asking strangers to kill them (often in large groups). This was such a widespread belief that it is surprising to know that they survived—albeit as a very small sect—until the 7th or 8th century.

9 AL-MUSTA’SIM

In 1258, Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded the Abbasid region, comprising modern Iraq and Syria. Al-Musta’sim, the Caliph, raised no repelling army and consequently fell into the hands of Kahn who, being a relatively decent man, needed to execute him but didn’t want to spill royal blood. Khan came up with a brilliant idea. He had Al-Musta’sim rolled up in a rug and ordered his men to trample him to death with their horses. Such compassion was not shown for Al-Musta’sim’s sons, most of whom were summarily executed.

8 CLEMENT VALLANDIGHAM

Vallandigham was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and he suffered not just a bizarre death, but an ironic one. While working as a lawyer, Vallandigham needed to prove that his client, who was on trial for murder, had accidentally shot the victim when taking his gun out of his pocket. To prove that it was possible, Vallandigham put the gun in his pocket and drew it. The gun fired as he had predicted but unfortunately it killed him. His client was acquitted.

7 ALEXANDER I OF GREECE

While walking in his royal gardens, King Alexander I of Greece was bitten by two monkeys. He contracted sepsis and died three weeks later. His death had a serious impact on Greece because it restored his pro-German father, the deposed Constantine I, to the throne.

6 J. G. PARRY-THOMAS

John Godfrey Parry-Thomas was a famed engineer and racecar driver from Wales. In his attempt to break his own world land-speed record, a chain in the car’s engine snapped, hitting him in the head and killing him. At the time he was traveling at 170 miles per hour.

5 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

Tennessee Williams, the author of some of the greatest plays in U.S. history, died by choking on the lid of an eye drop bottle. He took the eye drops regularly and would open the bottle with his teeth. While holding the lid in his mouth as he tilted his head back to administer the drops, he accidentally swallowed the lid and died.

4 GARRY HOY

Garry Hoy was a lawyer who worked on the 24th floor of the Toronto-Dominion Centre. Hoy insisted that the glass windows of the office were unbreakable; to prove it, he threw himself at one full force. Alas, the windows were not unbreakable, and he hurtled to his death 24 floors below. For his efforts, he was awarded a Darwin award in 1996.

3 ALLAN PINKERTON

Allan Pinkerton was a spy and a detective who is best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the first of its kind in the United States. In 1884, he slipped on the pavement and bit his tongue. The tongue became infected, and within two weeks it caused him to die of gangrene as he refused to get treatment for it.

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2 FRANK HAYES

Frank Hayes is most well-known for the honor of being the only man to win a horse race while he was dead! In the middle of the race, he suffered a fatal heart attack. Despite carrying dead weight, his horse, Sweet Kiss, ran on to win the race.

1 MITHRIDATES

Mithridates was a Persian soldier who accidentally killed Cyrus the Younger, son of Darius II of Persia. For such a blunder, he was put to death by scaphism. Here is an ancient account of his grueling 17-day death:

[The king] decreed that Mithridates should be put to death in boats; which execution is made in the following manner: Taking two boats framed exactly to fit and answer each other, they lay down in one of them the malefactor that suffers, upon his back; then, covering it with the other, and so setting them together that the head, hands, and feet of him are left outside, and the rest of his body lies shut up within, they offer him food, and if he refuse to eat it, they force him to do it by pricking his eyes; then, after he has eaten, they drench him with a mixture of milk and honey, pouring it not only into his mouth, but all over his face. They then keep his face continually turned towards the sun; and it becomes completely covered up and hidden by the multitude of flies that settle on it. And as within the boats he does what those that eat and drink must needs do, creeping things and vermin spring out of the corruption and rottenness of the excrement, and these entering into the bowels of him, his body is consumed. When the man is manifestly dead, the uppermost boat being taken off, they find his flesh devoured, and swarms of such noisome creatures preying upon and, as it were, growing to his inwards. In this way Mithridates, after suffering for seventeen days, at last expired.—Plutarch

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10 BIZARRE DEATH-RELATED FACTS

10 GREGORY BIGGS

The film Struck is loosely based on the death of Gregory Biggs, a homeless man from Texas. He was struck by a car driven by a woman who was high on drugs. He became lodged in her windshield, and she drove home with him stuck there. She left him in the garage and visited him throughout the night, apologizing for hitting him. Several hours later, he died of his injuries. The driver was eventually given a 50-year prison sentence.

9 DISENFR ANCHISED GRIEF

Disenfranchised grief is the name given to the types of grief that society generally does not acknowledge as serious, such as the death of a pet, a miscarried pregnancy, the loss of a parent, or giving a child up for adoption. Some people even suffer disenfranchised grief at the loss of celebrities. This can create serious problems for the sufferer as there are seldom any support systems in place to help the grieving process.

8 SAFETY COFFINS

Safety coffins are surprisingly common throughout modern history, with the first being recorded in 1792. A safety coffin is a normal coffin that is fitted with special attachments for use in the event that a person be buried alive in it. These devices usually consist of breathing tubes and some system for the victim to alert the living of their plight.

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7 DEATH ERECTION

A death erection (also called terminal erection) is a postmortem erection that is observed in the bodies of executed men. It is particularly common in cases of hangings. The cause of the erection is the swift movement of blood to the lower regions of the body.

6 WALKING GHOST

The ominously named walking ghost is a phase of radiation poisoning in which the victim still appears to have good health. It can last for days, but in all cases it is followed by death. The reason for the syndrome is that it takes time for radiation poisoning to take effect in the body.

5 LAZARUS SYNDROME

Lazarus syndrome is when a dead person returns to life unexpectedly after an unusually long period of time. In one case, a man arose 17 minutes after resuscitation efforts were ended and he was declared dead. This obviously has implications for medical ethics with regards to knowing whether a person is truly dead in order to harvest their organs for transplant.

4 REPUBLICAN MARRIAGE

The republican marriage is a sometimes disputed practice in which a man and a woman are tied naked together and then drowned. It was originally described in the 18th century in relation to the French revolution (hence the name). Some reports also state that the couple is run through with a sword prior to drowning.

3 LONDON NECROPOLIS RAILWAY STATION

Unbeknownst to most Londoners, beneath their feet runs the London Necropolis Railway Station, a specially constructed station designed to service the Brookwood cemetery. The line opened in 1854 and ran until it was hit by a bomb during World War I. The entrance can still be seen on Westminster Bridge Road.

2 LAL BIHARI

Lal Bihari, born in 1961, is a farmer who was officially declared dead after his uncle bribed an official to do so in order for him to gain ownership of his nephew’s land. Bihari launched a campaign to have himself declared alive again, and in the course of his efforts found at least 100 others who had suffered the same fate. By 2004, four members (including Bihari) of the Association of the Dead had had their status as living restored.

1 MASCHALISMOS

Maschalismos is a practice dating back to ancient Greece in which corpses are mutilated to prevent them from inflicting their anger on the living. In some parts of Europe, people who committed suicide had a stake driven through their hearts before burial, and in some parts of Australia, dead bodies are beaten to break their bones. This unusual practice is found all over the world.

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10 HORRIFYING PREMATURE BURIALS

10 VIRGINIA MACDONALD, 1851

Virginia Macdonald lived with her father in New York City and became ill, died, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. After the burial, her mother declared and persistently asserted her belief that her daughter was not dead when she was buried. The family tried in vain to assure the mother of the death of her daughter. Finally, the mother insisted so strenuously that her daughter was buried alive that the family consented to have the body dug up. To their horror, they discovered the body lying on its side, the hands badly bitten, and every indication of a premature burial.

Interesting Fact: When the Les Innocents cemetery in Paris, France, was moved from the center of the city to the suburbs, the number of skeletons found face down convinced many people and several doctors that premature burial was very common.

9 MADAM BLUNDEN, 1896

When Madam Blunden was thought to be dead, she was buried in the Blunden family vault at Holy Ghost Chapel in Basingstoke, England. The vault was situated beneath a boys’ school. The day after the funeral, when the schoolboys were playing, they heard a noise from the vault below. After one of the boys ran and told his teacher about the noises, and the sexton was summoned. The vault and the coffin were opened just in time to witness Madam Blunden’s final breath. All possible means were used to resuscitate her, but they were unsuccessful. In her agony, she had torn frantically at her face and had bitten the nails off her fingers.

Interesting Fact: A large number of designs for safety coffins were patented during the 18th and 19th centuries. Safety coffins were fitted with a mechanism to allow the occupant to signal that he or she has been buried alive.

8 NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE, 1886

WOODSTOCK, Ontario, Jan. 18—Recently a girl named Collins died here, as it was supposed, very suddenly. A day or two ago the body was exhumed, prior to its removal to another burial place, when the discovery was made that the girl had been buried alive. Her shroud was torn into shreds, her knees were drawn up to her chin, one of her arms was twisted under her head, and her features bore evidence of dreadful torture.

Interesting Fact: In the 19th century, Dr. Timothy Clark Smith of Vermont was so concerned about the possibility of being buried alive that he arranged to be buried in a special crypt that included a breathing tube and a glass window in his grave marker that would permit him to peer out to the living world six feet above.

7 DAILY TELEGRAPH ARTICLE, 1889

GRENOBLE, Jan. 18—A gendarme was buried alive the other day in a village near Grenoble. The man had become intoxicated on potato brandy, and fell into a profound sleep. After twenty hours passed in slumber, his friends considered him to be dead, particularly as his body assumed the usual rigidity of a corpse. When the sexton, however, was lowering the remains of the ill-fated gendarme into the grave, he heard moans and knocks proceeding from the interior of the ‘four-boards.’ He immediately bored holes in the sides of the coffin, to let in air, and then knocked off the lid. The gendarme had, however, ceased to live, having horribly mutilated his head in his frantic but futile efforts to burst his coffin open.

Interesting Fact: The fear of being buried alive is called taphephobia. The word comes from the Greek taphos, meaning grave, and phobia is from the Greek phobos, meaning fear; literally, it is the fear of the grave, or fear of being put in the grave while still alive.

6 THE SUNDAY TIMES ARTICLE, 1838

TONNEINS, Dec. 30—A frightful case of premature interment occurred not long since, at Tonneins, in the Lower Garonne. The victim, a man in the prime of life, had only a few shovelfuls of earth thrown into his grave when an indistinct noise was heard to proceed from his coffin. The grave-digger, terrified beyond description, instantly fled to seek assistance, and some time elapsed before his return, when the crowd, which had by this time collected in considerable numbers round the grave, insisted on the coffin being opened. As soon as the first boards had been removed, it was ascertained beyond a doubt, that the occupant had been interred alive. His countenance was frightfully contracted with the agony he had undergone, and, in his struggles, the unhappy man had forced his arms completely out of the winding sheet, in which they had been securely enveloped. A physician, who was on the spot, opened a vein, but no blood flowed. The sufferer was beyond the reach of art.

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Interesting Fact: In The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, one of the scenarios listed is how to survive if you are buried alive in a coffin. If anyone finds themselves in the same predicament as the people on this list, you can read some life-saving information there.

5 BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, 1877

December 8—It appeared from the evidence that some time ago a woman was interred with all the usual formalities, it being believed that she was dead, while she was only in a trance. Some days afterwards, the grave in which she had been placed being opened for the reception of another body, it was found that the clothes which covered the unfortunate woman were torn to pieces, and that she had even broken her limbs in attempting to extricate herself from the living tomb. The Court, after hearing the case, sentenced the doctor who had signed the certificate of decease, and the mayor who had authorized the interment, each to three months’ imprisonment for involuntary manslaughter.

Interesting Fact: Today, when a definition of death is required, doctors usually turn to brain death to define a person as being clinically dead. People are considered dead when the electrical activity in their brain ceases.

4 NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE, 1884

DAYTON, Feb. 8.—A sensation has been created here by the discovery of the fact that Miss Hockwalt, a young lady of high social connections, who was supposed to have died suddenly on Jan. 10, was buried alive. The terrible truth was discovered a few days ago, and since then it has been the talk of the city. The circumstance of Miss Hockwalt’s death was peculiar. It occurred on the morning of the marriage of her brother to Miss Emma Schwind at Emannel’s Church. Shortly before 6 o’clock the young lady was dressing for the nuptials and had gone into the kitchen. A few moments afterward she was found sitting on a chair with her head leaning against a wall and apparently lifeless. Medical aid was summoned in, Dr. Jewett who, after examination, pronounced her dead. Mass was being read at the time in Emannel’s Church and it was thought best to continue, and the marriage was performed in gloom. The examination showed that Anna was of excitable temperament, nervous, and affected with sympathetic palpitation of the heart. Dr. Jewett thought this was the cause of her supposed death. On the following day, the lady was interred in the Woodland. The friends of Miss Hockwalt were unable to forget the terrible impression and several ladies observe that her eyes bore a remarkably natural color and could not dispel an idea that she was not dead. They conveyed their opinion to Annie’s parents and the thought preyed upon them so that the body was taken from the grave. It was stated that when the coffin was opened it was discovered that the supposed inanimate body had turned upon its right side. The hair had been torn out in handfuls and the flesh had been bitten from the fingers. The body was reinterred and efforts made to suppress the facts, but there are those who state they saw the body and know the facts to be as narrated.

Interesting Fact: In 1822, Dr. Adolf Gutsmuth was buried alive several times to demonstrate a safety coffin he had designed. Once he stayed underground for several hours and ate a meal of soup, sausages, and beer delivered to him through the coffin’s feeding tube.

3 MARY NORAH BEST, 1871

Seventeen-year-old Mary Norah Best was the adopted daughter of Mrs. Moore Chew. Mary was pronounced dead from cholera and entombed in the Chew’s vault in an old French cemetery in Calcutta. The surgeon who pronounced her dead was a man who would have benefited from her death and had tried to kill her adopted mother. Before Mary died, her adoptive mother fled to England after the second attempt on her life and left Mary behind. Mary was put into a pine coffin, and it was nailed shut. Ten years later, in 1881, the vault was unsealed to admit the body of Mrs. Moore’s brother. On entering the vault, the undertaker’s assistant found the lid off of Mary’s coffin on the floor. The position of her skeleton was half in and half out of the coffin. Apparently after being entombed, Mary awoke from the trance and struggled violently until she was able to force the lid off of her coffin. It is surmised that after bursting open her casket, she fainted from the strain and while falling forward over the edge of her coffin she struck her head against the masonry shelf and was killed. It is believed the surgeon poisoned the girl and then certified her death.

Interesting Fact: Some believe Thomas A. Kempis, a German Augustinian monk who wrote The Imitation of Christ in the 1400s, was denied canonization because splinters were found embedded under his nails after his death. Canonization authorities determined that anyone aspiring to be a saint would not fight death if he found himself buried alive.

2 NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE, 1885

ASHEVILLE, N.C., Feb. 20.-A gentleman from Flat Creek Township in this (Buncombe) County, furnishes the information that about the 20th of last month a young man by the name of Jenkins, who had been sick with fever for several weeks, was thought to have died. He became speechless, his flesh was cold and clammy, and he could not be aroused, and there appeared to be no action of the pulse and heart. He was thought to be dead and was prepared for burial, and was noticed at the time that there was no stiffness in any of the limbs. He was buried after his supposed death, and when put in the coffin it was remarked that he was as limber as a live man. There was much talk in the neighborhood about the case and the opinion was frequently expressed that Jenkins had been buried alive. Nothing was done about the matter until the 10th inst., when the coffin was taken up for the purpose of removal and internment in the family burying ground in Henderson County. The coffin being wood, it was suggested that it be opened in order to see if the body was in such condition that it could be hauled 20 miles without being put in a metallic casket. The coffin was opened, and to the great astonishment and horror of his relatives the body was lying face downward, and the hair had been pulled from the head in great quantities, and there was scratches of the finger nails on the inside of the lid and sides of the coffin. These facts caused great excitement and all acquainted personally with the facts believe Jenkins was in a trance, or that animation was apparently suspended, and that he was not really dead when buried and that he returned to consciousness only to find himself buried and beyond help. The body was then taken to Henderson County and reinterred. The relatives are distressed beyond measure at what they term criminal carelessness in not being absolutely sure Jenkins was dead before he was buried.

Interesting Fact: Because of the concern of premature burials, a group was formed called Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive. They encouraged the slow process of burials.

1 MADAME BOBIN, 1901

In 1901, a pregnant Madame Bobin arrived on board a steamer from Western Africa and appeared to be suffering from yellow fever. She was then transferred to a hospital for those affected with contagious diseases. There she became worse and apparently died and was buried. A nurse later said she noticed that the body was not cold and that there was tremulousness of the muscles of the abdomen; the nurse expressed the opinion that she could have been prematurely buried. After this was reported to Madame Bobin’s father, he had the body exhumed. They were horrified to find that a baby had been born and died with Madame Bobin in the coffin. An autopsy showed that Madame Bobin had not contracted yellow fever and had died from asphyxiation in the coffin. A suit against the health officials resulted in £8,000 ($13,000) damages against them.

Interesting Fact: Historical records indicate that during the 17th century when plague victims often collapsed and seemed to be dead, there were 149 actual cases of people being buried alive.

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10 BIZARRE APOCALYPSE SCENARIOS

10 IMPENDING DISASTER OF PLANET X

This one started life as an archaeological find. Years ago, a mysterious clay tablet made by the Sumerians, the earliest inhabitants of the Middle East, was found in the Middle East. Upon this tablet was a depiction of something that looked like our solar system; all the planets were there, and all of them were rotating around the sun. But there were 11 celestial bodies. Now, we know there are only nine planets. Maybe one of them was our moon or the recently discovered mini-planet Sedna? But where did the 11th come from? At the same time that the tablet was found, astronomers were perplexed by a strange force in the outer solar system. It seemed as though the outer planets were being pulled out of their orbit. Something massive must be out there. These combined findings led to the theory of the mysterious Planet X.

Planet X is predicted to be hundreds of times larger than Earth and to have a massive orbit of about 3600 years. When it comes through the inner solar system, it could cause cataclysmic disaster upon our planet. It is so massive that it could turn the poles upside down, and slow the earth’s rotation or even stop it. If Planet X gets close enough, it could even peel the Earth’s crust off or push us into the sun. All bad scenarios.

9 RUNAWAY GREENHOUSE EFFECT

Here is one we’re heading straight for right now. In a few decades, our climate may just go completely insane. Temperatures might rise rapidly, melting the ice caps, turning our planet’s climate into something comparable to that of Venus. We all know about global warming; for the past ten years you haven’t been able to open a newspaper without reading something about it. But the Runaway Greenhouse Effect is basically what will happen if we reach that point of no return. As temperatures rise, water evaporates, which makes the atmosphere thicker, which in turn traps in more heat, which causes more water to evaporate. In this chain reaction, Earth’s atmosphere will really become similar to Venus’ because that is exactly what is happening there. The atmosphere there is so thick that solar heat never escapes, so it just keeps getting hotter. And there is nothing to stop it. Just like there will be nothing stop it here on Earth.

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The threshold could happen as soon as 2015. The polar ice caps hold trillions of tons of carbon dioxide trapped in tiny bubbles of ancient air. If this is released, it could literally break the atmosphere. It could cause the initial rapid temperature rise and start the water-vapor reaction. We could possibly be heading for a world where tin and lead would melt instantly in our atmosphere. When all the water is trapped as an evaporate, the atmosphere will be too hot to support 99 percent of all life, and we humans will be able to do nothing to stop it.

8 FINE-TUNING OF THE UNIVERSE

Is the world we live in and perceive real? Like the movie The Matrix, are we just a simulation? Perhaps we’re being played out by a superior alien race that is watching us on a TV or controlling us with a computer. One of the best pieces of evidence for this theory is the Universal Fine-Tuning Factor. The fact that the universe is so precisely tuned to support life is a huge astronomical coincidence. I don’t just mean animal or plant life; I mean all life—stars, black holes, galaxies, and even atoms and particles. The entire universe seems to be fine-tuned.

A British cosmologist, Fred Hoyle, was the first to realize the implications of this coincidence. You see, there is a very peculiar thing about the fundamental constants (like atomic masses or the speed of light) in that if they were slightly different, nothing would exist. Take the strong force inside atomic nuclei: if the force were just slightly stronger, it would boost the burning of stars so much that they would explode only seconds after they were formed. We wouldn’t have a sun—or even a planet. If, on the other hand, the force were a tad weaker, it would be too weak to hold together elements, like the heavy hydrogen isotope deuterium. Stars wouldn’t light up, and humans wouldn’t be here, either. And the same goes for everything else. Slightly more or less of any constant, and the universe won’t work. So the question is, why are all the fundamental constants tuned to support the universe?

7 THE INFERTILITY PROBLEM

As you probably know, there are lots of men and women out there who cannot conceive children. But did you know that the amount of people who cannot conceive is rising? And rising very fast, might I add. So fast, in fact, that scientists predict it to be a very serious problem for the future of our species. There are a few theories about why infertility is on the rise. One is that pollution, or the chemicals in pollution, have over the years caused damage to our cells and in turn our reproductive systems. Another theory is that evolution has determined who can have kids and who can’t. You know, survival of the fittest? But in truth, rising infertility is most likely caused by a combination of lots of things, including these two, as well as diseases.

This causes a slow extinction. At first, the streets will be a little less crowded, there will be no more traffic jams, it will be easier to get a house, and there will be more jobs. There will also be a lot more fertility clinics that are crowded. People will know that there is a problem, but think the fertility treatment will help them. Cut to a few generations later. The roads will empty, most of the buildings (including the fertility clinics) will be abandoned. A few people will still be alive, but there will be no one running things like power plants or treatment plants; society will be thrown back to the Middle Ages. People will be living in small communes, and children will be very rare. And someday, the last child will be born.

6 THE SOLAR COLLISION

A comet is going to hit the Earth. Pah! I’m much more concerned about Gliese-710. Haven’t heard of it? I’m not surprised, with a name like that. It is a red dwarf star, and you probably can’t see it with the naked eye. Yet! As time passes, it will become more noticeable. Then one day it will hit us. Not directly you understand, but it will be close enough to destroy the solar system, either by ripping it apart by gravity or by hitting the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is a huge collection of solar dust, ice, and planet-sized rocks—millions of them—that surrounds our solar system. If Gliese-710 hits this cloud it would send these planet-sized asteroids hurtling in our direction. Not just a few of them but enough that we would have to defend our planet for thousands of years.

This star is far away, so don’t start panicking just yet. It would take over a million years to make it to our solar system. But Gliese-710 isn’t the only star heading toward us. There are about eight to come before this one. The nearest is called Barnard’s Star and will hit us in 10,000 years. After that, there is a twin system called Alpha Cen A/B. This one could pull us in and burn us up, or it could slingshot us out into open space and we’d freeze (or both). One thing’s for sure, though. It is very difficult to predict the path of a star, so hopefully they will miss by enough not to do any permanent damage. But don’t hold your breath. They would have to miss us by billions of miles.

5 QUANTUM VACUUM COLLAPSE INEVITABILITY

This one’s simple enough: scientists will destroy the universe. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It was in the news in 2009 and was deemed a doomsday device because theorists said that it could destroy the planet. Well they’re wrong; it could, in theory, destroy the entire universe. Quantum physics predicts that the universe is filled with something called vacuum energy. Now, think of this energy as gunpowder. It’s ready to explode, and all you need is a fuse. So scientists built the Large Hadron Collider.

They have recently fixed the LHC. One day during a collision experiment, the use of specific elements could trigger the quantum vacuum collapse. Less than a second later, the Earth will be wiped out, gone without a trace. A wave of destruction will spread through the universe at the speed of light, destroying everything in its path. Nothing will stop it until the universe is completely gone. Scientists argue that elements smash into each other in nature all the time and that the universe is still here, so there is no risk of this catastrophe. But what they fail to realize is that the particles they use in the collider, such as gold, are rare. Or they play around with elements that are so unstable they don’t exist in nature; who knows what will happen with those ones.

4 INCREASE OF THE CONSTANTS

Do you remember what I said about how the universe is fine-tuned and that if the constants weren’t exactly right then the universe just wouldn’t happen? Well, unfortunately, in 2001, physicists discovered something bizarre. One of these constants, the fine-structure constant seems to be very, very slowly getting bigger. Surely this can’t be true? Constants are by definition constant and should be impossible to change. This sparked a massive physics debate, which still goes on today. In the meantime, more evidence has been gathered that more constants are on the move, like the mass of the proton and the speed of light, are all going a bit iffy.

What this means to us is that one day the universe may just collapse. All the stars will burn up within seconds, light will bend around corners, and then everything will eventually go dark. Some truly weird things could also occur; you could witness buildings turn into liquid rock and metal; you could see people just start vanishing into thin air (given that the air is still there—the atmosphere will disappear pretty much instantly). All this sounds too far-fetched to believe, but if we take what the scientists have seen to be true, then we are heading to this kind of universe quite soon. Well…like, a few million years.

3 VANISHING ACT

This one is just about as serious as this list will get (apart from number 9). This one comes straight from the mouths of high-ranking UN officials, government agencies, and scientists and is locked away among thousands of reports that hardly anyone reads. Basically, it says that in three generations, there will be half the population on Earth as there is now, and that number will keep declining. No, it’s not a virus; there is no prophecy saying that a comet will hit the Earth, killing three billion people. The truth is as simple as not having enough children.

Decades ago, people had to have lots of children. The main reason was the more children you had, the more hands you had to help farm lands, work in shops, and look after you when you were older. Modern technology combined with social programs has replaced our need for many children. We only really have children now because we want them, and the problem now is that fewer and fewer people want children. There are many possible reasons for this change, such as poor finances or the inability to find a suitable home. It could have to do with the fact that more women work now than ever before, so they have children later and bear fewer. Fifty years ago women had, on average, five children. Today that number is 2.7. On average, a couple needs to have 2.1 children (compensating for children who die young) to ensure the continuation of the species. The decline is rapidly reaching that crunch point of 2.0. When that happens, the population of the planet will go down, and it will happen faster than you think. Three generations from now, the planet’s population will be three billion and falling. Think of it: we could all die out because we just don’t do enough conceiving. Breed, people!

2 GRAIN SITUATION

This one is seriously stupid, but it is taken very seriously among biologists. Someday our planet could be completely covered in grain. And I mean absolutely everywhere: on the beaches, in the swamps, through cracks in the pavement. Sure, there will be enough food, but the only food will be bread. Grain will overrun all other crops, pushing back all other agriculture, until the entire biosphere is swamped with grain. Forests will turn into roaming fields of grain, the food chain will break down,