The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories

by Ventura, Varla

  UNUSUAL CUSTOMS

  BEE AROUND

  It was once tradition in old England, upon the death of a family member, to find the nearest beehive and tell the bees about the death. Doing so was thought to prevent the bees from abandoning their hive.

  BAD NEWS FOR CHOCOHOLICS

  In villages in Central America during the eighteenth century, chocolate was believed to be the drink of the devil, and no one under sixty was allowed to imbibe under threat of excommunication from the Catholic Church.

  MIRROR, MIRROR

  Mirrors ward off evil spirits—or so thought the ancient Chinese, who were convinced that spirits did not want to be seen in a looking glass.

  THE CUMAEAN SIBYL

  Ancient Rome had ten Sibyls—prophetesses who channeled divine energy—who lived in Persia, Libya, Samos, Cimmeria, Erythraea, Tibur, Marpessus, Phrygia, Delphi, and Cumae. One of the best known is the Cumaean Sibyl, who lived near Naples in the fifth century B.C. Her cave, which was said to lead directly to the underworld, was rediscovered in 1932; the passageway is 375 feet long. Like the priestess at Delphi, the Cumaean Sibyl gained her powers through association with the god Apollo, who offered her anything if she would spend the night with him. She asked for eternal life, but as she neglected to ask for eternal youth, she shriveled into a shadow.

  She wrote her prophecies on leaves that she placed at the mouth of her cave. If no one came to pick them up, she let the wind scatter them. The Sibylline Verses, which told the Romans how to gain favor with foreign gods, were eventually bound into nine volumes, which the Sibyl tried to sell to the Roman king, Tarquin. He scoffed at the high price, so she burned three of the books. The price was still too high, he scoffed again, and she burned three more books. When she returned with the last three books, the king decided maybe there was something he ought to know, so he bought them. They were kept in the capitol and consulted until some were destroyed in a fire in 83 B.C. The rest survived until another fire in A.D. 405, at which time enterprising Romans began writing pseudo-Sibylline prophecies.

  AS THE BIRD TOLLS

  Ancient Romans never made a decision without first observing the flight patterns of the birds that soared above their empire. This practice was so valuable that in very early times areas were cleared of buildings and trees so as not to obscure the view of the birds' flights. The augur would perform a divination ceremony, marking off space in the sky with his staff and taking note of the birds' direction, speed, and song, whenever an important military or political decision was to be made.

  FORTUNA REDUX

  Fortuna Redux was the Roman goddess of successful journeys and safe returns. She has been probably invoked, if only unconsciously, by every explorer who ever set foot on unknown land.

  Emperor Augustus erected an altar to Fortuna Redux after he returned from a long journey through Asia in 19 B.C. In A.D. 93 a new temple was erected by the emperor Domitian, who was forever doing battle to keep the empire together and himself on the throne.

  THE EVIL EYE

  The concept of the evil eye dates back to around 3000 B.C. Mentioned in the Bible and ancient Sumerian, Assyrian, and Voudon texts, it is still prevalent in parts of Europe, Central America, and Mexico. Historical notions of the evil eye fall into two categories. The intentional category assumes that the perpetrators—such as witches, warlocks, and medicine men—purposely cast their evil eyes over their victims. But some unfortunate souls are afflicted with the evil eye without even knowing it, and the people around them must learn to avoid their wicked gazes or risk death, destruction, or despair. Two notable figures said to have been born with the evil eye were Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XIII.

  A grilled-cheese sandwich bearing the image of the Virgin Mary was sold in 2004 for $28,000.

  Ancient Bulgarians insisted that one finish one's entire meal before leaving the dinner table. This custom supposedly encouraged the hens to sit patiently on their nests and brood.

  The ancient Romans took great stock in the wisdom of astrology. Emperor Tiberius consulted with his personal astrologer before making any key decision.

  HAIL MARY

  “Marian apparition” is the fancy term for the appearance or manifestation of the Virgin Mary. Most of these apparitions appear as gleaming specters that may encourage prayer and church building, perform miraculous healings, or put people into trances. The apparitions have often appeared around churches, such as the St. Mary's Coptic church in Zeitoun, Egypt, where there had been more than seventy appearances in a fourteen-month period, beginning in 1968. One of the appearances lasted for over seven hours and was witnessed by hundreds of people.

  KEEP YOUR EARS CLOSED

  Ancient Mesopotamians believed that the gods dictated each person's life span before their birth, and that there was nothing one could do, good or bad, to extend or shorten it. At death one transformed into a spirit or ghost, and those who had experienced violent deaths would enter living beings through their ears, causing grief and illness until the spirit was exorcised—a particularly violent practice itself.

  EVIL-BLASTING BEAUTY

  The ancients wore eye shadow to prevent blindness, strengthen eyesight, and offer protection. Meanwhile, eyeliner was said to keep out evil, and lipstick, to guard against evil spirits and poisonous foods, and to keep the soul from leaving the body through the breath.

  4. TENDERS MURDERERS AND MALEVOLENT MALES

  KILLINGLY GOOD TALES OF TERROR

  “Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.” —JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE

  LOCUSTA THE POISONOUS

  Those who control the cooking always have the opportunity to slip a little something extra into the stew. And the most famous fiendish cook of all was the Roman royal Locusta, who poisoned the emperor Claudius about 2,000 years ago, so that her son Nero could become emperor. Stories about what method she used vary; some say poisonous mushrooms, others say mushrooms laced with poison. Either way, she accomplished her mission.

  SWEENEY TODD

  A villain appearing in numerous English legends in the nineteenth century, Sweeney Todd may not be an entirely fictitious character. Scholar Peter Haining argues that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who did, in fact, commit crimes during the 1800s. The story, as it has now become legendary, is as follows:

  Sweeney Todd had a barbershop on London's Fleet Street, right next door to St. Dunstan's Church. His shop was a simple one-room affair, having a single barber chair located in the middle of the floor. But Sweeney had rigged up an ingenious device: the chair was connected to a trapdoor beneath it, and when Sweeney had a wealthy customer and the coast was clear, he'd pull a lever that sent customer and chair dropping through the trapdoor into his basement. At the same time, another barber chair would pop up to take the place of the one in the cellar, so that at no time was the shop without a chair.

  Meanwhile, Sweeney would run hell-bent-for-leather down to the basement. If the fall hadn't killed his victim, Sweeney would help him along into the next world by slitting his throat. Then he'd strip the corpse, taking everything valuable, and expertly carve up the body like a butcher. The human flesh would be delivered to his accomplice and lover, Mrs. Margery Lovett, who ran a meat-pie shop on Bell Lane. Little did the customers know that the meat in the pies wasn't pork, beef, or chicken, but human.

  As for the body parts that weren't worthy of pies—the bones, skin, and heads—Sweeney had discovered a tunnel and catacombs beneath the church, and there, among the burial vaults of long-dead parishioners, he distributed the grisly remains of his victims. Sweeney met his downfall when the parishioners of St. Dunston's began to notice a foul odor coming from below. A search of the tunnels revealed the ghastly rotting remains, and bloody footprints led back to Sweeney's barbershop and Mrs. Lovett's pie place. When her customers realized what she had been feeding them, they tried to lynch her then and there, but the London police managed to save her, an
d Sweeney, for the gallows.

  CREEPY VENGEANCE

  Catherine, the wife of Russian czar Peter I, had a wandering eye, and Peter caught on. To teach Catherine a lesson, he forced her to watch her lover be killed, then pickled the lover's head and kept it in their bedroom.

  PRESIDENTIAL POISONING?

  Did Florence Harding kill her husband, U.S. president Warren G. Harding, while he was still in office? Rumors persist. It all started with allegations of an affair. While he was president, there were stories that Harding had fathered a child with a much younger woman. Mrs. Harding got the FBI on the case to put the rumor to rest. Agents discovered it was true, which peeved Florence to no end. She then inquired of the FBI about killing someone by putting an undetectable white powder in their food. What was that powder? she asked. They refused to tell her. Soon after, the president got sick with what was believed to be food poisoning—no one else got sick, although they all ate the same thing—and died. Mrs. Harding refused to allow an autopsy, and the death was officially regarded as a stroke.

  ODD BEAUTY TREATMENTS

  One of the most prolific murderers of all time was one Elizabeth Bathori, who lived in the 1600s in Transylvania. She is reputed to have killed more than 600 women and girls to drink and bathe in their blood, which she believed would keep her young. The niece of the king of Poland, she was not killed when the murders were discovered, but instead was walled up in her castle until her death.

  JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL (EVENTUALLY)

  In 1806, Becky Cotton, of Edgefield, South Carolina, was tried for murdering her third husband with an ax. When authorities dredged the pond to find her husband's body, they also discovered the bodies of Cotton's two previous husbands—one dead from poisoning and the other with a large needle stuck straight through his heart. An eyewitness account of her trial recalls: “As she stood at the bar in tears, with cheeks like rosebuds wet with morning dew and rolling her eyes of living sapphires, pleading for pity, their subtle glamour seized with ravishment the admiring bar—the stern features of justice were all relaxed, and the judge and jury hanging forward from their seats were heard to exclaim, ‘Heavens! What a charming creature.’”

  Cotton was found innocent and promptly married a jury member. But justice did prevail eventually—her brother murdered her.

  THE MURDER IN THE RED BARN

  This much sensationalized and notorious murder took place in Polstead, near Ipswich, England, and achieved immortality in its many retellings. Maria, the daughter of a local mole-catcher, was known about the village as a woman of loose morals. She bore an illegitimate son to Thomas Corder, the son of a wealthy local farmer. Later William Corder, Thomas's younger brother, became enamored of Maria, and eventually arranged to meet her in May of 1827 in the red barn on the family's farm, so they could travel together to Ipswich and get married. All accounts indicate that though Maria was seen heading to the barn, she was never seen again after that. In 1828 Maria's body was discovered in the red barn, and William Corder was hanged for her murder.

  RAH RAH SIS BOOM BAH!

  Wanda Webb Holloway, a Channelview, Texas, housewife, was just trying to be a good mother to her eighth-grade daughter, Shanna Harper, who was trying out for the school's cheerleading squad and facing stiff competition in Amber Heath, a classmate who had gotten a spot on the squad two years in a row. Holloway had the idea that if she could have Heath's mother “taken care of,” the girl would be so grief stricken she would drop out of cheerleading, assuring Holloway's daughter of the plum cheerleading spot.

  So Holloway hired and conspired with a hit man, actually her ex-brother-in-law, even giving him a pair of diamond earrings as a down payment. But police got wind of the scheme before it could be carried out, and in September 1991, she was arrested for solicitation of murder.

  THE AMY FISHER STORY

  Amy Fisher led a charmed life—wealthy parents, luxurious Long Island home, her own phone line—but the Jewish-Italian princess had a dark past. When she was twelve, she was raped by the man who had been hired to retile her family's bathroom floor, and she was afraid to tell anyone—least of all her father, who was prone to violent rages.

  In 1991, when Amy totaled the white Dodge her father had bought her for her sixteenth birthday, Daddy took the car—and Amy—to Complete Auto Body and Fender Repair to get it fixed. It was there that sixteen-year-old Amy met Joey Buttafuoco, head mechanic and lady-killer.

  The two felt a mutual attraction, and despite Joey's wife and two kids and Amy's tender age, they jumped headfirst into a torrid affair. They had sex in hotel rooms, in Amy's house, and on Joey's boat. At Joey's suggestion, Amy started working for ABBA escort service as a prostitute; she was so popular that she took her business freelance after a couple months. She started sleeping with other men, but Joey didn't care—he was in it for the sex, which was apparently really, really good. Amy, on the other hand, loved Joey and begged him to leave his wife, which he refused to do.

  Amy wouldn't take no for an answer. After all, she'd grown up rich and privileged, and she was used to getting what she wanted. She wondered what would happen if Joey's wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, suddenly disappeared—and she then decided to make it happen. Amy promised Peter Guagenti, a Brooklyn College dropout, $800 and sex in exchange for use of his .25 handgun. On May 19, 1992, she went to the high school nurse's office and claimed she was sick and had to go home early. Peter picked her up in his Thunderbird, drove her to the Buttafuoco home, and handed her the gun.

  Mary Jo answered the door wearing her sweats—she was painting some lawn furniture. After a brief conversation in which Amy claimed that her sixteen-year-old sister was having an affair with Joey, Mary Jo asked Amy to leave and retreated into the house. Before the door could swing shut, Amy had shot her in the head, severing Mary Jo's carotid artery.

  The rest is history, well documented in myriad made-for-TV movies, books, and Web sites dedicated to the Amy Fisher story. In fact, Amy posted bail (for a whopping $2 million) with the money she earned from TV and book deals. She was sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison, and Joey spent four months in jail for statutory rape. As for Mary Jo, she survived, despite major paralysis on one half of her face.

  INDIANA OGRESS

  Belle Gunness was very practical. She murdered for money. Belle's first husband, Mads Sorenson, opened a confectioner's shop with her in 1896. The business didn't do well, and it burned down. Luckily, the couple had insurance. They bought several houses, each of which also burned down. Luckily, the houses were insured. Two of the couple's babies died—of acute colitis, said the doctors. The children had been insured. And then in 1900, Mads died from what the doctors decided was a heart attack. Belle collected on his two insurance policies totaling $8,000.

  Belle took the money and her remaining kids, including a foster daughter, Jennie Olson, and bought a two-story brick farmhouse in LaPorte, Indiana. In 1902, Belle was married again, to a farmer named Peter Gunness. Peter, a widower, brought along his baby, who died a week after the wedding. Peter lasted about a year, before a heavy iron sausage grinder fell onto his head from a top shelf. Daughter Myrtle confided to a school chum that Mama had conked Papa on the noggin and killed him, but nobody paid attention. Belle collected Peter's $3,000 insurance policy and dressed herself in mourning black—but not for long.

  Soon Belle was placing ads in Scandinavian newspapers across the Midwest, seeking a husband. “Widow with large farm looking for a helpmate,” the ads went, adding that it was important that the prospective groom produce money of his own, so that she would know he wasn't merely a cad after her fortune. Corresponding with hopeful suitors, she would ask them to bring with them a sum of at least $1,000 to prove their sincerity.

  Ole Busberg, Olaf Lindbloom, Herman Konitzer, Emil Tell, Olaf Jensen, Charles Nieberg, Tonnes Lien, and who knows how many other Olafs, Oles, and Erics came to LaPorte to woo Belle. Trouble was, none of them stayed. Belle would be seen with each man around town for a few days, hanging on h
is arm and adding his money to her bank account, then suddenly he'd be gone—gone back to Minnesota, gone back to Sweden, she would say. Plowing her fields while wearing the coat and hat the man had left behind, she'd bemoan her lot: she was a poor widow, deserted by another scoundrel who loved her and dumped her. And another ad would appear in the lonely hearts section of the Scandinavian News.

  Somewhere along the way, Jennie Olson disappeared too. Belle told the neighbors that her foster daughter had gone to an exclusive girls' finishing school in California.

  Finally, in January 1908, Andrew Helgelein showed up in LaPorte, bringing with him $1,000 as proof of his good intentions. Helgelein had the “good luck” to disappear, like the others. But when his brother, Asa, hadn't heard from Andrew in some months, he wrote to Belle. Belle wrote back, saying Andrew had returned to the Old Country. Asa didn't buy it. He announced that he was coming to LaPorte to see for himself.

  On April 27, 1908, Belle visited a lawyer. A farmhand whom she had fired, Ray Lamphere, was harassing her, she said, and just in case anything happened to her, she wanted to make a will, leaving her money to her children.

  In the early morning hours of April 28, Belle's farmhouse burned to the ground. Found in the ashes were the burned bodies of Belle and her three children. Ray Lamphere, the disgruntled farmhand (and also Belle's sometime lover), was arrested for arson and murder.