EL MUERTO - The Texas Headless Horseman

 

Did you know Texas has its own legend of the headless horseman? In the early 1800s, South Texas and Mexico weren't really sure about where the border should lie. It was either the Nueces River or the Rio Grande River, but because no agreement could be reached, the area in-between became a no man's land. Local cattle rustlers took advantage of this. One specific outlaw named Vidal was particularly nasty, and the local rangers decided to make an example of him in the worst way imaginable.

When he was caught, they slew him, cut off his head, then lashed his body to a mustang in an upright position as if he was riding. Then, they let the horse loose to wander as a symbol of the form of justice that would befall any outlaw who dared step out of line. Quite similar to the legend of Sleepy Hollow or the Headless Horseman, many cowboys over the years have seen a headless bandit called "El Muerto" riding through the Rio Grande area, even into the 21st century.

The Rear Seat of JFK's Limousine Right After the Assassination, 1963

 

(Credit: Morbid Knowledge)

History Lesson

Warwick Castle's lower dungeon has a hidden room known as an "oubliette." Prisoners were left here and forgotten. Oubliettes were small, dark, and only accessible through a trapdoor in the ceiling, meaning there was no escape. The term "oubliette" comes from the French word for "forget." They were common in medieval castles and held all sorts of prisoners.

 

Known Locations of Bodies on Mt. Everest

 

It Was All the Rage

 

Now You Know

Unit 731

There was a biological and chemical warfare research facility called Unit 731 that undertook lethal human experimentation during the occupation of China.

They specialized in vivisection, germ warfare, and weapons testing on prisoners. The researchers didn’t even refer to the Chinese people as humans: they called them “logs” and often bragged about how many logs they had cut that day. After WW2, the leaders of the unit gave the United States their research data in return for amnesty. Many of previous members of Unit 731 became part of post-war politics, academia, business, and medicine.

Five Horrifying Acts of Historical Cannibalism

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The History of Creepy Dolls

Link to article here.

Mokomokai

Horatio Gordon Robley and his collection of Mokomokai. Mokomokai are the preserved heads of Maori. They became valuable trade items during the Musket Wars of the early 19th century.

Abraham Lincoln's Death Mask

Another Bizaare Episode From History - Ethel Granger

Ethel Granger of England had the smallest waist on record. This was obtained through the "strong" encouragement of her husband to "corset train". Ethel wore the corset 24 hrs a day in an attempt to shape her body to please her husband. From there her husband moved on to piercing her for his own admiration and insisting she wear 5" heels daily. He slowly enlarged piercings in her ears, septum and eventually gave her 13 piercings in total. Ethel Granger's marriage seemed a life long struggle to please him. In these photos from 1959, her measurements were 36-13-39. She also had a pierced nose, which must have been very unusual in the 50s.

Carnival Sideshow Bizarre

Sideshow performer Johnny Eck the “Half-Boy” with his twin brother Robert.

The Remains of Vesuvius

One of the morbidly fascinating results of the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius is the large number of holes found in the volcanic deposits around Pompeii that represented corpses of people and animals that were buried by the hot ash. The ash lithified before the corpses decayed so that a good mold of the deceased remained. Early in the excavation it was discovered that filling these molds with plaster produced remarkable casts of the victims of the eruption.

The Way It Used To Be

As If the Plague Wasn't Scary Enough

During the Bubonic Plague, doctors wore these bird-like masks to avoid becoming sick. They would fill the beaks with spices and rose petals, so they wouldn’t have to smell the rotting bodies. A theory during the Bubonic Plague was that the plague was caused by evil spirits. To scare the spirits away, the masks were intentionally designed to be creepy.

Creepy Aftermath

Melted and damaged mannequins after a fire in the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum in London, 1930.

Feast of Flesh

The photograph, which was taken in the early 1900s, shows human bodies being sold at market for meat. Famine was once so widespread in Russia that cannibalism became an everyday part of life. Widespread cannibalism continued in Russia until well into the 1930s.

You can find out more here.