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40 Creepy And Unsettling Stories Straight From The Depths Of Wikipedia Hell (New Pics)
If you’ve ever fallen down a Wiki rabbit hole, you’ll know that it runs deep… Very, very deep. Wikipedia has more than 7 million English articles, and over 68 million articles across hundreds of other language editions. According to the Guardian, they've been consulted trillions of times.
Wikipedia is considered by many to be a very useful source of information. But sometimes, during your quest for knowledge, you can get a lot more than you bargained for. The kind of stuff that sends shivers up your spine and has you feeling too disturbed to fall asleep at night.
There's an entire online community dedicated to sharing such articles. Creepy Wikipedia is exactly what the name suggests. Around 20,000 people visit the site every week to get their dose of Wikipedia articles that make them shiver with fear or disgust. Bored Panda has put together some of the page's best posts for you to scroll through when your nervous system requires a bit of a jumpstart.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
In 2008 suspected serial m******r Ricky Simonds was found d**d of heat stroke in the trunk of his ex-girlfriends car. Investigators on the case believe Simonds was waiting in the trunk to ambush and m****r his ex-girlfriend, when he became locked in the vehicle.
Halloween is just around the corner. And that means the halls, malls, streets, houses and more will soon be filled with horror. It's an eerie time of year when people deliberately seek out the things that scare them.
Mathias Clasen, an associate professor in literature and media at Aarhus University, calls this recreational fear. And according to the expert, it can actually be very therapeutic. Clasen is the director of the Recreational Fear Lab, and the author of Why Horror Seduces and A Very Nervous Person’s Guide to Horror Movies.
"When we play with fear, we may learn important lessons about the dangers of the world as well as our own responses to danger," he says. "We learn what it feels like to be afraid, and we get to practice and hone fear-regulation strategies. We may even become more resilient in the process."
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#2
On September 21, 2008, an Indigenous Canadian man named Brian Sinclair waited 34 hours for medical attention at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre. Sinclair died while he was waiting and had developed rigor mortis when medical staff attended to him.
Elladine DesIsles 10 hours ago (edited)
This is not, unfortunately, an isolated incident of Indigenous patients d*ing in Canadian hospitals due to racism among staff. The horrible case of Joyce Echaquan comes to mind, notable because she recorded nurses using slurs and making false assumptions based on anti-Indigenous stereotypes before her d*ath, but there are others.
#3
Crimes in Antarctica, including 2018 Bellingshausen Station stabbing. The perpetrator Sergey Savitsky, a 54-year-old electrical engineer, stabbed 52-year old welder Oleg Beloguzov because Beloguzov was giving away the endings of books that Savitsky checked out at the station's library.
Silversong 12 hours ago
Spoilers suck and if a light stabbing was needed as a deterrent whatcha gonna do?
The expert's research reveals that people who enjoy horror movies were more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 lockdowns than those who aren't fans of the genre.
"We think that this is because horror movies provide a context in which people can practice emotional regulation—that people may get better at managing their own fear and anxiety through engaging with recreational fear," Clasen explains.
#4
Emmett Till was a young African American boy who was lynched by two white men after an older white woman had accused him of whistling at her. She later confessed that she had lied.
#5
John Allen Chau was an American evangelical Christian missionary who was k****d by the Sentinelese, a tribe in voluntary isolation, after illegally traveling to North Sentinel Island in an attempt to introduce the tribe to Christianity.
#6
Sogen Kato was thought to have been Tokyo's oldest man until July 2010, when his mummified corpse was found. He died in November 1978, aged 79, and his family never announced his d***h in an attempt to preserve his longevity record.
Associate Professor Haiyang Yang, a behavioral scientist at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, and Kuangjie Zhang of Nanyang Technological University Singapore say that those who enjoy horror have what they call a psychological “protective frame.”
The researchers say this "frame" falls into three categories, with the first being a safety frame. "Watching a horror film or show means we have to know for sure that we are safe, and that the evil entity is distant and cannot hurt us," they explain.
#7
For years, Cindy James claimed she was harassed, poisoned, stabbed, had her house set on fire and d**d animals left in her yard. She was later found d**d, having been hog-tied and choked with a stocking. The police ruled she’d d**d from an “unknown event” as they never found signs of her stalker.
Silversong 12 hours ago
This is the sort of thing that causes big problems when people (outside of their small town) find out about it. Because how bad do you have to be at your job to think that you can just write unknown causes when the causes are extremely known, you just don't like them and how good a friends are you with the stalker that you're just letting him get by with this
#8
Sarajevo Safari refers to war tourism during the siege of Sarajevo (1992–1996) involving human hunting. The first individual has just been charged in Italy. He's now 80 years old and was working as a truck driver, with links to the Italian far right.
Norm Gilmore 10 hours ago
This will sound counter intuitive but here's hoping he lives a very, very, very long time behind bars in the worst prison Italy has to offer..
#9
Hans Schmidt was the only Catholic priest to ever be executed in the US. He k****d his pregnant mistress, drank her blood, and dismembered her. He was found guilty for the crime and executed via electric chair in Feb 1916.
Barking Squirrel 3 hours ago
Reading further into it, it seems Schmidt had all the traits of a sociopathic seri@l k!ller. His mistress wasn't the only woman he was suspected of k!lling.
"The second category of protective frame involves a sense of detachment," they add. "We need to be reminded that horror we are seeing is not real—it's just great acting, special effects, and art direction."
The third and final protective frame involves our sense of control and the confidence in managing the dangers we encounter. "We can still get a thrill from a good scare if we feel confident about controlling and overcoming the perceived danger," the researchers reveal.
#10
Eben Byers: Wealthy American playboy and amateur sportsman who was so thrilled when a radium-spiked tonic seemed to cure his chronic pain that he drank 1400 bottles in two and 1/2 years, besides sending cases to girlfriends and dosing his racehorses. Then his bones started to disintegrate...
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
Byers began taking several doses of Radithor per day, believing it gave him a "toned-up feeling", but stopped in October 1930 (after taking some 1,400 doses) when that effect faded. He lost weight and had headaches, and his teeth began to fall out. In 1931, the Federal Trade Commission asked him to testify about his experience, but he was too sick to travel, so the commission sent a lawyer to take his statement at his home; the lawyer reported that Byers's "whole upper jaw, excepting two front teeth and most of his lower jaw had been removed" and that "All the remaining bone tissue of his body was disintegrating, and holes were actually forming in his skull."
#11
During the Vietnam War, future Nebraska governor Bob Kerrey was complicit in a raid in which troops under his command k****d 21 unarmed civilians, mostly children. He then falsely reported them as guerrillas. According to an American and Vietnamese witness, Kerrey had them k****d in cold blood.
#12
Blanche Monnier was a French socialite held captive by her mother for 25 years. When she was found by the authoraties, she was laying in a bed coved by feces and leftover food. She only weighed 55 lbs. 12 year after her rescue, she died in an insane asylum having never regained her sanity.
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
"She was renowned for her beauty and attracted many potential suitors for marriage. In 1876, at the age of 27, she desired to marry Victor Calmeil, an older lawyer who was not to her mother's liking; Louise argued that her daughter could not marry a "penniless lawyer".[4][5] Her disapproving mother, angered by her daughter's defiance, locked her in a tiny, dark room in the attic of their home, where she kept her secluded for 25 years. Louise and Marcel continued on with their daily lives, pretending to mourn Blanche's disappearance."
Clasen makes reference to what he calls the "sweet spot of fear." He explains that people don’t want their horror to be too scary, but they also don’t want it to be not scary enough. In other words, it has to hit the sweet spot, he says. And this might explain why some people will say they love horror, while others will flat-out refuse to indulge in it.
"The thing is, people have different sweet spots. Some have a very high tolerance for fear — the thrill-seekers and adrenaline junkies, for instance. Others need very little stimulation to hit their sweet spot," says Clasen.
#13
Adelir Antônio de Carli was a priest from Brazil who died during a cluster balloon stunt he had set up to raise money for a religious project. He lost contact with people on the ground and disappeared. Several months later the lower half of his body was found floating in the ocean.
Ellie Sakurai 11 hours ago
Yes, and this gave rise to an expression in Brazil used to describe a crazy person: "He’s crazier than the priest who flew off with balloons." 🫠
#14
D***h of Darren Rainey a mentally ill prisoner who was locked in a burning hot shower for two hours and d**d from extensive burns.
#15
Alfred Hitchcock had a lifelong fear of police, stemming from an incident when he was five: as punishment, his father sent him to the local station with a note requesting that the officer on duty lock him in a cell for a few minutes. The officer did so, saying "This is what we do to naughty boys."
According to Clasen, we're not born with that "sweet spot" and it can change over time. The expert says that the "sweet spot of fear" is calibrated over time and with experience.
"If you watch a lot of horror movies, chances are that you build tolerance. You habituate to horror, and so will come to need stronger doses to reach the sweet spot," he explains.
Clasen adds that an individual's "sweet sport of fear" might also be affected by other factors, such as their mental or emotional wellbeing.
#16
The Station nightclub fire occurred on February 20th 2003, resulting in 100 d**ths. A cameraman filming at the club that night, Brian Butler, caught the entire event on tape; firefighters still use it as a training video.
#17
On March 23, 1994, a captain of a commercial airliner put his children in control of an Airbus A310 wide body jet aircraft during a revenue flight. There were no survivors.
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
"The cockpit voice recorder revealed the presence of the relief captain's teenaged children in the cockpit at the time of the accident.[1] While seated at the controls, the pilot's 15-year-old son had unknowingly partially disengaged the A310's autopilot control of the aircraft's ailerons. The autopilot then disengaged completely, causing the aircraft to roll into a steep bank and a near-vertical dive. Despite managing to level the aircraft, the first officer over-corrected when pulling up, causing the plane to stall and enter into a spin; the pilots managed to level the A310 once more, but the plane had descended beyond a safe altitude to initiate a recovery and subsequently crashed into the mountain range. All 75 occupants died on impact."
#18
Cara Knott was an American student who disappeared on Dec. 27, 1986. On December 28, her body was recovered at the bottom of a ravine. Her k***er, a police officer, was interviewed while covering the investigation of the m****r, and scratches, that were inflicted by Knott, are seen on his face.
"Maybe if you’re exhausted or stressed or anxious, your sweet spot moves to the left. If you’re well-rested and feel on top of the world, your tolerance may slide in the opposite direction," he notes. "But we don’t know because there is no research on this yet."
So while you might be able to scroll through this entire list of creepy Wikipedia articles unbothered, another person might only get to the second one and want to shut it down completely.
#19
Ri Sol-Ju. There is almost no information about her prior to being married to Kim Jong-Un, although she was a popular singer and entertainer beforehand. Her music has since mostly been destroyed, it’s illegal to own any of it and it’s rumoured her band members were k****d to erase her past further.
#20
"Rainfall was so heavy that reports were received of birds drowning in trees and of survivors having to cup hands around their mouth and nose in order to breathe through the deluge... It was 'the probable maximum rainfall which meteorologists compute to be theoretically possible.'".
Clasen suggests that if you hate horror, you should push yourself a little and ask why.
"Find something that is likely to hit your sweet spot. Chances are you have a friend who’s a horror buff — they can help you find something appropriate," he says. "Keep in mind that there is increasing evidence to suggest that watching scary movies (and engaging with other forms of recreational fear) may actually be good for you."
#21
The Tsavo Man-Eaters were a pair of large man-eating male lions in the Tsavo region of Kenya, which were responsible for the deaths of many construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway between March and December 1898.
#22
Disappearance of Susan Powell: "Computer images seized turned up 4,500 images of Susan taken without her knowledge, including close-ups of specific body parts."
#23
Lawrence Joseph Bader was a cookware salesman from Akron, Ohio who disappeared on a fishing trip on March 15, 1957. Eight years later he was found alive in Omaha, Nebraska working as a local TV personality named "Fritz" Johnson.
Silversong 12 hours ago
Back then people really thought you could just take off and start a new life somewhere and no one would notice
#24
Mary Agnes Moroney was kidnapped as a toddler. In 2023, it was found that Mary died in 2003 at age 75 under the name Jeanette Burchard. Her kidnapper was never found.
Barking Squirrel 3 hours ago
They know who kidnapped her, just not her real identity. She introduced herself as Julia Otis and with Social Services took Mary "shopping" with the consent of the mother.
#25
“You'd better not be taking me anywhere I don’t want to go." This was part of the recording Amber Tuccaro took on her phone while talking to an unknown man she accepted a ride from in 2010. 2 years later her skeletal remains were found in a field several miles from where she’d hitchhiked.
Bonnie Blue Bird 7 hours ago
She was an Indigenous woman. The police waited a month before they started to investigate her disappearance because she was "probably out partying." Police didn't start interviewing people until four months after her disappearance. The recording on her phone they didn't release for over a year, which also slowed down the investigation. She was 20 years old.
#26
Missy Bevers was a fitness instructor who was k****d while setting up for a class inside a church. The case became famous for cctv footage showing a person wearing a swat team uniform walking through the church before Missy arrived.
#27
Christopher Dorner was a LAPD officer who went rogue after allegedly being fired from his job for reporting excessive force. He retaliated against the police and their families, along with civilian casualties by the LAPD.
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
"Christopher Jordan Dorner (June 4, 1979[2] – February 12, 2013) was a former officer of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) who, beginning on February 3, 2013, committed a series of killings against the LAPD in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California.[3] The victims were law enforcement officers and the daughter of a retired police captain. Dorner k****d four people and wounded three others. On February 12, Dorner was cornered by police in a cabin in the woods that was set on fire where he k****d himself after a shootout with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputies in the San Bernardino Mountains."
#28
The Donner Party were a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. They spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Some of the migrants resorted to cannibalism to survive.
Silversong 12 hours ago
There's an especially good Warehouse. 13 episode where a jar from the expedition gets turned into a tip jar ar a local food truck and anyone who touches the jar starts experiencing inexplicable coldness And they begin at least biting others. If not actively eating them. I love Warehouse 13. It was a fun show. It's a shame it's over
#29
In 2012, a worker at Bumble Bee Foods, a mass producer of canned tuna and other foods, was k****d when he was accidentally locked in an industrial oven.
David 12 hours ago
And this is why we now have rules about sensors and door overrides to prevent it. Regulations are often written in blood. BTW in the 90s the feds put in a law that requred walkin fridges to have an inside override to get out even when locked after someone froze to d***h inside one
#30
TIL that in 1996, the captain and flight engineer of a colombian cargo flight decided to prank their novice first officer by giving him control of the plane and shutting off two engines. The plane stalled immediately after takeoff and crashed into a neigbourhood, k*****g 22 people.
Serial pacifist 9 hours ago (edited)
“Pranking” by turning of airplane engines mid-flight. W*f?!
#31
Cannibalism in Africa -The victims were often playing children or lonely travellers. In earlier times, when slavery was still an accepted institution, young children purchased from other regions were sometimes deliberately fattened, "kept in pens" much like animals, before being "k****d and baked".
#32
Yobai (“night crawling’) was an ancient Japanese mating custom, wherein men were allowed to sneak into the rooms of young unmarried women at night.
Serial pacifist 9 hours ago (edited)
Only fair if the women were allowed to greet them with a katana.
#33
Hyatt Regency walkway collapse- 114 people were k****d and 216 injured when two walkways made of glass and concrete (weighing about 64,000 lbs.) collapsed onto a tea dance that was being held in the atrium of the hotel. There had been about 1,600 people in attendance.
#34
On January 16, 1942, 33-year-old actress Carole Lombard won a coin toss that determined she and her group would return home from a war bond tour by plane instead of by train. Their flight wound up crashing into a mountain outside Las Vegas, k*****g all 22 onboard, including 15 U.S. Army soldiers.
T'Mar of Vulcan 9 hours ago
Clark Gable was so devastated by her loss that he joined the army even though he was above the required age.
#35
The Green Children of Woolpit: "After she learned to speak English, the girl explained that she and her brother had come from a land where the sun never shone, and the light was like twilight."
Violent Doll 12 hours ago
"The legend of the Green Children of Woolpit concerns two children of unusual, greenish skin who reportedly appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, England, sometime in the 12th century, possibly during the reign of King Stephen (r. 1135–1154). The children, found to be brother and sister, were of generally normal appearance except for the green colour of their skin. They spoke in an unknown language and would eat only raw broad beans. Eventually, they learned to eat other food and lost their green colour, but the boy was sickly and died around the time of his and his sister's baptism. The girl adjusted to her new life, but she was considered to be "very wanton and impudent". After she learned to speak English, the girl explained that she and her brother had come from a land where the sun never shone, and the light was like twilight. According to one version of the story, she said that everything there was green; according to another, she said it was called Saint Martin's Land."
#36
Spring Heeled Jack was a figure of myth and legend during the Victorian period in England. It was claimed he could easily jump over walls and had a very devil- like appearance.
#37
Samuel More was an English man who, in 1616, accused his wife of adultery. Doubtful of the paternity of their 4 young children, he conspired to get rid of them behind her back. He would eventually succeed, with only 1 of the children surviving their journey as indentured servants on The Mayflower.
#38
In 2015 two trains on the Smiler roller coaster collided going 20 miles an hour. Multiple people were severely injured and a few required leg amputations. Prior to this the ride had experienced many setbacks and other incidents.
#39
Cleveland balloonfest '86, with 1.4 million balloons and 2 deaths.
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
"Two fishermen, Raymond Broderick and Bernard Sulzer (also reported as Skip Sullivan by some publications), who had gone out on September 26, were reported missing by their families on the day of the event. Rescuers spotted their 16-foot (4.9 m) boat anchored west of the Edgewater Park breakwall. A Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter crew had difficulties reaching the area because of the balloons landing in the lake.[8][9] A search-and-rescue boat crew tried to spot the fishermen floating in the lake, but Guard officials said balloons in the water made it impossible to see whether anyone was in the lake. On September 29, the Coast Guard suspended its search. The fishermen's bodies subsequently washed ashore. The wife of one of the fishermen sued the United Way of Cleveland and the company that organized the balloon release for $3.2 million, and later settled on undisclosed terms.[1]"
#40
A man was recording a copy of Shine On You Crazy Diamond when an earthquake hit. The recording starts to bump as the shockwave arrives then the audio switches to the rumble of the earthquake along with the voices of the scared people inside the house.
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What do you think ?
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
Half of the links were wrong on these, BP, maybe fix it before many people read it? Lots of these are interesting to read.
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
If BP doesn't fix it, click on the Reddit link to OP's post, (the grey username under each post), the correct links are there.
Load More Replies... Barking Squirrel 2 hours ago
I really enjoy these things especially when I need to dig a bit deeper. I tend to skip the Wiki links and do an old fashioned search.
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
Half of the links were wrong on these, BP, maybe fix it before many people read it? Lots of these are interesting to read.
Lukas (he/him) 12 hours ago
If BP doesn't fix it, click on the Reddit link to OP's post, (the grey username under each post), the correct links are there.
Load More Replies... Barking Squirrel 2 hours ago
I really enjoy these things especially when I need to dig a bit deeper. I tend to skip the Wiki links and do an old fashioned search.
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