The history of mankind is replete with shocking episodes and scary stories, in comparison with which any horror film seems like a childish horror story.
Here are the top 7 scariest historical events that can serve (and sometimes serve) as a source of inspiration for a game, movie or book.
7. Zombie apocalypse in the UK
Movies about zombies are no longer a surprise. Countless armies of the living dead, wandering aimlessly through the streets, the panic of the few who survived ... This was approximately the case in England during the Great Plague (1665-1666).
London authorities tried to limit the spread of the disease by quarantining the homes of the sick. All family members of a person who died of the plague had to stay in their house for 40 days without getting out, and so that quarantine was not violated, there was a guard near the door.
Given that most homes had minimal food and medicine, it's easy to imagine the desperation and fear of the quarantined people and their desire to flee. It was common practice to kill guards, and one insane victim of the disease went so far as to make homemade explosives.
6. Attack of the Dead
Under this publicistic name, the episode of the defense of the Osovets fortress during the First World War went down in history.
The Germans besieging the fortress used a large amount of liquid chlorine against its defenders from the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyansky regiment. And they supplemented the chemical attack with artillery fire, creating a real hell for the Russians, from which no one had to leave alive.
“We didn't have gas masks, so the gases caused terrible injuries and chemical burns. When breathing came out wheezing and bloody foam from the lungs. The skin on the hands and faces was blistering. The rags with which we wrapped our faces did not help. However, the Russian artillery began to act, sending shell after shell towards the Prussians from the green chlorine cloud. Here the head of the 2nd defense department of Osovets Svechnikov, shaking from a terrible cough, croaked out: "My friends, we do not die as Prussians-cockroaches from poisoning, we will show them to remember forever!" - from the memoirs of a participant in the events, commander of a half company of the 13th company, Alexei Lepyoshkin.
This attack frightened the Germans so much that they rushed to flee from the bloody, mutilated people, and many died from the fire of the fortress artillery, hanging on their own barbed wire.
These events formed the basis for the short film Attack of the Dead: Osovets, released in 2018.
5. Waterloo soldiers went for fertilizers and dentures
By the early 19th century, it was widely believed in England that calcium-rich bones were a valuable fertilizer. And for several years after Napoleon's defeat, agents of the fertilizer producers combed the battlefields.
Human and horse bones were taken from places like Austerlitz, Leipzig and Waterloo and sent for processing, usually in Hull and Doncaster. It sounds shocking disrespect for the dead, but times were different.Over the centuries, corpses on the battlefield were plundered by other soldiers and local peasants, and the Napoleonic wars were no different from others.
Long before the arrival of the bone traders, many bodies in Waterloo had been stripped of teeth. Dentures made from human teeth have been called "Waterloo teeth" for many years.
The Battle of Waterloo also sparked the development of tourism. Surprisingly, there are reports that the British walked to the battlefield to witness the action in real time, like spectators at a sports game.
4. Jack the Ripper was never caught
Jack the Ripper's story began on August 31, 1888, when the body of a dead woman was found in the Whitechapel area. Her throat was slit and her belly ripped open.
Three months later, when what became known as the Autumn of Terror was over, four other women suffered the same dire fate.
From the very beginning of the investigation, Scotland Yard was confused. The only thing that is known for certain about Jack the Ripper is that he killed women. According to Edmund Reed, one of the detectives assigned to investigate the murders, all of Jack's crimes were similar:
- all five women were active or former prostitutes;
- all the victims were from the lower class;
- everyone lived close to each other;
- and all the murders were committed after the pubs were closed.
To Reed's key facts, there is another significant detail: no one ever heard the cries for help, which is very unusual in a densely populated area like Whitechapel. None of the bodies showed wounds characteristic of attempts to defend themselves, such as cuts or bruises on the arms and forearms. And three victims were found with internal organs removed, which Jack apparently took with him. He attached the kidney of one of the victims to the letter "From Hell", which he sent to one of the members of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. The letter says that the second kidney was "fried and eaten by Jack the Ripper."
One of the women told police that she had seen the second victim, the prostitute Annie Chapman, accompanied by a "foreigner" of average height, wrapped in a dark cloak. But whether it was Jack the Ripper or one of Annie's clients, we will never know.
3. The body of Pope Pius XII exploded after death
Pope Pius XII did not want embalmers to remove internal organs from his body after death. Everything had to remain in the same state "in which God created it." Therefore, Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi, the pontiff's physician, used a new method of embalming, developed by the Neapolitan professor Oreste Nazzi.
Galeazzi-Lisi hoped that the embalmed body of Pius XII would remain forever in its natural state. But something went wrong, and under the influence of the Mediterranean heat, the Pope's corpse began to decompose quickly, literally exploding from the inside. And this happened during the funeral ceremony.
The stench was so strong that even the staunch soldiers of the Scottish Guard, guarding the honor guard around the body of the pontiff, felt ill.
As a result, the body of Pius XII and the quarry of Galeazzi-Lisi were destroyed in one day. But this doctor acquired a dubious achievement, becoming the only person expelled from the Vatican.
2. Orphans of Duplessis
It's scary when even one child is tortured. What can we say if the count goes to the thousands. But that was the case in the now prosperous and democratic Canada, in the province of Quebec, during the government of Maurice Duplessis (1940-1950s).
All local schools, orphanages, and hospitals were placed under the authority of the church. And about 20 thousand (according to other sources - up to 300 thousand) refuseniks, orphans, allegedly mentally ill children, as well as children born out of wedlock, fell under the control of nuns and medical staff.
Many of them were sexually abused, underwent medical experiments, given drugs, beaten and forced to work on an equal basis with adults.
The truth about what happened to the Du Plessis orphans did not begin to surface until the 1990s.However, the Roman Catholic Church refused to take responsibility for the incident.
1. Serial killer during the "London Blitz"
From early September 1940 to May 1941, Great Britain was bombed by Nazi Germany. This time was known as the "London Blitz" or "Big Blitz". But bombs were not the only danger for the inhabitants of the English capital.
Under cover of darkness, the city was terrorized by the serial killer Gordon Frederick Cummins, who killed seven women. Four of them died.
Cummins, nicknamed "The Invisible Ripper," just like Jack the Ripper, mutilated the bodies of his victims. But unlike the elusive 19th century maniac, Cummins fell into the hands of justice.
This was facilitated by an accident: when the killer pounced on another victim, there was a night porter nearby, who shone a flashlight in Cummins' face. The maniac escaped, dropping his service respirator. The police found the owner using the serial number on this item. There was enough evidence to sentence London's Invisible Ripper to death.