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Debunked: Shadow Person over Zambia Mall
The crack staff of paranormal "experts" over at Coast to Coast AM are up to it again. Last week they posted grainy video footage of a "goblin" in Argentina that led us to conclude that it was the least...
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The headless ghost of the 'Old Hermit McDaniel Place'
The following story of a headless ghost seen in Lucasville, Ohio, comes from the Dec. 19, 1896 edition of the Los Angeles Times.
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Who was buried beneath the White House?
In the summer of 1902, workers found a human skeleton beneath the White House while making renovations, probably from a private family burial ground that stood on the site before the White House was...
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The Mystery of the H.M.S. Ravenna
The U.S.S. New OrleansShortly after the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States government purchased a Brazilian navy cruiser that had recently been built at a British shipyard....
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Chevalier d'Éon: The World's First Transgendered Spy
The chevalier, as painted by Thomas Stewart in 1792Does the name Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont ring a bell? Probably not, because writing about this historical figure...
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A strange ghost story from Georgia
Old newspapers from the 19th century are a joy to read because you never know what you'll come across, such as the following story about a headless apparition that attacked two men with electric shocks...
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A ghostly encounter with a drowning victim?
Majors Creek near Bay Minette, AlabamaNot far from Mobile Bay an Alabama preacher named William Fletcher had a peculiarly frightening experience in 1890. As he was about to cross a creek, a humanoid...
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Yes, CNN actually fact-checked Sean Spicer on salad dressing
And journalists wonder why so many Americans have a negative opinion of journalistsHistorically, journalism has been a noble profession. Charles Bartlett earned his Pulitzer in 1956 for breaking a...
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10 Best Victorian Era Life Hacks!
1. Use a coffin torpedo to prevent bodysnatchers from stealing your corpse.These days it's hard to decide which is more inconvenient-- expiring at the age of fifteen after a bout of cholera, or having...
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My Strangest Experience: The Vanishing Nursing Home Patient
The following strange story was sent to us by Sunny from Oak Park, Illinois, and describes a peculiar incident that took place in a nursing home. Our research indicates that the facility is still in...
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Is MSNBC the next InfoWars? Lawrence O'Donnell substitutes wild conspiracy...
Those who enjoy a side order of conspiracy theory with their news got more than they could swallow on Friday when Lawrence O'Donnell, host of MSNBC's"The Last Word", claimed-- without proof-- that...
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The headless ghost of the Sand Patch Grade
The deserted Sand Patch TunnelThe Sand Patch Grade is a famous 100-mile stretch of track through the Allegheny Mountains of Maryland and Pennsylvania. With its numerous abandoned tunnels (some...
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The orphan who survived a Sioux scalping
Robert McGee, circa 1890Robert McGee was a teenage orphan in the summer of 1864 when he went to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas to enlist in the army. Being only 14 years of age, he was rejected, but he...
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Haunted by the ghost of an ex-husband
The following strange story comes from the July 31, 1911 edition of the New Castle Herald.
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History's Most Evil: Gilles de Rais
No conversation on the most evil men in history would be complete without mentioning Gilles de Rais, the French military hero turned occultist who, in order to quench his thirst for human blood,...
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Setting the record straight about Atlas Obscura's debunking of Victorian...
A few days ago Atlas Obscura published an article debunking Victorian era "tear catchers"-- glass bottles into which grieving persons wept. Being sentimental sometimes to the point of absurdity, those...
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The chilling last testament of Joseph Obney
In early 1896 a bone-chilling discovery was made inside of an abandoned coal mine about a mile east of Colliers, West Virginia. A local adventure seeker, David Snyder, decided to explore the old mine,...
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When real life imitates cartoons
The following newspaper article, which appeared in the Maysville, Kentucky Evening Bulletin on March 4, 1889, involves a man who got shot while pretending to be a ghost, in an attempt to pull off a...
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The Seth Rich murder conspiracy smoking gun?
Although we delve into conspiracy theories from time to time here at JOTB, we have refrained from weighing in on the case of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich because, quite frankly, we were waiting for...
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Flat Earth: A few thoughts
While going through my email today I found an email sent by a woman who pointed out that, out of all the topics we've covered on this site over the years, we have never written anything about the "flat...
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