6 Creepy Urban Legends That Happen to be True (Part 3!)
It's that time again.
It's becoming a reader favorite and Halloween tradition for us to count down those ridiculously over-the-top gruesome urban myths that, oh by the way, happen to be true. This is our third year (HERE is the first one, and HERE is the second) and once again these stories prove that truth is far more horrifying than fiction.
#6.
Man Killed by Saw-style Explosive Neck Device
The Legend:
So all those convoluted puzzles and traps the Jigsaw killer uses, they're all just so ridiculous, right? Who would actually go through all that trouble?
Danny Glover knows.
So then you run into somebody on the Internet who heard about how a real guy showed up at a bank and said he had an explosive collar around his neck that would deposit his brains all over the walls unless he robbed the bank on behalf of a criminal mastermind.
Oh, please.
The Truth:
On a day like any other in late August 2003, pizza deliveryman Brian Wells was about to end his shift when a fateful order came in. The directions given to Brian led him to a winding, deserted, dirt road that ended at a lonely TV tower. Now most people upon arriving at the spooky deserted road would have just tossed the pizzas in the ditch, but not Brian Wells. He was dedicated to his minimum-wage delivery job.
What exactly happened on that dirt road is still subject to debate, but what we do know is that around an hour later he reappeared at the aforementioned bank, with the collar contraption around his neck, a homemade shotgun shaped like a walking cane in his hand, and a note demanding a quarter million dollars in cash.
Unfortunately for Brian he was about as good at robbing banks as he was at avoiding obvious horror movie set-ups, and was apprehended by the police in the parking lot. The cops quickly discovered the collar, but just took it for a stylish ticking fashion accessory, and didn't bother to call the bomb squad for nearly half an hour. By the time the bomb squad did arrive, the collar had gone off, blowing a "postcard-sized" hole in Wells's chest.
Flava Flav is indirectly responsible for this.
The police found a list of tasks on Wells's body, each of which were to be completed in a set period of time or the bomb would go off. Poor Brian was doomed from the start though, as it was later determined it would have been impossible for him to execute all the tasks even if everything had gone according to plan. He simply hadn't been given enough time.
While supposedly all those responsible for putting the collar on Brian Wells have since been caught and charged, the addition of the weird, wacky, walking cane shotgun leads us to believe that there may have been another perpetrator that hasn't yet been brought to justice.
#5.
The Call from Beyond the Grave
The Legend:
This one sounds like a modern update on a timeless campfire story: Someone receives numerous calls from a friend or family member, only to find out later THEY WERE DEAD THE WHOLE TIME.
The Truth:
On September 12, 2008, a California commuter train ran through a red warning light, crashing into a freight train, killing 25 people.
The family of Charles Peck, knowing he was on the train, watched the news with dread waiting for news of his fate--and then they got a call. Then another, and another, all from Charles's cell phone.
One family member after another was called, with Charles's cellphone sending out 35 calls in total, at which point, ghost calls or not, we're sure they just started letting the things go to voicemail.
The police managed to find Charles's body among the wreckage by tracking his cell phone signal, but it was not a happy reunion. Charles was dead, and to this day how those calls were sent remains a mystery.
Now, how about some irony with your creepy? Guess what the train's engineer was distracted by when he ran past that red light? Yup, in a twist that would be cut from a Twilight Zone episode for being too cheesy, it was his cell phone. God's not only a cruel bastard, but a hack horror writer as well apparently.
#4.
The Deadly Elevator
The Legend:
The metal doors clamp down on a hapless victim, who can do nothing but scream in terror as the elevator dings and begins to rise, shearing off their head or limbs as it does. It's a scene that's turned up in several cheesy horror movies (including one movie based entirely around a murderous elevator).
But surely this kind of thing doesn't happen in real life. There are safety measures, right? Right?
The Truth:
Well yes, there are, but for whatever reason they were of no help to Dr. Hitoshi Nikaidoh on August 16, 2003. Why didn't the elevator open again, or shut down when the doctor became pinned between the doors at the shoulders as he was getting on? To this day nobody's exactly sure, but inspectors have suggested the tragedy may have been caused by a single out of place wire.
How much damage can one skewed wire cause?
Well, as the doors held Dr. Nikaidoh in place like a vice, the elevator began its ascent. It sliced his head in two at mouth-level, leaving only his left ear and lower jaw attached to his body. Found that a little nauseating to read? Well suck it up, and try to imagine what it was like for the other person in the elevator with him. She was a nurse who then had to spend up to an hour in a blood-soaked box with the good doctor's head. We're surprised they didn't find her scaling the elevator cables like John McClane to get the hell out of there.
Of course, we're just being alarmist when we act like a single wire could come dislodged at any time and kill your ass. Oh, wait, actually around 30 people are killed by elevators each year.
My real grandfather was killed by a elevator. It slammed shut on his neck. Then the ambulance was hit by a eighteen wheeler..
ReplyWhy would an ambulance pick up a body? I think you mean coroner.
And here I was just worried about elevators breaking and sending me plummeting to my death.
ReplyAnother reason not to ride 'em.
Number 6 reminds me of 30 Minutes or Less. Now I know where they got the idea for the movie. It actually seems a bit tasteless now...
ReplyWasn't there an episode of CSI that was devoted to a body farm (I know that there was an episode of one of the L&Os where the victim was dumped and posed in one but I'm not quite sure about the CSI franchises)?
Reply#5 THEN WHO WAS PHONE
ReplyI NOT KNOW
LIFE WAS GIVING THEM A MESSAGE. Or that is a freaking scary butt dial.
I had a run-in with a particularly asshole-ish elevator. The scene: Timberwood Apartments, Kulpmont, PA. I was something like 9 or 10 years old and I decided it would be fun to play a game of "chicken" with the elevator doors. I would put my arm in the doors and see who would pull back first: me or the doors. One time, I decided to throw my arm in there just as the doors were about to touch. The sensors must have malfunctioned, or they got sick of me being a douche bag, so the doors just closed anyway, nearly breaking my arm, and the elevator started going up. It took all of my strength to pull my arm out and put my heart back in my chest. I had to then go to the hospital for x-rays. The elevator, as far as I know, was never under suspicion and never repaired, making it the best criminal in the history of my hometown.
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ReplyWhen my Grandpa died I didn't delete his number from my phone. My Grandma inherited his phone but I didn't know that. Imagine the scene: doing the dishes, singing, and then the phone rings... I nearly fainted but I still answered the call which means I clearly couldn't stand a chance in a horror movie... I would be that side-character you know the 'are you stupid don't go in there! ehh there she goes' b***h every horror movie has :D :D
ReplyThe body farm was actually on CSI.
Replyand Bones.
That's because he original series, was actually a fairly interesting show at one point. And then they ruined it with drama.
I actually do live in Cullowhee and yes there is a body farm though only people who need to know where it is know where it is though I think its on my road somewhere
ReplyWell… that's scary.
Number 5 was probably just this: when the train crashed, the rubble fell on his phone, somehow falling in exactly the right spot to get it to dial them.
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesWhatever the reason behind it, it's still really creepy. So are those body farms.
The poor woman who had to witness the poor guy who got chopped up in that elevator-yikes. I bet she'll need some serious therapy for a few years.
Different phone numbers though... and that many times? Still pretty chilling...
maybe the phone had some kind of "auto dial all the numbers" kind of setting and it happen to push that button? hell my purse calls people call the time lol
Seems more logical to me that he was making those calls as he was dieing. I mean when they found him the phone was near him, so isn't it possible that his last act on earth was to try and contact his family?
It's obvious in #5 Charles was calling to say his goodbyes. Why the f**k the family members didn't answer the call?
ReplyThey were answered, but all they heard was static. Birch was making a joke about them not being answered.
I prefer the old "Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture Kit" from the 70's. No one was killed except a few apples. Fun, if creepy, little project, and featured Vincent Price on the box and in the commercials! I wish they'd bring it back.
ReplyI live in Erie, Pennsylvania and at the time, I lived about 1/4 mile where Brian Wells was killed. Since the crime, it has been learned that Wells was in on the whole thing, except he was under the impression that the bomb would be fake. When he arrived to the TV tower, he discovered that it was real and they forced him to put it on at gunpoint. The shop teacher who built the bomb died shortly after his arrest of heart failure and the woman, Marjorie Deihl-Armstrong, is still undergoing treatment to, hopefully, make her competent to stand trial.
ReplyThe most messed up thing about this whole scenario is that the bomber plot WASN'T EVEN THE MAIN EVENT. It was a fundraiser to pay off someone to kill Deihl-Armstrong's father.
"You won't see much mention of this on CSI..."
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesActually, there was a CSI episode where a murderer tried to hide his crime by dumping the victim's corpse at a body farm. The body was discovered, however, because everything at a body farm is meticulously documented because the whole point is to gather data about what happens when a body decomposes in varying conditions, so the techs were pretty quick to spot a new corpse.
That was Criminal Minds...or it probably happened in both :P
It was Law and Order: SVU, actually.
Bones had a body farm episode too...the fun part was watcing Brennan (Emily Deschanel) geek out at it.
It was Bones.
I've never seen a chainsaw with a timer on it.
ReplyMy assumption is that it was an electric Chainsaw plugged into an outlet timer.
Really, really shouldn't have watched that video while eating lunch.
ReplyI live in Knoxville, Tennessee, and actually attended the University of Tennessee for my undergrad work. UT and Dr. Bill Bass started the Body Farm in the early 80's, and Dr. Bass is *still* one of the most influential forensic scientists in the world. (He's now in his 80's or 90's) I've known many people who've been to the Body Farm, and have heard all the stories. What people *don't* know...is that under Neyland Stadium, which is on the UT campus, there are several hundred bodies there as well. Under the stadium in the old UT athletic dorms (from the early 1900's) are the offices and department for the Anthropology Department. As such, they have many, many, many sets of human and animal remains lying about being studied or in storage under the football field. ;) There are even jokes that circulate about whether or not these unofficial "visitors" should be included into the spectator tallies at the football games. This makes UT the most awesome university in the south as far as I'm concerned. ;)
ReplyNeyland Stadium looks like a garbage truck workers' convention.
I live in Knoxville too and almost EVERYONE knows about the bodies below Neyland Stadium. That's old news hun :P
That grinning, mummified face at about :30 will haunt my dreams forever.
ReplyI've been to a body farm in Virginia as part of ballistics research, and trust me it is not pleasant. While it is somewhat cool and very scientifically interesting it is also a HORRIBLE stench and (when you see the kids and babies) quite sad.
ReplyYeah, I was wondering about the smell. He's walking around so casually, I was a little puzzled as to how he was able to cope with the smell so easily. Then again, he's been in forensics for so long that I guess he must just be used to it, or something.