4 Scary Moments In History That Were Worse Than You Realized

4

The Unabomber May Have Been The Product Of A Brutal Psychological Experiment

Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, is one of the most famous murder-hermits of all time, and that's saying a lot. He is generally perceived to be a violent, paranoid schizophrenic, and rightfully so. But there are parts of his story many don't know.

Kaczynski was messed up, sure, but he was also brilliant. He attended Harvard in 1958, when he was only 16. Impressive as that may sound, it may also very well have been the start of his spiral into madness. In 1959, a group of psychologists from Harvard's Department of Social Relations apparently decided that they hadn't quite filled their evil science quota. So they got a group of 22 students, young Ted among them, to enlist in a blatantly torturous psychological experiment.

Harvard University"Are you sure you want to do this, Ted?"
"What's the worst that could happen?"

First the test subjects were tasked with writing an essay that would reveal their personal beliefs -- the values and tenets they held most dear. Students were then supposed to debate their beliefs with a fellow undergraduate. But the "debate" consisted of being covered in electrodes, then sitting in a bright room facing a one-way mirror, while a law student who had been specifically prepped to verbally abuse the subjects tore their ideas and values apart. Then, after the participants had been ridiculed and humiliated to the verge of extreme anger, they were called back to watch the recordings of the procedures. They had their very world torn apart, then had to sit down and watch how stupid they really were on TV. It'd be like signing up for a charity run, then finding out you'd been pressed onto Jersey Shore.

The experiments were conducted between 1959 and 1962, and headed by Professor Henry A. Murray, who was already somewhat (in)famous for his work with the OSS and the CIA. They took place in a mansion/laboratory known as the Annex, because clearly, no one here was even remotely interested in pretending they weren't supervillains. Our first piece of evidence: The researchers gave all their subjects bizarre code names. Ted's was, ironically, "Lawful."

FBIThe other choice was "Babyface."

3

The Government Sent Hundreds Of Thousands Of Unfit People To The Vietnam War As "The Moron Troops"

Most people associate the Vietnam War with three things: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Good Morning Vietnam, and John Rambo. Oh, and the protests and death and all that.

In 1966, all those protests presented President Lyndon B. Johnson with a problem. He needed a metric ton of fresh soldiers to feed into the pit of escalating terror Vietnam had become, but couldn't afford the massive backlash that abolishing student deferments or calling up hordes of reserves was sure to create. Luckily for him, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had a way to do this while avoiding unwanted civil upset from concerned citizens: Simply focus the recruiting effort on poor, unfit, and disadvantaged people.

LBJ Presidential LibraryHey, that was our reaction too!

2

The Worst Enemy Of Napoleon's Army Was Napoleon Himself

Napoleon was notoriously lax in feeding his dreaded Grande Armee. An old Polish saying -- "Bread? There is none" -- was so popular with the troops that Napoleon himself once shot it back at a hungry soldier who asked him for food. Generally, it's the commander's job to boost morale, not engage in cynical memes about starvation.

Wikimedia CommonsParticularly for a man who allegedly coined the term "An army marches on its stomach."

During the 1798 Egyptian campaign, 55,000 of Napoleon's troops endured a brutal three-day desert march from Alexandria to Cairo. They died like flies from heat, thirst, the occasional Bedouin attack, and suicide. This wasn't particularly good news for the Egyptians, either. By the time the army reached the Nile, half-crazed soldiers tore through the area in a looting rampage that did little to endear Napoleon to the local populace. Of course, Napoleon learned precisely nothing from this exercise in troop hydration, and put his men through an even crazier ten-day desert march, which went exactly as well as you'd think. When they finally reached their destination in Syria, the exhausted troops were greeted with a plague and prompt defeat at the hands of an Ottoman and English coalition.

1

Surviving The Atomic Bomb Was Only The Start Of The Ordeal

The aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki left over a million survivors worrying about injuries, illness, and homelessness. On top of it all, they were treated as total outcasts and third-class citizens by their own country for the rest of their lives. Back then, radioactivity was invisible, mysterious, and terrifying. Who's to say that the survivors really survived anything at all?

National Archives and Records AdministrationYou know, besides all these people.

Yeah, you know where this is going.

Japan treated the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki like the ghouls from Fallout. They feared the survivors would spread radiation-related diseases to those around them. Even their scarring was considered contagious. They were dubbed hibakusha -- "atomic bomb survivors" -- and actively shunned by the rest of society. Survivors found it difficult to secure jobs or housing. Many also found it impossible to marry -- after all, there was no telling what crazy mutants their irradiated loins might give birth to. Japan didn't even bother setting up proper healthcare for the victims until the 1950s, because hey, with any luck, they'd all die out.