Varla Ventura - Beyond Bizarre: Frightening Facts and Blood-Curdling True Tales

Ripe with nightmarish stories of the gruesome kind, these thirteen chilling chapters teem with queasy diseases, ooze with paranormal encounters, and burst with the outlandish, the outrageous, and the simply strange. From shipwrecks to vampire squids, unusual_museums to creepy collections, virgin shark births to psychic predictions, Beyond Bizarre contains tons of new trivia and stranger than-fiction stories.

First published in 2010 by

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

500 Third Street, Suite 230

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2010 by Weiser Books.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-464-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ventura, Varla, 1958

Beyond bizarre: frightening facts & bloodcurdling true tales / Varla

Ventura.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-57863-464-4 (alk. paper)

1. Curiosities and wonders. I. Title.

AG243.V42 2010

001.9dc22

2010014732

Cover and text design by Sara Gillingham

Typeset in Antihistory, Toronto Gothic, and Rough Egyptienne

Cover illustrations: Skeleton, Spider, Turtle and Squid Dover. Woman and parasol, moth Miss Mary. Magician Pepin Press.

Interior illustrations: p10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 60, 87 Dover; p72, 78, 82 istockphoto.com; p13, 30, 36, 42, 75, 77, 83, 214, 264, 285, 291 Dreamstime.com; p38, 39, 43, 55, 62, 69, 90, 93, 98, 106, 108, 111, 116, 119, 122, 128, 129, 132, 142, 147, 162, 169, 170, 177, 183, 199, 205, 210, 221, 224, 225, 229, 230, 232, 234, 235, 240, 242, 243, 244, 249, 250, 253, 256, 260, 270, 270, 273, 274, 277, 284, 286 Miss Mary; p31, 33, 35, 41, 45, 50, 53, 67, 70, 73, 85, 94, 106, 114, 115, 125, 131, 150, 157, 166, 200, 218, 219, 233, 291 Pepin.

Printed in Canada

TCP

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

DEDICATED TO THE MANY FRIENDS WHO HAVE KEPT ME COMPANY IN THE DARKEST HOURS OF THE NIGHT.

V.V.

When we first heard from Varla in The Book of the Bizarre, we knew almost immediately that there would be a sequel. Had we printed them all, the amount of freaky facts she had provided for the first book would have spilled out of its pages, and we had to make careful selections to keep the book from becoming too much of a good thing. But we never forgot how many medical maladies and Hollywood twists of fate there were lying on the cutting room floor. It just seemed natural that Varla should write Beyond Bizarre with new chapters and even more unusual trivia and terrifying tales. It gives us great pleasure to think of her writing in the wee hours of the morning, her black cat curled up at her feet, the wind rattling the windows of her Victorian attic apartment. There is something of us in Varla, and we can see her terrifying generations to comeif by no other means than having such a keen eye for irony, wickedness, and the outright strange. We hope you enjoy Beyond Bizarre as much as we have.

Amber Guetebier and Rachel Leach

Editors at Large

Weiser Books

1. YO, HO AND UP SHE RISES: STORIES FROM THE SEA
Shipwrecks, Ghost Ships, Sea Creatures, Pirates, and Ocean Lore

2. IT'S ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU HURL
Crazy Carnivals, Fantastic Freak Shows, Haunted Amusement
Parks, Scary Rides, and Creepy Clowns

3. HAUNTED HOLLYWOOD
Ghostly Sets and Sightings, Celebrity Deaths and Superstitions,
Strange Coincidences, and Harrowing Horror Film Facts

4. ON THE ROAD: TALES FROM HAUNTED HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Ghostly Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

5. BLOOD-RED CROSSES AND GROSS ANATOMY: HOSPITAL HORRORS
Bizarre Diseases and Maladies, Haunted Hospitals and Asylums,
Evil Doctors, Strange Procedures, and Very Grave Robberies

6. MURDER, SHE WROTE
True Crime, Gruesome Murders, and Unsolved Mysteries

7. BAG OF TRICKS
Famous Magicians, Hoaxes, and Feats of Human Endurance

8. IT WAS TRUE THEN
Weird Historical Events, Beliefs, and Practices

9. TALES FROM THE CRYPTIDS
Mythological Beings, Freaky Creatures, and Cryptozoological Sightings

10. NATURALLY STRANGE
Interesting Insects, Bizarre Plants, and Animal Oddities

11. BRIDE OF THE BIZARRE
Wacky Weddings, Tragic Nuptials, Ritual Origins, and Odd Couples

12. THERE'S BLOOD IN THEM THAR HILLS!
Ghost Towns, Lost Cemeteries, and More True Ghost Encounters

13. STRANGE AMERICA
Creepy Collections, Odd Museums, and Americans Behaving Weirdly

SHIPWRECKS, GHOST SHIPS, SEA CREATURES, PIRATES, AND OCEAN LORE.

The loud wind never reached the ship,

Yet now the ship moved on!

Beneath the lightning and the Moon

The dead men gave a groan.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE,

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

THE CREAKING PLANK OF A FOG-SOAKED WHARF, the shadow of a ghost ship slipping silently out of harbor, legends of tentacles that can pull down a merchant vesselthe ocean is as vast in stories and legends as it is in size. From the lobster pot soul cages that rattle with drowned men to the phosphorescent glimmer of the vampire squid's false eyes, chilling tales and creepy creatures are part of the sea's endless mysteries.

I have called a port town home for a number of years, and the sound of the foghorns reminds me that the murky waters still churn, still push their foggy fingers against the windowpanes, and still send out their siren songs and ghoulish stories from hilltop to deep crevasse. And so I welcome you, dear reader, to the monstrous and the mysterious, the dark and the stormy, the oozing and the beautiful, in this totally bizarre chapter.

Members of Victorian England's middle class thought it fashionable to go monster spotting, or trolling for sea creatures.

The Orkney Islands, off the northern tip of Scotland, are said to be home to one of the nastiest sea creatures in history: the sea-trow. This monkey-faced, flat-footed, scaly beast terrified 18th- and 19th- century sailors and land dwellers alike. It was said to make frequent waddling visits ashore to visitand hauntthe island townspeople. Courtesy of Orkneyjar (orkneyjar.com), the Orkney folklore goes:

The Fishers both in Orkney and Zetland are affraid when they see them, which panick fear of their's makes them think and sometimes say that it is the Devil in the shape of such Creatures, whether it be so or not as they apprehend, I cannot determine. However, it seems to be more than probable, that evil spirits frequent both Sea and Land.

CEPHALOPOD HEAVEN

• The octopus is considered the most intelligent of all invertebrates. It has both short- and long-term memory, and has been observed using tools, like coconut shells, for shelter.