6 Chilling Wikipedia Stories

VanishedVoyage

6 Chilling Wikipedia Stories     #CreepyWikipedia #DisturbingReads #WikiHorrors #DarkSideOfWikipedia #CursedArticles #UnsettlingStories #WebRabbitHole

Transcript

00:00Devil's Footprints According to a Wikipedia article I found,

00:04back in 1855 in East and South Devon, England, a weird incident took place that left witnesses

00:10pretty confused and disturbed. As the story goes, in February of that year, there was a very heavy

00:15snowstorm, and the next morning there were more than 30 reports from different locations in England

00:20of a seemingly endless single-file trail of hoof-like prints in the snow. Witnesses of the

00:26incident allegedly claimed the prints covered over 100 miles of terrain, which according to

00:31Wikipedia left a lot of people pretty puzzled as to what it caused them. Strangely, the article also

00:36mentions that the hoof prints appeared on rooftops, haystacks, and other obstacles that you normally

00:41wouldn't expect animals to climb on. As you can imagine, it didn't take long for people to start

00:46coming up with wild theories to explain the hoof prints, with many of them claiming they belonged

00:50to the Devil, I guess because some of the people thought the prints looked like goat prints.

00:55Now, obviously there are much more rational theories to explain why these prints could

00:58have appeared overnight in so many locations at the same time, and the only reason the Wikipedia

01:03article is titled Devil's Footprints in the first place is only because that's the name of the urban

01:07legend. And you gotta consider that this theory was probably made up by a bunch of very bored

01:12townspeople back in the 1800s. The article actually mentions that there's very little evidence that the

01:17incident even happened in the first place, which in itself is pretty strange. According to Wikipedia,

01:22there was some sort of article published back in 1950 where the authors asked anyone with

01:27information about the mysterious hoof prints to come forward. And even though the article

01:31was published almost 100 years after the alleged incident, Wikipedia says it led to a bunch of

01:36papers written by an Englishman back in the 1850s being discovered. Those papers included letters

01:42to friends where the man apparently mentioned the hoof prints multiple times. Interestingly,

01:46in one of the letters, the man admitted that he made up the story about the prints belonging to a

01:50bunch of kangaroos that had supposedly escaped from a rich guy's collection of wild animals to keep

01:55the people from thinking the prints actually belonged to the devil. Aside from the made-up

01:59superstition that the prints had been left by the devil, there are a couple of more illogical

02:03theories that surfaced in the months following the supposed incident. According to a local guy

02:07named Major Carter, the prints hadn't been caused by any animal, but by a balloon that had actually been

02:12released from a nearby dockyard with the shackles still attached to the ropes, which would explain why

02:16they appeared in single file. Still, skeptics have pointed out how incredibly unlikely it would be

02:21for a balloon to travel so far without being stopped by obstacles like trees or houses.

02:26Other sources who have researched the incident in depth have clarified that it would have been

02:30impossible for the tracks to span anything close to 100 miles and that this part of the story was

02:35probably just made up or greatly exaggerated. According to Wikipedia, the other widely accepted

02:40theory for the hoof prints is that it could have just been badgers that for whatever reason

02:44decided to go hunting that evening, as this is the animal that would leave the most similar prints

02:47to the ones the people reported seeing. But even though there's a bunch of reasonable explanations,

02:52the fact remains that there isn't any conclusive evidence to prove where these hoof prints came

02:56from, and this is probably just one of those niche historical events that's going to remain a mystery forever.

03:04Belmez Faces

03:07Belmez is a tiny little village and municipality with less than 3,000 inhabitants in Cordoba, Spain.

03:13It's not really known for anything too extraordinary, except for this one occurrence documented on

03:18Wikipedia that talks about something pretty strange that happened there back in the 70s.

03:23According to the article, on August 23, 1971, a Belmez resident named Maria Camara claimed that a

03:29human face with a creepy expression had appeared out of nowhere on her concrete kitchen floor.

03:35As per Maria's own testimony, as soon as she saw the face, she was so disturbed,

03:39and knowing that she wasn't going to be able to unsee it, she called her husband Juan and their

03:43son Miguel, after which they destroyed the face with a pigaxe and laid down new concrete.

03:48As the story goes, after the new concrete was placed, a new face appeared on the floor just a

03:53few days later. The Wikipedia article mentions that at this point, Maria and her family reported

03:58the incident to the mayor of Belmez, who ordered the concrete to be carefully removed to be studied.

04:03Doing more research on the story, I found that after they removed the second slab of concrete,

04:07a bunch of seriously disturbing faces allegedly started appearing all over the house, and pretty

04:12soon Maria's house was being advertised to tourists from all over Spain as the house of the faces.

04:18According to Wikipedia, less than nine months later, hundreds of tourists from all over the

04:22country were traveling to Belmez to catch a glimpse of the faces. And apparently, the buzz didn't stop

04:27there. For the next three decades, Maria and her family continued to allege that disturbing faces

04:32were appearing all over their house, sometimes in just a matter of seconds and right in front of

04:37their eyes. As you can probably guess, because of the amount of attention the house was getting,

04:42the authorities decided to carry out some investigations to determine whether Maria and her

04:46family were making it all up, or whether something else was actually taking place at the house.

04:51This is where the story starts to get a little strange. Even though several tests were carried

04:55out to determine whether or not the faces had been painted on the concrete by hand,

04:59the results of a lot of the tests contradicted each other. And to this day, it's still unknown

05:04whether or not the faces were painted by Maria and her family. The case even drew the attention of a

05:09bunch of paranormal investigators, and a few of them claimed that while they were conducting experiments

05:14on the house, they supposedly started hearing voices when there was nobody else in the house,

05:18and they allegedly even saw new faces pop out of nowhere on the concrete while they were there.

05:23But as it often happens, the authorities accused the investigators of carrying out their experiments

05:27without the proper controls and documentation, which took pretty much all the credibility out

05:31of what they said they found at the house. To this day, nobody really knows where the faces came from,

05:37but the most widely accepted theory is that Maria and her family made the whole thing up

05:41pretty convincingly, and capitalized on the media frenzy for financial gain. To the skeptics,

05:46the media is just as much to blame as Maria for publishing so many sensationalist pieces on the

05:51house, which made it incredibly difficult for the authorities to carry out the proper tests and

05:55get credible results. List of unexplained sounds

06:02The content in the Wikipedia article named List of Unexplained Sounds is just as strange as the title

06:07suggests. The article is pretty much a list of sounds that have been picked up in remote locations all

06:12over the world by the most state-of-the-art hydrophones known to man. For those that don't

06:16know, a hydrophone is just an underwater device that detects and records ocean sounds from all

06:21directions. As mentioned in the introduction of the article, the sound files had to be spent up to 16

06:26times the original speed, and their frequency was also raised to make them audible. What's so

06:31interesting about these sounds is that nobody knows what's causing them, which is kind of disturbing

06:36considering they're all coming from remote locations like the bottom of the ocean and far beneath the

06:40Earth's surface. For example, one of the unidentified sounds is called upsweep, and it was picked up by

06:45the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration using its Pacific Ocean hydrophone array. As the article

06:51mentions, the sound was first discovered when the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory began

06:56recording with their hydrophone array somewhere in the ocean between New Zealand and South America.

07:01If you listen to the sound, which I'll play here in a second, you'll realize why it's called

07:04the upsweep as it comes across as a series of sound waves that go from low to high frequency.

07:09The Wikipedia article mentions that the sound appears to come and go depending on the season

07:13of the year, with the volume reaching its peak in spring and autumn. This is what it sounds like.

07:34As of today, scientists have no idea what this is or where the sound even comes from,

07:54though a few have suggested that upsweep might be caused by underwater volcanic activity. Interestingly,

07:59the volume of upsweep has been steadily declining since it was first recorded in 1991,

08:04another crazy thing scientists can't explain. This sound and some of the other sounds in the

08:10article themselves are honestly nothing out of the ordinary, but the fact that not even the top

08:14researchers in the field have a single clue as to what's causing them is a little disturbing when you

08:19really think about it. The Anguished Man

08:24There's a Wikipedia article out there titled The Anguished Man which tells the story of a visually

08:29disturbing painting of the same name that's owned by a man from Cumbria, England named Sean Robinson.

08:35According to the article, Sean claims the painting fell into the ownership of his grandmother at some

08:39point in the distant past, and when she passed away, she allegedly gave it to him. However, as the

08:44Wikipedia article explains, the owner insists that this is no ordinary painting, as his grandmother

08:50supposedly told him that the artist had mixed his own blood with the paint to make the artwork before

08:54taking his life. The story is kind of vague, and I couldn't really find any more information on who

08:59the supposed artist was or when the Anguished Man was even painted, which makes the whole thing pretty

09:04hard to believe. I did some more research and found other sources where Sean claims his grandmother

09:09hid the painting in her attic for over 25 years. As the story goes, before giving it to Sean,

09:14she mentioned that she had supposedly experienced paranormal activity at her house, with the dark

09:18figure of a man suddenly appearing at random times of the night, accompanied by the sounds of

09:22screaming, moaning, and crying. The Wikipedia article also links to Sean's YouTube named The Anguished

09:29Man, in which he explains that after inheriting the painting, he and his family allegedly also

09:33started experiencing paranormal activity at their house, with the supposed dark figure appearing to

09:37them as well in the middle of the night. Sean claims that before inheriting the painting,

09:42he was a total skeptic. But after bringing it home, he allegedly started hearing crying noises

09:47that got louder and louder every night until eventually he could no longer deny the supposed

09:52paranormal activity taking place at his house. Over the years, the painting has caught the attention

09:57of several so-called paranormal investigators. Sean's YouTube channel, where he documents this

10:02supposed evil activity, has since grown to 20,000 subscribers. In 2017, an independent filmmaker was even

10:09planning on making a movie on it, and it bought the rights from Sean, but from what I could find,

10:13it was either never released, or it just wasn't very popular. Overall, I see a lot of red flags that

10:19make it pretty clear that the story behind the Anguished Man is fake. For starters, the videos on Sean's

10:24YouTube channel where he uploads allegedly real footage of the paranormal activity at his house

10:28are all very clearly fabricated. Also, the story behind the painting itself is just so vague and far-fetched

10:35that I find it hard to believe it even has a grain of truth to it. I'm more inclined to agree with

10:39all the people who have accused Sean of making the artwork with regular paint himself and using the

10:44grandmother's story as a cop-out so he wouldn't have to provide more details about the alleged artist.

10:49Overall, the Anguished Man definitely makes for a good scary story, but I find no real reason to

10:54think that this is anything other than a creative hoax designed to get attention and maybe a couple of bucks

10:59out of a made-up story. Poe Toaster

11:05On October 7th, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore under pretty mysterious circumstances.

11:12According to a Wikipedia article, starting sometime in the 1930s, every morning on the anniversary of

11:18Poe's birthday, a man dressed in black carrying a silver-tipped cane with his face almost fully

11:22covered by a scarf or hood would somehow sneak into the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in

11:27Baltimore and find his way to Poe's grave. The article mentions the man would then pour himself

11:32a glass of Martel Cognac and raise a toast in Poe's honor, after which he would arrange three

11:37red roses on the gravestone next to his unfinished bottle of cognac and leave.

11:42Interestingly, the Poe Toaster, as he became to be known in Baltimore,

11:45never sought publicity and would always sneak into the burying ground unnoticed.

11:50Every year after his first appearance, a crowd of onlookers would start to gather on the morning of

11:54Poe's birthday to try to catch a glimpse of the man, but he was rarely seen or photographed.

11:59In fact, the only photograph I found of him is from a Life Magazine July 1990 article called

12:05Once Upon a Midnight Dreary, written by Gary Smith. The photograph was captured by Bill Ballenberg,

12:10and it shows the Poe Toaster hunched over the gravestone paying his respects to Edgar Allan Poe.

12:16Interestingly, the Poe Toaster would sometimes also leave cryptic notes on the gravestone during his

12:21visits. For example, in 1993, he left a note saying that the torch would soon be passed,

12:26and another one that said, Edgar, I haven't forgotten you. As it happened, the Poe Toaster

12:31was reported to have passed away in 1998 because he was no longer seen visiting the grave. But after

12:37which, the article mentions the tradition of visiting the grave and toasting in Poe's honor

12:41was passed on to one of his sons. Unfortunately, it looks like whoever inherited the tradition didn't

12:46take it half as seriously as his father, as the post-1998 Poe Toaster would often leave notes

12:51commenting on sports teams and politics, which his father had never done. At some point between 2005

12:58and 2008, he left a note that was apparently so disappointing that the curator of the Poe

13:02House and Museum didn't even show it to the public to protect the original Poe Toaster's honor and

13:06legacy, a man whose identity is still unknown to this day. But because this was such a big tradition in

13:12Baltimore for 70 years, in 2015, the city organized a competition to select a new Poe Toaster to turn

13:18the tradition into more of a tourist-friendly yearly attraction. Since 2016, the new anonymous Poe Toaster

13:25has kept up the tradition by visiting Edgar Allan Poe's grave on his birthday and paying his respects

13:30in front of the public. Mystery of Celtic Wood

13:37There's an article on Wikipedia that talks about the mystery of Celtic Wood, a strange incident that

13:41took place back in October 1917. According to the article, during the Battle of Puul Capel in

13:47West Flanders in World War I, the 10th Battalion of the 1st Australian Division decided to capture

13:52Paschendaele Ridge to collapse the German 4th Army. The plan was to raid Celtic Wood, blow up the

13:58German dugouts, and then immediately retreat back to safety. Unfortunately, things didn't go exactly

14:04as planned, leading to one of the biggest wartime mysteries in history. The article mentions that a

14:09little after 5am on October 9, seven officers and 78 men of the 10th Battalion began their raid on

14:15Celtic Wood, and that's the last time many of them were ever seen. Whatever happened in those woods

14:21depends on who you ask, but the general consensus is that the attack was a complete failure. According

14:27to the British and Australian wartime newspapers, the attack was considered a victory, but 10th Battalion

14:32Commander Maurice Wilder Nelligan, who was there when the whole thing happened, had a completely different

14:36take on the events. According to Wikipedia, the commander mentioned that the attack immediately

14:41turned into a very violent bloodbath, and that after the raid on Celtic Wood, only 14 unwounded

14:47members of the battalion made it back safely. This is where things get a little confusing,

14:52as other members of the battalion said only 7 men made it back to the Australian lines.

14:56Strangely, the article mentions that official army records were able to account for 37 of the 85

15:02battalion members. Even more mysteriously, after the raid, the bodies of the missing battalion

15:06soldiers were never found. Their names didn't even show up on lists of prisoners of war, and the

15:12Graves Commission couldn't find any traces of their bodies afterward, which is extremely strange.

15:17Different sources have different reports of how many people actually went missing,

15:21but it's widely accepted that the true figure is at least 37. For almost a hundred years,

15:26the raid of Celtic Wood remained a mystery, with most experts agreeing that the Germans probably

15:30massacred the missing men and buried them in a mass grave. However, Wikipedia mentions that in

15:362008, researchers Chris Henschke and Robert Kearney claimed to have conclusive evidence that the

15:40members of the 10th battalion had been killed by the Germans in the woods, and that the only reason

15:44they couldn't find traces of their bodies was that they had been blown up with their own bombs.

15:48When mixed with the remains of the dead German soldiers, this made it impossible to tell

15:52Australian soldiers from German soldiers after the fact. In Henschke's own words, the raid wasn't a

15:57great mystery, it was the story of a typical small unit action that went wrong. However, not every expert

16:06to this day, the raid of Celtic Wood remains one of the biggest, strangest World War I mysteries.

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