The history of mankind is replete with shocking episodes and scary stories, in comparison with which any horror film seems like a children's horror story.
We present you the top 7 most terrible historical events that can serve (and sometimes serve) as a source of inspiration for creating a game, film or book.
7. Zombie Apocalypse in the UK
Movies about zombies will not surprise anyone. Countless armies of the living dead, aimlessly wandering the streets, the panic of the few surviving ... That was exactly what happened in England during the time of the Great Plague (1665-1666).
London authorities tried to limit the spread of the disease by quarantine in the homes of patients. All members of the family of a person who died from the plague had to stay in their house for 40 days without any danger, and so that the quarantine would not be violated, there was a guard at the door.
Given that most homes had a minimal set of food and medicine, it is easy to imagine the despair and fear of quarantined people and their desire to escape. It was common practice to kill the guards, and one crazy victim of the disease went so far as to make homemade explosives.
6. Attack of the dead
Under such a journalistic name, an episode of the defense of the Osovec fortress during the First World War entered history.
The Germans besieging the fortress used a large amount of liquid chlorine against its defenders from the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyansky regiment. And they supplemented the chemical attack with artillery fire, creating a real hell for the Russians, from which no one was supposed to leave alive.
“We did not have gas masks, so the gases caused terrible injuries and chemical burns. When breathing, wheezing and bloody foam escaped from the lungs. Skin on hands and faces bubbled. The rags with which we wrapped our faces did not help. However, Russian artillery began to operate, sending shell from behind the green chlorine cloud behind the shell towards the Prussians. Then the head of the 2nd defense department of Osovts Svechnikov, shaking from a terrible cough, wheezed: “My friends, don’t die to us like Prussians cockroaches from poisoning, we will show them to remember forever!” - from the recollections of the participant in the events, the half-company commander of the 13th company, Alexei Lepyoshkin.
This attack frightened the Germans so much that they rushed to flee from bloodied, mutilated people, and many died from the fire of the fortress artillery, hanging on their own wire fences.
These events formed the basis of the short film Attack of the Dead: Osovets, released in 2018.
5. Waterloo soldiers went to fertilizers and dentures
By the beginning of the 19th century, it was widely believed in England that bones rich in calcium were a valuable fertilizer. And for several years after Napoleon’s defeat, agents of fertilizer producers combed the battlefield.
Bones of people and horses were removed from places such as Austerlitz, Leipzig and Waterloo, and sent for processing, usually in Hull and Doncaster. It seems a shocking disrespect for the dead, but the times were different. For centuries, other soldiers and local peasants robbed corpses on the battlefields, and the Napoleonic wars were no different from the others.
Long before the bone traders arrived, many bodies in Waterloo were toothless. Dentures made from human teeth have been called the “Waterloo teeth” for many years.
And the Battle of Waterloo caused the development of tourism. Surprisingly, there are reports that the British went to the scene of the battle to witness what was happening in real time, like spectators in a sports game.
4. The Jack the Ripper Was Never Caught
The story of Jack the Ripper began on August 31, 1888, when the body of a dead woman was found in the Whitechapel area. Her throat was cut, and her stomach was ripped open.
Three months later, when what became known as the "Autumn of Terror" ended, the same terrible fate befell four more women.
From the very beginning of the investigation, Scotland Yard has been baffled. The only thing that is known about Jack the Ripper is that he killed women. According to Edmund Reed, one of the detectives assigned to investigate the killings, all of Jack’s crimes were similar:
- all five women were active or former prostitutes;
- all victims were from the lower class;
- everyone lived close to each other;
- and all the murders were committed after the pubs closed.
One more significant detail can be added to Reed's key facts: no one has ever heard cries for help, which is very unusual for such a densely populated area as Whitechapel. None of the bodies showed wounds characteristic of attempts to defend themselves, such as cuts or bruises on the arms and forearms. And three victims were found with removed internal organs, which Jack apparently took with him. He attached the kidney of one of the victims to a letter from Hell, which he sent to one of the Whitechapel Committee of Vigilance. The letter states that Jack the Ripper “roasted and ate” the second kidney.
One of the women told the police that she saw the second victim - the prostitute Annie Chapman, accompanied by a "foreigner" of medium height, wrapped in a dark cloak. But whether it was Jack the Ripper or one of Annie’s clients, we will never know.
3. The body of Pope Pius XII exploded after death
Pope Pius XII did not want the embalmers to extract internal organs from his body after death. Everything had to remain in the same state "in which God created it." Therefore, Riccardo Galeazzi Lisi, a pontiff doctor, used the new embalming method developed by Neapolitan professor Oreste Nazzi.
Galeazzi Lisi hoped that the embalmed body of Pius XII will forever remain in a natural state. But something went wrong, and under the influence of the Mediterranean heat, the corpse of the Pope began to decompose quickly, literally exploding from the inside. And this happened during the funeral ceremony.
The stench was so strong that even the staunch Scottish Guard soldiers, carrying an honor guard around the body of the pontiff, felt ill.
As a result, the body of Pius XII and the career of the Galeazzi Lisi were destroyed in one day. But this doctor gained a dubious achievement, becoming the only person expelled from the Vatican.
2. Orphans of Duplessis
It is scary when they torment even one child. What can I say, if the account goes to thousands. But it was so in the now prosperous and democratic Canada, in the province of Quebec, during the government of Maurice Duplessis (1940-1950s).
All local schools, shelters and hospitals were entrusted with the administration of the church. And about 20 thousand (according to other sources - up to 300 thousand) refuseniks, orphans, supposedly mentally unhealthy children, as well as children born out of wedlock, fell under the control of nuns and medical staff.
Many of them were subjected to sexual violence, they were subjected to medical experiments, drugs, beatings and forced to work on an equal basis with adults.
The truth about what happened to the Duplessis orphans began to surface only in the 1990s. However, the Roman Catholic Church refused to take responsibility for what happened.
1. The serial killer during the time of the “London Blitz”
From the beginning of September 1940 to May 1941, Great Britain was bombarded by Nazi Germany. This time was known as the London Blitz or the Big Blitz. But not only bombs were dangerous for the inhabitants of the English capital.
Under cover of darkness, the city was terrorized by serial maniac Gordon Frederick Cummins, whose victims were seven women. Four of them died.
Cummins, who was nicknamed the "Invisible Ripper", as well as the Jack the Ripper, mutilated the bodies of his victims. But, unlike the elusive 19th century maniac, Cummins fell into the hands of justice.
An accident contributed to this: when the killer attacked another victim, a night clerk appeared nearby, who shone a flashlight in Cummins' face. The maniac escaped, dropping his service respirator. The police found the owner by the serial number on this product. The evidence was enough to sentence the London Invisible Ripper to execution.
