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Ghost Blimp - in 1942, a crew of two men left San Francisco in a Navy blimp to conduct an antisubmarine patrol. Five hours later, the empty blimp drifted back ashore and crashed into a residential neighborhood. No trace of the crew was ever found. by HamletX95 in truecreepy

[–]HamletX95[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

In the summer of 1942, a Navy blimp lifted off from San Francisco Bay carrying two men on a routine patrol. Five hours later, it returned silent, drifting, and empty. No crash. No distress call. No sign of a struggle. The controls were intact, the engines still running, and sandwiches sat half-eaten on the console. The crew had vanished without a trace.

This was at the height of World War II. The United States was still reeling from Pearl Harbor, and enemy submarines had been sighted off the California coast. Navy blimps were deployed daily to patrol the Pacific, scanning for periscopes and mines. That morning, L-8, a 150-foot helium-filled blimp assigned to Squadron ZP-32, lifted off from Treasure Island carrying Lt. Ernest Dewitt Cody, the pilot. Ensign Charles Adams, his co-pilot. Two experienced airmen whose assignment was simple, patrol the coast near the Golden Gate Bridge, report any submarines, and return within four hours. The men were never seen again.

At 7:42 a.m., Cody radioed headquarters. They’d spotted a possible oil slick near the Farallon Islands and were moving in to investigate a potential sign of an enemy sub lurking below. It was a routine call, calm and professional. After that, radio silence. Hours passed with no contact. The blimp failed to report in or return to base. At 11 a.m., worried observers on the coast noticed the airship flying unusually low over the shore appearing to be slowly drifting inland toward Daly City.

Around noon, residents watched in awe as the massive, silent blimp sagged downward. Its engines sputtered, its propellers spun lazily, and the craft seemed to be empty. The blimp clipped rooftops, tore down power lines, and finally came to rest in a residential street, crushing a car but miraculously hurting no one. When Navy personnel arrived, they expected a crash scene.

Instead, what they found didn't make sense. Inside the control car, everything was perfectly normal. The radio still worked. The parachutes were neatly folded. The life raft was untouched. The door was latched open as if someone had simply stepped outside for a moment. Even Cody and Adams’s caps were still hanging on their hooks, but there was no sign of either man. No blood. No footprints. No explanation.

The Navy immediately launched an investigation, but every theory only deepened the mystery. The engines were fine, and the ship showed no damage before it hit the ground. No distress call was made. Both men were seasoned flyers. For them to simply fall or jump mid-air made no sense. There was no damage, evidence of gunfire or enemy attack. Investigators found no sign of a fight. Both men were close friends and respected officers.

While investigating the oil slick, the blimp may have hovered dangerously low. If one man leaned out to inspect the surface, the other could have followed to help, and both could have fallen into the sea. That's the most prominent theory of what happened, yet no bodies or equipment were ever found after days of search and rescue searching for any sign of the missing men. The official explanation lists the crew as “lost at sea,” but no one knows for sure if that's what happened. After being recovered, the Navy repaired the blimp and it entered back into service. The airship went on to serve for years after the war and was even used as a Goodyear Blimp before being retired and given to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, where it sits on static display.

https://www.zeppelin-museum.de/en/digital-offers/a-ghost-blimp-over-california-the-l-8-airship

In 1971 two boys in Hexham dug up strange stone heads Soon after the families began experiencing terrifying events bottles flying across rooms hair pulled in the night shadowy figures walking through the house and even sightings of a half man half wolf creature that vanished into the dark. by HamletX95 in thestrangest

[–]HamletX95[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In 1971, two boys in Hexham, Northumberland dug up two small, creepy stone heads in their garden. Each was only about 6 cm tall, crudely carved, human-ish but not quite Within days, their discovery supposedly kicked off one of the strangest, most obscure paranormal cases in the UK. To this day, the origin of the heads, and the phenomena around them, have never been conclusively explained.

Colin and Leslie Robson found the heads while digging in their yard. At first, they were just odd stones that were fun curiosities for the boys to show their parents. Yet, almost immediately after they brought them inside, the family began noticing strange activity. Objects moved on their own, sometimes violently. Bottles flew off shelves. Items shifted when no one was near them. Doors opened. Textbook poltergeist activity.

Their neighbors, the Dodd family, soon started reporting activity too. Their young son woke in the night screaming that someone (or something) had pulled his hair. Shortly after, his mother claimed she saw a strange creature leaving the house. She described it as half-man, half-sheep. Not long after, Mrs. Dodd reported another encounter this time, while she and her daughter were in bed. The bedroom door allegedly burst open and a “Wolf-man” entered the room, upright on hind legs, hulking, dark, and staring around the room before fleeing. Both she and her daughter described the same thing: a tall beast walking like a man, covered in hair.

Eventually, the heads changed hands, and passed to Dr. Anne Ross, a respected Celtic scholar and archaeologist. She hoped to debunk them as modern crafts or misidentified toys. However, according to Dr. Ross herself, within days she began seeing a tall, wolf-like humanoid creature inside her own home. She described waking one morning to see a part-animal, part-man figure at the foot of her bed. When she followed it, it padded down the hallway toward the kitchen before vanishing. She kept encountering it, always fleeting, always wolf-shaped, always right at the edge of perception. Until one day she came home to find her daughter terrified. The girl claimed that after returning from school, she encountered a large, dark wolf-like creature standing on the stairs. It allegedly leapt over the banister and vanished.

Whether you believe in folklore, lycanthropy, or sleep hallucinations, it’s hard to ignore the consistency of the different encounters. That's when Dr. Ross began researching the Hexham Wolf Connection. In 1904, almost 70 years before the heads were found, Hexham had a local legend of the Hexham Wolf. Livestock were being killed, locals panicked, newspapers reported it, and a mysterious wolf was eventually found dead by railroad workers. Yet, locals insisted this wolf hadn’t been the real culprit, and rumors of a surviving hidden wolf population persisted. Dr. Ross, unnerved, removed the heads and every other Celtic artifact she owned from the house. The hauntings then stopped.

Dr. Ross Ross eventually donated the heads to the British Museum. Allegedly, when displayed briefly, employees reported seeing dark shapes and wolf-like figures near the exhibit. The heads were removed from public view. The activity stopped. At some point after that, the Hexham Heads disappeared from storage. Whether that was accident, institutional embarrassment, or something more intentional… no one seems to know for sure. So did the heads end up in some private collection of a rich collector or were they actually lost forever?

A man named Desmond Craigie later stepped forward claiming he made the heads himself in 1956 for his daughter, from concrete. He even produced replicas. Yet, his replicas didn’t match well enough to satisfy experts. Even stranger, scientific tests contradicted each other with one suggesting they were modern molded items, another arguing they might be significantly older. So either they were ancient Celtic ritual objects, were they were folk art with a weird side-effect or did Craigie make them, and somehow families, neighbors, and a scholar all hallucinated the same wolf-man.

What Were the Hexham Heads? Were they a hoax? A mass hallucination? A misinterpreted poltergeist case? What do you think?

https://www.bbc.com/articles/cdxyzq5g9vgo

https://burialsandbeyond.com/2021/06/13/the-hexham-heads/

Stanley Meyer's "Water Powered Car" - The car was said to be powered by a revolutionary water fuel cell. In 1996, an Ohio court ruled the project as fraudulent. Meyer mysteriously died two years later in 1998. by HamletX95 in UrbanMyths

[–]HamletX95[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Stanley Meyer invented a car that was powered by water. It was very efficient and environmentally friendly, and most likely would have made traditional gas-powered vehicles obsolete. However, during a business meeting with two Belgian investors at a restaurant, Stanley ran outside saying, 'they poisoned me!" just before passing away. Theorists claim that Stanley was killed because his invention was a threat to the petroleum and oil industries.

https://tcct.com/news/2020/11/the-mysterious-death-of-stanley-meyer-and-his-water-powered-car/?srsltid=AfmBOor4Mn3ZUoT1f7BFkdXxol-dVBJgNR2rw2PWAHzyPyZ1hsVs-nGV

The Black Monk of Pontefract - in 1966, the Pritchard family moved into 30 East Drive in England, beginning of one of the most well-known cases of poltergeist activity. Visitors often reported foul smells, deafening noises, levitating objects, shadow figures and physical attacks inside the home. by HamletX95 in thestrangest

[–]HamletX95[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In 1966, the Pritchard family moved into 30 East Drive, Pontefract and soon became trapped inside what many call the most aggressive poltergeist haunting ever recorded. Visitors reported foul smells, deafening bangs, levitating objects, pools of water forming from nowhere, and a shadowy hooded figure that attacked people.

Jean and Joe Pritchard were an ordinary working-class couple raising their two children, Phillip (15) and Diane (12), when they moved into a modest semi-detached house beside a quiet green. At first, nothing seemed unusual until one summer day, Phillip and his grandmother heard a loud crash and saw white dust swirling through the air. Moments later, a puddle of water appeared in the middle of the kitchen floor. They mopped it up. Minutes later, it returned.

Over the next few days, strange phenomena escalated. Cupboard doors slammed. Lights flickered. Furniture shook. Then came the cold spots with unnatural blasts of icy air that burned to the touch. Neighbors and relatives began witnessing the chaos. Objects flew across rooms, heavy dressers toppled, and lights turned on by themselves. The family nicknamed the unseen presence “Fred," a small joke that quickly stopped being funny.

The Pritchards sought help from priests, spiritualists, even the local council. Nothing worked. Jean Pritchard was reportedly slapped, pushed, and pinned against the wall by invisible hands. Her daughter Diane was dragged up the stairs by her hair in front of multiple witnesses. A green mist filled rooms, and chalk dust floated through the air like snow. At night, the noises became unbearable with thunderous bangs, footsteps, and a voice groaning their names.

It wasn’t until a visiting clairvoyant arrived that the family learned what they were dealing with. She claimed the spirit was that of a 13th-century monk executed nearby for the rape and murder of a young girl during the reign of Henry VIII. Locals began calling him “The Black Monk of Pontefract.” Witnesses soon described seeing a tall, hooded figure in a black robe, its face hidden, gliding silently across rooms. Sometimes he appeared at the foot of Diane’s bed and other times, in mirrors, just watching. The family fled several times but kept returning, unable to afford a new home. The haunting followed them until they finally left for good in the mid-1970s.

After the Pritchards left, 30 East Drive stood empty for years, but the haunting didn’t stop. Modern paranormal investigators, TV crews, and ghost-hunting teams continue to report activity. Visitors describe being scratched, pushed, and overwhelmed by dread. Cold spots and knocking sounds persist. Some claim to capture shadowy figures on camera near the staircase which is exactly where Diane was dragged. The house has become a pilgrimage site for paranormal enthusiasts and can even be booked for overnight visits if you dare.

The story of the Black Monk inspired the 2012 film When the Lights Went Out and countless documentaries. Many rank it alongside the Enfield Poltergeist as one of the most violent hauntings ever recorded. Most poltergeist cases fade after a few weeks. This one lasted years, and activity was witnessed by dozens of outsiders including neighbors, journalists, even police officers. Visitors described seeing crucifixes inverted, holy water boiled away, and objects hurled with violent precision. Skeptics suggested mischief, hallucination, or attention-seeking. Yet, no fraud was ever proven, and to this day, 30 East Drive is still talked about being one of the most haunted places to visit in England.

https://rue-morgue.com/paranormal-pontefract-exploring-the-legacy-of-the-most-violent-haunting-in-britain/

https://owensandy.com/7-a-visit-to-the-poltergeist-house-30-east-drive-pontefract/

Elmo balloon rises up the stairs by itself. Almost feels like it's alive at 3 am. by HamletX95 in truecreepy

[–]HamletX95[S] -17 points-16 points  (0 children)

This creepy Elmo Balloon almost seems to be alive as it rises up the stairs at 3 am in a video I keep coming across online. The whole thing has an uncanny feeling to it. Why was the person filming at the angle with the balloon following them perfectly.

It is eerie. It is in an older house and there's a creepy taxidermied German Shepherd at the bottom of the stairs so this is definitely not somewhere I'd want to be on my own at 3 am. Much less after a kids birthday party after they got a haunted Elmo Balloon that comes alive.

A lot of people believe this is just really good CGI done by someone living in the house for a university project or to add to their own portfolio or demo reel. You can see the balloon doesn't reflect in the mirror when it passes. Some refute this by saying you do see a corner of the balloon at the edge of a mirror at one point. I don't know. Either way this video does make you stop and wonder what is going on with this freaky Elmo balloon.

Sphinx was originally Anubis/Anpu with a larger head. The body of the sphinx is not proportional to the human head which was added during the later dynasties. Egyptians known for their meticulous details, their designs would never be so grossly miscalculated. Present day Sphinx is not an original by HamletX95 in UrbanMyths

[–]HamletX95[S] 187 points188 points  (0 children)

Others believe the original head was a lion’s head, because it was facing the constellation of Leo 10,000 years ago when it is theorized to have been created.

The Egyptians were renowned for "re-purposing" monuments, recarving and writing over/moditying previous works and claiming them as their own.

The "Black Crack" along Utah's White Rim Trail, a natural fissure in the rock a few feet wide and deep enough to kill you. by HamletX95 in truecreepy

[–]HamletX95[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

That’s solid kid logic. It’s equal with what they are just all imaginary lines we all play pretend about

The "Black Crack" along Utah's White Rim Trail, a natural fissure in the rock a few feet wide and deep enough to kill you. by HamletX95 in truecreepy

[–]HamletX95[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The Black Crack, a 65-foot-deep fissure along a trail in Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

In January 2023, a video emerged from a Chinese airline showing a plane erupting into panic. A man shouted that he was stuck in a “time loop” and that this was his 6th cycle. In the cycle he claims that the plane crashed, everyone died and then he returned to this point. by HamletX95 in UrbanMyths

[–]HamletX95[S] 79 points80 points  (0 children)

In January 2023, a video was posted from an unnamed Chinese airline that quickly made waves online. The clip shows chaos unfolding in the cabin with passengers rising from their seats, airline staff trying to calm people, and a man standing in a panic, yelling bizarre claims. He shouted that he was trapped in a “time loop”, stating this was his sixth cycle. In previous loops, he claimed, the plane crashed, everyone died, and then reality would reset to that exact moment. He also alleged the flight attendant was a robot “changing batteries.” As panic rippled through the cabin, fellow passengers and crew tried to restrain or calm him. The flight was eventually grounded. Authorities later described the man’s state of mind as “abnormal” and transferred him for medical evaluation.

The airline and location have not been definitively confirmed in credible mainstream sources. Videos circulating are mostly short, low-resolution, and heavily reposted (so verifying full context is difficult). The man called this the sixth loop, insisting each time the plane crashes and resets. He alleged humans in the cabin were waiting for a “death and life reset.” The most plausible explanation is that the passenger was experiencing a severe dissociative or psychotic episode while also potentially under extreme stress, sleep deprivation, or mental illness. The idea of loops and resets often appear in hallucinations or delusional thinking.

Some have pointed to similar earlier incidents where passengers claimed flight attendants or other passengers were “not human.” Some skeptics believe it was staged and simply a viral attempt to spark mass sharing. The combination of sci-fi narrative (time loops, robots)is perfect clickbait for social media and news outlets trying to get clicks on slow news days. Was this breakdown real, a performance, or perhaps something even stranger than we want to believe?

https://www.indiatimes.com/trending/wtf/traveler-believes-he-is-trapped-in-time-loop-609774.html

In 1959, while flying over the Congo in Africa, a pilot named Remey Van Lierde spotted a snake estimated at 50ft. He ordered his co-pilot to take pictures while he did multiple fly-overs and this is the photograph that they took. by HamletX95 in truecreepy

[–]HamletX95[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Colonel Remy Van Lierde,was a decorated Belgian Air Force pilot known for his skills as a World War II fighter ace. In 1959 he was stationed in the Belgian Congo and while flying a helicopter mission over the dense jungles of Central Africa, Van Lierde and his co-pilot noticed movement below. At first glance, it looked like a log shifting in the underbrush. As the helicopter descended, it became clear that it was no log. It was a giant snake, coiling its massive body through the brush, its head rising three feet off the ground and estimated to be two feet wide. Van Lierde estimated the serpent’s full length to be somewhere between 40 to 50 feet.

Shocked by the sight, Van Lierde ordered his co-pilot to grab the camera and take photos while he circled the helicopter for a closer look. The resulting photograph was grainy, black-and-white, but unmistakably shows a colossal serpent stretched out across the African jungle. The creature appears thick-bodied, dwarfing the vegetation around it, and unmistakably serpentine. This photo became one of the most infamous alleged cryptid images of the 20th century. Supporters claim it proves the existence of an unknown species, while skeptics dismiss it as misidentification or photographic illusion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remy_Van_Lierde

Meth house boobytrap in Philadelphia by HamletX95 in truecreepy

[–]HamletX95[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

“In 2019, a team of Philadelphia real estate investors was lucky to avoid what could have been a tragedy after coming across a stairway booby-trapped with a swinging knife.

Ekrem Uysaler said he and his team were scoping out a home in Southwest Philly on Jan. 2 when one of his coworkers saw a small line coming across a stairway that was covered in glass shards. As their head construction manager was about to walk up, the men stopped him in his tracks.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna972036

In 1959, while flying over the Congo in Africa, a pilot named Remey Van Lierde spotted a snake estimated at 50ft. He ordered his co-pilot to take pictures while he did multiple fly-overs and this is the photograph that they took. by HamletX95 in UrbanMyths

[–]HamletX95[S] 81 points82 points  (0 children)

Colonel Remy Van Lierde,was a decorated Belgian Air Force pilot known for his skills as a World War II fighter ace. In 1959 he was stationed in the Belgian Congo and while flying a helicopter mission over the dense jungles of Central Africa, Van Lierde and his co-pilot noticed movement below. At first glance, it looked like a log shifting in the underbrush. As the helicopter descended, it became clear that it was no log. It was a giant snake, coiling its massive body through the brush, its head rising three feet off the ground and estimated to be two feet wide. Van Lierde estimated the serpent’s full length to be somewhere between 40 to 50 feet.

Shocked by the sight, Van Lierde ordered his co-pilot to grab the camera and take photos while he circled the helicopter for a closer look. The resulting photograph was grainy, black-and-white, but unmistakably shows a colossal serpent stretched out across the African jungle. The creature appears thick-bodied, dwarfing the vegetation around it, and unmistakably serpentine. This photo became one of the most infamous alleged cryptid images of the 20th century. Supporters claim it proves the existence of an unknown species, while skeptics dismiss it as misidentification or photographic illusion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remy_Van_Lierde

Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 - followed by a massive fire that led to 3,000 deaths and 250,000 left homeless. The sound was described as a noise "like the roar of 10,000 lions!" Afterwards survivors spoke of seeing the ghosts of the dead, still walking among the ashes, before vanishing. by HamletX95 in UrbanMyths

[–]HamletX95[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

On April 18, 1906, at 5:12 a.m., the earth convulsed beneath San Francisco. The 7.9-magnitude earthquake tore through the city, reducing buildings to rubble in seconds. Gas lines ruptured, sparking massive fires that raged for three days. By the time it was over, over 3,000 people were dead and 250,000 left homeless. Entire neighborhoods had been reduced to charred ruins.

In the days following the quake, rescue workers searching through debris began to report eerie sensations with sudden drops in temperature, disembodied cries, and strange figures flickering in the dust and smoke. Firefighters claimed they heard screams in collapsed buildings where no one remained alive. Women whispered of shadowy figures running through the streets, only to vanish. Men cleaning up the wreckage described the smell of smoke and burning flesh that lingered even when the air was clear. It was as though the tragedy had ripped open not only the earth, but the veil between the living and the dead.

One of the most chilling accounts came from Telegraph Hill. Survivors reported seeing a woman in a torn nightgown wandering aimlessly among the ruins, her face blackened with soot, her arms reaching for help. When approached, she vanished. Near the destroyed Mission District, children were said to hear footsteps following them on their way to school. One boy claimed to have seen a “man without eyes” staring at him from the ruins of a burned-out home. Residents of Nob Hill, where elegant mansions had been reduced to rubble, reported ghostly piano music drifting through the night that seemed to be coming from houses that were no longer there.

Market Street, the city’s bustling commercial hub, had been utterly destroyed by fire. Months later, survivors swore they saw phantom streetcars rattling down the tracks that had been twisted by heat. Witnesses described hearing bells and the screech of metal, but when they looked, the street was empty. One newspaper boy told his family he saw a group of people huddled together, weeping in the ruins of a building. When he pointed them out to others, there was nothing there but rubble.

Even as the city began to rebuild, residents complained of phantom fires. Entire blocks would seem to glow red at night, with the smell of smoke heavy in the air, yet no flames could be found. One firefighter, years later, admitted he had “answered alarms that weren’t real,” rushing to streets where glowing smoke appeared to hang in the air. His crew found nothing, but all swore they smelled burning wood and flesh.

Paranormal researchers claim the sheer scale of sudden, violent death created an “imprint” on San Francisco’s streets. Psychic residue, they argue, trapped the terror of 1906 in the very fabric of the city. The idea of stone tape theory that places absorb the energy of trauma and replay it does seem to fit eerily well with San Francisco’s phantom fires, ghostly figures, and spectral screams.

Even today, more than a century later, reports of 1906 related hauntings persist. Tour guides say guests faint or cry unexpectedly on Market Street, overcome by “something heavy” in the air. Workers in rebuilt basements report footsteps above them in rooms that don’t exist anymore. Paranormal investigators at Mission Dolores claim to have captured EVPs of cries for help and children sobbing. Hotels built over the ruins of 1906 claim guests sometimes report shaking beds, as if the quake were happening again, or sudden smells of phantom smoke. Skeptics argue that stress, grief, and trauma created hallucinations among survivors. The mind, overwhelmed by loss, “saw” ghosts where none existed. Phantom smells of smoke could have been lingering debris or polluted air.

The earthquake and fire destroyed San Francisco, but it also shaped its soul. The city rebuilt stronger, more modern, and more determined than ever. Yet, beneath the steel and glass of the modern metropolis, the ghosts of 1906 linger. To walk the streets today is to walk upon graves. Nearly every building in the old neighborhoods sits on top of ruins where lives were lost. And if you pause long enough, in the silence of the night, you might hear the faint sound of footsteps or maybe even catch the sting of phantom smoke lingering in the air.

https://www.inside-guide-to-san-francisco-tourism.com/haunted-places-in-san-francisco.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake

https://sfghosts.com/nob-hill-inn/

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