Poveglia Island is one of many islands in the lagoons of Venice, Italy but instead of being a place of beauty, the island is a festering blemish in the shimmering sea and is not only regarded as one of the most haunted locations on the planet, but also one of the most evil places in the world.  Today no one visits save to harvest the vineyards.  Fishermen even steer clear of the island for fear that they will catch human bones in their nets.

The dark history of Poveglia Island began during the Roman Era when it was used to isolate plague victims from the general population.  Centuries later, when the Black Death rolled through Europe it served that purpose again.   The dead  were dumped into large pits and buried or burned.  As the plague tightened its grip, the population began to panic and those residents showing the slightest sign of sickness were taken from their homes and to the island of Poveglia kicking and screaming and pleading.  They were thrown onto piles of rotting corpses and set ablaze.  Men, women, children… all left to die in agony.  It’s estimated that the tiny island saw as many as 160,000 bodies during this time.

The island has become a putrid area indeed.  The soil of the island combined with the charred remains of the bodies dumped there creating a thick layer of sticky ash.  The core of the island is literally human remains that has given the island a loathsome reputation, but appears to be very good for the grapevines that are planted there.  Think about that next time you partake of Italian wine!

As if the story was not disturbing enough, it gets worse.  In 1922 the island became home to a psychiatric hospital complete with a large and very impressive bell tower.  The patients of this hospital immediately began to report that they would see ghosts of plague victims on the island and that they would be kept up at night hearing the tortured wails of the suffering spirits.  Because they were already considered mad by the hospital staff, these complaints were largely ignored.

To add to the anguish of the poor souls populating this island hospital, one doctor there decided to make a name for himself by experimenting on his subjects all to find a cure for insanity.  Lobotomies were performed on his pitiable patients using crude tools like hand drills, chisels, and hammers.  Those patients and even the ones who were not privy to the doctor’s special attentions were taken to the bell tower where they were tortured and subjected to a number of inhumane horrors.

According to the lore, after many years of performing these immoral acts, the evil doctor began to see the tortured plague ridden spirits of Poveglia Island himself.  It is said that they led him to the bell tower where he jumped (or was thrown) to the grounds below.  The fall did not kill him according to a nurse who witnessed the event, but she related that as he lay on the ground writhing in pain, a mist came up out of the ground and choked him to death.  It’s rumored that the doctor is bricked up in the hospital bell tower and on a still night, the bell can be heard tolling across the bay.  The hospital closed down.

For a time, the Italian government owned the island, but it was later sold.  That owner abandoned it in the 1960’s and was the last person to try and live there.  A family recently sought to buy the island and build a holiday home on it but they left the first night there and refused to comment on what happened.  The only fact that we do know is that their daughters face was ripped open and required fourteen stitches.

Today Poveglia is uninhabited and tourism to island is strictly forbidden.  Every now and then the lapping waves on the shore uncover charred human bones.

Several psychics have visited the island the abandoned hospital, but all of them left scared to death of what they had sensed there.  Every now and then daredevils dodge the police patrols to explore the island, but everyone who has made it there have refused to return saying that there is a heavy atmosphere of evil and they the screams and tortured moans that permeate the island make staying there unbearable.

One report from a misguided thrill seeker who fled the island says that after entering the abandoned hospital, a disembodied voice ordered them, “Leave immediately and do not return.”

They never did.

The Dancing Plague of 1518

In July of 1518, Frau Troffea of Strasbourg, France (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) began to dance frantically in the streets.  Within a month, 400 people began to do the same, eventually collapsing and dying of heart attack, exhaustion, and stroke.

Doctors at the time were at a loss. Notes from the city council reveal that the cause of the dancing was unknown, only that the victims were not dancing willingly.

Then, as suddenly as it began, in August the Dancing Plague of 1518 was over leaving almost 400 dead, a population baffled, and a mystery that has lasted half of a millennium.

Some have blamed the dancing plague on mass hysteria, the result of eating contaminated bread, or even religious ecstasy.

Although the plague never reappeared in France a similar case of the frantic dancing cropped up in Madagascar in 1840’s.  In both cases, the cause was never found.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident  

Early in 1959, ten ski hikers departed on a very difficult trip towards Russia’s Otorten Mountain.  The expedition was mounted by people with extensive experience in ski tours and long trip through the area’s difficult winters.

On January 25, 1959, the group reached Ivdel and took a truck north to Vizhai.  On January 29, one member of the team stayed behind due to illness and the remaining nine embarked on their quest to reach Otorten Mountain.  It was the last time any of them were seen alive.

On February 12, they were expected back in Vizhai.  Now overdue, a rescue team was assembled and began to trace the expedition’s route through the Dyatlov Pass.  On the 26th, the rescuers came across the team’s abandoned campsite.  It wa deserted and the tent was badly damaged as if something had ripped through it.  Oddly, it appeared not as if something had tried to get into the tent, but rather like someone had ripped their way out.  Tracks were found leading away from the camp and, 500 meters away, the found the first two hikers next to the remains of a campfire - both of them were dead, shoeless, and in only their underwear.

Between the position of the first bodies, they found three more.  The positions of the corpses suggested that they were trying to return to the original camp, but succumbed along the way.

It was two months later that the remaining four hikers were found further into the woods.  They were in a ravine under four meters of snow.

Obviously, hikers dying on a dangerous expedition is not a great mystery, but as the officially inquest into the deaths began and the bodies were examined, it brought a mystery into the light that has not been fully explained in decades.

The first bodies discovered died of hypothermia.  It was discovered that one of the men had a crack in his skull, it it was hardly a fatal wound.  Since there were no obvious outward injuries to the other bodies, it was assumed that the same findings would be reached, but that was not the case.  As a matter of fact (although, as it was reported, there were no outward marks or injuries) one of the hikers had major skull injuries and two others were discovered to have suffered major chest injuries.  One of the doctors who conducted the investigation stated that the pressure to create that level of breakage would have to be caused by an enormous amount of pressure - like being hit by a car, but there were no wounds on the bodies.

The most shocking and disturbing discovery was that one of the dead hikers was missing her tongue.

The investigation concluded that everyone in the camp had left of their own accord, walking off into the snowy night while they slept, all of them in some state of undress.   Theories abounded that the camp had been attacked by the indigenous Mansi people, but that was dismissed as the bodies showed no wounds and the force needed to shatter the broken skulls and chests were so great they would not have been caused by human hands even with tools. 

There were a few more details left to uncover that propelled this case into infamy.  Forensic radiation tests were conducted and it was determined that radiation contamination was present on some of the clothing taken from the bodies.  Family members even reported that, at the victim’s funerals, the bodies appeared to have a strange orange tan.

Another group of hikers about 50 kilometers south of the incident reported that they saw strange orange spheres in the night sky to the north (likely in the direction of Kholat Syakhl) on the night of the incident. Similar “spheres” were observed in Ivdel and adjacent areas continually during the period of February to March 1959, by various independent witnesses (including the meteorology service and the military).

The Dyatlov Pass Incident continues to evoke a sense of eerie dread to those who investigate and study it and, whether you believe that the deaths were caused by aliens, an unlucky encounter with discarded Cold War ordinance, or simply poor judgment in dangerous conditions, this is one mystery that will continue to invite speculation far into the future. 

The story of Doris Bither

The investigation on August 22, 1974, in Culver City California was to be like any other one Dr. Barry Taff had done. Believing that this would be an open and shut case they showed up at Doris Bither’s house. Not expecting much. Little did they know this would be one of the biggest cases in the annals of paranormal history.

Dr. Barry Taff and his associate Kerry Gaynor were overheard talking about the paranormal by a woman in a local bookstore. The woman approached the two men and told them that her house was haunted. She gave Kerry Gaynor some details of the haunting, in which Gaynor told her that he would discuss this with his associate.

Dr. Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor arrived at the 11547 Braddock Dr. Culver City home on August 22, 1974. Doris Bither, a petite woman, in her 30s greeted them. Doris Bither lived in the small home with her six year-old daughter and her three sons. Her daughter was six years old, and her boys were ten, thirteen and sixteen.

The house at the time was in shambles. Squalid living conditions and a tumultuous relationship between the mother and male children is what investigative team observed upon their first visit. The investigators reported a feeling of overpressure in their ears while being inside the home. According to Taff, the house was twice condemned by the city.

From what is known, Doris Bither suffered abuse from her parents as well as had several abusive relationships with men. There was obvious tension between the three young boys and the mother. The psychodynamics of the home were extremely negative. It seems that the boys, especially the eldest, would harbor some dark and resentful feelings towards their mother. The unconscious mind that is troubled by a physically or verbally abusive environment and negative upbringing is like a lightning rod to paranormal activities. Either attracting poltergeist activity or psychosomatically creating it.

Doris Bither claimed that spirits would physically attack her. The reports ranged from Doris walking around her home and bumping into the ghosts, to actual spectral rape. Of course, Taff and Gaynor were skeptical of all this. Ghost apparitions are a hard thing to prove and collect evidence for (from a scientific perspective). “Ghostly rape” is even harder to believe. It was not until they saw the bruises in her inner thighs and all over her body, as well as people outside the family corroborating by testifying that they had also seen apparitions that both investigators started to take heed as to what Doris was saying. Doris claimed that the ghosts were of Asian men. The children, also saw these beings. The visions were so frequent that they children dubbed one of the more prominent ghost as “Mr. Whose-it.”

The claim of rape by these beings is one of the most interesting aspects of the case. Doris Bither reported that two of the beings were the smallest ones and would hold her down while the biggest or tallest one of them would rape her. Dori’s eldest son would admit to seeing her mother being tossed around the room. In one instance he tried to intervene and was thrown across the room by the unseen force.

To both investigators, this must have been the most bizarre claim to date. How can you prove “spectral rape” or even claim it? it would seem that a person would have to be insane to even admit this. The team decided to setup shop and brought in high-speed cameras and photographers as well as other investigators to help capture something on tape. In a famous report, all investigators and equipment, as well as Doris, were in the small bedroom. Cramped and anxious to see any paranormal activities, they decided to have Doris conjure up the beings by having her call them. Doris began swearing and yelling at the spirits while 30 or so investigators were crammed in her room.

To much surprise, lights started manifesting around the room. As Doris kept provoking the beings, a greenish mist started to form in a corner. As if it was coiling, the green mist started swirling and growing. Within seconds the form of a man’s upper torso started to become visible in the mist. Very large and a lot of muscles is what they reported seeing. The torso of the being did not show facial details, but did show the investigators musculature. From what they gathered, this was a male entity. An investigator soon fainted after seeing this.

No matter how many high-speed cameras were setup to capture this, or that the team even had professional camera men present; none of this ever came out on film. The pictures only shows what appears to be a free floating arc light in the middle of the room as well as some light orbs. The most famous and incredible of these photographs is the one that shows Doris sitting on a bed, investigators surrounding her and the free floating arc of light in the middle of the picture. What’s incredible and equally unbelievable is that the arc of light appears smooth, even though this is a room with corners and one would expect bends in the arc as when someone uses a projector to display an image and the image hits corners in a room. The image will bend. The photographic evidence produce by the team shows the arc of light floating above Doris Bither with no bends, even though behind it, we see the room’s corner.

Dr. Taff also reported that the eldest son would go on a say that the activities intensified when ever he played certain music. Black Sabbath & Uriah Heep were the albums played. The songs that mention or were about devil worshiping is what seemed to upset the poltergeist. Asking the boy to play the songs in question, Dr. Taff did observe that the lights and orbs did increase.

The investigative team observed lights and poltergeist activity for about two and a half months. As time went by, the activities decreased.

After Doris Bither left her Culver City home, the phenomenon was ceased to exist in the house. Future residents of the house have not reported anything out of the ordinary. The house remains to this day ghost free and is in good conditions.

Dr. Barry Taff reported that Doris Bither moved from Culver City to Carson CA. From Carson to San Bernadino CA, and from San Bernadino to Texas and finally back to San Bernardino. While jumping around the two states, Doris reported that the phenomenon “followed” her and her family to every place they moved to. Feeding the notion that the poltergeist phenomenon was a manifestation of her unstable environment and mind. He also reports that her psychological state is made apparent when she reported being impregnated by the ghost. Medical test showed her to not be pregnant but suffering from an ectopic or a hysterical pregnancy.

No one can say for sure what could have been going on with the family in that small Culver City house. Since Doris Bither has not been heard of since the late 80s or 90s (depending on some reports) and her kids have not come forward, we cannot know for certain.

Known as “La Isla de la Munecas”, by the Spanish, The Island of the Dolls is perhaps the creepiest tourist attraction in Mexico. Located within an extensive network of canals, south of Mexico City, the island is a place of mystery and superstition.

Almost every tree growing on the island is decorated with old, mutilated dolls that give anyone the feeling that they’re constantly being watched. The story behind the Island of the Dolls began when a hermit by the name of Don Julian Santana moved here. Although he was married he chose to live the last 50 years of his life alone.

Don Julian used to say he was haunted by the ghost of the little girl who had drowned in one of the canals around the island. Some say he used to fish the dolls from the water because he though they were real children, but the truth is he was collecting and placing them around his home as a shrine for the spirit that tormented him. At one point he even traded home grown fruit and vegetables for old dolls.

Ironically, in 2001 Don Julian Santana was found dead by his nephew, in the same canal that he said the little girl drowned in. Now his Island of the Dolls is one of the world’s weirdest tourist attractions. Some tourists who visited this place claim the dolls whisper and you must offer them a gift upon setting foot on the island, to appease their spirits.

Homicide victim male kitchen  (NYC 1920’s)