University of California, Berkeley: The school's Sather Tower is haunted by the ghost of a student who leapt from the tower in the 1960s.
University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee: Students over the years have reported a horrifying headless apparition at various locations across the campus. The ghost is seen in a traditional gown and is believed to be the spirit of a student who wore such a gown and was decapitated in a car accident.
ZOMBIE WALK
Do you like to walk with the dead? Prefer the moans of animated corpses to conversations with mortals? Well, you should probably join or organize a Zombie Walk. A Zombie Walk or Zombie March is an organized public gathering of two or more people who dress as zombies and wander around, limping their way in an organized route to a public center or cemetery. What a stress reliever!
RUN TO THE LIGHT, CAROL ANNE!
Poltergeists—noisy, active ghosts with the ability to control matter—were originally thought to be mischievous spirits. More modern beliefs target troubled teens as the source of alleged poltergeist activities; many psychics believe activity attributed to poltergeists is actually caused by adolescents unwittingly performing psychokinesis. Signs of poltergeist hauntings include:
Objects being thrown about,
Knockings, tappings, and rappings of unknown origins and generally very disruptive,
An adolescent or teenager living in the home and experiencing emotional turmoil,
Paranormal activity that stops when the teen is absent,
Apparitions that are not usually seen.
“THERE ARE WRONGS WHICH EVEN THE GRAVE DOES NOT BURY.” —HARRIET ANN JACOBS
VENETIAN FAIRIES
Spirits who dress in white and appear most often during the enchanting Venetian nights are said to be the fade, or fairies. They are thought to be the spirits of women who died in childbirth. They appear to be beautiful young ladies but are in fact treacherous. They have deformed feet—sometimes goat feet.
8. SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
STRANGE ROCK-AND-ROLL STORIES
SECRET SPOOKY MESSAGES
Backmasking, an audio technique in which sounds are recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards, is a deliberate process. Backward messaging is similar, but it may be unintentional. Backmasking has been a source of much controversy, especially related to the supposed subliminal messages it may provide. Many musicians have been reported to use backmasking in their records, and several of them have quite possibly intentionally included secret messages in their music when played backwards. You be the judge.
LED ZEPPELIN, “STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN”
Original lyrics: “If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now. It's just a spring clean for the May queen. Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on.”
Played backwards: “Oh, here's to my sweet Satan. The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan. He'll give those with him 666, there was a little tool shed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.”
THE BEATLES, “I'M SO TIRED”
Original lyrics: While played forward, there is a segment that may sound like indistinguishable gibberish.
Played backwards: The same segment is quite alarming when played backwards. What comes out rather clearly is, “Paul is a dead man. Miss him, miss him, miss him.”
SATAN LOVES HEAVY METAL
Satanic messages are alleged to be found throughout heavy-metal music. Slayer's 1985 album Hell Awaits is a prominent example of hidden satanic messages in music. The album starts with a demonic-sounding voice that, when played backwards, urges listeners to “join us” over and over at increasing volumes.
The Cradle of Filth song “Dinner at Deviants Palace” consists almost entirely of ambient sounds and a reversed reading of the Lord's Prayer. (In the Middle Ages, being able to say the Lord's Prayer backwards was thought to be a sign that someone was a witch.)
Another lesser-known example is in the Alan Parsons Project album The Turn of a Friendly Card: at the very end of the first track, “May Be a Price to Pay,” a backward message is inserted. Played forward, the English words are, “Something's been going on, there may be a price to pay.” Played in reverse, the message, in clear Spanish, is, “Escucha, baby, al Demonio, es bien fácil ” (Listen, baby, to the demon, it's so easy).
THE INTERNATIONAL
STRANGE MUSIC FESTIVAL
In Olive Hill, Kentucky, the International Strange Music Festival was founded to honor people who make music from nonmusical items. Performers have included a Japanese trio playing “My Old Kentucky Home” on a table (upside down, strung like a cello), a teapot (a wind instrument), and assorted pots and pans (bongo drums). Other sets of performers were a fifteen-piece orchestra of automobile horns, a seven-foot slide whistle requiring three people to operate it, and a “graduated clanger”—a system of ever-smaller fire-alarm bells, played like a xylophone.
Four men dressed like Elvis jumped out of a plane to promote a Boston nightclub in 1996. Three of them lived, but one unlucky Elvis died when he caught a gust of wind and was blown out to sea.
TRULY ODD
Rock ’n’ roller Gene Simmons, of the seventies group KISS, was once a high school teacher. He taught at a public school in Spanish Harlem while moonlighting on his music career. His tenure at Public School 75 was somewhat tenuous. He broke ranks with traditional English curriculum by using Spiderman comic books as teaching aids instead of classic Western literature. Years before, Simmons wrote a college English term paper titled, “The Social Significance of the Panel Graphic Art Form,” devoted to the impact of comic strips on American culture.
“WE WANTED TO LOOK LIKE WE CRAWLED OUT FROM UNDER A ROCK IN HELL.” —GENE SIMMONS, ON THE AESTHETIC OF THE BAND KISS
NEVER COULD RESIST A PHOTO OP
In 1995, the three remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, went into the studio to add their voices to an old recording of “Free as a Bird” by their fallen bandmate, John Lennon. When they were finished, the three stars posed for a quick photo outside the studio. At the same moment that the shutter clicked, a white peacock ambled into the shot. McCartney was convinced that the bird was his friend John Lennon, reincarnated.
“It rubs me the wrong way, a camera . . . It's a frightening thing . . . Cameras make ghosts out of people.”
—BOB DYLAN
WILL NOT LEAVE THE BUILDING
Elvis Presley recorded his 1956 hit song “Heartbreak Hotel” in RCA's broken down corporate headquarters and recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee. When the company finally moved out of the building, it was stripped and converted into a TV production facility that included an audio studio in the space where Elvis had recorded. Crew members at the renovated facility swore that every time the late star's name was mentioned in that space, something weird would happen—a lightbulb would burst, a ladder would fall, or the sound system would go haywire.
MR. CROWLEY, WHAT THEY DONE IN YOUR HEAD (OH) MR. CROWLEY, DID YOU TALK TO THE DEAD —OZZY OSBOURNE
OCCULT PURIST
Before Led Zeppelin really took off, guitarist Jimmy Page owned and ran an occult bookstore and publishing house: the Equinox Booksellers and Publishers, based in London. A serious occultist, Page oversaw the publication of a facsimile of Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley's book The Goetia, which was faithful to the original, down to the camel-hair paper used to make the dust cover.
THAT MIC'S ON FIRE!
Guitarist Les Harvey, best known for his work with the band Stone the Crows, was killed while performing onstage in a Swansea, Wales, club on May 3, 1972. The culprit was a microphone—Harvey was grounded, and the microphone wasn't. He was electrocuted and died instantly.
IRONCLAD
The rock group Iron Maiden took its name from a medieval torture device. The most famous of these contraptions, the iron maiden of Nuremberg, was destroyed in World War II,
but gruesome photographs of it remain. It consisted of a standing box with metal spikes fixed inside the doors and protruding inward from the back wall. The doors were closed slowly, effectively impaling the person inside.
“WHEN I LISTEN TO MUSIC, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT FLOWERS. I LIKE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.” —JONATHAN DAVIS
DONNA, LET'S STAY HOME
Singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens, whose hit song “Donna” topped charts in the 1950s, had a fear of airplanes long before he boarded the one that killed him in 1959. On January 31, 1957, fifteen-year-old Valens missed school to attend the funeral of his grandfather. After returning from the funeral in the afternoon, Valens's family heard a deafening explosion not far from their home. Ritchie and his brother looked to the sky just in time to see an airplane, engulfed in flames, diving to the ground. The family ran toward the wreckage to investigate and were horrified to discover that the plane had destroyed the playground of Valens's junior high school, killing three students and injuring close to a hundred others. One of the children killed was Valens's best friend, and the budding rock star was certain that he would have met the same fate had he not missed school for the funeral.
Upwards of 75,000 die-hard fans descended on Graceland in August 2007 to observe the thirtieth anniversary of Elvis Presley's death.
Billie Holiday, a chronic alcoholic, suffered from acute liver failure at the age of forty-four, in 1959. At the time of her hospitalization, police arrested her for possession of narcotics and kept a guard by her door until she was pronounced dead.
John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, was a church-group leader. It is said that he would lead sing-alongs to the tune of Lennon's song “Imagine,” during which he would change the lyrics to “Imagine there's no John Lennon.”
DEFINITELY NOT THE SPAWN OF THE DEVIL
Nineteenth-century violinist, guitarist, and composer Niccolo Paganini, widely considered the greatest violinist who ever lived, was said to have sold his soul to the devil for his incredible musical gift. Once, before a concert in France, the conductor asked that he bring a note from his mother confirming that his father was not, in fact, the devil. The good lady complied.
“When I started writing Sabbath stuff it was just something that sounded right. I didn't think I was going to make it Devil music.” —TONY IOMMI
ROCK ’N’ ROLL AND THE OCCULT
The Rolling Stones, especially Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, were deeply influenced by the occult—an interest cultivated by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger. The band came up with the concept for its hit album Sympathy for the Devil after reading Mikhail Bulgakov's classic The Master and Margarita, which is rife with satanic imagery.
Another groundbreaking rock band with rumored ties to the occult was Led Zeppelin, whose members' mythologized “pact with the devil” is well known among die-hard fans. It is said that in 1968 band members drew up a contract stating that they would follow the “lefthand path” in exchange for musical success and fame.
Some AC/DC fans claim that the band's name stands for “Anti-Christ/Devil's Children” or “After Christ the Devil Comes.”
“YOU HAVE TO BE SAVED TO GET INTO HEAVEN . . . YOU ONLY HAVE TO BE YOU TO GET INTO HELL.” —MARILYN MANSON
BUTLER'S BOOK AND CAT
Black Sabbath's bassist, Terry Butler, was said to have psychic abilities. After Ozzy Osbourne gave him a 400-year-old book about the occult, bizarre things started happening in Butler's home. The first night he brought the book home, Butler spotted a black cat on his threshold and was convinced the cat was a ghost.
A DEATHLY ASSOCIATION
Guitarist Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band died in a gruesome motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971. On his way to the hospital to see Allman, the band's bassist, Barry Oakley, totaled his car. A year later, at the exact same crossroads where Allman had met his maker, Oakley was involved in another accident when his motorcycle crashed into a bus. He refused medical attention, but onlookers noticed a thin trail of blood coming out of his nose and feared he had internal damage. This proved to be the case, and Oakley died later that afternoon. Both men were twenty-four years old when they died.
DID YOU KNOW . . . ?
Ronnie Van Zant, lead vocalist for Lynyrd Skynyrd, frequently played concerts barefoot, claiming that he “liked to feel the stage burn” under his feet.
The scar on Johnny Cash's cheek is the result of a bungled operation to remove a cyst while he was serving in the U.S. Air Force in Germany in the 1950s.
James Brown, known as the Godfather of Soul, once spent two years in prison after leading police on a high-speed car chase on Interstate 20 in Georgia.
Otis Redding's greatest hit, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,” was recorded just three days before the singer's plane crashed into a Wisconsin lake, killing him.
The band Black Sabbath took its name from a 1963 horror film.
Before he was a rock star, Rod Stewart worked as a gravedigger to pay the bills.
Rock legend Meatloaf, born Marvin Lee Aday, got his nickname after he allowed a friend to run him over with his Volkswagen on a dare. One of his friends reportedly remarked that he “must have meatloaf for brains.”
Jimi Hendrix is said to have believed that rainbows are actually pathways that connect the living world with the dead.
ENEMIES UNTIL THE DEATH
Rockers Neil Young and Ronnie Van Zant had a complex relationship. Though the two lyricists often feuded publicly, they also held each other in high esteem. When Van Zant died, it was rumored that he was buried in a Neil Young t-shirt. Some say that his fans went so far as to exhume his body to find out, but police reports deny that his coffin was ever opened.
On October 17, 1982, members of the horror-punk band the Misfits were arrested and charged with grave robbing. The supposed target? The body of Marie Laveau, a New Orleans–based practitioner of Voodoo whose ghost is said to haunt the French Quarter to this day.
DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HIT HIM
Folk singer (and one-hit wonder, some would argue) Harry Chapin was cruising down the Long Island Expressway one day when something went wrong. According to eyewitness accounts, the singer slowed his tiny Volkwagen Beetle down to 15 mph and turned on his flashers, recklessly crossing lanes as he did so. A massive tractor-trailer, unable to slow down enough when Chapin's car cut him off, struck the Beetle, and sparks from the crash caused the car to burst into flames. The truck driver dragged Chapin's body from the wreckage shortly after, but Chapin had already died of a heart attack. Nobody knows whether the heart attack was brought on by the crash or caused it.
9. STILL ON THE BOOKS (AND IN THE ETHER)
WEIRDEST LAWS IN THE WORLD, HOAXES, AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES
DUCK DANDER
It is illegal to orally ingest duck dander in nine American states due to its intense hallucinogenic properties.
PACKED WITH PUNCH
It is currently illegal to serve sangria anywhere in Virginia. Since 1934 it has been prohibited to mix wine or beer with spirits. Because most authentic sangria is a mix of wine, liqueurs, and fruit juice, the concoction is in violation. As recently as 2006 a tapas bar in Alexandria, Virginia, was fined $2,000 for serving the illegal brew.
QUIET VIOLET
It was once against the law in France to utter the name of Napoleon's favorite flower (the violet) in public.
FISHY LAWS
Don't get a fish drunk in Oklahoma; you could go to jail. No catching whales either; that's against the law too. (Oklahoma is landlocked.)
BEE LAWFUL
No bees are allowed to fly in Kirkland, Illinois.
WATERING HOLE
The ancient Code of Hammurabi in Babylon specified that a merchant could be put to death for diluting beer.
THE LAWFUL CURE
Seventeenth-century lawyers are credited with the discovery of St. John's wort as a treatment for depression.
ELEPHANT PROHIBITION
Elephants can't drink beer in N
atchez, Mississippi.
YOU CAN BURN THE FLAG!
In 1989 the U.S. Supreme Court conceded that burning the U.S. flag was a right protected by the First Amendment.
SMOKING ANIMALS
Don't offer a cigar, Cuban or otherwise, to any animal in Zion, Illinois. It is illegal! The law makes no mention of cigarettes or pipe tobacco.
NO CROAKING
Frogs may not croak after 11 P.M. in Memphis, Tennessee.
TREES ARE SACRED
In ancient Germany, you could be punished by death for mutilating a tree.
FULL DISCLOSURE
In July of 1991, the Supreme Court of New York State made a declaration that a home in Nyack, New York, was haunted. Why was the state's high authority brought in to rule over a matter of the supernatural? Because the couple who brought the case to court claimed that the haunting was never disclosed when they bought the house. They said the former owners or agent should have informed them of the haunting just as termite damage or any other major issue needed to be disclosed, in keeping with the law. And the haunting it-self kept the home from being inhabitable. To recoup their down payment, they took the matter to court. They were awarded damages, after the Supreme Court declared the home haunted, as a matter of law.
The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories Page 12