The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories (27 page)

HAIL MARY

“Marian apparition” is the fancy term for the appearance or manifestation of the Virgin Mary. Most of these apparitions appear as gleaming specters that may encourage prayer and church building, perform miraculous healings, or put people into trances. The
apparitions have often appeared around churches, such as the St. Mary's Coptic church in Zeitoun, Egypt, where there had been more than seventy appearances in a fourteen-month period, beginning in 1968. One of the appearances lasted for over seven hours and was witnessed by hundreds of people.

KEEP YOUR EARS CLOSED

Ancient Mesopotamians believed that the gods dictated each person's life span before their birth, and that there was nothing one could do, good or bad, to extend or shorten it. At death one transformed into a spirit or ghost, and those who had experienced violent deaths would enter living beings through their ears, causing grief and illness until the spirit was exorcised—a particularly violent practice itself.

EVIL-BLASTING BEAUTY

The ancients wore eye shadow to prevent blindness, strengthen eyesight, and offer protection. Meanwhile, eyeliner was said to keep out evil, and lipstick, to guard against evil spirits and poisonous foods, and to keep the soul from leaving the body through the breath.

“Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.” —JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE

LOCUSTA THE POISONOUS

Those who control the cooking always have the opportunity to slip a little something extra into the stew. And the most famous fiendish cook of all was the Roman royal Locusta, who poisoned the emperor Claudius about 2,000 years ago, so that her son Nero could become emperor. Stories about what method she used vary; some say poisonous mushrooms, others say mushrooms laced with poison. Either way, she accomplished her mission.

SWEENEY TODD

A villain appearing in numerous English legends in the nineteenth century, Sweeney Todd may not be an entirely fictitious character. Scholar Peter Haining argues that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure
who did, in fact, commit crimes during the 1800s. The story, as it has now become legendary, is as follows:

Sweeney Todd had a barbershop on London's Fleet Street, right next door to St. Dunstan's Church. His shop was a simple one-room affair, having a single barber chair located in the middle of the floor. But Sweeney had rigged up an ingenious device: the chair was connected to a trapdoor beneath it, and when Sweeney had a wealthy customer and the coast was clear, he'd pull a lever that sent customer and chair dropping through the trapdoor into his basement. At the same time, another barber chair would pop up to take the place of the one in the cellar, so that at no time was the shop without a chair.

Meanwhile, Sweeney would run hell-bent-for-leather down to the basement. If the fall hadn't killed his victim, Sweeney would help him along into the next world by slitting his throat. Then he'd strip the corpse, taking everything valuable, and expertly carve up the body like a butcher. The human flesh would be delivered to his accomplice and lover, Mrs. Margery Lovett, who ran a meat-pie shop on Bell Lane. Little did the customers know that the meat in the pies wasn't pork, beef, or chicken, but human.

As for the body parts that weren't worthy of pies—the bones, skin, and heads—Sweeney had discovered a tunnel and catacombs beneath the church, and there, among the burial vaults of long-dead parishioners, he distributed the grisly remains of his victims. Sweeney met his downfall when the parishioners of St. Dunston's began to notice a foul odor coming from below. A search of the tunnels revealed the ghastly rotting remains, and bloody footprints led back to Sweeney's barbershop and Mrs. Lovett's pie place. When her customers realized what she had been feeding them, they tried to lynch her then and there, but the London police managed to save her, and Sweeney, for the gallows.