Lupe Velez was an actress who made her way from a performer in Mexican vaudeville to a star of the silver screen. Recovering from a failed marriage, Velez fell in love with Harold Ramond and became pregnant out of wedlock. On December 13, 1944, after spending an evening with friends, Velez Swallowed 70 Secobarbital with…
The 999 phone charging myth is an urban legend which claims that calling an emergency telephone number, then promptly hanging up, charges mobile phone batteries
The 27 Club The 27 Club is an urban legend that popular musicians and other celebrated artists die at age 27 with statistically anomalous frequency, notably Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse. The claim of a “statistical spike” for the death of musicians at that age has been…
The heavily forested Pine Barrens spans over 1 million acres and seven counties in New Jersey. The area thrived during the Colonial period, host to sawmills, paper mills, and other industries. People eventually abandoned the mills and surrounding villages when coal was discovered to the west in Pennsylvania, leaving behind ghost towns—and, some say, a few supernatural wanderers….
Christine Chubbuck was a 30-year-old news anchor who worked for a program called Suncoast Digest at WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida. She struggled to make human connections and would often complain to family members that she was unloveable. Her constant self-deprecation and subsequent depression concerned her family, even so, Chubbuck never underwent psychiatric care. On July 15, 1974,…
English author Virginia Woolf is considered a pioneer due to her use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. One of the most important modernist writers of the 20th century, she was also plagued throughout her life with mental illness which led to her institutionalization on several occasions. Though she was happily married, in…
Comedian Freddie Prinze began his career in New York City performing at The Improv, though his big break came in 1973 with a set on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Just a year later he landed the lead role on Chico and the Man, which became hugely successful. In 1975, he got married and the couple had their…
A British stage and screen actress, Peg Entwistle had a lot of stage experience prior to heading to Hollywood but had never been cast in a film. When she landed a small role in the film Thirteen Women, she was optimistic that she was on the right path. However, soon thereafter, she was mistakenly told that…
The explosion was loud. It echoed through the town of Kaysville, Utah. Many residents heard the boom. It was 10 p.m. Tuesday, February 25, 1992. Some one had snuck down into Kay’s Hollow and filled up one of Kaysville’s oddest structures with explosives and set it off. Kay’s Cross was no more…sort of. Unless you…
Bob Welch was an extremely talented musician and songwriter who gained fame when he joined the iconic rock group, Fleetwood Mac, from 1971 to 1974. He also had a very successful solo career in the late 1970s, which produced his signature song, Sentimental Lady. His career fizzled a bit in the 1980s, which caused him to…