It can be tough to get up in the mornings. Now imagine that you wake up, and you go to rise but you can’t move. Your chest is tight and your breathing is labored. You realize that you’re not alone in your room, maybe not even alone in your bed but you can’t turn to look or to defend yourself. All you can do is stare blankly at the ceiling while panic rises in your stiff body, and your voice stays locked in your throat.
The accounts that are related here are often first hand, though due to the nature of sleep paralysis and the fact that they are the product of waking dream state, readers should bear in mind that while these people may have believed this was happening at the time, science tells us otherwise.
10. Turn off the Light
Adam, a student, dozed off on the open pages of his textbook. As he nodded off, he remembered that he could hear the faint sounds of a TV downstairs. He awoke to find the room as he had left it; the light on his nightstand still on and his textbook in his hands. The first thing that seemed out of place was the fact that the room was freezing cold.
Adam was sure he could feel someone’s eyes on him, though he was alone in the room. He attempted to rise but his limbs were lead and his locked legs kept him in place. He began to panic, unsure of what was happening. The feeling of being watched grew stronger until it reached a crescendo of silence and stillness when the lamp clicked off next to his bed.
Still paralyzed he struggled internally to rise. Out of the blackness in his frigid room, Adam saw an old man floating toward his bed. The man’s eyes were nothing but bloody sockets and he was screaming and grabbing at Adam as he raged towards him.
When he again awoke, Adam recognized his nightmarish attacker as his deceased grandfather.
Despite the tremendous advances that the scientific community makes every year, there are still common misconceptions that, for whatever reason, have survived though they have no basis in fact. In an effort to set the record straight, let’s take a look at ten of the most common science myths and do a little busting (myth-busting that is).
10. Evolutionary Improvements
It is a commonly held misconception that evolution is the process of an organism or species to progress from ‘lower’ to ‘higher’. While scientists can point to concrete examples of evolution and natural selection hard at work, there are also numerous examples of instances where the inverse is true. Ideally, the natural progression of evolution means that only the best traits of a species are passed on through successive generations but let’s take a look at a couple of scenarios where that has not been the case.
Look at sharks, crayfish, and many types of fungi. There is evidence that these organisms have remained largely unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years, millennia in some cases. These organisms were so well suited for their habitats that there has simply been no need for a change—for a long, long time. In these cases, evolutionary changes could actually decrease the suitability of some of these organisms for their environment meaning that evolution in this instance would be devastating for the longevity of the species.
9. Humans Pop in Space
Space is a nasty place for just about everything but rocks and dust. Somewhere along the line people got it into their heads that if a person goes out into the vacuum of space they will pop from the inside out like a marshmallow in a microwave.
While this myth may be an excuse to add some gory special effects to science fiction films, the reality is that a person can, in fact, survive in space for up to 30 seconds as long as they have exhaled before exposure. If they have inhaled, their lungs can burst or collapse and cause an influx of air into a person’s bloodstream. Either way, after 30 seconds or so, an unprotected person in space will pass out and die from a lack of oxygen.
8. Brightest Star
For as long as we have explored the globe we have relied on the stars for navigation. The most famous of the navigational stars is Polaris or the North Star. It is a common, and false, held belief that Polaris is the brightest star in the northern hemisphere’s night sky. This is understandable, considering the fact that many explorers have relied on it and there have been countless people who have found their way through stellar navigation.
In fact, it is the star Sirius that is brightest in the Northern hemisphere’s night sky with a magnitude of 1.47. The lower a star’s magnitude, the brighter it is and Sirius wins out over Polaris’ magnitude of 1.97.
7. The Five Second Rule
The five-second rule is a product of two things; pseudo-science and the desire of people to reclaim food that would otherwise be lost when it falls on the floor. For those who may not be familiar, the five-second rule states that food that is dropped on the floor will be safe to eat, or relatively bacteria and germ-free, if retrieved within five seconds.
The five-second rule has absolutely no basis in fact. There is no grace period where food will be impervious to bacteria—if food falls on the floor it will immediately pick up any germs it comes into contact with. There is some variance with the consistency of the food in question. Wet foods will pick up more germs than dry ones, but there is no such thing as a five-second rule.
Of course, while eating food off of the floor may be disgusting, it is often not actually dangerous or unsafe; just save it for when you’re alone or with friends. Diners at a restaurant may frown on you eating straight from the floor.
6. Dark Side of the Moon
Contrary to the title of the Pink Floyd album, there is, in fact, no such thing as a dark side of the moon.
In reality, there is no part of the moon that is not illuminated by the sun at some point. While it is true that there is a side of the moon can never be seen from the Earth that does not mean that it is never struck by rays of light from the sun. This is due to a circumstance known as tidal locking. The gravitational pull that the Earth exhibits on the Moon is so strong that the Moon stays immobile in orbit. While it circles the earth, it does not spin on its own axis.
5. Brain Cells
You may have heard that you should be careful racking up a massive bar tab; not only does money not grow on trees, but your brain cells can’t regenerate. Once they are gone they are gone and your brain will not regenerate any new ones to replace the lost cells.
This is such a prolific misconception because the scientific community wholeheartedly believed it for some time. In 1998 however, scientists discovered that brain cells in adults can in fact regenerate. Researchers are still working out exactly how to leverage this information for the benefit of the healthcare community, but when the inevitable breakthrough occurs there is hope for the combating of previously untreatable degenerative cerebral diseases.
4. Pennies from Heaven
You may have heard that even a small object if dropped from a significant enough height, can accelerate to speeds that can be lethal for people below. This is evidenced in the popular urban legend that a penny dropped from a very high building (such as the Empire State Building) can kill a pedestrian on the sidewalk below.
The reality is that the flat sides of a penny give it such air resistance that it cannot achieve lethal speeds. There is simply not enough of an aerodynamic profile for a penny to kill, though it will probably leave a hell of a bruise. While it would be exceedingly difficult to try an ultra-high penny drop in a vacuum, the lack of air resistance would allow the penny to reach terminal velocity, perhaps fast enough to kill.
3. Friction Heat
It is common knowledge that many of the objects from outer space that strike the Earth burn up on entry to the atmosphere. The myth is that this heating occurs from the friction of the meteor (or piece of a satellite, etc.) is caused by the friction of the air passing over the rapidly accelerating object.
This isn’t entirely true. While the heating has to do with the air, it isn’t friction that causes the rise in temperature. When the object is speeding toward the ground, locked in Earth’s gravitational pull it is actually rapidly compressing the air in its path. This compression causes the material to heat up and glow, a glow that can be seen if you happen to be looking in the right sector of the night sky. We know them as shooting stars.
2. Lightning
You may have heard that lightning never strikes the same place twice. This isn’t true, seeing as there are many places that are frequently struck by lightning.
Lightning is a function of the release of a charge buildup in both the ground and a charged cloud. Electricity opts to take the path of least resistance so therefore the tallest landmarks are more prone to strikes. Skyscrapers are frequently struck, sometimes as often as 20 or 30 times a year.
Remember that fact next time you’re caught outside with a storm on the horizon. Stay away from open fields or parking lots; you don’t want the tallest thing around to be you!
1. Gravity in Space
It is a common myth that there is no gravity in space. This is understandable, considering all of the footage we see of floating astronauts swimming through their spaceships and walking on the ceilings.
The truth is that they are still being pulled toward Earth by the planet’s gravitational pull. They are at the orbital ‘sweet spot’ however, a distance that means that they are still falling ‘downwards’ but are at the right distance that they are always falling tangent to the planet and therefore will remain floating. It is for this same reason that satellites don’t come crashing back to the surface and that the moon doesn’t collide with the Earth.
There’s huge controversy over genetically modified foods that’s been raging for years. These foods are being created by inserting genes from one type of living organism into another. For example, a gene from a fish might be inserted into soybean plants to make them more resistant to cold temperatures. As you might expect, the big corporations that have been pushing for the adoption of GMO foods claim that they are not harmful and are just as healthy for as non-GMO foods.
The battle over GMOs is not likely to end any time soon and for those who would prefer to avoid these high-tech food items, it may be best to stay away from the following foods or ensure that you are able to get your hands on a non-GMO variety.
1. Corn
Image Source: Maciek
The majority of corn produced in the United States is now genetically modified. It’s corn has been modified so that it produces its own insecticide as it grows and is supposed to be resistant to certain pests. The big question revolves around what that internally-produced insecticide does to people who eat it. Some scientific studies have indicated that GMO corn may cause fertility problems and offspring with reduced birth weight.
2. Soy
Image Source: Carol Von Canon
Soy is used by food manufacturers in a dizzying array of products and is found in many food products you would probably not expect. Soy has been modified so that it can resist herbicides that are used by farmers to control weeds. When hamsters were fed GMO soy as part of an experiment it was discovered that they experienced serious problems reproducing.
3. Cotton
Image Source: Mike Beauregard
While we normally may think of cotton only as something used to manufacture clothing or other non-edible products, it is also used to make cottonseed oil, which is used in cooking and food manufacturing. Scientists have modified cotton so that it can resist pesticides. Use of GMO crops has been heavily promoted in countries like India and thousands of farmers who were exposed to GMO cotton in that country suffered from serious rashes.
4. Papaya
Image Source: Margrit
This tropical fruit was engineered so it would be able to resist a virus that it is often susceptible to. It was first introduced in Hawaii during 1999 and is estimated to comprise around three-quarters of the state’s papaya production. In India, scientists with help from Monsanto are working to develop papaya that is resistant to the ringspot virus.
5. Rice
Image Source: JMacPherson
As most people are aware, rice makes up an enormous portion of the diet for the people of Asia, due it’s many health benefits of the brown variety. Researchers are modifying rice so that it contains more vitamin A. The goal is to help reduce the incidence of infant diarrhea in developing countries. In China there are concerns that genetically modified rice could cause health problems and environmental damage due to the possibility of allergic reactions and possible gene transfers.
6. Tomatoes
Image Source: photon_de
Anyone who knows a little about tomato farming is familiar with one of the biggest problems farmers and retailers face, and that’s keeping them fresh long enough to be picked, packed, shipped and offered to consumers on store shelves. GMO tomatoes are supposed to help solve that problem by making them last much longer. One scientific study involved feeding GMO tomatoes to animals and found that some of them died within weeks of consuming them.
7. Rapeseed
Image Source: Reto Fetz
This crop, that is better-known to many as canola is used to make cooking oils and margarine. GMO rapeseed has been used extensively by commercial farmers in Canada and concern is growing over the discovery that honey bees there were using GMO rapeseed pollen to make honey. It is estimated that as much as a third of the all the pollen present in Canadian honey may come from pollen produced by GMO rapeseed crops.
8. Milk
Image Source: shinichi
In addition to the work corporations like Monsanto have been doing to modify food crops, they have also developed ways to modify animal genes to boost productivity and profits. A product that Monsanto developed called recombinant (genetically modified) bovine growth hormone or rbGH is injected into dairy cows in order to artificially increase their milk production. A side effect of injecting cows with rbGH is that they produce milk that has higher levels of something called Insulin Growth Factor 1 or IGF-1. Some doctors and scientists believe that increased levels of IGF-1 could be linked to cancers of the colon and breast.
9. Potatoes
Image Source: grassrootsgroundswell
Potatoes have been modified similar to the way corn has been modified so that it would produce its own insecticide. With potatoes it’s the Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria that was used with the hopes of it acting as a biological pesticide for potato pests. While the companies that create these GMO crops are quick to claim that the bacteria produced by the plant is simply eliminated by the digestive process, testing done with mice showed that toxins associated with the bacteria were still present in the digestive tract after they were supposed to be eliminated.
10. Peas
Image Source: Urban Combing (Ultrastar175g)
With peas, scientists used a gene from kidney beans that is supposed to function as a pesticide inside the growing peas. Mice that were fed the genetically modified peas demonstrated an immune response which may indicate that humans would have a similar response.
Based on a research carried out on the effects of semen’s mood-changing chemicals, it was discovered that women’s health could benefit a great deal from oral sex.
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A study done by the New York State University, which was not done through practical experiment, but through survey was able to compare the sex life of a sample of 293 ladies to their mental well being.
It takes after exploration which demonstrates that seminal fluid has inherent chemicals that improves moods, enhances affection, prompts rest and contains no less than three antidepressants.
It was also stated by the researchers that women who engage in frequent unprotected sex usually perform better on subjective tests and are usually less depressed.
Semen contains spermatozoa alongside other chemicals like cortisol, which can enhance affection, oxytocin and estrone which improves mood.
It likewise contains serotonin (maybe the most popular stimulant neurotransmitter), melatonin (sleep inducer rest), and thyrotropin-discharging hormone (another energizer).
With these components – and this is only a little percentage of the mind changing “medicine” present in the human semen – Steven Platek who is a psychologist along with Researchers Burch and Gallup are of the opinion that ladies having unprotected sex ought to be less depressed than participants of suitable control.
The Benefits of Semen
More recent discoveries from Gallup’s lab shows that ladies exposed to semen have better concentration and performance levels. The research also suggests that the body of a woman can identify foreign semen which is different from that of their long term partner.
They are of the opinion that the capacity to recognize outside sources is an advanced framework that regularly results in unsuccessful pregnancies – through higher risks of preeclampsia – in light of the fact that it flags a disinvested male partner who is unlikely to cater for the offspring.
Their discoveries additionally propose that ladies who have unprotected sex with their partners – and in this manner are getting routinely inseminated by them – encounter more critical depression when there is a separation or break-up compared to those who were not regularly exposed to the semen of the ex, and thus, they tend to seek rebounds or fresh relationships faster.
To explore the possibilities of semen having stimulant impacts, the researcher gathered together 293 school girls from the university’s Albany campus, who consented to supply information anonymously about their sex lives.
Fresh sexual exercise without protection was utilized as an aberrant measure of seminal plasma flowing in the lady’s body.
Every volunteer additionally finished the Beck Depression Inventory, a normally utilized clinical measure of depressive indications.
The most critical discoveries from this study, as recorded in the Archives of Sexual Behavior were, despite adapting the recurrence of sex, ladies who get involved in unprotected sex demonstrated altogether less depressive indications than those that almost always or always make use of protection.
Significantly, these women that engage in frequent unprotected sex showed less symptoms of depression than those who refrained from sex completely.
Surprisingly, sexually promiscuous women who used condoms frequently showed the same depressive symptoms as women who were completely abstaining from sex.
The research also posits that not only are the sexually active women happier but the quantity of semen in their body also influences the happiness levels.[/bg_collapse]
I sincerely hope that the readers of this article can walk the streets of their neighborhood in safety and security. I also hope that they can sleep safe in their beds. Unfortunately, this is not the case for everyone. We know that the modern world is full of new, and unforeseen dangers, but there is one danger that has been with us since the dawn of time; the darkness of man and the inhumanity of human beings.
This article examines the 20 countries worldwide that have the highest murder rates. This information is provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and it is measured by the number of homicides per 100,000 inhabitants per year.
20. Mexico, 21.5/100,000
Bordering the US to the north, and Guatemala to the South, Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by area—it encompasses almost 2 million square kilometers or 760,000 square miles. Additionally, the country’s capital of Mexico City is the second largest in the hemisphere. It is no secret that drug cartels have a powerful grip in Mexico, and as a result disputes can turn lethal with sometimes public and gruesome murders.
19. Saint Lucia, 21.6
Though the physical number of murders is low compared to larger nations, Saint Lucia’s small population means that a shockingly high percentage of the population is murdered each year. In 2007 there were 27 reported murders, a number that has since doubled and when compared to the Caribbean nation’s population of only 175,000 the murders-per-capita rating is very high.
18. Dominican Republic, 22.1
The entire population of the Dominican Republic is only a little higher than that of Mexico City, but many of those people live in fear. The Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean country and, like Mexico, suffers from high numbers of drug trade related murders. The Dominican Republic is said to serve as a waystation or point of transit for many Columbian drugs headed for Europe or the US.
Not surprisingly, Columbia has its own spot a bit further down the list, though they aren’t entirely to blame. The Dominican Republic is frequently criticized as being ‘soft’ on convicted criminals.
17. Rwanda, 23.1
While many of the murders in South and Central America are motivated by the drug trade, Rwanda has been the site of a much darker side of humanity’s capacity to do evil. It was within the country’s borders that some of the most atrocious acts of genocide were carried out to an extent that is rarely matched in history. The depth and breadth of crime doesn’t stop with murders: the country is also home to high rates of rape, robbery, and other violent crimes.
16. Brazil, 25.2
Brazil is the largest country in South America, and it is also the most populous. Over 200 Million people call the country their home, and the city that beat out Mexico City for high population? Sao Paulo Brazil. A high population means that the normal by products of society are amplified in a myriad of ways, and homicide rates are no exception. In the year 2012 alone, 65,000 people were killed with the chief suspected culprits being alcoholism and the latent drug trade.
15. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 25.6
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is one of many very small Caribbean island nations. In total, the country claims a land mass of 390 square kilometers (150 square miles). Considering the homicide rate per capita, it stands to reason that blood has been spilled on every square mile of those islands, and like some other countries on this list murder isn’t the only thing keeping law enforcement busy. INTERPOL statistics suggest that rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and burglaries are also quite common.
14. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, 28.3
The Central African nation known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo is known for being rich in natural resources. Many of these resources stay trapped in the ground however, as the Republic of the Congo is heavily destabilized due to constant and devastating civil war. Additionally a lack of national infrastructure and systemic, pervasive corruption have produced nearly limitless opportunities for high levels of criminal activity.
13. Trinidad and Tobago, 28.3
Based on its high income economy and small population, the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago is the third richest country per capita in the Americas. It places after the US and Canada in that race but well ahead of either nation in terms of murders per capita.
12. The Bahamas, 29.8
The Bahamas consists of a collection of more than 700 islands that sit in the Atlantic Ocean. Like many of the nations in the Caribean, the Bahamas have struggled with high rates of murder, and as a result in 2013 120 people were killed. Coupled with the nation’s population, this puts their homicide rate per capita at a whopping 30.
11. Colombia, 30.8
Columbia is a highly stratified and segregated society with deep class divides. The majority of the population is poor, and there is the ever-present drug trade. With drugs and social unrest come violence; not just murders but other violent crimes as well. Columbia is a hot bed of kidnappings, robberies, aggravated assaults, and other crimes.
10. South Africa, 31
The good news for South Africa is that the murder rate is experiencing a decline. The bad news is that it is still hovering around approximately 50 homicides a day. In light of these facts one may be lead to believe that the country’s nick name of ‘The Rainbow Nation’ is a misnomer, considering that 50 of it’s 54 million citizens are dying or killing one another every day.
9. Saint Kitts and Nevis, 33.6
Saint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest sovereign nation in the Americas both in square mileage and in population. Located in the West Indies, only about 50,000 people make their home her. Due in part to the country’s small population, even a moderate murder rate would register highly when estimated on a per capita basis and despite being a truly miniscule nation, Saint Kitts is inside the top ten on this list.
8. Swaziland, 33.8
From smallest in the Americas to one of the smallest in Africa, the trend should be now visible. Surrounded on many sides by South Africa, the population of Swaziland (totaling a mere 1 million) faces frequent homicides and other daily challenges. Swaziland is also home to a host of deadly diseases and many citizens live in conditions of extreme poverty bordering on privation. The result? An average life expectancy of Swaziland’s citizens that is just 50 years.
7. Lesotho, 38
Like Swaziland, Lesotho is small, dangerous, and largely poor. Almost half of the country’s population lives at, or well below the poverty line. This socio economic position tied with other challenges contribute to the astronomical murder rate.
6. Jamaica, 39.3
Back to the Caribbean, Jamaica has garnered a reputation for danger and instability. The small island nation occupies and area of only 11,000 square kilometers (4,250 square miles) but is just outside the top five for our list. Warring factions constantly vie for control of the capital Kingston, and shootouts in the street are a common occurrence.
5. Guatemala, 39.9
The Southeastern neighbor of Mexico sees about 100 murders a month with a population of nearly 16 million. An avenue for the Northward flow of drugs, Guatemala has been sucked into the same pattern of violence and homicide as many of the nation’s Central and South American neighbors.
4. El Salvador, 41.2
While drugs are present in the Central American country of El Salvador, the real cause of turmoil and unrest is a lengthy and devastating civil war that tore the country apart. Though the war has been over for more than two decades, the country still sees a significant amount of local and gang-related crime. Law enforcement estimates that as many 60% of the murders that occur in El Salvador are part of gang disputes over territory.
3. Belize, 44.7
Belize is the least densely populated country in Central America with only about 340,000 people spread out over 22,800 square kilometers (8,800 sq mi). Despite the country’s natural beauty, the dark heart of man is present in an alarmingly high homicide rate. The Belize City district—in 2007—was home to more than half of all murders in the country.
2. Venezuela, 53.7
Venezuela is a unique South American country in the sense that the country is a world player in the oil exportation industry. Changing regimes, political instability, and faction gangs are just some of the many reasons why only 19% of residents said that they felt safe when walking alone at night.
1. Honduras, 90.4
With a population of 8.25 million and a staggering murder rate, statistically speaking nearly one in every one thousand citizens will be murdered. Because Honduras is a high-demand tourist destination, tragically many of the victims of violent crimes are tourists, though citizens are just as at risk in what could reasonably be called one of the world’s most dangerous places to live.
Ignorance is bliss and crime doesn’t pay: two idioms that shouldn’t go in the same thought. If you’re going to show the initiative to be a criminal it will pay in the end if you’re smart enough to pull it off. Make no mistake, law enforcement has seen it all and your chances of making a clean getaway are slim. The following dumb criminals shouldn’t have even gotten off the couch.
10. Deaf Robber Can’t Hear Alarm
A man name Klaus Schmidt attempted to rob a bank in Berlin during the summer of 1995. He walked in the front door brandishing a pistol and demanding that a bag is filled with cash. An understandably rattled bank teller asked the masked man if he needed a bag for the cash he was attempting to clear out of the tills, to which he responded: “You’re damn right it’s a real gun!” The bank employees quickly realized that the criminal before them was in fact deaf.
The alarm was sounded, and the employees pretended it wasn’t very loud, so as not to tip off the armed man. He was even unaware when police entered the bank and quickly put him into custody. His response? Schmidt sued the bank for taking advantage of his hearing impairment.
Even the professional gamblers can’t always hit it big. In fact, the most recent big—and controversial—win for pro gambler Phil Ivey of $9 million pales in comparison to massive wins from more or less regular people. These are some of their stories.
10. The Tragedy of the Big Megabucks Hit
The story of one Cynthia Jay is a sad one, and it includes a cash prize nearly four times that of Phil Ivey’s $9 million win. Jay won $34,959,458.56, to be exact, the largest win to date at the time. This was in January of 2000, and two weeks after her big win, Cynthia married her boyfriend Terry Brennan. Then, disaster struck.
Five months after her big win, a drunk driver slammed into Jay’s Camaro while she waited at a stoplight. The cost was high: Cynthia’s sister lost her life, and Cynthia herself was paralyzed from the chest down. Instead of enjoying her newfound wealth with her new husband, Cynthia was forced to mourn the loss of her sister while unable to feed herself let alone go on her honeymoon.
The drunk driver, Clark Morse, already had 16 prior arrests, and this most recent incident was the last straw. He received a minimum of 28 years in prison for his crime. Cynthia says she’d trade back all of her money just to take a walk in the park and see her sister again.
Beginners luck is usually the higher power attributed when hustlers are in full swing. Craps, with its seemingly endless betting options, can be very intimidating to first-timers. Many people could blow entire fortunes at the craps table and walk away with their head down. Of course, instead you could win 154 consecutive throws your second time playing.
The latter was the case at the Borgata in Atlantic City in 2009. Patricia Demauro, a grandmother, bought in for just $10 and won over 50 times that amount. After her friend played briefly, Demauro stepped up to the plate. While she never disclosed her winnings, even if she was a conservative gambler, her $10 would have earned her a minimum of $500 on what would have seemed like an impossible number of winning throws.
8. The MIT Students Who Beat The System
You know you’ve made the big time when there’s a movie made about your exploits. If you have seen the movie 21, then you are already familiar with the plot of the next story in this big win saga. Through the use of a tactic known as card counting, a group of MIT gamblers beat the system.
The technique is designed to anticipate whether upcoming card will be high or low. High cards mean higher bets and if the players are right, then they win. The problem is, the house frowns on players that count cards, and if the dealer notices then he’ll ask you to take a hike.
The answer, as the MIT team found, was to work as a team. While some members counted, others would exclusively play the high roller tables. Meanwhile, the signal team members would blow lots of money with big bets to distract the dealers. After all was said and done they would end up ahead and over several years won millions. The team’s winnings were so significant that at one point they even formed an investment company simply to handle their excess cash and makes sure that the bankroll was there for future play.
7. The One-Man Blackjack Master
While a team of mathematicians from MIT crushed the house to bring home millions, a lone wolf had them beat in the end. Don Johnson, a single gambler who operated over several months during 2011, opted out of the card counting game.
Instead, Johnson negotiated favorable terms to gain better chances of winning—known as ‘edge’ in the gambling world. When selecting the casino he would play, Johnson sought out establishments that already had favorable rules. By sticking to tables that would let him double his bet on any hand, and dealers that would stop drawing when their hand totaled 17 he would have a serious advantage over other players.
If that wasn’t enough, Johnson negotiated an unprecedented guaranteed payback rate. Many casinos offer their biggest gamblers 10% of their money back as a buffer against big losses. Johnson enjoyed a 20% payback—he could reliably gamble much higher sums with less fear of going home broke. To top it all off, he negotiated the ability to bet higher than other players, up to $25,000 per hand.
The reason Don Johnson’s streak was so short lived: he won $15 million from three casinos in half a year. It’s no surprise then that his money isn’t welcome in Atlantic City, and I suspect that they called Vegas and California too.
Life is funny isn’t it, in the way that it can turn out exactly the way we want against all odds. Peter Edwards should get a job as a talent scout for pro football teams, because he marked his three-year-old grandson as a football star. Edwards wagered £50 ($80), at 2500:1 odds, that his grandson Harry Wilson would play for the Welsh National Football team.
In October 2013, Harry Wilson was 16, and the Wales National team played Belgium in a World Cup Qualifier. Belgium wasn’t anticipating the 1-1 tie, and no one—except perhaps Edwards—expected to see the youngest person to date to represent Wales in national play. Late in the second half, Harry Wilson made his debut. No matter what his performance was on the field, simply stepping on as a player transformed his grandfather’s £50 investment into £125,000 ($200,000).
If I had a time machine, I would use knowledge of the future to play the stock market. It almost seems as though a man named David Threlfall perhaps had access to a time machine. In 1964, he wrote to British Wagering company William Hill asking for odds that a man would walk on the Moon within seven years. William Hill responded with the offer of 1,000:1. Not wanting to tempt fate, Threlfall placed a £10 bet.
As time went by, more and more people were successfully launched into space. It seemed as though Threlfall’s wager was part of ‘the action’. Newcomers to William Hill didn’t get the same astronomical odds that Threlfall did, and he received many offers for his high-odds ticket. Threlfall held fast, and he received his £10,000 check on the spot.
4. Amarillo Slim’s Big Ping-Pong Bet
Mobsters and professional gamblers: two groups of people who reliably have nicknames. In the case of Amarillo Slim, or Thomas Austin Preston as his birth certificate said, was a pool hustler and a card shark. He is known as the winner of the 1974 World Series of Poker, but many people probably remember him for his crazy and somewhat unorthodox bets. The biggest and most memorable of which was his ping pong match with professional Bobby Riggs.
Riggs was a Wimbledon champion, and a gambler himself. He took a challenge from Slim, winner gets $10,000. There was only one string attached; that Slim select and provide the paddles. Riggs could pick whichever he wanted, but only from the two that Slim provided.
On the day of the match, held at the Bel Air Country Club, Amarillo Slim showed up with his chosen paddles: cooking skillets. Amarillo had practiced for months with skillets in preparation, and as a result he easily won the match (and the money) 21-8.
3. The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo
When a player breaks the bank, it doesn’t mean that the casino is out of money. It does however mean that the ‘bank breaker’ won every chip at the table. A while back, in 1891, to be specific, a man named Charles Deville Wells managed to break the bank at Monte Carlo. This win netted him about a million francs which translates into about $500,000 today.
Wells wasn’t known for his honesty; many knew him as a cheater, and he bankrolled his entertainment by swindling investors out of their hard earned cash. That night, he tried his hand at roulette and (perhaps for the first time in his life) played a clean game over 11 hours where he won his massive payday.
Wells gained renown in his day for his gambling exploits, but his luck didn’t stay with him. He lost all of his newfound wealth in Monte Carlo, then he had the misfortune of arrest in England for his financial cons. After an eight year sentence he had two more arrests and ultimately died penniless. Luck can be a funny thing.
Wells had a hell of winning streak with his eleven hour marathon, but other people have had similar luck, if not even more astonishingly so. Archi Karas had a streak so hot it must have left scorch marks on the tables. He showed up in Las Vegas with just $50 in his pocket. Once he started playing, he didn’t lose. The year was 1992.
Karas was not a novice player; he had just lost $2 million in a poker game in Los Angeles. His luck changed for the better when he ran into a friend at Binion’s Horseshoe casino, a friend that lent him $10,000 to bankroll as seat in a game of high stakes Razz. Razz is an inverted variant of traditional poker—here the lowest hand wins. His friend’s confidence was not misplaced, Karas needed only three hours to repay his debt with 50% interest and save enough to keep on playing.
Three hours turned into three years and at the end of his colossal streak he had amassed a fortune of over $40 million.
Of course, a streak is only a streak, and when his luck finally changed, he lost about $30 million in a little under a month. First he tapped out at craps. Then, in an effort to recoup his losses he lost another $17 million at the baccarat table. He decided to take a break but couldn’t stay away and when he returned he lost the remaining $10 million.
Instead of calling it quits, Karas went hot again by turning a $40,000 bankroll loan into $1 million. So it goes I suppose.
1. Sean Connery’s Roulette Run
Before he became the famous actor, and the rugged and refined James Bond, he was a child who was no stranger to the world of gambling. As a child he would accompany his father on gambling runs and even when he was making steady money as an actor he continued to gamble.
In 1963, Connery was staying at a casino in the Italian Alps. He was playing roulette and after a few unsuccessful spins for 17, his number finally came in. Connery left his winnings (at a 35-1 wager) and spun again on 17. It came in three times in a row, after which he collected and left 17 million lire richer (about £163,000 today).
There is of course a whirling controversy over access to, and regulation of illegal drugs and substances. What many people don’t realize is that while these particular substances have been singled out, they are by no means the worst things we can use to get high. Ironically, many of these things can be found at your local supermarket or pharmacy, and can be purchased without a prescription. We do not promote the use of any of these, this is for educational purposes only.
10. Diethyl Ether
More commonly known as simple ‘ether’ has been long used as a medical anesthetic. Equally long is its history of recreational use that spans the globe from Russia through France and into the good old US of A. It affects your body in much the same way as alcohol but it has a less lasting effect. The biggest plus? It’s dirt cheap.
So why aren’t we all ordering shots of ether at the local watering hole? It’s pretty dangerous. The material is highly flammable and should be handled with care.
9. Dextromethorphan (Robitussin)
Robitussin has garnered a bit of a bad reputation. It was originally based around Codeine as the active ingredient and cough suppressant, but we know now that Codeine is highly addictive. Dextromethorphan (DMI) was created as a non-addictive substitute. When used recreationally, DMI can induce powerful euphoria, intensely elevate mood, highly increase awareness, and cause vivid dream-like states. Other not so sought after side effects include disorientation, confusion, altered perception of time, decreased sexual functioning, and hallucinations.
While many users liken “robo-tripping”—as the experience is called—to being drunk and high at the same time, high doses can impair language, memory, and judgement. Additionally, while DMI isn’t the worst thing in the world you could ingest, many cough syrups contain high levels of Acetaminophen or Guaifenesin which if taken in large doses can be extremely dangerous.
Doxylamine or the antihistamine that goes by the trade name Unisom, is normally used to treat allergies. It can also have a sedative effect that can combat insomnia. The medicine itself is not only mostly effective but also mostly harmless when taken as directed.
When taken in very large doses it can produce a cheap and legal high. It produces hallucinogenic symptoms as well as agitation and confusion. The larger the dose, the higher the danger with symptoms including prolonged agitation, seizures, and occasionally a coma.
7. Tramadol
Tramadol has a complicated legal status. While it is considered a prescription drug it does not fall into a federal schedule classification and only has schedule classification in a few states. While Tramadol is not an opioid like Vicodin or heroin, it offers a similar high—if somewhat weaker. Even though this drug is abused by recovering addicts, the murky legal classification means no matter whether you have a prescription or not, in many states it is legal to possess Tramadol regardless.
6. Kava
Unlike the prior items on this list, Kava is an herb instead of a manufactured medication. It hails from the Pacific Islands where the islanders have been using it for a long time. In addition to being a tribal medicine, the herb has gained popularity in the Western world where there are no restrictions on the possession or use of the plant.
The island natives would crush the herb and use it in traditional ceremonies and at social gatherings. Users report that moderate doses can produce euphoric feelings and a relaxed state. Too much Kava produces hallucinations and scientists believe that prolonged used can cause yellow skin discoloration, drowsiness, ataxia, liver damage, and malnutrition.
5. Kratom
The Mitragyna Speciosa plant, or Kratom, hails from Southeast Asia. Traditionally prescribed medicinally to relieve pain, the Kratom plant comes from the same family as the coffee plant. It is banned in its native Thailand due to abuses but is perfectly legal in the United States where it has been gaining popularity as a psychoactive agent. It can be bought easily in the Western world as an ‘herbal supplement’; don’t be surprised if you can’t find it at the supermarket. Most users have to order it online.
Kratom can be ingested orally or smoked. It can be steeped into a tea-like preparation. A few grams can produce a high lasting as many as three hours—buyer beware: Kratom is considered highly addiuctive.
Like Doxylamine (Unisom), Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) can be used to combat allergies or as a sedative for those having trouble sleeping. Even though the drug can have dangerous side effects when taken in large doses, it has gained significant popularity among recreational users.
When taken in moderate to high doses the drug can produce drowsiness, fatigue, disturbed coordination, dizziness, blurred vision, confusion, and hallucinations. Once the threshold of regular high dosage has been reached, the dangers increase substantially. Side effects of regular high dosage include fever, hypotension, seizures, convulsions, asteatosis, gastrointestinal symptoms, deep coma, and death. Bear in mind that normal usage presents a very low risk or no risk at all to users.
Dramamine, or Dimenhydrinate is a common drug used to stave off motion sickness. Like Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) it is a deliriant, and in high doses it can cause audio and visual hallucinations. For many recreational users these hallucinations are accompanied by euphoric feelings and the drug is not only abused by recreational users but by psychiatric patients who are attempting to self-medicate. Over time, regular use and prolonged exposure to high dosages can have negative effects on your heart and GI tract.
2. Propylhexedrine (Benzedrex)
This chemical compound was initially designed to replace an addictive and heavily abused ingredient known as amphetamine sulfate in the nasal spray Benedrex. As it turns out, Propylhexedrine is also a prime candidate for abuse. This substitute has earned the nickname “stove top speed” based on the extraction process that has been refined by some recreational users have developed to separate the chemical out as a crystal form and due to the effect it can have on users.
This extraction process has proved too involved for many users; the chemical itself is contained in a cotton rod that is included in the inhaler. These users simply eat the cotton rod to get a high similar to a weak amphetamine high. This is strongly recommended against by professionals in the field and the resulting side effects can be very dangerous.
The biggest concern with the drug is that it is a vasoconstrictor, and therefore it greatly increases your blood pressure. As a result, symptoms include psychosis, myocardial infarction, pulmonary, vascular disease, pulmonary hypertension, and sudden death.
1. Oxymetazoline (Afrin)
What Oxymetazoline lacks in strength, it makes up for in accessibility. Users report a relatively weak high that has a high chance of causing psychosis and in some cases recurring hallucinations. The compound itself can be found in the highly available nasal spray Afrin. If all other things were equal, Afrin and consequently Oxymetazoline would be a foot note. What sets it apart is how highly addictive it is.
Afrin’s packaging—somewhat ineffectively—cautions against using the drug for more than a few days at a time. This is partially due to the fact that prolonged use can cause nasal swelling that effectively prevents the product from working as intended as a nasal decongestant. Doctors who have treated addicts report that people who are addicted simply cannot function without Oxymetazoline in their system once they are hooked. Buyer beware: this is not a habit you want to pick up.
Leave it to chance, luck of the draw. Let the chips fall where they may. We have been playing games of chance as long as we have been enjoying the warming glow of fire (that’s a long time kids). Of course where some stand to win, many stand to lose. For some, those odds simply aren’t good enough; they want to take a chance and make it into a sure thing.
In the modern era, casinos are a big business. A big pot of gold attracts a whole host of treasure seekers and some criminals learned the hard way that crime doesn’t pay. Except when it does pay—the ones who got away clean with a fat paycheck are still out there.
Ohio, 2012: between 50 and 70 professional swindlers descend on the state’s casinos in a complex and sophisticated roulette scam. The group of crooks originated from a New York crime ring, and they were leaving nothing up to chance.
The scam: players from the crime ring would enter the games with low bets. They would swipe certain colored chips while a cohort distracted the dealer. Once they had the chips, they would be passed along the table and the players would leave. They would then resume play at another table where that color chip had a higher value and cash out at the new, higher rate.
Once the criminals were exposed, the crime ring was found to have its hooks in four different Ohio cities. Officials estimate that the group was able to net about $2,000 per cheat. While four men were arrested—they plead guilty—there are many other crooks out there that escaped the long arm of the law.
We call those who are experts at their trade artists, and two men who called themselves “the Roselli Brothers” were full-blooded scam artists. They used a blend of casino cheats and identity theft to grift over $37 million from casinos in New Jersey, Nevada, and Puerto Rico. They did it all without dropping even a dime of their own money.
The scam: the brothers were known to operate for five years starting in 1995 and ending in the year 2000. They started by hiring a computer hacker to lift data from credit systems and target people with high credit scores. Using their new stable of identities the Roselli brothers opened accounts with contributions of their own money totaling about $50,000 (they quickly reimbursed themselves). Within six months their operation had significant credit lines with all the major casinos across the country.
To keep gambling officials in the dark, the brothers produced an ingenious gambling schedule and offsetting betting procedures that fooled gambling regulators in believing that they were losing money when in fact they were cashing in big. By paying of all of their markers they pushed their credit limits increasingly upward.
New Year’s weekend in 2000 was their grandiose exit from the game. The brother’s toured Las Vegas with astronomical bets and big hands before disappearing forever. The FBI didn’t even realize that a scam had taken place, and discovered the crimes six months after the blowout finale in Vegas. They also discovered that the real Roselli brothers died many years ago and that the clever imposters were as gone as ghosts. Their true identities were never discovered.
Given the interconnected nature of well, just about everything, criminals don’t even have to be at the betting tables to rip off some of the largest, richest, and most influential casinos across the globe. In 2012, 14 scammers were charged with stealing over $1 million from Citibank using casino kiosks in Nevada and California. To perpetrate their theft, the conspirators discovered a hole in the kiosk’s electronic security. By taking advantage of the fact that the kiosks allowed multiple unrecorded withdrawals inside of a 60 second period, these swindlers were able to exploit the system.
The team, led by a man named Ara Keshishyan, opened multiple checking accounts at various Citibank locations. Then, at casinos in Southern California and Las Vegas, they would use the 60 second window to withdraw sometimes as much as ten times the amount of money deposited in their accounts. As long as the withdrawals were under $10,000 then federal law enforcement didn’t bat an eyelash.
Ara, as ringleader, would take a considerable cut from his team once the money was collected at the cages. The team would split the rest and their stays would be comped along with food, drinks, and entertainment. While these amenities were free, the cost was ultimately high.
The entire team was arrested, and Ara was charged with 14 cases of bank fraud. A conviction sentence could carry a penalty of up to 30 years in prison as well as $1 million fine per count of bank fraud. His team that got to eat and drink for free? Five years in prison and $250,000 in fines per co-conspirator.
Not so recently, in the summer of 1973, the Casino Deauville in France was the site of one of the greatest roulette cons in the history of casino scams. It involved a casino roulette dealer (who was also a radio amateur), his brother-in-law, and his beautiful sister.
The scam: the dealer/radio amateur built a radio transmitter that fit perfectly into a pack of cigarettes. In addition to this disguised receiver, he also modified a weightless receiver into a roulette ball. His brother-in-law would serve as an unsuspecting player who was experiencing a hot streak where the dealer would be using the modified ball.
The sister would stand a table over so as not to arouse suspicion, and she served as the ‘button pusher’. Using the sophisticated cigarette pack she would engage the transmitter’s button which would cause the receiver would fall from its spin and land in groups of six possible numbers. The scam had an accuracy of 90% which considering everything is impressive.
It only took a week for the three criminals to rack up winnings equaling about $1 million in today’s money. This string of big wins caused casino officials to investigate what was happening but they couldn’t figure out how the gang was cheating the system. Their break came when, completely by chance, the casino owner took a romantic interest in the sister.
She rejected his advances, but now he noticed her, and how she was on the casino floor for every big win. He put two and two together; he had a team sweep the floor with a device that detected radio interference and the trio was quickly found out and arrested. Perhaps if the sister wasn’t so pretty the three of them would have retired as very rich criminals.
Despite the ominous name, the Cutter Gang was not a roving knife-wielding street gang. The name comes from the standard practice of cutting the deck when playing at the baccarat table. The Cutter Gang is now famous for cheating casinos out of millions in 2011.
The scam: a member of the gang accepts the offer to cut the deck. He takes a cutting card and drags it along the deck while separating the cards before placing it back in the deck. The advantage was that the cutter had tiny cameras hidden in his cufflinks to record the order of the cards. Once the deck was cut and the values of the cards were recorded, the cutter would excuse himself and pass the information on to another member of the gang. Every single hand would be a winner.
Such a streak of ‘luck’ caught the interest of the authorities however, and the gang was detained in Las Vegas after a million dollar win. After finding no evidence wrongdoing, the authorities cut the gang loose. Later in 2011, the gang was again arrested in the Philippines for cheating but they escaped police custody and are still at large.
In the same year that the Cutter Gang was cheating themselves into millions of dollars, a multinational team composed of three Italians and a Frenchman ran a casino con of their own. Their haul netted them approximately $84,000—a small sum compared to some of the other heavy hitting heistmasters on this list. What makes their scam stand out is its ingenious nature.
While playing stud poker at the Princes Casino in Cannes, the Frenchman would mark symbols on card decks with invisible ink, or ink that was invisible to the naked eye. It Italians wore special and sophisticated contact lenses that allowed them to see the marked cards and therefore they had a serious advantage.
Their winning streak ultimately led to the involvement of the authorities and the cops were just as clever as the crooks in this instance. They quickly found the invisible markings on the cards but at first they couldn’t figure out how the scammers were seeing the ink. It wasn’t until a sharp officer noticed that all three of the men were wearing the same contact lenses that the criminal foursome was found out.
4.Ritz Roulette Scam
“Roulette – detail” by Conor Ogle from London, UK – Spin. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
If invisible ink and special, sophisticated contact lenses aren’t clever enough for you check out this Eastern European trio from Hungary and Siberia. They managed to steal about $2.1 million from the Ritz Casino in London using cutting edge laser technology. While they were snagged by authorities, they got to keep every penny of their winnings.
Here’s how law enforcement thinks they did it: the scientific theory of sector targeting is essentially the card counting of the roulette table. The theory works by using figures and equations to determine the ‘decaying orbit’ or the rate at which the ball is falling to a stop. Based on the input of data, the formula can spit out a prediction, often accurate, as to where the ball will end up landing.
To gather the necessary data to produce a result, it is alleged that the trio used laser scanners built into their phones. The scanners could determine the ball’s speed, and that information was fed into a computer. The computer would produce recommendations and the players could make the necessary calculations to place their bets before the spin was over.
Though sector targeting clearly gives one or more players a serious edge over normal gamblers, and certainly over the house, it was determined not to be technically illegal. The gang was arrested but they were ultimately let go without any charges.
Championship poker player Phil Ivey Jr. was accused of cheating his way to a $9.6 million baccarat table in 2014. Suspected of using a technique known as “edge sorting” he worked his way up the ladder at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City. Edge sorting is the practice of mentally recording any abnormalities or small imperfections in cards, then using those same aspects to later identify the card.
Though it is difficult to prove, edge sorting is frowned upon within the regulated gambling world. The way Ivey is alleged to have done it crosses the line. With a partner, Ivey discovered that some of the table’s cards had diamond shapes and patterns with defects on the back. Some of the cards had full diamonds present while others were cut in half. Ivey, along with his partner would then instruct the dealer to flip the cards over in certain predetermined directions to make the identification process easier and therefore allow them to make smarter, more successful bets.
The Borgata has since filed a lawsuit against Ivey who flatly denies any wrongdoing, though this isn’t the first such claim of edge sorting he has faced throughout his career. If he successfully beats this lawsuit then he will officially be the most successful single con artist in the history of the game.
A man by the name of Phuong Quoc Truong assembled a team of professional illegal card counters through a recruiting campaign that spanned the entire US. He would convince dealers to cheat for him and by the time his recruiting run was complete he was in control of a team of over 30 accomplices and co-conspirators.
The scam: a compromised dealer would pretend to shuffle the cards. Instead, he was really simply putting the corners together so that the deck would sound as if it were actually being shuffled—the cards remained in their original order. In an elaborate ruse, a player in the gang would pretend to smoke a cigarette while secretly relaying information about the dealt cards to another player via a hidden microphone in his sleeve.
The smoker would be given instruction, and in turn, would hold his cigarette in various ways to signal to other players when to make their bets. This plan netted the gang over $7 million grifted from 25 different casinos before they were apprehended by authorities. Their clandestine methods were not discreet enough it seems; they were caught by an alert security guard watching on a CCTV feed.
Melbourne, Australia 2013: An unidentified man stole over $30 million from Melbourne’s Crown Casino with a clever security camera hack. The sophistication and intrigue surrounding the con and subsequent con is something straight out of Ocean’s Eleven.
The Crown Casino has not officially revealed how the heist was committed, but Las Vegas casino consultant Barron Stringfellow put together his interpretation of how it might have gone down. If the unidentified man wore an earpiece whole playing the VIP tables while an accomplice monitored the stolen security feed from a remote location then the player could be fed information regarding which play was most advantageous.
The only piece of information that the Crown Casino has definitively released is that a VIP staff member responsible for looking after the unidentified man has been dismissed, but it is unclear if the employee was involved in the theft. While officials are less than optimistic about recovering the money, the Crown Casino is still holding on to hope.
Murders alone are enough to send shivers down anybody’s spine, but when a murder goes unsolved and the suspect is still out there somewhere, it will leave you wanting to sleep with the lights on. Despite advances in technology, there are still a number of cases that police have simply been unable to solve for one reason of another. Here is a list of the top 10 terrifying unsolved murders.
1. Jamie Santos
On October 28, 1991, a Wheeling, Illinois emergency line operator took a strange call. A mysterious man reported that there was an unconscious woman but after giving the address, he hung up the phone.When paramedics arrived, they found Jamie Santos barely alive. She died later, and the cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation by pillow, although evidence suggested that she had struggled with her murderer.
What makes this case especially odd is the fact that on the previous day, Jamie had cancelled some of her appointments, as though she knew that she wasn’t going to make them. She was an exotic dancer, and the police suspected that one of her previous customers had committed the crime, but they weren’t able to get enough evidence to narrow down the suspects.
2. Dick Hansen
Dick Hansen, a football player, was sitting in his car and talking with a woman named Jean one night. A third car joined them, but at first they didn’t pay any attention to it. Then, as Jean, who was unfamiliar with the area, began following Dick, the third car also followed them. At first, they attempted to lose the stranger by driving sporadically on the highway, but Dick finally decided to stop and confront them.
As he approached the car, he was shot and mortally wounded. Although Jean saw the licence plate which read “49R HUGS” and believed that the murderer was from a rival team, the crime was never solved.
3. Jack Davis Jr.
In 1987, the body of Jack Davis Jr. was found in a stairwell of his Indiana University of Pennsylvania stairwell. The police determined the death accidental, claiming that he had passed out and then choked on his own vomit. However, several years later the family hired a pathologist who discovered a lack of food in his lungs which meant he had not choked. He also discovered three skull fractures.
The case was re-opened, but without any further information being discovered, it was closed again and remains a mystery to this day. Some people suspect that he had gotten into a fight and after realizing how badly they had wounded him, his attacker panicked and left him in the stairwell.
Shortly before his death, the young construction worker from Canada displayed obvious signs that he was in fear of his life. He first withdrew all of the money from his savings account and then tried diligently to cross into America. He was initially denied because of the large amount of cash on him, so he then bought a plane ticket to Germany. However, he then returned the ticket and was able to cross into America through Seattle by using a rental car.
From there, he took a one-way plane trip to Washington D.C. and picked up another rental car to drive to Kentucky. When he reached Knoxville, a gas station attendant reported that he had trouble starting his car due to the fact that he apparently had the wrong key. He then hitchhiked to a hotel, checked in, and then left, seemingly on his own volition. 12 hours later, his body was discovered in a parking lot, half-naked and surrounded by Canadian, American, and German currencies.
In 1999, this University of Idaho student was at a friend’s party when he suddenly disappeared. Initially, people suspected that he was murdered after a confrontation he had about his sexuality with people from a different party. However, the next evening his car was seen parked outside a friend’s house. The next day, it was found downtown, unlocked and without any signs of tampering or theft.
Jerry, Wil’s partner, suspected that his disappearance had something to do with a man in a refrigerated truck who had yelled homosexual slurs at Wil. The suspect was never found, but Wil’s body turned up three years later in an open field not too far from the college town.
In 1986, a woman by the name of Aileen Conway was found dead in her car which had been engulfed in flames. Her death was declared an accident initially, but her husband Pat discovered pieces of evidence that suggested it was murder. First of all, the car had been smothered in gasoline before the fire had started. Secondly, he found several things in the house that did not make sense: the iron had been left on, the hose was also on and filling the pool, and her purse had been left behind.
It is believed that she interrupted burglars who kidnapped her, murdered her, and made her death appear like an accident, but there are still no definite answers as to what happened to Aileen Conway on that day.
In the midst of a cold St. Louis, Missouri winter, the little fourth-grader was last seen just eight houses from her own as she waited for the bus to arrive in the morning. It was from there that she vanished. Nine days later, her body was found, duct-taped to a tree. The discoveries that the medical examiner uncovered were gruesome and shocking. Not only had the girl died from exposure to the elements after having been duct-taped to a tree while still alive, but during the week that she was missing, her kidnapper had both tortured and raped her.
Police were able to find both fingerprint and DNA evidence on her body, but the owner of them has never been found, leaving the case unsolved.
