10 years – well done you!

Ten years ago, I started my blog thanks to a friend’s suggestion. I have posted semi regularly here as often as I could and enjoyed looking into all sorts of mysteries but what have you all found the most interesting? Well for a start 58,855 clicks went to my humble home page ready for you to start the rabbit hole!

I must also apologise if when you are clicking through you get links that are defunct etc, I must admit the internet being fluid means that things can die like that.

I also want to thank people that send me corrections and updates!

It seems that many of you like to investigate the oddity that is the home-made android, Tara, and her singing. This LINK is my most visited. I tried to keep a fair and just summary of everything I had found and I hope that you continue to enjoy it or anything else I bring to the table. I tried to also debunk some misinformation and centralise a lot of random bits of information and rumours that came about from the internet.

It seems you also like the WKCR Hijacking, LINK, and this one is a fun audio dive, but it really is very loud on the ears so be warned. Someone also used my initial look into this and wrote a great follow up so if you want another look on it you can visit them HERE. I would encourage it as they are actively keeping up their search.

I also found out you like my Jeff the Killer LINK – which came as a bit of a surprise. I wasn’t very positive about the actual story, but perhaps that has helped you to remain interested in it? I, again, tried to debunk some of the silliness around it and if you like the story, I am sorry if I caused you to shake your head at me.

You also seem to find my look at the Sad Satan Mystery, LINK, that was all over the viral internet back in 2015. Wow five years have passed by since that all-consuming rumour and dark web intrigue flooded my social media but I did think it was a fun dive at the time.

And the last of the Top Five for my most visited comes in as Byberry Mental Hospital, LINK, which is a demolished place but has an interesting history. Another lovely blog linked me and I can’t help but think their traffic has generated some for me, I am very grateful to them. (Visit them here)

So really, I just wanted to thank you! From my odd travel reviews, to the deep dives on things like Jack the Ripper and Vampires etc you’ve been here for ten years with me. If you have any suggestions or corrections, I am happy to hear them. I hope you all stay safe!

(Picture taken in 2019 at Pripyat, Ukraine when I humbly got the chance to visit.)

Flying Heads

Known also as Kanontsistóntie’s it’s origins come from the Iroquois people (Native Americans). Folklore says that the Flying Heads drove the native’s away from what is now the state of New York, into the Adirondack Mountains before the European settlers arrived. The legend of the event kept the neighbouring tribes from the area and whilst the legend survives it’s unfortunate that the tribe does not.

The hill where the unknown tribe had been is said to be cursed and hotels built there had short life spans, all three there mysteriously burnt to the ground.

An original story passed down details that one year there had been a severe winter, the tribes hunting and fishing had failed and whole families were dying to famine. The younger folk wanted to risk the hostile tribes around them and make a move to the west of the lake but the elder men vetoed this idea.

They said the ‘Master of Life’ was punishing them for some crimes and once endured the tribe would flourish again. The young locals were enraged and the result was the death of the older men. According to legend the heads were sank to the bottom of the lake, the bodies then burnt to keep them apart. After this there were bubbles and slimes on the lake, a giant head with wings came up and the tribe were unable to escape it.

 

By Copy of a traditional Iroquois painting. – Alexander, Hartley Burr. The Mythology of All Races, Vol. Ten: North American. Boston: Marshall Jones, 1916. Page 30., Public Domain, Link

Yukito Syndrome

Right this does contain the subject of suicide so be warned! If this is likely to upset you then I would recommend that you do not read this article.

Okada Yukito was born 22nd August 1967 and was the second daughter, she really wanted to become a singer and was accepted on to a TV program called Star Tanjo, she won the competition in 1983. 21st April 1984 and Yukito released her debut single “First Date” and was set to have a successful career. By the time she died she had released 10 singles and 6 albums.

Before her death it is possible that she was suffering from depression or a related mental illness that was deteriorating. She had left notes around her home and some suggested there was a possibility of parts of suicide notes in there too. One of the notes ended with “my heart has nowhere else to go”.

8th April, 1986 Yukito was found with slashed wrists in her gas-filled apartment. She was crouching in a closet and crying. For some unknown reason the suffering woman was then left alone! Two hours later this talented young woman leapt to her death from the seven-story Sun Music Agency building.

Her manager was the one that found her, perhaps he thought it was a cry for attention but does that mean no one had been listening for a while? Yukito carried out the act of suicide without any intervention and seemingly she may have felt there was no one that was listening.

1986 was the year with the biggest suicide rate in Japan’s history and copycat suicides came from her death, one was from the same building. Numbers collected suggest that 31 teens killed themselves, 19 jumped off buildings and the strange spate was labelled “Yukito Syndrome”.

The Bedok Flats

In Singapore you will find plenty of large blocks of tall apartments, and many years ago one flat at Bedok North Avenue gained notoriety thanks to a tragic event. The flats are near the Bedok reservoir, a new family set up home there, husband and wife with their child were after more money and the husband ended up involved in gambling.

Not only did he decide to leave them in debt… he found another woman and told the wife he wanted a divorce. The young mother threw her three-year old toddler down 25 stories and then leapt out of the window after him. The husband then later had another child with his mistress.

On the child’s third birthday the ghost of a boy, (legend has it as the dead toddler) came to him and convinced him to dive off the balcony to fly… inevitably he died.

The local residents say that the Bedok flats are haunted, that apartments remain empty because of the extreme paranormal state and rumours persist that there was another family in a flat that committed suicide and another was murdered in an elevator incident caused by a ghost.

I found an article about a family that were found dead in the nearby Bedok Reservoir, the article was found on Yahoo News dated 23^rd October, I will leave you to decide but it was a mother, three year old child and an estranged father involved.

Tan Sze Sze and her three year old, Jerald Chin were found dead by PUB officers after they had been reporting missing two days prior. Willy Chin, her husband, arrived to pay his respects only to find that a large number of angry family members rushed at him. The father tried to get away from them only find that his vehicle was blocked in and they were trying to pull him back out of it.

After 10 minutes he was able to escape but things did not end at the wake, Tan’s mother and sister, with other family members, went to his house to confront him. Police later arrested the sister’s husband because she refused to leave. Tan was petrified that he was going to take away her son because she had been fined for not letting Chin see Jerald.

Tan had revealed that she had suicide plans on the day she went missing, and Chin said that he was at a loss when the police had informed him about the events. He had wanted to see his son, it had not happened despite his best efforts and he felt he had done nothing wrong. If she had simply allowed him to visit the situation would never have been taken to court. She was found cradling her son with their wrists joined by red string. They were wearing red shorts and had painted red fingernails. Red is the customary Chinese symbol for revenge after death. Family members stated that her son was her life, I cannot help but think if that was the case she wouldn’t have taken his as well as an act of revenge, simply arranged a formal way for him to see his child…

http://A little Linky Thing

Gonjiam Hospital

Gwanju, South Korea has the Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital that was closed in the 1990’s. It says that there were mysterious deaths, mad doctors who were as crazy as the patients but in reality the hospital closed for more mundane reasons. It closed through lack of money, unsanitary conditions and problems with it’s sewage disposal system.

When the owner left the country and left no documentation about the land or buildings on it the whole ended up left as it is. Whilst closed and left abandoned it is by no means left unvisited, regularly people go to the place to see it and people often break in. In 1996 the owner fled to America because it was said that he was as insane as the patients, but in reality it sounds more like a dodge to be incarcerated for the terrible conditions and the fact he would likely end up spending more to update the building and so abandoned ship, so-to-speak. Families that lost their loved ones didn’t seem to get the answers they needed about why or how deaths happened.

It then leads to stories about terrible experiments and information that should have been hidden away… this is most likely that they were not told because no one had the knowledge or because the full details might well have been upsetting, who knows? Not me.

Paranormal events are also said to occur at the place, some comments around the net on various sites say that people have experienced being scratched and that glass had been hurled around. There are also mentions about capturing EVP’s too. All in all however it seems that the reality is people were poorly treat, experienced a disservice and the owner disappeared to avoid facing up to it all.

There is also a film based on this place, the film came into controversy as the owner filed a lawsuit saying that the negative press would make an effect on attempts to sell the building. A court case in Seoul, March 2018 over ruled attempts to stop it being shown and it was released. It is a fairly generic horror for it’s type so I think if you get a moment to watch it, then it’s not all that bad for horror fans.