- Throughout humanity's history, we have been compelled
to explore the dark side of witchcraft, both as a way
to understand it and to develop defenses against it.
But not matter how much our knowledge increases,
there are those who believe that there is no true defense
against an evil curse or hex.
And unfortunately, the following the people
prove that to be true.
(electricity buzzing)
(explosion booming)
Here are 10 people who dealt with terrible curses.
Number 10 is Timothy Murray.
The LA Times reported a fascinating modern day account
of a very real and treacherous curse.
The focus of this curse was a man named Timothy Murray.
After moving to the Hawaiian island of Honolulu,
he settled in, enjoying the culture
and the island's soothing sunshine.
This all changed, however, when he visited a national park
notorious for its volcanic activity.
There, Timothy was captivated by the volcanic black sand
which covered the landscape,
and so he took some of it home with him.
However, immediately after, his relationships failed,
his pet passed away suddenly, and he was arrested
by the FBI for a crime they rarely pursue.
Experts familiar with the island believe that Timothy
unwittingly brought a curse upon himself,
invoking the wrath of the goddess Pele
for removing black volcanic sand from its resting place.
Number nine is Tiger Woods.
Sports people are often superstitious,
invoking strange self rituals in a hope
that they will avoid poor performances.
While most of this can easily be disregarded,
some argue that one specific curse affected the
famous golfer Tiger Woods, and it should not be overlooked.
Known as the Gillette Curse, it seems to be attached
to any sports person who actively promotes Gillette
as a brand.
Several athletes have ran foul of it,
but it's Tiger Woods who paid the heaviest price.
After promoting the brand, he developed a bad knee injury
and then went on to develop
an uncharacteristically bad temper during matches
as though a cloud were hanging over him.
He then lost his public reputation in a scandal,
and after that his marriage failed.
No one is sure where the curse comes from,
but there is little doubt about its impact.
Number eight is Edward Daniel Clarke.
Edward Daniel Clarke fell foul of a historical curse
which is potentially thousands of years old.
During the 19th century, it was revealed
that the Greek town of Eleusis near Athens
was worshiping a strange statue.
The statue was that of a woman,
and she was buried in the ground up to her neck.
When antiquities collector Edward Daniel Clarke
saw the statue, he fell in love with it
and bribed authorities to allow him to dig it up
and take it back to Britain.
Local legend stated that if the statue were to be moved
out of the town, both the town and the person who moved it
would be cursed.
When the statue was then moved onto a ship for transport,
the ship sank.
The town then went into decline,
and Edward Daniel Clarke was so scared that he attempted
to reverse the curse by donating other statues that he found
to their rightful owners.
Number seven is Joseph Stalin.
Just before the Soviet Union was attacked by the Nazis
in 1941, a group of Soviet archeologists were ordered
by the brutal dictator Joseph Stalin
to locate the tomb of Tamerlane.
Tamerlane was a national hero to those in Uzbekistan,
and his tomb had been protected for over 500 years.
Locals warned the archeologists that they should not disturb
Tamerlane's resting place.
When they finally found the tomb and broke it open,
they discovered a coffin inside.
Inscribed upon it were the words,
"When I rise from the dead, the world shall tremble."
After removing Tamerlane's remains,
Stalin himself is said to have been cursed.
Just three days later, the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union,
causing millions of deaths before the Soviets rallied,
which coincided with the reburying of Tamerlane,
allowing him to rest for eternity.
Number six is Tony Adams.
Tony Adams was a well-known theater producer.
After being involved in many different productions,
it's said that one show in particular was cursed
and that he paid the ultimate price for his involvement.
Tony oversaw the Broadway musical which was an adaptation
of the Marvel superhero Spider-Man.
The production was plagued with problems,
including spiraling costs and several high-profile injuries
to cast members.
Injuries that were so bad
insurance companies were reluctant to insure the show.
Before the show opened,
Tony Adams passed away of a sudden heart attack,
and the show never made back its money.
In the ever-competitive world of show business,
some have suggested that Tony and the production
were cursed by a performer who was overlooked for a part
in the cast.
Number five is Lyan Eccleston.
For Lyan Eccleston in the UK, her experience of being cursed
started with something as small as a shopping bag
splitting open and spilling her groceries on a street.
Experts in witchcraft suggest that curses start small
and then begin to spiral out of control.
That's exactly what happened to Lyan.
She felt a dark cloud over everything in her life.
She would lose money, house keys,
some things in her home would randomly break
at an alarming rate, among other things.
Her relationship suffered,
and daily accidents were common for her.
A psychic medium then approached Lyan and said
that she had a black mist encircling her chest
and that this was a curse placed there by a friend
who had turned sour.
Lyan now has to carry out daily protective rituals
to keep the darkness at bay, but she's never confident
that the evil has abandoned here completely yet.
Number four is Anna Nicole Smith.
The Playboy Bunny Curse is a well-documented phenomenon
which indicates the centerfold models of the company
have either died or had terrible accidents
at an usually high rate.
20 of these centerfolds have passed away
before the age of 50, and this was brought most starkly
into focus when famous model Anna Nicole Smith died in 2007.
Looking into these deaths
and Anna Nicole Smith's specifically,
a number of researchers now claim that these models
have all been impacted by a genuine curse or hex.
Though the originator of the curse has not been identified,
Playboy has received countless religious threats
across the decades.
And so some believe that those involved in Satanic practices
have cursed the magazine for publishing articles in the past
which have illuminated the world to their existence.
Number three is Robert Hitchens.
You might not have heard of Robert Hitchens before,
but he's just one individual whose life
has been taken prematurely by a ferocious curse.
Robert Hitchens was a cast member
for the "Little Rascals" series,
which involved 221 films made between 1922 and 1944.
These followed over 176 child actors in their roles,
many of whom died, disappeared, or had otherwise
tragic lives because of their involvement in the show.
Some believe that Hitchens' death while he was piloting
a plane was directly caused by the same curse.
Robert Hitchens was just 19 years old at the time in 1945.
He was involved in a training exercise that day,
and everything was going smoothly
until he attempted to land the plane.
Rumors suggest something was manifested by the curse
which grabbed hold of the controls and crashed the plane
into the ground.
Number two is Terry Gilliam.
Former Monte Python member and visionary filmmaker
Terry Gilliam has had many troubles seek him,
and it's for this reason many believe he's been cursed
by an unknown source.
Gilliam has had a number of tragedies
befall his productions, most famously when filming
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"
when lead actor Heath Ledger died suddenly.
When Gilliam also tried to make a sequel to his fantasy
the "Time Bandits," he was unable to do so
because a number of cast members had died.
Finally, his entire production of "Don Quixote"
starring Johnny Depp had to be canceled
due to flash floods destroying equipment on location
and the lead actor Jean Rochefort falling ill.
Some believe this is connected to the Curse of Don Quixote
where most productions,
including Orson Welles' doomed attempt,
have fallen foul of this hex.
And number one is Ariel Sharon.
In 2005, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
wished to hand back pieces of land to Islamic groups,
a shadowy coven met at a cemetery in order to stop him.
They invoked a ritual called (speaking in foreign language),
which means whip of fire.
The purpose of this ritual is to call death and destruction
to visit your enemies.
Just a few months later, Ariel Sharon had a stroke
and spent the last eight years of his life in a coma.
For many, this is direct evidence of how a curse
can be placed upon a target and have devastating effects,
not just for the individual and their families
but also for world history.
Rumors persist that groups continue to use witchcraft to
affect and control powerful individuals like Ariel Sharon,
shaping the destiny of humanity through arcane
and evil occult curses.