• From cannibalistic natives to cursed villas, we count ten disturbing stories from mysterious
islands! 10 – Tiburon Island,
• Tiburon Island, the largest in Mexico, is a scorching wasteland of treasure, deadly
wildlife and lethal cannibals called the Seri. • In 1905, Tom Grindell brought a three-person
team to the island to prospect. They expected to be home within a month, but never returned.
• Tom’s brother, Edward, followed to find out what had happened and learned that some
Americans had been killed on the island. All that was left of them were their hands, strapped
to long stakes in the centre of dance rings. This frightened him because the Seri were
known to tie their captives to stakes or driftwood and eat them a piece at a time, relishing
their victims’ slow deaths. • Edward Grindell found his brother’s
dead mule, rifle and some of his books, but determined that the hands belonged to someone
else. Tom’s remains – a pile of bones – were uncovered two years later. They were
identifiable only by nearby handwritten documents. • Fifty years later, the Seri renounced
their cannibalistic ways when the Mexican government threatened action if any more travellers
went missing. When asked about their cannibalism, a member of the Seri said that they ‘liked
the flavour [of humans] better than most game’. 9 – Gruinard Island,
• In 1942, the British government wanted to get in on this whole biochemical warfare
fad, so began experimenting with anthrax on a small island north of the Scottish coast.
• Gruinard Island’s small community had long ago vacated, making it the perfect testing
grounds. Rather than evolving into some new monster breed, the test sheep they’d brought
in died brutally. • The original owner of Gruinard Island
eventually requested his land back, but it was deemed uninhabitable by the Ministry of
Supply. The area had not been properly quarantined as the government hadn’t even warned mainland
residents about what they were doing. Innocent civilians had stood clapping and cheering
at the experiments being conducted a hundred metres up the coastline.
• It wasn’t long before anthrax-infected human corpses began washing up on the Scottish
mainland, infecting other animals. The island was cleansed with water and formaldehyde,
but it was never liveable again and is now a nuclear waste dump.
8 – Isola La Gaiola, • Isola La Gaiola is a beautiful Italian
island famed for its ancient ruins. Once a symbol of wealth, the island is now deserted
because of a string of unfortunate incidents that plagued its former owners.
• Talk of the island’s curse began in the 1920s, when the owner of a newly built
villa was found murdered, with his corpse concealed, mob hit-style, in a rolled-up carpet.
His wife – a strong swimmer – apparently drowned in the gentle Gulf seas soon after.
• The island was then purchased by a wealthy German who died of a mysterious heart attack
during his stay. The next owner went insane and took his own life, as did the son of the
next owner. • The succeeding heir to the Fiat Empire
died of an extremely rare type of cancer on the island while another owner was suddenly
bankrupted after a string of unexpected financial setback. Finally, J. Paul Getty’s grandson
was kidnapped shortly after purchasing the island.
• The island’s last owner was jailed on fraud charges and the decaying villa has been
abandoned ever since. 7 – The Barbados Chase Vault,
• Barbados is a crown jewel in the Caribbean Islands, but holds a disturbing secret involving
the Chase family tomb. • In 1808, the deceased body of baby Mary
Chase was placed in a metal coffin in the family vault. Four years later, more tragedy
arose with the death of Colonel Chase and the suicide of his daughter, Dorcas Chase.
• When two pallbearers carried the Colonel’s coffin into the crypt, they noticed that baby
Mary’s coffin had moved and now stood upright in a corner. Thinking someone had broken in,
they returned it to its rightful place and made sure the tomb was securely locked.
• When the crypt was reopened, mourners shockingly discovered none of the coffins
were in their original places. Stories spread of terrifying noises coming from the crypt
and a few family horses mysteriously drowned. The crypt was reopened later to reveal the
coffins had been violently thrown about. • To solve the mystery, the governing Lord
Combermere poured sand over the floor to reveal the culprit’s footprints. When the crypt
was next reopened, the coffins had again moved but the sand was undisturbed.
• People have since speculated that floodwater might have risen up through the limestone
floor, moving the coffins as the water receded. It’s an interesting theory, but not as plausible
as ghosts. 6 – Solovki Prison Monks,
• In the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, the monastery and settlements on Solovki were
inhabited by peaceful monks. However, during Ivan the Terrible’s reign, the island was
slowly converted into a prison colony and Soviet gulag.
• People were exiled to the island for treason, petty theft, blasphemy or for being vagabonds
and were detained in former monastery buildings. The monks still living on the island were
forced to work as prison wardens. • In 1923, massive military executions began,
with more than 2,000 killed in 1937 alone. Prisoners describe horrific conditions like
guards dragging up the dead using sea hooks while prisoners fought to keep them for food.
Conditions were unbearable, the monk guards became sadistic, and the work was menial,
pointless and back-breaking. It’s a far cry from its origins as a peaceful monastery.
5 – Sorok Island Leper Colony, • Sorok Island in Korea has picturesque
beaches and a sinister past. It was a Japanese and Korean-run leper colony and those exiled
there weren’t patients but detainees who were forced into long days of exhausting physical
labour. Failing to perform meant a beating, and if they protested about how unfair this
was … well, that was another beating. • Some patients were left untreated so that
doctors could study the disease’s natural progression. Others were sterilised. The few
who were allowed to marry and have kids were forced to give those children up when they
reached school age and unapproved pregnancies were forcibly terminated. Residents had to
bow before a statue of their overseer each morning if they hoped to eat breakfast.
• A bridge now connects the island with the mainland, but there’s still a stigma
attached to the Sorok islanders. Despite being cured of the disease, many have been left
permanently disfigured by its effects and the years of neglect.
4 – Palmyra, • Situated south of Hawaii, the sunny Palmyra
Atoll is an unlikely destination for a murder mystery.
• After their wedding, wealthy San Diego couple Malcolm and Eleanor Graham spent six
years sailing around the world on their honeymoon. They were beloved by the yachting community
and frequently entertained guests. • After their return, they decided a six-year
sailing holiday wasn’t enough, so began another trip to Palmyra. After anchoring in
Palmyra, a couple identifying themselves as Roy and Stephanie Allen arrived in a dilapidated
old boat. • It turned out ‘Roy Allen’ was actually
an escaped convict named Buck Duane Walker and Stephanie was his girlfriend. The Grahams
were nervous around Walker, as he would do strange things like shoot at fish with his
pistol. • After a radio call to a nearby friend,
the Grahams were never heard from again. Eleven years later, a jury found Walker guilty of
killing Eleanor Graham, whose charred body washed up on Palmyra shores with a gunshot
wound, and an acquaintance testified that Walker made Malcolm ‘walk the plank’,
so it’s likely he committed this murder too.
• The exact sequence of events may never be known, as Walker died of cancer in 2007.
3 – Nazino Island Russian Settlement, • In 1933, 6,200 people deemed unworthy
by the Russian government were exiled to Nazino, a desolate island northeast of Moscow that
later became known as Cannibal Island. Most of these were criminals, the unemployed or
those without proper citizenship papers. • The relocated were given no tools or supplies
and their only food ration was a supply of raw flour that was dumped on the shoreline.
Everyone would trample each other to get to it. The only water was contaminated, and anyone
who drank it suffered dysentery. Anyone who attempted to flee the island was shot by guards
– even women or children. • Originally, Nazino was only a brief stopover
on the way to another settlement. However, detainees were kept in these horrid conditions
for more than a month. Cannibalism started roughly ten days into the nightmare.
• One survivor recalled seeing a young girl bound to a tree and chopped into little pieces
by starving prisoners. This twisted arrangement was planned and approved by Stalin and was
the culmination of a three-year initiative to cleanse Russian streets of so-called ‘undesirables’.
2 – San Servolo Insane Asylum, • Located off the Italian coast, San Servolo
is an island nowadays known for its museum of dark history.
• The museum is a former hospital founded in the Eighteenth Century to serve wounded
military troops. However, when the Nineteenth Century rolled ’round it became a ‘morocomio’
or institution for the insane. • The asylum was managed by an ancient religious
order known as San Giovanni di Dio, who completely isolated their insane patients as a form of
treatment. This made the island setting perfect. • The order also taught what they called
‘moral treatment’, which is now known by its more common name ‘torture’. The
most disturbing thing is that the institution offered counselling and massage services alongside
helpings of violence and repression. • The museum displays authentic restraint
devices like straitjackets, chains and handcuffs, and you can visit rooms where dangerous electroshock
therapy was conducted. Better than Disneyland! 1 – George’s Island,
• George’s Island is situated off the coast of Labrador and was the destination
of choice for fishermen and holidaymakers before tragedy struck.
• One day, the schooner Walrus was blown toward the island by a fierce storm. Realising
the ship was headed for the rocks, the captain instructed his men to get into lifeboats,
so that they might make it safely to shore. All but one crew member drowned after the
boat struck capsized. • Or at least that was the story the sole
survivor told the fishermen who rescued him. But when another group of fishermen landed
on the island later that year, they discovered the mutilated, headless bodies of three men.
Further inland, another body was discovered – this time with multiple axe wounds to
the head. They also found two tents built from a ship’s sail.
• It seems the Walrus’s captain and crew had made it to land, only to be brutally murdered,
Lord of the Flies-style, by the sole survivor. Perhaps the crew should’ve been subjected
to better psych evaluations …