Some of the best horror movies out there are based on actual true stories that include
hauntings, rampaging madmen and strange creatures to name but a few.
But not all real-life horror stories make it to the big screen, though many of these
real stories are bizarre enough to become true blockbusters.
5.
Pauline Dakin
Pauline Dakin grew up in Canada and from an early age she and her brother knew that there
was something strange about their family.
As an adult, she recalls her brother asking her on many occasions what she thought the
reason was for their family not being like those that they saw around them.
When she was 5 years old, her parents, Warren and Ruth, separated due to her father’s
alcoholic and often violent nature.
Two years later, Ruth took the two kids on a vacation to Winnipeg, more than 1,000 miles
from their house in Vancouver, but upon arriving, she revealed that they would not be going
back.
When they asked for a reason for their sudden departure, their mother simply told them that
she couldn’t explain it to them just then, but that she would when they were older.
Four years later, the same thing would happen again.
On this occasion, they moved to New Brunswick – again without explanation.
Pauline knew that something was going on, but had no idea what the true story really
was.
She would describe constantly feeling anxious with a sense that something dire and unspoken
was happening around her.
By the time that she turned 11, she had attended 6 different schools and had lost all contact
with her father.
But a different father figure had entered their lives in the form of Stan Sears, a church
minister who had counseled Ruth during the days when she was still married to Warren
and Pauline found it strange that Stan’s family and hers had moved to the same areas
at the same time twice.
By 1988, Pauline was 23 and a university graduate.
She was working for a local newspaper in Saint John when she received an unexpected call
from her mother in which she said that it was time to explain all the strange behaviour
that she witnessed as a child.
They met at a motel, halfway between their home cities and bizarrely, her mother slipped
an empty envelope into her hands with a note that read: "Don't say anything.
Take your jewelry off.
Put it in the envelope.
I'll explain, just don't talk."
It is then that she would learn that her father had been involved in organized crime while
she was growing up and that she had inadvertently been on the run from the mafia her entire
life.
Her mother asked her to remove her jewelry as it may have been bugged.
Stan had counseled a mafia kingpin who had decided to leave the crime world, but when
the mob found out that he had broken their code of silence, they went after him and Stan,
since he knew too much.
They then came after Ruth, causing her to flee with her children on both occasions.
She would ultimately learn that many of the people that she got to know throughout her
life, such as her father and her aunt, had disappeared and been replaced by “doubles”,
sometimes by the Mafia and sometimes by people who had been tasked with protecting her.
4.
Gil Perez
In October of 1593, Gil Perez was guarding the palace of the seventh Governor-General,
Gómez Dasmariñas who had lost his life to Chinese pirates the previous day.
These were tense times, as a successor had not been named and several hopefuls were vying
for the coveted title of Governor-General in Manila, located in the Philippines.
At one point, Perez started to feel dizzy and inexplicably tired.
He leaned against the palace wall and drifted off for a few moments before opening his eyes
again, but to his surprise, he was no longer in front of the palace, but found himself
in a place that he didn’t recognize.
Horrified, he asked a passerby where he was and learned that it was the Plaza Mayor.
Due to his strange uniform he was taken to the authorities by Spanish guards who transported
him to Luis de Velasco’s palace.
Here, he was interrogated about how he got there overnight and he explained the strange
story as best he could, including Dasmariñas’ demise, but when religious officials got involved,
he was handed over to the Spanish Inquisition, taken to Santo Domingo and thrown in jail
for being a deserter and devil worshipper.
Then, when a Spanish unit arrived in Acapulco some time later, it was revealed that Perez’s
claims about Dasmariñas’ assassination were true and he was recalled to Mexico where
he was recognized as the guard who had disappeared.
Thereafter, he was set free and sent back to Manila.
To this day, no one has been able to explain how Perez had disappeared from his guard station,
only to appear in Mexico City in the blink of an eye, 9,000 nautical miles away.
3.
Jacqueline Cadow
In 1950, Jacqueline Cadow, an 18-year-old woman from Paradise, Louisiana started noticing
that someone was whistling outside her window at the house that she shared with her mother.
At first she thought nothing of it, but when the strange wolf whistles continued every
night, she started to worry that someone was stalking her.
She was never able to see where the whistling was coming from and when her house was broken
into, she knew that she was dealing with someone sinister.
When she announced her engagement to State Trooper Herbert Belsom, she assumed that it
would stop, but instead, the strange story escalated.
The wolf whistles that she had heard before had now turned into a menacing funeral dirge.
On some occasions, she would hear the whistles fade away, only to be followed by a blood-curdling
moan.
Other people started hearing the same sounds, but they could never locate its source.
Jacqueline then started receiving phone calls from a man who threatened to end her life
if she went ahead with the wedding and on one occasion, she fainted when she, her mother,
her aunt and a New Orleans reporter all heard the whistles while she was at work.
The grounds were immediately searched, but nothing was found.
Investigations by the state police and sheriff’s office also proved to be fruitless, leaving
Jacqueline a nervous wreck.
She decided to stay with Belsom’s parents for a while to get some rest, but once there,
the phone rang again with the same voice stating: “Tell Jackie I know she's at Herbert's house."
On the 1st of October, she and Belsom got married without incident and from that day
on, the phantom whistler was never heard from again.
The local sheriff, who thought that it was all a hoax at first, would later state that
he had caught the man responsible, but never revealed who it was and his identity remains
a mystery to this day.
2.
Monte Vista Hotel
The Monte Vista Hotel located in Flagstaff, Arizona opened its doors on New Year’s Day,
1927 during the prohibition era.
Some of the notable guests who stayed there include John Wayne, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby,
Michael J. Fox and Harry Truman.
Though it has undergone extensive restoration over the years, it still serves as the setting
for many strange stories, recounted not only by guests, but also the staff who work there.
As with many of the surrounding buildings of roughly the same age, its rooms and hallways
are said to be haunted with the spirits of those who frequented the building long ago,
one of which is known as the meat man from room 220.
He was a long-term boarder at the hotel who was in the strange habit of hanging raw meat
from the room’s chandelier to dry.
He passed away in the room of natural causes in the 1980s, but is said to still be present.
Not long after, a maintenance worker was carrying out some repairs and left the room after switching
off the light and locking the door.
When he returned a few minutes later, he found the room unlocked with the light burning,
the TV blaring at full volume and the bed linens ripped and strewn across the room.
The TV still changes channels on its own and guests have experienced feeling cold hands
touching them while they sleep.
In room 305, the most active in the hotel, a woman is often seen sitting in a rocking
chair by the window.
Guests and staff have reported seeing the chair move by itself and hearing knocking
coming from inside the closet.
This room was also occupied by a long-term renter, a woman who would sit by the windows
for hours at a time, staring out of the window.
Other guests have reported hearing a knock at their room door followed by a muffled voice
announcing “Room Service!”, only to find that there is no one there when the door is
opened.
Other guests, including John Wayne, claim that they have seen a bellboy standing in
front of room 210 and housekeepers have seen the same figure walking through the halls.
Other strange stories include maintenance and laundry staff hearing the cries of a baby
in the hotel’s basement, causing them to flee in terror, a dancing couple laughing
and dancing in the cocktail lounge and a man saying “good morning”, accompanied by
barstools and drinks moving on their own in the lounge.
1.
Peter Skyllberg
In December of 2011, Peter Skyllberg, a 44-year-old Swedish man, was deep in debt, his girlfriend
had just left him and he was suffering from depression.
Just two months prior, a court judgment had been made against him for debts totaling $207,
000.
He also had no family to turn to, as he had lost contact with them over 20 years before.
On the 19th of December, he was driving in Northern Sweden when he decided to venture
off the main road onto forest tracks when his car became stuck in a snow drift.
He soon realized that his car wouldn’t budge and with the snow as deep as it was, he wasn’t
going anywhere any time soon.
But he hadn’t envisioned just how long he would be there.
With nothing to eat or drink, save for a few soft drinks, he eventually resorted to grabbing
handfuls of snow from the roof of his car to quench his thirst.
But two months later, he was still inside the car and unbelievably, he was still alive.
This is when passing snowmobilers spotted the car and thinking that it had been abandoned
after a crash, went to investigate, digging into the snow to reach the windows.
As they scraped ice from the car’s windshield, they saw movement inside and contacted police.
It was thought at first that Peter was a tourist who had gotten stuck after attempting to photograph
elk in the area, but it soon became clear that he had been there for quite some time.
He was emaciated and dehydrated when he was extracted from the vehicle and police say
he only had the clothes he was wearing and a sleeping bag to keep him warm at a time
of year when temperatures regularly fall below -22 degrees Fahrenheit.
He hadn’t had anything to eat for nearly two months and doctors believe that his body
went into a type of hibernation to protect him from the cold.
The car had long run out of fuel as he kept the heater running to provide some heat and
when he was finally discovered, he was unable to move and barely able to speak.
He was taken to the University Hospital where he made a full recovery.