Number 12 Shrunken Heads
The Jivaroan people of Peru and Ecuador are known for creating bizarre artifacts called
tsanta, which are shrunken heads. The practice originally had religious implications.
Shrinking the head of an enemy would compel their spirit to serve and prevent it from taking
revenge. The process involved removing the skin from a skull and then placing it on a wooden ball,
to maintain its shape. The fat was taken out, the lips were sewn shut and reeds were placed in the
nostrils. The head was then boiled in water with herbs containing tannins. Sand and hot rocks were
used to dry off the shrunken head while it was molded to retain human features. Oddly enough, the
collector demand for these artifacts was met with a sharp increase in tribal killings. It’s actually
where the term “headhunting” originates from. Number 11 Mütter Museum
A collection donated by Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter, in 1858, to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
eventually grew to a museum with over 20,000 specimens. Some of them include creepy items
like hands afflicted by gout or a baby born without a skull as well as organs
with massive cysts or tumors. The Mütter Museum is the only place in the world where visitors
can view slides of Albert Einstein’s brain on permanent display. Other notable items include
vertebrae samples from John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated US President Abraham Lincoln,
and a section of the brain of Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of President James A.
Garfield. The museum also houses a large number of full skeletons, the most famous of which is
arguably that of Harry Eastlack. He suffered from an extremely rare condition called fibrodysplasia
ossificans progressiva, which meant that the bone repair mechanism in his body worked
in overdrive. The rare mutation turned his muscle tissue to bone and, by the time of his death,
Eastlack’s entire body had ossified. Number 10 Dried Cat
An old practice in European cultures involved placing the body of a dried or desiccated cat
inside the walls of a newly built home. These creepy artifacts are frequently found in the
walls of old buildings in North America, Europe and the British Isles. The animal remains are
often discovered in poses that suggest they’re in the middle of an attack. The root of this practice
is the belief that cats possess a sixth sense that enables them to peer into the spiritual world.
They were placed, sometimes alive, but mostly post-mortem inside the walls of
houses so that they could use their purported psychic abilities to ward off evil spirits.
Number 9 Crying Boy
The Crying Boy is the umbrella name for mass-produced prints of paintings from Italian
artist Giovanni Bragolin. All the works display portraits of tearful young children. They were
widely distributed, particularly in Britain, starting from the 1950s. Then, in the 1980s,
a purported curse became attached to the Crying Boy as firefighters frequently found
undamaged copies in the remains of houses that had burned down. It was said that hanging the print,
which already had a rather ominous connotation due to the crying theme, would doom a home to a fiery
fate. The alleged curse gained enough momentum that readers of The Sun were sending in prints
and the newspaper was organizing mass bonfires. It was later claimed that the prints were treated
with a fire retardant varnish. A subsequent theory proposed that the string holding the painting
would burn first, causing it to land face-down on the floor and be protected. Still, none of
that explained why the Crying Boy paintings were the only ones to remain undamaged in the fires.
Number 8 Swansea Devil
In the late 1890s, several architectural designs were considered for the rebuilding of St. Mary’s
Church, in the center of Swansea, Wales. When his submission was rejected, one local architect
viewed it as a slight against his skill. Years later, he bought a row of cottages next to the
church. He had them torn down and built a red brick building that housed the brewery offices.
Atop the building he placed a wooden figure of a grinning Devil that faced the church. The
architect claimed that his devil would remain laughing even after St. Mary’s was destroyed.
His words proved prophetic as the church was brought down by bombings
during World War II while the Swansea Devil continued to grin over its burnt remains. The
church was eventually rebuilt while the sinister wood carving found a place in the Swansea Museum.
Number 7 Hand of Glory The Hand of Glory was an artifact that, according
to old European beliefs, had supernatural powers that its holder could benefit from. It involved
a severed hand taken from a criminal who’d died in the gallows. If the person was sentenced for
murder then it had to be the hand that committed the crime. Once removed, it was dried and pickled.
A candle, made from the fat of the same criminal, was then placed in the Hand of Glory. In some
versions, the wick came from the dead person’s hair. It had the power to render motionless anyone
to whom it was presented. The Hand of Glory was said to unlock any door, which is why it was of
particular interest to criminals. In some versions of the myth, the hand would only give light to its
holder and could only be put out with milk. Number 6 Head of Peter Kürten
Peter Kürten is arguably one of the most monstrous serial killers in history. Named the “Vampire of
Düsseldorf”, he abused and murdered his victims in brutal ways. Kürten would horribly maim them
and sometimes drink the blood out of their wounds for sexual gratification. Described as
“the king of sexual perverts”, in 1931, he was convicted on nine counts of murder as well as
seven counts of attempted murder and sentenced to death by beheading. As he was walking towards the
guillotine, accompanied by his psychiatrist, Kürten uttered what has become one of the most
chilling serial killer quotes. He asked him “Tell me... after my head is chopped off, will I still
be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck?
That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures." Kürten never showed any remorse for his crimes
and, perhaps most shockingly, was declared legally sane by the psychiatrists who’d interviewed him.
After his execution, Kürten’s head was bisected and mummified while his brain was analyzed,
but no physical explanation was found to account for his deranged mind. Kürten’s skull is presently
on display at the “Ripley's Believe It or Not!” museum, in Wisconsin. The sight of the head,
split in two, is exceedingly more terrifying when considering the story behind it.
Number 5 Fiji Mermaid A Fiji mermaid was an item,
often featured as a sideshow attraction, which was presented as the mummified body of a creature with
the upper half of a mammal and the lower half of a fish. The original had barred teeth, pendulous
breasts on its chest and a fish tail. It was displayed in the 1840s at Barnum’s American Museum
in New York. The supposed mermaid was said to have been caught near the Fiji Islands in
the South Pacific. Several replicas of the Fiji mermaid have since been made and exhibited under
various pretences. In most cases what the item actually displayed was the torso of a juvenile
monkey sewn to the back half of a fish. Number 4 Ubaid Figurines
Not much is known about the Ubaid period, a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia going back
to 6500-3800 BC. Some of the most mysterious Ubaid artifacts are figurines displaying what
appears to be lizard heads on broad-shouldered human torsos. One notable representation is
of a female breastfeeding a lizard-headed infant. No one knows what they represent but
theories range from religious symbolism or body modifications to fringe claims of alien hybrids.
Number 3 Frog Coffin
During restoration work for several churches in Finland, a number of strange artifacts were
discovered in the form of miniature coffins with frogs inside them. These finds varied as
in one the frog’s mouth had been sewn shut and in another the animal had been impaled with a needle
with white thread on it. The practice of burying frogs in coffins is described
in Finnish folklore as a form of magic. The majority of purported powers involve
repelling evil intentions or curing ailments but there are also writings about how frog coffins
can be used to harm and even kill. In these cases, an object from the intended victim was required.
Creepier still, while frogs were the most common animal remains involved in the rituals
there are reports of squirrels, pikes and even human fetuses being used.
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Number 2 Necropants Necropants are artifacts from
Icelandic witchcraft believed to have the power of producing endless money.
Whoever wanted to make their own necropants, or nábrók, had to get permission from a living
person to use their skin after they died. The skin had to be flayed in one piece from the waist down.
In the scrotum, the wearer had to place a coin stolen from a poor widow along with a magical
symbol written on a piece of paper. The belief was that as long as the original coin wasn’t removed,
the pants would continue to draw money. If the wearer wanted to transfer the necropants,
the new owner had to step into each leg immediately or the artifact would lose its power.
Number 1 Haunted Dolls
Throughout history, there’ve been several dolls which earned infamy for allegedly being haunted.
One such example is Robert, a doll that served as inspiration for Chucky, the murderous doll
which originally appeared in the 1988 horror movie “Child’s Play”. It was alleged that Robert had
supernatural powers and could move, change facial expressions and make giggling noises. Another
creepy artifact is a Raggedy Anne doll said to be possessed by the spirit of a deceased girl named
Annabelle. According to its original owner, the doll exhibited malicious and frightening behavior.
Australia’s Museums Victoria recently released a photo of a life-size baby doll that came into
their possession and which had completely blackened eyes. It was compared to an
alien-human hybrid. Staff reportedly found its face to be so creepy that they had it covered.
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