Mystery: The Manor Road Pig-Dog

Time to head over to Baltimore County. Our story today is the Manor Road Pig-Dog.

Mystery: Sleep Paralysis Demons

Today’s story is something that I’ll be discussing more off the back of my hand based on what I know as opposed to citing various sources. So rather than waste time, let’s discuss Sleep Paralysis Demons.

Mystery: Nyagwaiheogwa

A picture of a bear from Wikipedia.

Due to that lovely thing called real life problems, I’ve been seriously forced to forego the plans for the end of the month stories. However, I’m too stubborn to give up now. So stories like Runescape.nyc (which I promised when I wrote about Meat Stations) won’t be covered. However, I still have some fun, peculiar little tales to share with you all. However, they’re likely to be extremely short. I digress though; today’s story is the Nyagwaiheogwa.

Mystery: Cookie Monster

The only known source for this story.

I want to return to Michael Newton’s Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology for today’s story. Yesterday, we (very briefly) talked about the Easter Bunny. That isn’t the only weirdly named Bigfoot-type cryptid out there though. There’s also the wonderfully named Cookie Monster. Let’s take a gander at this story.

Mystery: Easter Bunny

Poached from a Forbes article. Sorry, Forbes. Please don't sue.

As of late, I’ve been feeling a mixture of burnt out and just flat out exhausted. While this year in general has been kicking me while I’m down, this month in particular has been grueling. As such, I’m just taking the easy way out and covering a lot of really easy stories until we get to the capstone story. So for today, let’s talk about the Easter Bunny. No, not the Easter Bunny you’re likely thinking of. Today, we’re off to Michigan.

Mystery: Food City Aliens

Shamelessly poached from the ObscUrban Legend Wiki. Also, this is the Food City logo.

Today’s story comes from the ObscUrban Legend Wiki. I had planned to cover it about two weeks ago, but I didn’t. I forget what story specifically I swapped it out for, but it was probably The Man in the Plastic Bag. Though I’m covering it now. It’s short, sweet, and quite funny. I call it the Food City Aliens.

Mystery: Fleshgaits

I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time. It’s finally time to cover Fleshgaits.

Mystery: September 23, 2017 and The Great Sign of Revelation 12

Religion is one of those topics I try my best to steer clear of—in spite of how there are numerous stories that I want to cover because of how many fascinating mysteries surround it. For me, it’s provided an insurmountable level of comfort and peace in the face of topics like death and what comes after it. It’s helped me to have a much more positive outlook on life as a whole too.

Though as is the case with any religion: there’s always the concept of “The End”. Now what is The End? Well, it’s Armageddon; the Apocalypse. The End of the World. When Heaven and Hell fight. Throughout the ages, many have suspected that The End was just around the corner and nowadays, it seems that The End is going to happen next week. Alas, it never does and as it stands, every prophecy, every prediction, and every claim has failed to yield anything substantial. So why do we keep falling for it? Well, some people simply fear death. Some want to see their children grow up, to have families of their own, or simply love their life. It’s those people that many charlatans feed off of in the way of selling tickets into Heaven or to have them purchase salvation from the Lord (this goes for any and all religions mind you).

This concept of fear and the dread of The End is where today’s story will take us. It's one I had planned for September this year, but I decided to cover it today as I felt oddly motivated to cover it. Known as the Great Sign of Revelation 12, this is going to be a very religious mystery, but I encourage non-believers to read this story too. It’s a very fascinating one and if I’m to be quite honest: I think this is one of my best works yet. Let’s not waste anymore time though. Let’s dive into this fantastical tale.

Conspiracy: Meat Stations

I’ve been playing a lot of Borderlands 3 lately. I’ve chosen FL4K as my character of choice and have been using the Jabber as my pet. This, naturally, means that a lot of the time, I’m spent swearing to myself because the poor thing dies over and over and over. This has led me to ponder to myself why I even bother acquainting myself with it given its tendency to keel over the second that someone looks at it funny.

Oh well, I guess that’s just how game development is. Though we aren’t here to talk about that—at least not a lot. In the time I’ve spent playing the game, I’ve pondered exactly what order the stories I had in mind for this month would go. Naturally, a lot of stories got nixed while others were added in, but two have been on my radar recently that I haven’t been able to pick between. While I know for a fact they’ll both be covered this month, the one that would be up to bat first has remained contested in my mind. One of them is called Runescape.nyc, a very oddball theory with a name worthy of an award.

The other takes us to a crazy, grisly, and warped world filled with cannibalism, human farms, and human trafficking. It’s this theory I ultimately went with because for whatever reason, I was feeling a bit grisly. Known as Meat Stations, this theory is how I imagine Cannibal Holocaust would’ve been written if it was made by someone who doesn’t realize the purpose of the Conspiracy Iceberg. So rev up those fryers and let’s get cooking.

Mystery: The Prehistoric Sea Creature Brigade

This entry for this month’s daily blog post series is a birthday gift to my dear sister. I love you sis. Thank you for your endless support and love.

Today’s entry is going to be a lot different than any other mystery I’ve ever covered today as it’s not an “official” mystery per-se. Rather, it’s a compilation of several—31 to be exact—cryptids that almost all sound alike (only one doesn’t). They’re what I call the Prehistoric Sea Creature Brigade. They aren’t connected by anything other than the fact they’re all aquatic cryptids. So let’s stop this rambling and dive into the mysteries of Nessie, Bownessie, Bessie, Tessie, Hessie, Chessie, Mjossie, Messie, Pressie, Cassie, Issie, Illie, Mussie, Kussie, Cressie, Maasie, Elsie, Teggie, Muckie, Pepie, Charlie, Sharlie, Brosnie, Lizzie, Lizzie, Caddy, Ogopogo, Igopogo, Manipogo, Winnipogo, and Champ.

Mystery: William Bradford Bishop

Last December, I covered the story of a man named Robert William Fisher. If you’ve either forgotten who he is (or was), or simply haven’t read that write-up, he was a man who murdered his wife and children and blew up his house. It’s a very dark and morbid tale of a seemingly normal, well-to-do man who hid his true self with terrifying grace.

That wasn’t the only story I had in store that was like that though. I had another one in mind, but after I was done writing about Fisher, I realized that the two were extremely similar—to the point that they were nearly interchangeable content wise. As such, I opted to scrap the second one and instead cover it this December. Though the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this month has had a lot of very silly, offbeat stories that really showcase a bit too much of the goofy side of unsolved mysteries. So I decided to yank it from this year’s Decemystery and instead cover it today.

As such, after yesterday’s short tale of a terrifying spectre that resides in your mirror, I thought that I should balance the length paradigm by having today’s story be a lengthier, much more thorough write-up. So without further ado, let’s dive into the world of a fugitive who disappeared into thin air with the story of William Bradford Bishop.

Mystery: Bloody Mary

Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary!

The world of urban legends is one that’s definitely interesting. While you can make a case that they’re nothing but the creation of campfire stories, there’s a lot that can be said for their basis in something from the real world. Whether that basis is the natural fear of a killer who lurks at lover’s lanes in the case of “The Hook” or a maniac in the backseat in the case of “High Beams”. However, a full blown basis in reality isn’t something that one could apply to any of them.

Or could they?

Today’s mystery is a lot different than most of them, but it has a lot of the elements that were essential when we discussed Slender Man back in January. Our focus today is on an entity known as Bloody Mary. Most of you are likely familiar with her; she’s the spectre who is said to appear if you say her name a certain number of times while in front of a mirror with the lights turned off. She’s a classic in the way of sleepover stories you’d hear if you’re a pre-teen or a young teen. Though that’s all she is: a story. Right? Well, let’s find out. Today, we’re kickin’ it old school. This is the story of Bloody Mary.

Mystery: The Arzamassian Monster

Today’s story is going to be a super short one because I’ve been extremely busy today. Apologies for all of those that are disappointed, but I promise that there are stories this month that will be much longer and much more fascinating. So anyways, today’s tale is one that will take us back to the year of 1719. It’s known as the Arzamassian Monster and it will send us to the land of Russia. Let’s dive bomb into this enigmatic story!

Mystery: The Paris Catacombs Video

Today, I want to do something very different. You see, when I go about writing, I tend to try to do my best to cover stories in a way that hasn’t been done before. I believe I’ve failed to do so quite often, but I’ve been extremely happy with how I’ve really gotten a firm grip on a style in recent time.

Though I want to forego that a bit. You see, today’s story is one that’s been covered a fair bit by quite a few people; it’s also been talked about a fair bit. The reason I want to do that is I believe that the footage that’s become known as the Paris Catacombs Video is one that a lot of people tend to overthink and over analyze. So what we’ll be doing today is instead playing the role of the parrot and then playing the role of the armchair detective with five followers on his blog. So without further ado, let’s go spelunking.

A good friend of mine did a video on the Black Dahlia!

Our friends over at the Debunk File covered the Black Dahlia. Go give their video a watch. It's factual and brilliantly made. While you're at it: give their other stuff a watch. It's fantastically made and some of the most well edited stuff I've seen on YouTube.

Mystery: Ready, Ready

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Ready, Ready 15728

Ready, Ready 15728

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Ready, Ready.

Mystery: The Zaratan

Come swim away with me.

Last year, during Decemystery, I covered the theoretical Bermuda Beast. In that write-up, I stated that the beast is said to be the largest cryptid to ever be “recognized” at over 4,000 feet long. However, for every first place holder, there’s someone in second place. Today, we’ll be covering that creature, the Zaratan. I mentioned this creature very briefly when I covered the Bermuda Beast by stating it has an island on its back. There’s more to it than just that, so let’s dive into this story and find out what lies beneath the island. Spoilers: it’s a gigantic turtle.

Mystery: The Old Woman in the Crawl Space

Our story today is one that I can’t find much on beyond an article on the ObscUrban Legend Wiki, However, I like it enough that I want to cover it since it’s delightfully creepy and I haven’t covered enough paranormal stuff on this blog. So here’s the story of what’s known as the Old Woman in the Crawl Space.

Conspiracy: Astronaut Night Terrors

Open wide.

I was on 4chan’s /x/ board a month ago when I came across a conspiracy iceberg thread. Naturally, I went through it and saw some material for some good future write-ups, though I always saw an opportunity to partake in the thread too since a user had said they couldn’t find anything about the conspiracy of Astronaut Night Terrors. I’m not one to go around and promote this blog on /x/ or the ever-so coveted cesspool known as Reddit, but I do enjoy sharing what I know with others. As such, I chimed in and said that I’d written about it on here (well, I didn’t give the name of the blog, but that’s besides the point). Though after I’d said I’d written about it, I realized something.

I’ve not written about it.

The closest I’ve come to covering this theory was when I summarized it back in February for my megalist of conspiracies. Even then, I more or less took what one user on 4chan had said and did a pisspoor job of reworking it so it didn’t look like I’d outright copied him. As such, I’m going to amend my folly and now cover this theory. So to the two or three people who ended up visiting this blog from /x/, I hope this’ll sate your curiosity.

Mystery: The Cloud Giant

The photo in question by Nick O'Donoghue.

Let’s take a trip up into the skies as it’s where our story takes place. It’s a rather short one and certainly far from the most extraordinary, though I still think it still offers something unique. I found it on the ObscUrban Legend Wiki and it’s simply titled the Cloud Giant. Let’s take a gander.

Mystery: The Woman in the Oven

Warm it up, boys.

Some time back, I did a really half-baked riff of this story that I’ve since deleted because I was both deeply disappointed in it and because I found it to just not be worth keeping around. I sometimes wonder if anyone inexplicably saved that dreadful thing—if you have, I’d love to know why. Oh well, that’s besides the point. This story is a fairly well known creepypasta that’s no doubt been around for longer than that term has been around. Though what floors me is that some people think that it’s real. Because of this strange fact, today’s story will be centered on the story known as The Woman in the Oven. Let’s get to it!

Mystery: The Icebox Murders

A photo of Charles from his time in the Navy. This was over a decade before the murders.

Today’s story is one that’s been on my to-do list for a little under a year now. I’ve tried to start it up several times, but I’ve never managed to complete it; I’ve either hit a roadblock while covering it, something came up that occupied my time, or I simply wasn’t satisfied with what I had. That changes today though! It’s time we cover what I consider one of the most bizarre unsolved murders in American history. This is the story of the Icebox Murders. Get ready because this story is as gruesome as it is confounding.

Mystery: The Grand Canyon Grim Reaper

I couldn't find the image without the arrow. Sorry.

After the whirlwind of craziness that made up the story of Seth Rich, I felt it was best if today and tomorrow, we focused on a very fun, light-hearted, and down-to-earth mystery. It’s something you may have heard of, especially if you watch—or listen to—a lot of mystery-centric videos/podcasts. It’s little more than a photo (which serves as the header image for this write-up) and shows a man at the edge of the Grand Canyon with a fishing line. However, if you look a little closer, there’s something deeply unusual about it all: a man peeking around from behind a bush. This man has garnered the nickname of the Grand Canyon Grim Reaper. Edgy name, but is it really Death himself? Let’s find out.

Mystery: The Murder of Seth Conrad Rich

A photograph of Seth Rich.

Politics is a brutal hellscape when it comes to mysteries. With how often people are accused of misconduct, it becomes difficult to differentiate what's real and what's the creation of a political rival; a story made to assassinate the image of a dissident who refused to toe the line.

Though every now and then, there comes a mystery that, on the surface, is straightforward and normal. With today's story, it's very simple: a man is shot twice in the back in what looks to be a robbery gone wrong. Though, in the eyes of some, that's but a microscopic portion of a very dark, sinister reality. If we were to flick on the light switch, we'd be introduced to a massive picture that spans not just Washington D.C., but the whole planet. A cavalcade of madness and despicable behavior that goes against the natural order of life; the truth of who our leaders truly are being a maddening test of what it means to be human.

Though could such a truth really exist? I'm sure that there are a near equal amount of those who would answer “yes” and “no”. Whether you'd like to admit it or not, there are many who remain mum on what they truly think about the powers that be. Many of those reasons aren't limited to just news outlets like Breitbart, Infowars, Mother Jones, or any other biased media outlet. There's always those that the person hangs out with or their parents; immediate family and friends are a powerful influential group on who a person is or will become.

Though that's besides the point. What is the point is that today, we'll be focusing on a very divisive story. It's one that allows us to see just how much a single person can become a martyr in the eyes of some and a nobody who's been used as a political talking point for conspiracy theorists; a true, ferocious embodiment of how much of a hellscape politics can be. His name was Seth Conrad Rich and his murder remains unsolved.

Mystery: Terra Nova Islands

A picture of the Antarctic coast.

Here on this blog, we cover an array of topics. Missing persons, cryptids, and conspiracies. Today’s going to be something brand new though: phantom islands. So rather than linger on the introduction, let’s instead dive right into the story of the Terra Nova Islands.

Mystery: The Man in the Plastic Bag

This has to be one of the most random things I’ve ever encountered on any website dedicated to mysteries, legends, or anything of that sort. On the ObscUrban Legend Wiki, there’s a story related to something called the Man in the Plastic Bag. I’d intended to cover it last year for Decemystery, but I honestly found it to not be worthwhile material. However, because I want to have fun and cover some of the simpler things I’ve amassed, I’m going to cover it for you all today.

Mystery: Kitsune

Woof.

Let’s take a trip over to Japan. Land of Godzilla, Gundam, and creepy ghost girls. It’s a fascinating location historically and culturally—the latter of those two being the central focus of today’s mystery. I’m sure most of you have likely heard of the Kitsune. If you haven’t, it’s a nine-tailed fox that has become something of a peculiar “waifu” to many who fall into the category of being a furry or a weeb, though you need not be either to appreciate the creature of legend. Now, given my pension for saying that legends had to have come from somewhere, it stands to reason that the Kitsune would fall into that category, right? Well, let’s take a gander at just that.

Mystery: The Terrifying Commercial Break

An image from the horror film Hostel.

I had plans to cover a story about a very famous unidentified murder victim case today. Alas, I got caught up in real life and didn’t want to rush through the story. As such, I decided to pick out a story from a wiki that I’d discovered while making my megalist: Paranormal World. It’s a site with a host of really fascinating, weird, and unique stories that I’d never heard of until I found the site. If I’m to be honest, I was extremely tempted to poach a bunch of them for this month, but I was hesitant as I didn’t want to be seen as a content thief. I did take a bunch of them for the megalist, but I’m highly doubtful more than two or three will remain on there (this particular story didn’t make it on there as an FYI).

Now with that said, even though I used some of them to fill slots on that list, I was still hesitant to even make this write-up. The main reason being: it seems the writer of that wiki is the only author, and it acts as something of a personal blog to them. I didn’t want to write about something that may be extremely personal to the writer. Not to mention, the story comes from Reddit which, as some of you may know, I’m really not fond of. However, I decided to throw aside my concerns and go through with it as I think I have an interesting argument to make in the long run. So let’s dig into what I call The Terrifying Commercial Break.

Look, I didn’t want to copy the name that Paranormal World used. If you’re curious by the way, click here to see the original article. I’d highly recommend you check out the other stories on the wiki too. They’re extremely interesting and the writer deserves a lot more credit for the stuff he finds.

Mystery: 62.10401554464931 24.459908986464143

A still frame from the video in question. Source: Cool Interesting Stuff.

Internet mysteries: they’re a lot like Bethesda games. On the surface, they offer you the world and then some. However, once you so much as lay a finger on the door handle to let them in, they crumble into dust and fall apart. Then a dragon spins around and flies away spraying fire everywhere.

Indeed, Internet mysteries are far from the most magnificent things out there when it comes to compelling content. Though that doesn’t immediately mean they’re bad. If you’re a talented writer, you can explore beyond what’s presented to show the greater picture. This is where a serious divide comes into play when it comes to the innumerable amount of videos and articles about your dime-a-dozen Internet mysteries; the so-called “greatest” of them. You know, the Markovian Parallax Denigrate, A858, Unfavorable Semicircle, and every ARG this side of the Milky Way. Because of this, I often believe that most Internet mysteries fall into one of three categories:

The first is that they’re an art project. Some artsy student threw together some bizarre imagery that would make Lars von Trier gush over the deep meaning as to why the maggots are crawling on the woman. As a result, the denizens of the Internet think it’s a confession to a murder and it makes it to about a dozen top ten lists where people put a red circle around Mick Jagger’s lips, signifying that he too is behind Paul McCartney being the father to Ariana Grande.

The second is that it’s an ARG, or “alternate reality game”. Basically, a very bored person makes a game where people go outside and don’t practice social distancing. These kinds of games are very popular and actually quite cool. I had once contemplated making one myself, but I’m neither clever enough nor do I have any reason to make one. I also don’t think there’s any point to making one when there are enough out there to satisfy most fans of ARGs.

The third and final category is that the answer is something mundane, boring, and ultimately very normal. A supposedly creepy website was made by someone for fun, a creepy video was made for a contest or for school, or any other “mysterious” piece of content on the Internet was, well, just made because the user wanted to make it.

That brings us to today’s supposed mystery. It’s called 62.10401554464931 24.459908986464143 and it’s one of those “lesser known” Internet rabbit holes because it never took off. Though just like any other titan of the Internet mystery genre, it has its own base of truth seekers that suspect there is something malicious behind this video. So let’s journey down the rabbit hole and see what the truth is.

Mystery: Giant Scuttles

I scuttled away with this from a Cryptozoology wiki.

I recently finished picking stories out for my megalist of 5,000 mysteries and I’m feeling really energized by that. So, in celebration, the month of May will have a daily blog post for some of the mysteries that will be on said list. To kick things off, let’s take a look at one of the funnier stories I found while searching for worthwhile material: the cryptid known as the Giant Scuttle.