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In 1980s California, Dorothea Puente’s house was a den of theft and murder as this terrifying landlady killed at least nine of her unsuspecting tenants. Dorothea Puente looked like a sweet grandmother — but looks can be deceiving. In fact, Puente was a serial killer who committed at least nine murders inside her boarding house in Sacramento, California throughout the 1980s. Between 1982 and 1988, the elderly and disabled people living in Dorothea Puente’s house had no idea that was she was poisoning and strangling some of her guests before burying them on her property and cashing their Social Security checks....

After escaping from prison several times in the early 19th century, Eugène-François Vidocq turned himself in — and went on to revolutionize policing. Wikimedia CommonsAfter living through the French Revolution, Eugène-François Vidocq became the world’s first modern detective. Born into a peasant family in France in the late 18th century, Eugène-François Vidocq was present at some of the most turbulent and storied moments in French history, and his criminal career during that time would have made for a taut thriller on its own....

Thanks to the amber, researchers say the flowers look like they were “just picked from the garden.” Bumbling through the trees in what would one day be Myanmar, a Tyrannosaurus rex may have accidentally sent seven tiny flowers tumbling to the ground. There, they fell on some resin-producing tree bark, which then fossilized into beautiful amber, which kept the plants perfectly preserved for the next 100 million years — just waiting for researchers from Oregon to find them....

The Guanajuato mummies died in anguish, and you can still see it on their faces today. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: Meet The Ghoulish Salt Mummies That Were Frozen In Time Bog Bodies: See The Pre-Egyptian Mummies Made By Nature The Fiendish Plot Behind The “Screaming Mummy” 1 of 13One of the Guanajuato mummies on display at the Museum of the Mummies in Guanajuato, Mexico....

Hans Albert became a scientist in his own right and a professor in hydraulic engineering, a career his father initially dubbed “a disgusting idea.” Wikimedia Commons Hans Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein was a formidable mind, known worldwide for his academic achievements. A legacy like that would be incredibly heavy for a son to carry. It’s hard to believe that an heir of a scientific genius such as that could even come close – but Hans Albert Einstein in a sense did....

Whether involving rats, spikes, or boiling oil, the worst execution methods ever invented prove that humans have mastered the art of torture and death. If the last few thousand years of human history have shown us to be good at one thing, it’s the art of inflicting painful, humiliating death on one another. Whether using ravenous animals, scorching temperatures, or endless variations of sharp, pointed implements, the ingenuity that has gone into the act of death by torture is genuinely shocking....

Hollywood’s “Gentle Giant” shocked the world in 1985—and this shock would continue to make waves well after his death. What was intended to be an innocuous plug for an upcoming TV show ignited a national conversation about HIV/AIDS. In July of 1985, popular actor Rock Hudson traveled to Carmel, Ca., for a public appearance alongside longtime acting partner, Doris Day. Day, an animal rights activist who starred in films such as “Pillow Talk” and “Send Me No Flowers,” had decided to return to the screen via “Doris Day’s Best Friends,” a Christian Broadcasting Network-sponsored show that centered on animals....

We explore the lives of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff before the ISIS murders occurred. Despite various reports of the evil, disastrous actions of the militant group known as ISIS (also known as ISIL), the recent beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff are hard to truly comprehend. Yet instead of focusing on ISIS and its actions, we wanted to pay our attention to the brave men whose lives were lost to the tragic ISIS murders....

Better known as Don Neto, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo trafficked tens of thousands of tons of marijuana and cocaine in the 1980s before the execution of a DEA agent brought his empire down. HistoriaDelNarcoYCorridos/FacebookErnesto Fonseca Carrillo was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison after federal authorities caught up to him. As an aging convict long ago captured by Mexican authorities, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo poses little threat to his fellow countrymen today....

From George Washington Carver to Madam C.J. Walker to Lonnie Johnson, meet some of the most iconic African American inventors who shaped history. Getty/Wikimedia CommonsWithout these Black inventors, modern-day life in America might’ve looked very different. American history is peppered with some of the greatest inventive minds in the world. But the long history of racism in the United States has led to many Black inventors being discriminated against or marginalized just because of the color of their skin....

“That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying.” Utah Department of Public SafetyThe shiny monolith stands between 10 and 12 feet tall. It remains entirely unknown who made it. On November 18, a routine aerial survey of Utah’s bighorn sheep led to a baffling discovery. Providing the Division of Wildlife Resources with a bird’s-eye view, officers of the Department of Public Safety’s Aero Bureau spotted a mysterious metal monolith planted in the middle of the desert....

The naked mole rat may be one of the most fascinating mammals in the animal kingdom. Wikimedia Commons Naked mole rats are hairless, covered in wrinkles, and not exactly the kind of animal that inspires any sort of sustained, popular interest — but a recent study may change that. Here’s what we already know about mole rats: these burrowing critters are cold-blooded mammals who are naturally resistant to feeling pain and developing cancer, and typically outlive all other species of rodents....

The lack of clothing is only part of these nude festivals’ appeal. From running naked at the South Pole to stripping down and playing with torches, these nude festivals and events from across the globe are as outlandish as they are ubiquitous: World Bodypainting FestivalPörtschach am Wörthersee, Austria Each summer for the past two decades, artists from nearly 50 nations have come together in front of the World Bodypainting Festival’s 30,000 spectators to showcase their eye-popping talent for painting on the nude human body....

“I think that picture humanizes her in a way that I would have never imagined.” Wikimedia CommonsHarriet Tubman poses with former slaves. There is an exciting new addition on display at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The museum unveiled a never-before-seen portrait of American icon Harriet Tubman as a younger woman, which was discovered in a photo album owned by fellow abolitionist Emily Howland....

The bushfires that raged in Australia in December 2019 and January 2020 destroyed about 88% of the pygmy possum’s territory. Kangaroo Island Land For WildlifeThe little pygmy possum survived an unspeakable inferno. Last year’s Australian bushfire season was so devastating that it became colloquially known as Black Summer. It cost the government more than $100 billion and saw countless animal species scurry for their lives. Kangaroo Island’s pygmy possums, for one, were thought to have been wiped out in the flames — until now....

The woman was found with a cluster of tiny bones between her legs. SmithsonianThe woman’s body was found with tiny infant bones between her legs. In 2010, Archeologists excavating a grave site in the small medieval town of Imola, Italy, made a grisly discovery — a woman who seemed to have given birth post-mortem. In a recently published paper, the archaeologists broke down their findings and explained the rarity of what they had uncovered....

David Attie was a photographic unknown for decades. A dig through his home changed that. The long-lost photographs of high-ceilinged Brooklyn townhouses, foggy Manhattan skylines, and a young and serious-looking Truman Capote might have stayed hidden forever. Tucked away in dust-gathering boxes, they sat alongside prints of W.E.B Du Bois, The Band, Leonard Bernstein, Ralph Ellison, and other famous faces. They’re probably among the most intriguing prints of Capote in existence — the young writer defiantly staring out at the viewer, framed by the swirls of a spiral staircase — and they offer a rare glimpse at how the then deteriorating borough looked through his eyes....

Today, the shelled ninja masters are all but household names — so just how exactly were they “born”? HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR A STUPID JOKE between friends, your beloved cast of mask-donning, nunchuck-wielding turtles may never have existed. One November night in 1983, friends Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird had holed themselves up in Dover, New Hampshire’s Mirage Studios to work on the latest installment of their “Fugitoid” comic when inspiration struck, Eastman told The Week....

Though the golden snub-nosed monkey has become beloved for its adorable blue face and elegant fur, these threatened primates are disappearing due to poachers and deforestation. Flickr/su nekoOnly 15,000 golden snub-nosed monkeys remain. The golden snub-nosed monkey is the type of animal almost too cute to be real. But they do exist — and are increasingly endangered. Golden snub-nosed monkey populations plummeted by more than half in the last 40 years....

With the oldest-known dildo clocking in at 28,000 years, sex toys are older than civilization, religion, and marriage combined. The Bizarre History Of Sex Toys, From Ancient Butt Plugs To Steam-Powered Vibrators View Gallery Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: The History Of “Female Hysteria” And The Sex Toys Used To Treat It The History Of Today’s Best-Selling Toys That Were Complete Accidents...