Category Archives: Strange Phenomena

25 Incredible Real Names

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Crook Klutz (1913-1979) and 24 Other “Unique” American Names

Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan)

A useful tool for genealogists, the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) contains over 92 million death records for individuals with United States Social Security numbers. There are many portals to give you access to the list. On some web portals for the SSDI you can enter just the first name, which can yield interesting results.

Either their parents thought they were being funny or in some cases they were just cruel. Maybe the person had their name legally changed. Who knows.

Besides Crook Klutz, the ones that stood out in no particular order:

24. Dummy Boy 1896-1969 (Not a name you’d want to call out in public.)

23. Hitler Johnson 1933-1986  (Nice. Definitely a way to distinguish yourself from the other Johnson’s in your town.)

22. Uncle Caves 1911-1977

21. Strange Amos 1884-1966 (How did the parents know?)

20. Fatty Claw 1884-1973

19. Lurch Williams 1906-1979 (The only person ever named Lurch.)

18. Danger Dangervil 1943-2005

17. Weird Adkins 1917-1964

16. Shitley J. Metcalf  1949-2012 (No way.)

15. Poison Repp 1913-1964

14. Phony Brooks 1903-1966 (Did Phony have a hard time making friends?)

13. Murder Williams 1926-1983

12. Fester King 1896-1971 [also another Fester King 1915-1974, Senior and Junior perhaps?]  (Everyone should have an Uncle Fester.)

11. Flipper Butts 1919-1975 (Perfect name for the adult entertainment industry.)

10. Moron Bobo 1896-1974 (The last name alone would probably lead to a difficult life, adding the first insures it.)

9. Jack Ass 1958-2003 (Could have had a franchise on that name.)

8. Hernia Dalton 1906-1976 (Ow.)

7. Very Bland 1979-1999

6. Big Wife 1888-1982

5. Funny Smith 1919-1986 (Was he? Or is “Funny” a she?)

4. Zoo Parks 1897-1981

3. Will Moron Read 1927-1989 (I don’t know. How did he do in school?)

2. Pimp Freeman 1893-1983 (That is kind of cool in a weird way.)

1. Jesus Christ 1941-2007.  (Guess you missed him. He was here. I’ve always wondered if Jesus were to return would anyone recognize him? Apparently not.)

Woodlawn Cemetery Memorial Tells A Coney Island Story Of Unusual Death

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Brighton Beach Lightning Strike Felt By Thousands, Kills Six – July 30, 1905

When walking through Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, you can come across fancy mausoleums and simple grave markers of the famous and infamous. F.W. Woolworth, Fiorello LaGuardia, Duke Ellington, Bat Masterson and Herman Melville are among the half million souls interred in this historic place.Demmerle Memorial

Then out of the blue you may stumble across the lives of ordinary New Yorker’s memorialized in an extraordinary way. Such is the Demmerle monument.

Unlike many other tombstones which record a name and birth and death years with a short epitaph, the Demmerle memorial is an ornate series of carved monuments which tells and shows the story of one family’s tragedy.

Demmerle Charles and EmilieSunday July 30, 1905 started out as a beautiful, sun-filled, hot day Continue reading →

Giant Turnip

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There Are Turnips and Then There Are TURNIPS

Photo © George Trabant

Photo © George Trabant

The news caption reads:

April 26, 1975, – If this turnip hadn’t had Hope, it wouldn’t have reached its colossal proportions. Hope Miller, 12, has a green thumb – especially when it comes to turnips.  This one in her garden grew to 27 inches in circumference and 17 inches in length. It’s weight was 7 pounds. Hope who attends Grace Lutheran School, says it took 2½ months for the vigorous vegetable to grow.

What I find interesting about this old news photo is that someone (probably Hope’s father or mother) called the newspaper to report the giant turnip. That is not so unusual. What is unusual is that the newspaper, The St. Petersburg Times, on what must have been a slow news day, sent a photographer, George Trabant to cover this “news story.” The turnip photo and story did run in the paper.

The Gates That Have Been Closed For Over 360 Years And Will Never Be Opened Again

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The Bear Gates, Traquair Castle, Scotland

Photo Traquair Castle Bear Gates courtesy www.stravaiging.com

The Scottish lament of “Will ye no come back again,” refers to the 1746 exile of Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788) otherwise known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Traquair Castle is located 30 miles south of Edinburgh in the town of Innerleithen, Scotland. In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite army passed through the Bear Gates during his visit to the 5th Earl of Traquair. Afterwards the Earl, a fervent supporter of the Stuart cause, ordered the Bear Gates be closed and not re-opened until a Stuart again sits on the Scottish Throne.

The Battle of Culloden took place on April 16 , 1746 and Bonnie Prince Charlie was soundly defeated by the son of King George II, the Duke of Cumberland. Bonnie Prince Charlie took flight, ending the cause of the Stuarts to regain the throne. He lived the rest of his life in exile and died without having children.The Royal House of Stuart became extinct in 1807 with the death of Charles’ brother Henry Benedict Stuart.

The Bear Gates will never be opened again.

Faces In The Rocks

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The Incredible Rock Sculptures Of Rotheneuf France

photo courtesy flickr – Drisc67

Location of Rotheneuf Rock Sculptures

In the village of Rotheneuf on the Brittany coast of France, one man carved over 300 magnificent sculptures into the granite cliffs overlooking the sea.

This amazing work of faces, creatures and scenes were sculpted into the rocks painstakingly by a priest, Adolphe-Julien (Abbé) Fouré (1839-1910) over about a fifteen year period. (Sources vary on the number of years he was active.)

It was painstaking because when he was older, Abbé Fouré suffered a stroke which caused the left side of his body to be paralyzed. Over the years he eventually became deaf and his speech got very slurred.

Fouré  retired from the priesthood and became a hermit, renting a cabin by the cliffs of the village. In the early 1890’s with one side of his body crippled,  Fouré, began creating sculptures in the rocks, that told the history of the powerful Rotheneuf family. He continued carving up until about three years before his death on February 10, 1910.  Continue reading →

Unique Antique Vampire Slaying Kit Up For Auction

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Die, Dracula, Die!

On June 22, 2012 at Tennants Auctioneers in Yorkshire, England, a 19th century vampire slaying kit will be auctioned off.

Practically everything you would need to kill a fictional character is included. The kit,  housed in a mahogany box, contains a mallet and stakes, a pistol, a silver bullet mold, glass bottles containing holy water and holy earth, garlic, rosary beads, a bible, a crucifix and a handwritten psalm.  It is believed that the kit was made in earnest in the late 19th century. It is being consigned by a woman who inherited it from her uncle.

Because vampire sightings are on the rise and people are looking for extra security from the living dead, the auction has been attracting wordwide attention. The presale estimate of £1,500-2,000 (US $2,300 – 3,100) is probably on the low side considering the number of Dracula fans and strange goths who file down their teeth into fangs believing they are vampires.

UPDATE 7/25/12 – The final hammer price was £7,500 (US$11,700)!

Chimpanzees In Old News and Publicity Photographs

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Monkey See, Monkey Do

People find chimpanzees amusing, especially when they are doing non-chimp activities. News organizations, on a slow news day would send a photographer to see if a good photo-op would come about. Hopefully no one had their face ripped off.

Whatever background information is known, is written below the chimp photo. (Click any photo to enlarge.)

Chimpanzee photographing swimsuit models. Circa 1960’s. (He doesn’t have the viewfinder in the right place, does he?)

Bobby John, chimpanzee tennis player, Rockledge, FL November 20, 1973

“Jiggs” the chimpanzee, on the movie set of  “Her Jungle Love” with Dorothy Lamour. 1938

Chimpanzees eating zeppoles. Circa 1950’s.

Jacko (I swear that is his name) the London Zoo chimpanzee. Circa 1930’s

“The beret hat from Northern France is becomming very popular in London and one was introduced to Jacko the chimpanzee at the London Zoo”

Chimpanzee dressed elegantly, entering a limousine. Circa 1920’s.

Tommy Dorsey Swings It For Chimps – 1939

“Philadelphia – Tommy Dorsey, band leader, gives baby chimpanzees at the zoo here an earful of his trombone music during an experiment to determine the effect of music on animals. Attending the jam session put on by Dorsey and his players were psychologists who studied the animals’ reactions but made no immediate conclusions. January 31, 1939.”

Death By Root Beer

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A Soda Tax Would Not Have Prevented Henry Koerner’s Death

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t like soda and would like to tax people to discourage them from drinking it. But it wasn’t obesity or the root beer itself that caused Henry Koerner’s demise, it was a bizarre accident.

In the August 20, 1892 New York Times, a brief story appears about Henry Koerner, who worked for Lighte Brothers (a mineral water manufacturer) at 509 East 17th Street and how he was killed when the root beer he was loading on to a wagon exploded.

When Koerner slipped on a fruit peeling on the sidewalk, the ten pound pressurized tank of root beer he was carrying dropped on the stone pavement and exploded like a charge of dynamite.  The tank shattered in all directions with one piece going right through Koerner’s head, killing him instantly. The explosion was so powerful, the top of the tank went 150 feet into the air and fell to the ground with a deafening crash.  The poor man left behind a wife and three children.

I’m sure there was little if any compensation for his loss of life, as accidents like this were dismissed as being part of the hazards of working.  Below is the original newspaper story.

Hair Pulling Contest 1940

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And They Are Doing This Because?

On a hot July day, is there anything more entertaining than a contest featuring beautiful women pulling each others hair?

If you agree, then this July 11, 1940 news photograph entitled “Models in Hair Pulling Match” should fit the bill.

The caption reads as follows:

Palisades Park, N.J. – In the first official contest of its kind, two dozen beautiful New York models competed in a hair pulling contest at the Palisades Amusement Park on July 11th. Object of the contestants was to drag their opponents across a finish line by their lustrous locks. Here are Florence Goodman (top) and Alice Schinkel battling it out for championship near the finish line. Florence was declared the winner of the knock-down, drag ’em across contest. 7-11-40 credit: Acme