Walking with A Dinosaur

Author: Rhianna Bogard

Dinosaurs: animals that fuel the imaginations of millions of people all around the world. The obsession with dinosaurs even inspires pop-culture with movie such as the Jurassic Park series or urban legends like the Loch Ness Monster. There is even a rumor that a dinosaur still lives in the Congo River Basin called the Mokele-Mbembe. The Mokele-Mbembe which most popularly translates from Lingala to “the one who stops the flow of the river” is a supposed sauropod (formerly known as brontosauruses) that roams Africa.

The rumored dinosaur is said to live, hunt, and reproduce in or around the Congo River Basin, more specifically Lake Tele, located in the Republic of Congo. With color ranging from a red based brown to grey, these creatures are said to be between the size of a Hippopotamus to an Elephant with a reported length of anywhere from 16 to 32 feet (5 to 10 meters). They are said to create burrows along the river bank where they would sleep, hide or raise young. According to Unexplained Mysteries the Mokele-Mbembe are quiet creatures that spend a lot of time in the water. There are reports that the Mokele-Mbembe follows a plant-based diet, however, they are extremely territorial and will kill trespassers, specifically hippopotamuses, on site.

Heavy speculation surrounds whether the Mokele-Mbembe is real especially with such lack of definitive evidence. Most believers claim that the size of the Congo River Basin, over 1.5 million miles, is the main reason for such lack of evidence. Many theories circulate about the origins of the rumor of the Mokele-Mbembe including one which states the creature is a ghost spirit. Authors of Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero claim that the Mokele-Mbembe and the rumors surrounding it have been pushed by the wide spread popularity of dinosaurs and fanatics from the creationist movement. The large popularity of dinosaurs during the early 20th century gave life to the first wide spread rumors about the cryptid and since the hype about dinosaurs has yet to die down the rumor thrived. It still inspires people to go searching for the creature today.

The reality of an animal this size living and thriving, is that they would need a large breeding population to be sustained. Even though the Congo River Basin is huge with the numbers needed to sustain the population as well as size of the animal there is an extremely slim to none chance humans would not have found them by now. The existence and searches for this creature is heavily supported by creationist. The existence of the Mokele-Mbembe would greatly support their ideals that man walked with the dinosaurs and evolution didn’t happen. Many searches for the creature have been led by creationist and therefore may not be purely for scientific research. All in all, with no sustainable evidence of any kind, it is hard to believe the Mokele-Mbembe is out there. However, maybe just maybe there is a dinosaur hiding from the world in the vast jungle, keeping the hopes and dreams of children everywhere alive.

Work Cited      
 Loxton, Daniel, and Donald R. Prothero. “Abominable Science! : Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and  Other Famous Cryptids.” Pp.260-295. Academic Search Premier. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=d49e0785-932b-4535-a869d2d8a539f9e4%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN =619706&db=nlebk     

Corbell 2025, Lorieli.”Stevens dinosaur” Youtube.com, 2 Mar. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-0Tj1OEm8M       

“Painting of Mokele-Mbembe.” Mingren,wu. “Mokele-mbembe: A Legendary Water-Dwelling Creature of the Congo River.” Ancient Origins, 18 Feb. 2016, https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/mokele-mbembe-legendary-water-dwelling-creature-congo-river-005375   

Unexplained Mysteries. “The Mokele Mbembe: A Real-Life Dinosaur Living in The Congo?” Youtube.com, 26 Jul 2018.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS6hsrxaZRM.     

Links for further research   
Mokele-Mbembe: the search for a living dinosaur  
https://www.livescience.com/38871-mokele-mbembe.html.     
The source is an online article which mentions the origins of the Mokele-Mbembe and provides detailed information about the modern searches for this creature 

 MOKELE MBEMBE A SHORT HISTORY. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6CatFN3mv4.   
This video provides an in-depth history of the Mokele-Mbembe.     

Mokele Mbembe!   
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=bf3a93f3-c6ac-4433-bc8abfc818614fcb%40sessionmgr102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN= 79787557&db=aph. 
This source is an article that dives into the existence of the Mokele Mbembe.   

Sedlec Ossuary

Author: Micah M. Mathis

Historians and Anthropologists have made it clear that there are Seven Wonders of the World. However, they may be wrong. The following image above can clarify that this should also be apart of the Seven Wonders. Turning The Seven Wonders of the World into, “The Eight Wonders of the World.” The Macabre Bone Church also known as, The Sedlec Ossuary, is an old burial ground in the quiet town of Kutna Hora, in the heart of Czech Republic. Dating back to 1278, King Otakar II of Czech Republic, ordered Abbot, a blind monk, to handcraft this ossuary to store the remains of humans in this old chapel. King Otakar II sent Abbot to Jerusalem to obtain soil from the Golgotha, known as, “Holy Soil” to bless the Ossuary. When news got out about this, many people wanted to be buried here as well, thus making it the most religious burial site in Europe. When the Bubonic plague reached Kutna Hora, it massacred over 30,000 citizens, making the Ossuary home to over 40,000 human remains. This ossuary is meant to be seen as a fascinating site and remotely strange due to human remains being instilled in this ossuary. By the fifteenth century, the community began to construct the Gothic Church. Later, many bones were removed and stacked into a pyramid-shaped in the ossuary beneath the new building. However, the construction was placed on hold until the 1870s when the Gothic Church hired a local woodcarver, Francis Rint, to create something magnificent, yet ghoulish look for the future tourist to always remember. Rint bleached each bone and used it to decorate the holy space. Creating chains of skulls to stretch across the entryways so tourist can feast their eyes on the three-hundred-year-old remains. Chalices and crosses were constructed from human femurs and hips.

One of the many iconic decorations in the Ossuary is, the Swarchenzbarg coat of arms. Made up of pelvises, skeletal fingers, skull bones, and skeletal arms. A crow made of bones was crafted to be poking out the eye of a skull. This coat of arms is designed to dedicate the Noble German family. ‘Road Unraveled’ investigated and toured the Ossuary, and also said it to be, “signs of trauma that was likely incurred during a war. It’s startling, creepy, and beautiful all at once.”

Work Cited:

“The Sedlec Ossuary.” The Sedlec Ossuary Church of Bones. https://sedlecossuary.com/. 2019.

Christine Blau. “Visit The Creepy Bone Church of Czech Republic.” National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/europe/czech-republic/things-to-see-bone-church-sedlec-ossuary/. 26 October 2017.

Stephanie Hubka. “Sedlec Ossuary: Visiting the Bone Church of Kutna Hora.” Road Unraveled. https://www.roadunraveled.com/blog/bone-church-sedlec-ossuary-kutna-hora/. 2019.

Link for further research:

http://www.outsideprague.com/kutna_hora/bone_church.html 

The link above gives a brief description to the Sedlec Ossuary and presents a video of it as well. Also, Stories of hauntings occurring. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wMyv-JOWb8

The link above is a video of the Sedlec Ossuary visited by some tourist. Each scene captures a portion of the Ossuary and shows the decorations inside.

https://www.timetravelturtle.com/sedlec-ossuary-bone-church-kutna-hora-czech-republic/

The link above is a historical summary of the Sedlec Ossuary from 1278 until present time. 

Dead Mountain

Author: Charlie Caldwell

This was the last photo taken of the hikers before they died...

On a cold winter night February 1959 nine Russian ski-hikers would breathe their last breath on the face of Dead Mountain. The hikers were part of an elite outing group that began their trek through the Ural Mountains of Siberia. The hikers never made it to their checkpoint and also failed to reach out to anyone. Weeks went by and still no one heard from the group; therefore, a search team was put into motion and what they found would leave them speechless.

When the bodies were recovered by the  search team they were hundreds of yards away from the campsite. Some of the hikers were hardly wearing anything and others seemed to be wearing clothes they pulled off others. A few hikers had broken and bruised bones and one was missing their tongue. After they found the bodies the search team went to their tent to try and find clues. The tent appeared to be cut open from the inside almost as if the hikers were being driven out. 

Nobody knows what happened to cause the death of the hikers, but there are many theories. Many say they were driven out of the tent by an avalanche and they froze to death. How would that describe the missing tongue? Others call it a “compelling force” that caused the death of them. Some case files suggest controversial theories involving the hikers being secret agents and the KGB having to eliminate them. There were many gulag  prisons within miles from the tragedy and it was not unheard of prison escapes. If there was an escape, some of the prisoners could easily know how to kill. Could this be what drove the hikers out into the frosty wilderness?

The case of the Dyatlov Pass Incident is being reopened May 2019, but until it is solved no one will ever know what happened that mysterious frigid night on the face of Dead Mountain. The mystery of Dead Mountain will be hidden and secluded for the rest of time with no possible answer to who or what took the lives of the nine hikers.

Works Cited

Lemmino. “The Dyatlov Pass Case.” Youtube, 4 Aug. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RigxxiilI.

Paul. “The Dyatlov Pass Accident.” Curious World. http://www.aquiziam.com/dyatlov_pass_1.html. Archived by Wayback Machine. Accessed on 20 Mar. 2019

Review. “Dead Mountain: The Untold Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident.” Publishers Weekly. vol. 260, no. 32, Aug. 2013, pp. 46-46. Academic Search Premier, http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=4141847c-4893-4f98-83e5-e9da23dced8b%40sessionmgr102.

“Cold Case.” Russian Life. vol. 62, no. 2, Mar. 2019, p. 6. Academic Search Premier, http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=5e5fdeee-63d2-4fe0-8941-3c3633688a1e%40sessionmgr4009.

“Hikers Mistaken for Escaped Prisoners from Gulag Prison.” Dyatlov Pass. https://dyatlovpass.com/theories#criminals. Accessed 24 Mar. 2019.

Links for further research: 

Snopes. 

https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/12/28/dyatlov-pass-incident/. 

This site contains information relating to the hiking team and what they were trying to accomplish on their trek.

Dyatlov Pass. 

https://dyatlovpass.com/. 

This site holds everything one needs to know about the Dyatlov Pass Incident and all of the theories that are involved.

Youtube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RigxxiilI. 

This is a video put on Youtube and it goes into depth detail about what the case files produced.

The Wacky World of the Winchester Mystery House

Author: Richard Stoffer 

Ever wonder what Willie Wonka’s house would look like? Well wonder no more, The Winchester mystery house is as strange as you think it could be and is open for tours. 

The Winchester Mystery house with all its spires and windows looks welcoming from the outside. But if you look closely you can see the door to nowhere on the right. 

The Winchester Mystery house was built by the widow of William Wirt Winchester, Sarah Winchester. Construction started in 1884, three years after her husband's passing, and her inheriting his 20.5 million (or 532 million now), she saw a medium who told her to move to California and build a house for herself and all the spirits who had been claimed by her husband's rifles. If she continued to build, she would appease the spirits but if she didn’t, they would haunt her to her death.  

The construction on the property lasted for 20 years and thru 2 earthquakes. The design of stairs that lead to nowhere and 161 rooms were a feature she insisted upon to confuse the spirits. Until the 1906 earthquake the mansion stood at 7 stories, today it stands at 4. Boasting 161 rooms, 40 bedrooms, 2 ballrooms, and 47 fireplaces it was a marvel of its time. It also had over 10,000 panes of glass some made by the Tiffany Glass company, 2 basements and 3 elevators. The building of the property and the reasoning for it have been explored thru several books as well as a movie in 2018 featuring Helen Mirren. 

The Winchester Mystery house is one women's attempt to keep spirits at bay that turned into a wonderfully weird house to explore and is a marvel of engineering, in its own right. 

Works Cited: 

“Helen Mirren gets spooked in Winchester Mystery House”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd83XJe1XYA Hosted by AP News archive on Youtube  Accessed March 26 2019 

Taber Photographic Co. (I.W. Taber?) - History San Jose Research Library “Sarah Winchester”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Winchester#/media/File:SWinchester.jpg Hosted on Wikimedia. Accessed on 26 March 2019 

“The Winchester Mystery House” https://www.prairieghosts.com/winchester.html Hosted by Troy Taylor and Apartment #42 Productions. Accessed on 26 March 2019. 

Links for further research: 

Sarah’s Story: Winchester Mystery House. Winchester Mystery house website. 

https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/sarahs-story/. 

The visitor's website is maintained by the trust who run the tours of the mansion and provides details about Sarah Winchester and the grounds. The purpose of the site is to allow site visitors a glimpse of the background and entice them to visit. 

The Winchester Mystery House: AtlasObscura. 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/winchester-mystery-house. 

The page is hosted by Atlas Obscura: The definitive guide to the worlds hidden wonders and is maintained as a repository for weird and unique places to visit. The purpose of the site is to allow web searches for curious people who wish to visit unique places close by them or on a trip they may be taking soon.  

The Winchester Mystery house: The haunted history of one of America’s strangest and Most haunted houses. 

https://www.prairieghosts.com/winchester.html  

The website is maintained by Troy Taylor & Apartment #42 productions. It serves as a repository for all things haunted in the US and provides for research and sales of books on paranormal places and things. 

Winchester. Movie released on February 2nd 2018 by Lionsgate CBS Films. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1072748/.  This is a film that provides us a 1h 39m accounting of Sarah Winchester and her building of the Mystery House. The purpose of the film is to explore the possible in mental workings of the eccentric Heiress played by Helen Mirren and to deepen the mystery surrounding the House. 

The Chupacabra

by Tess Mattox

A Representation of a possible Chupacabra 

The world is full of myths, legends, and tall tales. An example of a myth is the Chupacabra, but this myth is believed by many people in Latin America and across the globe. The Chupacabra means “goat-sucker” in Spanish and resembles a coyote or an alien like thing. Around the 90s, there were sightings of the Chupacabra and reports of dead cattle (Katherine Neer). The animal’s necks would be mutilated with nothing left behind. The Chupacabra has a description of an alien-like creature with red eyes, long, feathery like spine, and a sulfur-type odor (Katherine Neer). There had been a few sightings of the Chupacabra and they discussed the looks of the creature, but most of these sightings ended up being coyotes with a skin disease. The only proof of the Chupacabra is eye witness reports, but they’re all different. Some say they saw a frog colored, lizard-like, alien-eyed animal or that had kangaroo like qualities, and ran like a dog, and just walked on its hind legs.

Another possible image of the Chupacabra

The first story of the Chupacabra began in Puerto Rico and spread throughout North and South America. The animal was labeled a cryptid, meaning undefined animal. With the world being so huge, there must be animals still undiscovered today. The Chupacabra is an animal with a few witnesses, different descriptions, and no true evidence. One witness discussed the Chupacabra and how this isn’t just another mythical creature like Moth man, Bigfoot, or Lochness monster, but this creature sucks blood. The thought of witnessing or seeing an animal suck the blood of livestock is terrifying, unbelievable, and weird.

One of the most impressing sightings was in Santee, South Carolina. This is interesting because it was on the news and all over Twitter. The person saw the so called Chupacabra was sighted on golf course. After close examining, the animal was officially declared a coyote or a fox with a bad disease called manage. The animal was observed South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

This is the image on Twitter from the witness.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161109-the-truth-about-a-strange-blood-sucking-monster
http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/lost-tapes/creatures/chupacabra-history/

Yonaguni Monument, Japan

by Briana Scarborough

Diver swimming over the Yonaguni Monument

 In 1985, Kihachiro Artake, a young diver searching for dive sites, discovered an underwater mystery. This mystery was the Yonaguni Monument which could also be called the Yonaguni Pyramid. The Yonaguni Monument is located off Ryukyu Islands in Japan. A few years after the discovery, Professor Masaaki Kimura became interested and went to explore this Monument.

The monument is made of sandstone and mudstone which dates back 20 million years ago. The Yonaguni Monument stretches close to 4,000 kilometers. This monument is a diving location for people interested in swimming with hammerhead sharks. It has a staircase with flat sides.

Yonaguni Monument’s Stairs

There have been arguments that this monument could have been man made by Masaaki Kimura. As stated on http://www.yonaguni.ws/ “The flat parallel faces, sharp edges, the right and precise obtuse angles of the formation would indicate that the monolith was carved by a man.” Many researchers consider the discovery of the Yonaguni Monument to be similar the lost continent of Atlantis. Atlantis was “destroyed” around 9500-9600 B.C. Many believe that the Yonaguni Monument resembles a lost civilization. Although this hasn’t been proven, many still believe that Yonaguni could be a discovery of Atlantis. Masaaki Kimura is more convinced after each dive he takes that this monument is the remains of Atlantis.

Dr. Robert Schoch believes that the Yonaguni Monument is in fact naturally made. He says, “I’m not convinced that any of the major features or structured are man-made steps or terraces, but they’re all natural.”. He continues to argue that earthquakes or anything caused by mother nature could result in the Monument’s change in features. Robert Schoch believes that there is no evidence that could prove that this monument is man made.

In the video “Yonaguni Underwater Monument” divers show the monument. They talk about the surroundings and size of the monument. A diver states, “I want divers around the world to see this great view”. People who have dived and saw this monument are very astounded by the view.

Yonaguni Underwater Monument from REISEbazaar on Vimeo.


Works Cited:
Christie, Ben. “ Marine Geologist discovers A Supposed 10,000 Year Old Yonaguni Monument, Dubbed Japanese Atlantis” Collective Evolution 13 June 2014 https://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/06/13/marine-geologist-unearths-a-supposed-10000-year-old-yonaguni-monument-dubbed-japanese-atlantis/ 15 October 2018

Faiia, Santha. Yonaguni: The Main Monument and its Surroundings. 1999, Graham Hancock http://grahamhancock.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1-5.jpg

Smith-Dickson, Deborah.  “The Yonaguni Monument: Is it the Lost City of Atlantis?” Scuba Diver Life. 14 December 2017 https://scubadiverlife.com/yonaguni-monument-lost-city-atlantis/ 15 October 2018

Links for further research:
Yonaguni
http://www.yonaguni.ws/
Information based on the Yonaguni Monument

National Geographic
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/yonaguni-jima-japan-underwater-city/
Gives information and pictures about the Yonaguni Monument.

A Hot Cup of Joe
https://ahotcupofjoe.net/2009/03/the-ancient-underwater-ruins-of-yonaguni-japan/
Information describing the monuments features.

Voodoo Queen

by Calvin Windless Jr.

If you haven’t heard of her, she is known as the “Voodoo Queen of New Orleans”, according to many eyewitness accounts. Her title as Marie Laveau was earned due to the hard work she did while she was alive but, the thing about it is that she still holds on to that name to this day because of how powerful she was as a mortal. 2 Still to this day the crypt where she's buried, which is St. Louis Cemetery #1 is said to be the most haunted cemetery in America. If you ask some of the visitors, they claim to have seen the ghost of the Voodoo Queen herself. According to road trippers they have said to see the voodoo queen inside the cemetery, walking around tombs, in her trademark turban, while whispering a Santeria Voodoo curse to disrespectful gawkers. If you visit her grave, you'll notice that people still leave offerings, candles, flowers, Voodoo dolls, all in the hopes that Laveau will bestow her supernatural blessings. When people make a wish at her tomb, they return if their wish comes true and leave three X marks as a sign of their gratitude.

Some background information about this amazing and mysterious woman is that she was introduced to multiple religions and was well acquainted with all of the leaders in the “French Quarter” and so they taught this older teenager at the time what they knew. She had multiple tutors, some taught her religion like Catholicism, which was Pere Antoine who was the high priest of her time. On the other hand, the voodoo side of her teaching came from a man by the name of Bayou John, he taught her things like how to prepare spells and charm bags which were called a “Gris-Gris” which was used for prosperity and protection if used right. She was a person who didn’t just do things out the goodness of her heart, which is something most people do. For instance, she used her influence on her client to get a brand new house equipped with anything she would ever need and want. She used the man to get her a house, in exchange for an acquittal for their son in court. Her legacy followed her mostly by word of mouth. It was told by her having abilities to sway a justice system an determine a verdict amongst many other things that she was infamous about.

Works cited 
“St. Louis Cemetery.” Road trippers, https://maps.roadtrippers.com/trips/19417349. Accessed 29 October 2018.

Hehe, Joshua. The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Medium.com. 3 February

Links for Further Research
www.womemhistoryblog.com.
http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2012/07/marie-laveau.html.
This article entails information on her story and how she became known as the “Voodoo Queen.”

www.allthatsinteresting.com.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/marie-laveau.
This is to explain how she worked up to be the leader and advice giver from when she was young.

www.atlasobscura.com.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/marie-laveaus-tomb.
Tells about the story of her tomb and its history.

Stories of Kidney Heist

by  Ariyah Edwards

There are two main types of stories about kidney thefts. One story involves a businessman who sees a beautiful woman at a bar which wakes up drugged and wakes up with a missing organ. The other story involves poor people from third world countries that is forced to give up their organs. Kidney heist is an example of a interesting horror story that people would love to read.

For one example, there was a story about a doctor named Amit Kumar from India that was arrested because he was accused of being the leader of a “Kidney Theft Ring” which took up five hundred kidneys from donors over the past nine years. Many rumors were told to other people saying that many children and adults were forced to give up their organs at gunpoint. A victim named Mohammed Salim Khan in India had the experience of his kidney getting stolen. He woke up in an unfamiliar house with a man with a surgical mask ang gloves looking down at him. Mohammed couldn’t move so he asked the man what happened to him and he answered, “Your kidney has been removed”. From that point on Mohammad was wondering how he would live. The purpose of this story is to persuade readers that this story is true. I chose this source because it has a lot of information and details in the story. This story makes you want to learn more about kidney heist. This source is helpful because it shows that kidney heist is not just a myth, it happens in real life.

There was another story that was talking about a traveling businessman going to a bar and seeing a beautiful lady there which poisoned him that night and stole his kidney. A man named Jonathan was sitting at the lounge, he saw very attractive girl that offered to buy him a drink. Not knowing it was a potion, Jonathan drunk the drink and passed out. When he woke up he was in a tub filled with ice. He the noticed there was a tube in his back and his kidneys were gone. The purpose of this source is to entertain a certain audience. I chose this source because it gave me many details in just one paragraph. This source is different because it’s a fiction story. This source reveals that kidney heist is just another fiction horror story.

Works Cited:
 Humes, Lindsey.Magazine spread ideas for the Urban Legend "The Kidney Heist.” Cartoon. N.d. Behance.net. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.

“The National Kidney Foundation Dispels Rumors About Illegally Harvested Kidneys.” Kidney.org.

National Kidney Foundation. 2 Apr. 2000. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. “Sonata for Solo Organ.” Law and Order.Dir. Fred Gerber. NBC. 2 Apr. 2001. Television.

“You’ve Got to Be Kidneying.” Snopes.com.N.p., 12 Mar, 2008. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.

Links for further Research:
Urban Legend
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Urban_legend.html
This web source, from Princeton University, gives you information on how Urban Legends have played a role in shaping into what it is today.

Debunking the Kidney Heist Hoax http://www.transplantliving.org/community/newsroom/1997/02/debunking-the-kidney-heist-hoax/ This web source provides information on the origin of the rumor.
The Washington post ran a story about The Kidney Heist in 1991. A rejected movie script inspired the story written by The Washington Press.

Kidney Heist -- And Other Urban Myths It`s Really The Truth, We Swear It:
Another Urban Legend Is Born.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1991-04-08/features/9101170939_1_story-legend-kidney-heist
This web source provides insight from Jan Brunvand, a folklore professor at the University of Utah.
Brunvand feels the story is an American version of cases where kids in 3rd world countries were kidnapped and killed for their organs.

Ghostly Athens (Athens, Ohio)

by Blake Shephard

In Athens, Ohio there are many different places that make Athens one of the top scariest and haunted places in the world. There are many stories about different things that have happened to people and things people have given Athens, Ohio the name it has to this day.

The Ridges is one of the top places to visit when you are in Athens. This was a old and abounded mental institution. The Ridges staff took in mostly insane patients ordered by court. Later, the place got overcrowded and then the staff ended up treating the patients horribly. There were multiple different ways that the staff took horrible care of the patients. Margaret Schilling went missing. Her remains were later found with a outline of her clothes. Some say her body was decomposed and made a outline. And since then there has been crazy and suspicious activities going on. There is also a graveyard where all the patients that died were buried. This place has been recorded to have been haunted as well.

The truth behind the stain is that Margaret was deaf and that she could not call for any help. They say that her and friend were playing hide-and-go-seek. She has wanted to always just die. She was a long-term patient she was not expected to leave the institution. She went to hide and seen that the attic was open, and she went up there. These doors are usually closed but they were doing maintenance on the building and one of the workers left it open. 1 She closed the door behind her and the door locked. She remained up there till someone me came and her remains left a blood stain in the attic and there are still mysteries about the stain.

The University of Ohio is on the top scariest campus in the world. Wilson Hall  is the most haunted place on the campus. The building lies in the middle of five graveyards that used to be there. Wilson Hall is said to be the home of a ghost that died in 1970. He died in his dorm room, people that have lived in that room years after the death they claim to hear strange noises. The campus officials have shut down and have sealed the university since these reports were given out.

Stine, Alison.  “The Mystery of the Ghostly Stain in the Attic of the Athens Lunatic Asylum .” Pictorial, Pictorial, 7 Mar. 2016, pictorial.jezebel.com/the-mystery-of-the-ghostly-stain-in-the-attic-of-the-at-1762714504.

“HAUNTED ATHENS OHIO.” Haunted Athens Ohio, hauntedathensohio.com/wilson-hall/.

HAUNTED ATHENS: Athens County, Ohio, www.prairieghosts.com/oh-athen.html.

Sedlec Ossuary

by Amanda Fisher

The Sedlec Ossuary is a chapel in a Catholic Church in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic that is called the
Cemetery Church of All Saints. This chapel is very unique in the fact that it is completely decorated in bones. The Ossuary became famous after a monk came from Jerusalem and sprinkled holy soil. As a result, many wealthy people from around Central Europe desired to be buried in this cemetery. After the black plague struck whipped out most of the population, demanding many proper burial sites became important. The bones of the deceased began to overload the graveyard and many people did not know what to do with them. When the church and chapel were built in the 1400s, many of the bones were moved to the chapel beneath the church. After a noble family purchased the
church in 1870, they hired a woodcarver, Frantisek Rint, to create a masterpiece with the extra bones. He then used the 40,000 bones in the chapel to create the masterpiece of the Sedlec Ossuary that still exists to this day and allows visitors to come view.The ossuarie is one of the most visited place in the Czech Republic.

The Church of Bones has many of the dectivorite pieces of art made from the human bones. 4 There is a chandelier located in the center of the church that contains at least one of every bone in the human body (Lawson and Rufus). There are also pyramids of bones located in each corner of the chapel, made of leg bones and skulls, and there is a Schwarzenberg coat of arms that is made of pelvises, finger bones, skulls, and arm bones.

Ossuaries are found all over Europe and are a common practice for both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communities. There are chapels and crypts in churches and monasteries that house the bones of thousands of individuals. Caves, catacombs and underground tunnels also make for ideal ossuaries. Many of the ossuaries display their bones in different ways and the Sedlec ossuary is one of the few that uses the bones are decorations. Many of them vary in their display methods. Most just use singular parts of the body and Sedlec is one of the few to use all the bones. The Beinhaus, Hallstatt, Austria  just displays the skulls as a way to honor the dead. Each skull has a was preserved by decorative paintings and inscriptions.

Works Cited:
Dowson, Thomas. “Ten Peculiar, Poignant & Popular Ossuaries Around Europe.” Archaeology Travel , 30 Aug. 2018.Web.

Dunford, Lisa, Brett Atkinson and Neil Wilson. 2 “Sedlec Ossuary.” Czech & Slovak Republics. Lonely Planet, 1 Apr. 2007. Web.

Lawson, Kristan and Anneli Rufus. “Sedlec.” Weird Europe: A Guide to Bizarre, Macabre, and Just
Plain Weird Sights. 2 Macmillan, 12 Jun. 1999. Web.

Page, Kacey M., "The Significance of Human Remains in Museum Collections: Implications for
Collections Management" (2011). History Theses. Paper 1

Praguetours. “Kutna Hora and Cesky Sternberk with Lenka - Explore the Czech Republic.”
Praguetoursbylenka.com , 28 July 2018, praguetoursbylenka.com/kutna-hora-and-cesky-sternberk/.

Rubin, Gail. “The Difference Between Ossuaries and Columbaria.” A Good Goodbye ~ Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die , 5 Aug. 2015,

“The Cemetery Church of All Saints with the Ossuary.” Kutna Hora Sedlec. 2012.

For further research:

A Walk in the Ossuary in Sedlec
http://wn.com/a_walk_in_the_ossuary_in_sedlec
Contains videos and photos involving the Sedlec Ossuary.

Ten Peculiar, Poignant & Popular Ossuaries Around Europe.
https://archaeology-travel.com/top-ten/10-popular-ossuaries-in-europe/
This article explains what an ossuarie is and the top ten most popular ones across europe.

The Difference Between Ossuaries and Columbaria.
https://agoodgoodbye.com/tools-of-the-trade/the-difference-between-ossuaries-and-columbaria/
This article explains the difference between Ossuaries and Columbrarias.