Do you ever stumble upon a fact so eerie it sends shivers down your spine? The world is full of unsettling truths that are stranger—and creepier—than fiction. In this third installment, we dive into 40 more spine-chilling facts that will make you question reality and maybe even keep you awake tonight.
From bizarre historical events to unsettling scientific discoveries, these facts are as fascinating as they are disturbing. Ready to explore the darker side of knowledge? Let’s begin.
Missed the earlier parts? Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2.
1 Intestines Reposition Themselves Naturally
During abdominal surgery, if the surgeon needs to move your intestines, they don’t put them back exactly as they were. Instead, they place them back loosely, allowing them to reposition themselves naturally. Some people even report feeling their intestines wriggling back into place.
2 Chainsaw’s Surgical Origins Revealed
The prototype of the modern chainsaw, commonly used in the timber industry, was originally developed in the late 18th century by two Scottish doctors as a surgical tool to assist with difficult childbirth.
3 Worms Emerge During Surgery
Ascaris worms are large, parasitic roundworms that inhabit the human digestive tract and are common in many parts of the world. When patients infected with these worms undergo surgery, the anesthesia can cause their blood to become slightly alkaline, which repels the worms. As a result, the worms may attempt to escape by emerging from bodily orifices, including the nose, mouth, and rectum. These worms resemble earthworms in size and appearance. Treatment typically involves administering a drug called Bendazole, after which the patient expels the dead worms over several days.
4 Hidden Brain Malformations Risk
Some people unknowingly live with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a tangle of abnormal blood vessels in the brain. This condition often remains undetected unless revealed through a CT or MRI scan. An AVM can rupture without warning, leading to sudden death, brain damage, paralysis, or other severe complications.
5 Pigs Consume Everything
Pigs are known for their omnivorous diet and will consume nearly anything, including human remains. In rare and unsettling instances, individuals have gone missing on farms, and there is evidence that suggests that pigs can fully consume a human body-including bones-if left alone with it long enough.
6 Eye Worms
Loa loa, commonly known as the African Eye Worm, is a parasitic worm that can invade the human eye. Adult worms typically grow between 1 and 2.5 inches in length, and in severe cases, they can be visibly seen moving beneath the surface of the eye.
7 Eva Perón’s Disturbing Legacy
Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine President Juan Perón, died of cervical cancer at the age of 33. Disturbingly, Perón never informed her of her illness. Perón kept her embalmed body in his residence after her death, even placing it at the breakfast table. Ironically, Perón’s first wife also died of cervical cancer at the age of 28. Medical experts suspect that Perón unknowingly transmitted the HPV virus to both women.
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8 CPR Mannequin’s Tragic Origin
The “Woman of the Seine” refers to an unidentified young woman whose body was recovered from the Seine River in Paris during the late 19th century. Captivated by her serene beauty, a morgue pathologist created a plaster death mask of her face. This mask later became the model for the Resusci Anne CPR mannequin, making her face one of the most kissed in history.
9 Man Lived with Lover’s Corpse
Carl Tanzler, a radiology technician in Key West, developed an obsessive attachment to Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, a tuberculosis patient. After her death in 1931, Tanzler exhumed her body, preserved it with embalming techniques, and lived with the corpse for seven years. He stuffed the decaying body with cotton wool to maintain its form. Authorities questioned Tanzler about his relationship with the corpse after discovering her remains. Despite his denial of any inappropriate behavior, the cotton wool in the pelvic area revealed unsettling evidence.
10 Grizzly Man’s Final Recording
In Colorado, a private bank lockbox holds the last known recording of conservationist Timothy “Grizzly Man” Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard. The couple was fatally attacked and consumed by a bear, known as Bear 141 or “Ollie,” in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. The audio recording of their final moments has only been heard by park rangers, forensic specialists, and filmmaker Werner Herzog, who directed the documentary Grizzly Man. Herzog arranged for the recording to be securely locked away, ensuring it would never be released to the public.
RE: Fact #21 (Living Without Visual Imagination) – Since we can’t get inside each other’s heads, how can we be sure this isn’t like that whole “no inner monologue” debate? How do we even know two people experience this the same way?
RE: Fact #21 (Living Without Visual Imagination) – Turning 40 and finally getting it has really helped me understand why people are into guided meditation and stuff. I used to think they were all just blindly following along.
RE: Fact #27 (Iceland’s Necropants Wealth Ritual) – People were way creative when they didn’t have social media to distract them huh?
I’d love to check out that Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants version.
Seriously, how did they come up with this crap?
Did some killer wear their victim’s skin and need a reason why?
Those pants are almost certainly a myth. They were probably invented in ’87 to get people interested in that Icelandic witchcraft museum. The “steal from a poor widow” bit really seals it for me—it’s obviously a hoax.
RE: Fact #30 (Cockroaches Burrow into Ears) – The sound it would make. OMG
Why’d I even read this fact.
Yep, happened to me once. I grabbed some tweezers, eased them in to open my ear a bit, and the thing crawled right out.
RE: Fact #25 (Outlaw’s Body Mistaken as Prop) – Elmer McCurdy was a nobody outlaw in the Old West. His body, all preserved and stuff, ended up in a traveling carnival. Years later, people thought he was a dummy until he showed up on the set of *The Six Million Dollar Man*. During filming, his arm fell off, showing he was actually a real dead guy, not a fake.
RE: Fact #36 (Cannibalism in Soviet Gulags) – There are some really wild stories about Gulags during the Stalin era.
Back in the 1700s, sailors traveling between London and Shanghai did the same.
RE: Fact #4 (Hidden Brain Malformations Risk) – Some people are born with an AVM – and never know it’s there until a scan shows it. Then, boom, it can burst out of nowhere. No warning whatsoever.
My 22-year-old niece had this happen yesterday. She’s in a coma now. It’s just awful.
My dad passed away last year. It was tough, we wish we’d known earlier. He was in a coma for a bit, then his body just couldn’t take it anymore after the AVM burst. At least he’s not in pain now.
Turns out it could be genetic, so my brothers and sisters and I are getting checked out.
And, AVMs can mess with your personality, affecting decisions and behavior. Dad was different in his later years, and his death explained a lot.
My friend was driving and suddenly had no clue who he was or where he was going, so he pulled over and called for help. Luckily, a big hospital did brain surgery and fixed him right up.
RE: Fact #31 (Fake Pilot Licenses Exposed) – That’s just a whole another level of corruption! Putting so many people at risk and they’ve just gotten permission to fly again to Europe again last year I think. I hope the EU did a thorough investigation.
RE: Fact #12 (Tarrare’s Dark Eating Habits) – My little cousin has the same thing.
When my mom first told me, I kinda laughed – a chubby kid always wanting food, right? But it’s actually awful. My aunt has to lock up all the food and keep a close eye on everything. They couldn’t even have a pet dog because he’d steal and eat the dog food! It’s heartbreaking telling him he can’t eat when he’s truly hungry and crying, saying he’s starving. He really *feels* starved, even if he isn’t.
It’s just a nightmare, honestly. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I was scared you’d say he tried to eat the dog.
RE: Fact #5 (Pigs Consume Everything) – Nah, I’m good, thanks.
RE: Fact #2 (Chainsaw’s Surgical Origins Revealed) – Two Scottish doctors, John Aitken and James Jeffray, invented a early version of the chainsaw we use today. They used it for different medical procedures in the late 1700s—one for cutting through a woman’s hip bones during childbirth, and the other for removing diseased bone.
Wow, is that ever going to get better?
RE: Fact #9 (Man Lived with Lover’s Corpse) – Looking at the body later, it was clear how far he’d gone. They found a tube in her vagina – used to make it easier. Wow. Let’s just forget that happened.
RE: Fact #34 (Dentures from Fallen Soldiers) – Coming home to a ten-pound sack of teeth after a long workday? Ouch.
RE: Fact #2 (Chainsaw’s Surgical Origins Revealed) – The past was awesome.
The doctor said it was bad, the baby might not make it, and neither might she if we don’t act fast.
The nurse was told to keep burning Mr. Smith with cigarettes for his migraines while the doctor rushed off to another emergency, needing a chainsaw and his gimp outfit in Delivery Room B.
RE: Fact #12 (Tarrare’s Dark Eating Habits) – Maybe the wendigo was just someone with Prader-Willi syndrome. Back when food wasn’t so plentiful, wouldn’t someone with that condition have turned to cannibalism to fill an endless hunger? If they were kicked out of their tribe for breaking a rule, wouldn’t they get skinny and eat raw animals or anything they could find? Imagine: dirty, pale, alone, just constantly hungry, every action driven by that need. Makes you think, huh?
RE: Fact #26 (Mystery of Salish Sea Feet) – Why just legs though?
RE: Fact #37 (Chernobyl’s Lingering Radioactive Threat) – So a ticking timebomb huh?
RE: Fact #13 (Cordyceps Fungus Controls Insects) – Hey! Larry’s doing a handstand! Check it out, everyone! Larry, what’s with the handstand?
“I dunno, it just feels good,”
RE: Fact #5 (Pigs Consume Everything) –
RE: Fact #7 (Eva Perón’s Disturbing Legacy) – That’s not it Argentina’s president and his third wife kept her body at their breakfast table.
Wow, there’s a lot more to this story! After Peron died, her funeral was crazy—eight people died in the crush, and tons more were hurt. They originally planned a huge mausoleum for her, something like the Taj Mahal. While they built it, Peron kept her body at home, even at the dinner table! Later, they moved her to her old office. Then, a coup sent Peron running, and he couldn’t take her with him. Her body was in storage for ages, and this guard even started “talking” to her and having meals with her! Finally, she turned up in Italy, staying there for years until a terrorist group swapped her for another Argentinian dictator.
Evita really missed a lot of stuff. And if my hubby didn’t bury me right away, stuck me in storage, and let some creep get friendly with my body, he’d be facing a haunting so intense, South America would shake in its boots.
Seriously, it’s way worse than that. They kept his first wife’s embalmed body on their dining room table for nineteen years after she died.
RE: Fact #39 (Reality as Brain’s Simulation) – There’s no way to prove anything exists beyond your own mind, and never will be. All you have is your own simulation, and it even pauses every 12 hours or so. And this simulation is completely personal, you’re never in the same universe as anyone else. We’re all stuck in our own little simulated worlds, all alone.
We are the universe experiencing itself.
RE: Fact #21 (Living Without Visual Imagination) – It’s annoying not knowing if I have aphantasia. I’m not even sure what “imagining” something actually means. People say, “Imagine an apple,” but I can draw one without looking at a real one. It’s not like I *see* it in my head, though – I just know what it looks like, and that’s how I draw it. It feels more like thinking about an apple’s description than seeing a picture. Is there a way to figure out if it’s aphantasia or just how my brain works? And if it’s just my brain, can I change it to visualize better?
RE: Fact #17 (The Call of the Void) – Being able to consider an idea without believing it is a sign of a smart person.
RE: Fact #6 (Eye Worms) – They grow to be between 1 and 2.5 inches long. WTF
RE: Fact #17 (The Call of the Void) – It’s a relief to know I’m not alone in feeling this way; it’s pretty scary to feel like this for no apparent reason.
RE: Fact #27 (Iceland’s Necropants Wealth Ritual) – Honestly, the museum charges admission, so if people go, those pants are bringing in some cash.
RE: Fact #21 (Living Without Visual Imagination) – It’s weird to think about not being able to imagine things.