After the invention of photography in the mid-1800s and continuing through to today, the chronicles of modern history are brimming with genuinely scary photographs that are more horrifying than what’s seen in even the most unsettling horror films.
The most terrifying images captured span a wide array, from formidable animals encountered in the wild to the final moments of victims in natural disasters.
Lina Medina of Peru became the youngest confirmed mother in history at age 5 in 1939.Ted Bundy doing dishes after a birthday partyGerman war criminals laugh at a translation mistake during the Nuremberg Trials, 1945.An Australian Tarantula Hawk Wasp dragging off a huntsman spider to lay her egg on its paralyzed body. When the egg hatches, the larva consumes the paralyzed spider from the inside out, leaving the vital organs until last to keep their paralyzed meal alive as long as possible.Christmas Day 1981. Seen in this photo is Kerri Rawson and her father Dennis Rader, better known to the world as BTKIn 1992, 24-year-old Christopher McCandless was found by moose hunters inside Fairbanks Bus 142, the “Magic Bus,” on Alaska’s Stampede Trail. He had survived alone for 113 days on plants and small animals. When discovered, he weighed only 67 pounds.There was a disease that left people awake but unable to move or speak. Many were trapped inside their own bodies, and it vanished without anyone ever understanding why.Dennis Rader (BTK) walks his daughter down the aisle at her wedding in 2003Genie Wiley, The “Feral Child” In 1931, two psychologists, Winthrop and Luella Kellogg, began an experiment to see if a chimpanzee could learn human behavior by raising it with their own baby. The idea was to see if the chimp, named Gua, would learn to walk upright, speak, and engage in other human-like activities.A massive earthworm found in Queensland, Australia.A microscopic image of a tapeworm’s head.This haunting picture is of a dog named Laika. In 1957, she was launched into space by a Russian-led team that had no plans for her to ever return. Sadly, she was chosen because of her friendly and docile demeanor.1800s family photoIn 2009, seventeen-year-old Brittanee Drexel slipped out for a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach after a fight at home. She left a friend’s hotel to walk back alone and disappeared halfway along the route. Her phone pinged hours later in a remote marsh. She vanished without a trace. “Charlie No-Face”Fungi that feeds on radiation are growing on the walls of Chernobyl’s ruined nuclear reactorLon Chaney as a clown, 1928.A New Jersey doctor disappeared the day before 9/11. Her husband says she vanished in the attacks.Two inmates in separate cells managed to conceive a child without ever meeting. They passed semen through the air vents using a makeshift line made of bedding, and the woman used a yeast infection applicator to inseminate herself. Against all odds, it worked, and the baby was born healthyThe tools of Ted Bundy Jail cell used during the Salem Witch TrialsThis composite shows Andrew Gosden’s last CCTV frame alongside an age-progressed image. The 14-year-old, known for his quiet intelligence, bought a one-way ticket to London in 2007, stepped into King’s Cross Station, and disappeared from view.The start of the 2004 Indian Ocean TsunamiSusan Atkins was photographed after she reneged on her grand jury testimony to rejoin Manson, completely blowing off a lesser sentence.The last moments off a man who jumped in a tiger enclosure, 2014. Ted Bundy in a police lineup, Murray, Utah.The nuclear shadows of Hiroshima In 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished on his way to the bus stop in New York City. He became the first missing child to appear on a milk carton. An early version of Ronald McDonald19-year-old Jason Jolkowski disappeared without a trace during a half-mile walk to the local high school on June 13, 2001. The investigation into his disappearance failed to turn up even a shred of evidence as to what had happened to him.Tammy Lynn Leppert, the actress who distracts Manny in Scarface, vanished at 18 soon after filming and was never found.Vintage Halloween CostumeIn 1984, a cult carried out the largest biological attack in U.S. history by spreading salmonella on food and doorknobs in a town in Oregon. The goal was to make people too sick to vote so the cult could win a local election and take control of the town.John Wayne Gacy as a childJohn Lennon pictured with Mark David Chapman, the man who took his life. On May 30, 2005, 18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba after leaving a nightclub with three men. This photo shows her at the bar that night, in blue on the left, just hours before she vanished. She never made her flight home, and her body was never found.The last moments of Keith SapsfordOmayra Sanchez trapped after an earethquake.The Hilo Tsunami, 1946 Absolutely terrifying shot of a Great White deep in the black depths.On July 25th, 1981, 14-year-old Stacy Arras vanished after horseback riding in Yosemite National Park with her father and several others. The only trace of her ever found was the lens cap from her camera.The Amityville Horror HouseShell-shocked soldier during WWI.Ted Bundy in various family photos.This basin of cave water dripping from the ceiling in the catacombs.Disney cruise worker Rebecca Coriam was last seen on CCTV in 2011, pacing on a phone call in distress. Hours later, she was gone without a trace.Unsettling vintage Halloween costumeMount Sakurajima erupts in 1914. In 1910, 25-year-old socialite and heiress Dorothy Arnold vanished while walking down Fifth Avenue in broad daylight. Her family never contacted police. No trace was ever found. It remains one of the oldest missing persons cases in America.Ted Bundy’s yearbook photo from 1965The last photo taken by Daylenn Pua before he disappeared. A selfie from James HolmesOn August 2, 1989, the Jack Family of Prince George, BC all vanished under mysterious circumstances. Ronald Jack, his wife Doreen, and their two young sons were last seen in a red pickup truck, being driven by a stranger up Canada’s infamous Highway 16, better known as “The Highway of Tears”.The last photo before The Dyatlov Pass Incident Ted Bundy playing with his ex-girlfriend’s daughter.Knife thrower and child in 1940sA Mickey Mouse gas mask for American Children during WWII, 1942. Max Schreck relaxes behind the scenes of Nosferatu, 1922Leon County Sheriff Reading the Chi Omega Sorority indictment to Ted Bundy.Russian soldiers wear creepy costumes during an impromptu performance during a lull in the fighting during WWI. A United States soldier holds up a jungle centipede during the Vietnam war, 1967Halloween during the 1930sJohn Wayne Gacy wears his Pogo the Clown outfit.Signed photo of First Lady Rosalynn Carter and John Wayne Gacy in 1978. The Brazilian shrub fruit of Guarana looks like it has eyes.Photo of Jeffrey Dahmer at high school with a fellow student.The terrifying “Yeti Crab”Terrifying Halloween costumeBTK takes a photo with his daughter. Mark Jackson basketball card featuring the Menendez BrothersMannequins in a Nevada “doom town.”The remains of a kindergarten classroom after the Chernobyl disaster (1986) Passengers boarding a British Airship for its last voyage. Extreme close-up of a Wolf Spider. Photo credits: John-Oliver Dum Jeffrey Dahmer with his father and younger brother.A Doll With Two Faces, 1920
Ted Bundy laughs in court.Tunnels dug by Giant Sloths thousands of years ago.Massive sinkhole in TurkeyJeffrey Dahmer passed out drunk.Photograph of Ted Bundy having fun with kids in his neighborhood.A female Omothymus spider in Malaysia.Dennis Rader (BTK) doing the hokey pokey at a wedding.An aye-aye, the world’s largest nocturnal primate. A black widow spiderThe Mask is worn by Dennis Rader (BTK) when carrying out his attacks.A terrifying costume.A photo of clowns found at an abandoned old folks home.The most recent mugshot of Ed Kemper.Cow mutationThe note found in Chris McCandless’ truckThe shoes John Wayne Gacy wore when he dressed up as “Pogo the Clown”.Two prison guards posing for a photo with Ed Kemper, who was 6’9 and 300 lbs. The Sinking of Amoco Cadiz in Brittany, 1978Dennis Rader (BTK) with his daughter in 1993.Jeffrey Dahmer’s prom date.The victims of John Wayne Gacy being laid to rest.A drawing of Ed Gein done by John Wayne Gacy.Edmund Kemper laughs as the detective who arrested him struggles to unlock his handcuffs.A very young Jeffrey Dahmer with his pet dog.A sketch of Richard Ramirez by Mona Edwards. Mona said “He was pure evil. His eyes pierced me and my blood ran cold”This is a 1970s lineup photo of Ted Bundy. Bundy is second from the right.Ed Gein at the Mendota Mental Hospital in 1984.BTK fishing with his daughter. Mugshot of Carl PanzramThe home of HH HolmesBTK decorates a Christmas tree with his daughter.Police excavate the backyard of Gary RidgewayEd Gein being led away from his home after his arrestThe exterior of the apartment building where Jeffrey Dahmer lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Members of the Manson family at Spahn Ranch.Richard Ramirez in court.Moth infected with Cordyceps fungus.One reason not to use flash in a cave.Items found in Ted Bundy’s Volkswagen, Utah, 197 Ted Bundy’s Volkswagon Beetle.Abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant control room.Agent Orange sufferer Tran Minh Anhborn, patient at the Peace Village in the Tu Du (Freedom) Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (14/10/1994)A son poses with his kamikaze pilot father in Japan in 1944. When it gets cold enough, daddy long-legs will huddle together in the thousands to create warmth.U.S. Trench Raider, World War 1The Australian Huntsman SpiderBeregama aurea (golden huntsman). The biggest huntsman spider in Australia.On June 12, 2009, a man checked into a hotel in Ireland under the name “Peter Bergman” from Austria. The man left the hotel 13 times over the next three days while disposing of some of his belongings. On 16, his body was found on the nearby beach. Turned out the man “Peter Bergmann” never existed.Joshua Maddox’s mummified remains were found in a fetal position inside a Colorado cabin chimney seven years after he vanished. Police ruled it an accident.Every Year powerful men, including former presidents, go to a Redwood Forest and burn an effigy in front of a Giant Stone Owl.In 2011, 20-year-old Lauren Spierer drank heavily, lost her phone and shoes, and moved between multiple apartments with different men near Indiana University. She texted her boyfriend and walked away alone before dawn in a busy college town. She was never seen again.
This is one of the last known photographs of Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz, Portugal, taken shortly before she disappeared on May 3, 2007. The 3-year-old vanished from apartment 5A while her parents ate about 55 meters away, and in a very short window between checks, they found her gone from bed.Scars after a lightning strike
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