21 Terrifying Things I Learned This Month May 2025

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29-05-2025

The terrible killing of Margaret Clitherow, who was believed to be pregnant when she was "pressed to death" under heavy stones in 1586 in England. She died after fifteen minutes.
Margaret, who was Catholic, had been arrested for harboring priests and refused to enter a plea to protect her family from testifying. She was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
In 2019, a man died after eating a sample of a fishcake that was so hot it burned his throat. The burn was so bad that it had caused his throat to swell up so much that he choked to death less than 12 hours later.
According to the Independent, "Patrick Waugh, a pathologist who performed a post-mortem examination, said the case was very rare, only seen normally in people who have breathed in smoke in house fires, which burns the airways."
Just this month, a 23-year-old beauty influencer in Mexico, Valeria Márquez, was shot and killed during a TikTok live stream on May 13, 2025. At the time of her death, she had nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram. The incident occurred at her beauty salon, Blossom the Beauty Lounge, where she had been livestreaming her daily activities.
Investigators are exploring several theories regarding the motive behind the murder involving local cartel and personal relationships.
The chilling case of Richard Chase, aka "The Vampire of Sacramento," an American serial killer, cannibal, and necrophile who murdered six people in Sacramento, California, between December 1977 and January 1978. His crimes were notable because he would drink his victims' blood, believing they would "cure" him of a "'condition' in which he believed U.F.O. 'death rays' diminished his blood supply."
Despite his defense arguing that he suffered from mental illness and the attacks weren't pre-meditated, Chase was found guilty of six counts of murder in the first degree in May 1979. The following year, Chase was found dead in his cell at San Quentin on Dec. 26, 1980. He was 30 years old.
In 2017, the decaying foot of a corpse from an adjacent grave landed on top of a man's, Cleveland Butler, casket as it was being lowered into the ground during his funeral. If you feel so inclined, you can see a photo from the incident here.
According to NBC 4 New York, "There was a brief service at the graveside, then Butler's casket was lowered into the ground. At a news briefing Friday, a family representative said a cemetery worker dropped a pack of cigarettes and his phone into Butler's grave, and when he used a rake to haul the items back up, the mourners were stunned: a human foot wrapped in cloth jutted out from the dirt and onto Butler's casket."
The existence of a rat-tailed maggot that looks like something from a horror film (or just a really nasty tampon). Yes, you read that name correctly.
The horrible fact that the shrimp farming industry has a common practice of removing the eyes of female shrimp — by crushing, cutting, burning, or tying them off — in order to stimulate ovarian development and increase egg production, calling it "eyestalk ablation."
This procedure is done because it's based on a theory that the eyestalk produces a hormone that suppresses reproduction.
In February 2016, a woman was found dead in an elevator in Xi'an, China, after being trapped for over a month. The elevator had reportedly malfunctioned and maintenance workers, upon hearing no response from inside, shut off the power and left for the Lunar New Year holiday. They returned in March to find her decomposed body.
Authorities determined that the maintenance crew's failure to properly check for people before shutting down the elevator constituted gross negligence. The incident sparked public outrage and protests from residents, leading to the suspension of the building's property management company and the arrest of two maintenance workers.
Earlier this month, a teenage driver accidentally drove off of a 40-foot cliff, killing her father, who was the passenger. It is believed her father was giving her a driving lesson in a closed supermarket parking lot.
The crash happened in Laguna Beach, California over Memorial Day weekend. According to police, there was "gas pedal, brake pedal confusion," and the teen drove through a fence with the car falling down a 40-foot embankment before flipping and landing on the sidewalk below.
The story of Walburga Oesterreich who, in the early 1900s, kept her lover, Otto Sanhuber (who was just 17), hidden in her attic for years while married to wealthy textile manufacturer Fred Oesterreich. Their affair began in 1913 and carried on in secrecy, with Otto living in the attic and only emerging when Fred was away. In 1922, after a heated argument between Walburga and Fred, Otto came out of hiding and shot Fred dead, staging the scene to resemble a burglary.
Though Walburga was initially suspected, the truth didn't emerge until 1930 when Otto was discovered still living in the attic. He confessed to the murder but was released due to the statute of limitations, and Walburga's trial ended without conviction.
A 2013 survey revealed that more than HALF of pilots have fallen asleep while in charge of a plane. In the same survey, 56% of those who admitted sleeping, 29% said that they had woken up to find the other pilot asleep as well.
Speaking of scary plane-related stories, just last year, a passenger jet carrying 200 people flew for 10 minutes with no pilot after the copilot fainted while alone in the cockpit.
The incident occurred on a flight traveling from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seville, Spain, on Feb. 17, 2024. According to the Associated Press, the copilot fainted after the pilot got up to use the bathroom.
In April, a 4-year-old girl was found inside a Bronx apartment alongside the dead bodies of her mother and 8-year-old brother. They had been discovered after a wellness check. Neighbors reported hearing the child's screams for several days before family members intervened.
Authorities said it's not yet clear how long the mother, who was a wheelchair user, and son, who had autism, had been dead before the discovery. However, the deaths have not been called suspicious.
Custom of the sea, a historically accepted practice of cannibalism, specifically cannibalizing the bodies of the deceased, as a means of survival during shipwrecks and sea disasters when food was scarce.
Historically, if survivors had no access to food, they sometimes would resort to eating corpses. If there were no corpses, then a lottery was conducted to select a victim. This practice was considered legally and morally acceptable among sailors. However, victims were often chosen because of perceived "expandability," meaning young boys, passengers, or enslaved people were often picked.
The discovery of Hedviga Golik, a woman in Croatia who died alone in her apartment sometime in the '70s of unknown causes. Her body remained undiscovered for 35 years until her mummified remains were found in May 2008. Allegedly, Golik's death had gone unnoticed by neighbors and authorities for all that time.
According to Fox News, "Forensics experts said Golik likely died in 1973, about the time a neighbor last saw her. Expert Davor Strinovic said she seemed to have died of natural causes, but 'it's almost impossible to say for certain' after so much time."
Early English settler John Ratcliffe (the villain in Disney's Pocahontas), had a horrific death. In 1609, during a failed negotiation, he was ambushed and then captured by the Powhatan tribe. They proceeded to torture him by skinning him alive with mussel shells and then burned him alive.
This 1950s news clipping from the New York Daily Mirror that asked, "If a Woman Needs It, Should She Be Spanked?" And then had responses by three men ranging from, "Why not?," to "Yes when they deserve it," and "You bet. It teaches them who's boss."
The responses read:Miguel Matos, Brooklyn, counterman: "Why not? If they don't know how to behave by the time they're adults, they should be treated like children and spanked. That ought to make them grow up in a hurry. If it doesn't at first, they'll soon get the idea."Frank Desiderio, Brooklyn, barber: "Yes, when they deserve it. As a barber, I've got a lot of faith in the hairbrush. I think there are certain cases when it is advisable. When it is, there's no reason why you shouldn't go right ahead and do it. I can't knock the idea. In my business, a man sets a lot of store by the results he can get with a hairbrush properly applied."Teddy Gallei, Brooklyn, parking lot attendant: "You bet. It teaches them who's boss. A lot of women tend to forget this is a man's world and a lot of men who stepped down as boss of a family wish they hadn't. Spanking might help get back some of the respect they lost."
Earlier this month, a Mexican Navy's tall ship, Cuauhtémoc, collided with the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, resulting in the deaths of two crew members and injuries to over 20 others.
An investigation as to what caused the accident is still underway, though early reports are saying there had been issues with the ship losing power.
Images from the aftermath of the Apollo 1 tragedy that killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. On Jan. 27, 1967, during a launch rehearsal test, a fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module, burning all three men alive.
According to NBC News, some of the last words spoken from the crew were:"Fire!"One word from Ed White.Then, the unmistakable deep voice of Gus Grissom."I've got a fire in the cockpit!"Instantly afterward, Roger Chaffee's voice."Fire!"Then a garbled transmission, and then the final plea:"Get us out!"Then words known only to God, followed by a scream...
Last month, a man in Riverside County, California, was arrested for murder after a welfare check led to the discovery of human remains in his backyard. The suspect, John Cruthirds, was later arrested without incident and booked for murder.
The victim was later identified as a 70-year-old family member, Debra Cruthirds. John Cruthirds is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail.
Finally, in recently released footage, you can see Wendy Rush (widow of Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate), actually say, "What was that bang?" while monitoring the Titan submersible's descent, not knowing it was the submersible, with her husband inside, imploding. You can see the video here: