What makes a human body burst into flames? Victims leave behind nothing but a pile of ashes and questions. From dark magic and holy fire to unbelievable coincidences, the answers are surprising.

Patience Worth hit America’s literary scene hard in the early 20th century. She was a celebrated poet, novelist, and a charming conversationalist. But she was far from your typical literary celebrity: Patience was a ghost.  

In 1928, a Pennsylvania faith healer was accused of placing a hex on multiple people in York county, leading to his brutal murder. But the events that followed his death convinced people he was actually practicing black magic. 

In 1994, an entire playground full of school children in Zimbabwe claimed they saw a UFO hovering overhead. When experts tried to debunk their claims, they found little evidence to prove the kids weren't telling the truth. 

In 1838, a strange villain began stalking the London suburbs. For the next 70 years, Spring-Heeled Jack — a fire-breathing, metal-clawed monster — terrorized the city. 

The Illuminati was an 18th-century secret society that supposedly ended just a decade after it began. But conspiracy theorists argue that it never really went away — it just went deeper underground, where it could slowly achieve world domination with no one the wiser. 

In a 12th-century English village, farmers discovered two young children wandering alone in the woods. The kids’ unrecognizable clothing and language, along with their startling green complexions, led many to wonder if the people of Woolpit had a genuine encounter with fairies…

In the 14th century, an ordinary bookseller named Nicolas Flamel may have unlocked the secrets of immortality, and learned to turn ordinary metals into gold — all thanks to a mysterious object known as the philosopher's stone.

In 1967, Stefan Michalak went to Falcon Lake for a weekend prospecting trip, where he encountered what has become the best-documented UFO in Canadian history. 

Celebrated author Barbara Newhall Follett went missing in December 1939. She's never been seen or heard from again. Is the key to solving her mysterious disappearance in the books she left behind?

In 1966, an avalanche struck a school in Wales, killing more than 100 children. Afterwards, dozens of people claimed to have "seen" the disaster in dreams and visions before it happened — inspiring one psychiatrist to start Britain's first Premonitions Bureau. 

When his two daughters died in a tragic accident, John Pollock prayed for a miracle that would bring them back. Less than a year later, his wife gave birth to twins who defied the odds of genetics. The only clear explanation? Reincarnation.

Toni Bosco dreamed something terrible would happen to her son. In August 1993, it came true — John and his wife Nancy were murdered. But the most unsettling part wasn’t the premonitory dream she had. It was the nightmares the culprit was having.  

In 1925, an explorer led an expedition into the Amazon rainforest and was never seen again. Officials ruled that Percy Fawcett died. But many believe he discovered the lost city of “Z” and a portal to another dimension.

In the 1970s and '80s, a top-secret research program supposedly took place on the northernmost tip of Long Island. With reports of kidnappings, weather control, time travel and more, it may just be the Holy Grail of government conspiracy theories… 

In 1632, the Devil came to Loudun, France. For nearly five years, dozens of priests performed hundreds of public exorcisms on a convent of nuns who claimed they were possessed by demons. The nuns accused a parish priest, Urbain Grandier, of making a deal with the Devil.

Over fifty years ago, the body of a woman was found burned to death in Norway’s “Ice Valley.” Her identity has never been confirmed, despite her leaving behind a trail of aliases, eyewitness accounts, and even a coded travel ledger. 

In the summer of 1958, a strange creature terrorized construction crews in rural California. Since then, Bigfoot true-believers have collected a wealth of information on the strange ape-like being — including a minute of undoctored footage of a female Sasquatch in the wild. 

After UFO sightings exploded in New Hampshire in 1965, everyone from local police to Air Force officials to the Pentagon began investigating. But no one could conclude what exactly residents had seen — until, perhaps, now.

In 1828, a town in Germany received a strange visitor: a teenage boy who claimed he had been imprisoned his whole life. His mysterious murder just a few years later made his true identity more elusive — and engrossing — than ever. 

In 1892, Lena Brown died at just 19 years old, joining her mother and sister in an early grave. Then her brother, Eddie, got sick too. The working theory? His health was being syphoned by a vampire. When townspeople exhumed Lena’s body, their theory started looking a lot more plausible… 

The gruesome 1945 pitchfork murder of an elderly townsman brought Scotland Yard’s best detective into one of the most superstitious villages in England.  

Most people recognize Men in Black from the movie franchise, but this mysterious organization originated as a real-life alien conspiracy theory. It began in 1947: After Harold Dahl saw UFOs over the Puget Sound, he was visited by a suited agent with an uncanny warning… 

It’s the most famous UFO event in U.S. history: In July 1947, a rancher named Mac Brazel found strange debris scattered across one of his fields. Local military officials told him it came from a weather balloon… But many believe the object didn’t come from Earth at all.  

In the spring of 1922, a man named Paul Amadeus Dienach fell into a coma. He eventually woke up — in the year 3906, in another man's body.  

One summer day in 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea started dancing. She didn't stop. Her dancing compulsion was contagious, and spread to hundreds of people before it turned deadly.

A mysterious woman in a headscarf was seen filming the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. For years, she remained nameless — until one day, she stepped forward with a story no one saw coming.  

A young woman in Greenbrier, West Virginia died mysteriously in 1897. Weeks later, she returned from the dead to identify the man who murdered her. 

In 1590, an English colony on Roanoke Island disappeared without a trace. The only clue was a message carved on a fence post. While some think the settlers integrated with a local tribe, multiple leads suggest otherwise.

Hooves, wings and high-pitched screams… The Jersey Devil has reportedly been seen thousands of times, lurking in and around a forest called the Pine Barrens. How much of its existence is rumor, and how much is reality? 

In November 1929, a woman named Netta Fornario was found dead on the mystical island of Iona, Scotland. She was naked except for a black cloak with insignia, suggesting perhaps something occult was responsible for her death.

On October 21, 1978, amateur pilot Frederick Valentich took off for a quick nighttime flight off Australia's southern shore. He was never seen again. But right before he disappeared, he radioed ground control to report he was being stalked by a UFO.

Can the dead actually curse the living? After the 1922 unearthing of an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, a mysterious string of misfortunes plagued the archaeologists who discovered it—and it’s not the first time a cursed mummy has wreaked havoc.  

In the early 1900s, Eleanor Jourdain and Charlotte Moberly visited the Palace of Versailles. The two academics were hoping for a pleasant trip. Instead, they found themselves transported over a century into the past where they saw the long-dead Queen of France, Marie Antoinette.

In the 1950s, Morris K. Jessup received a letter from a stranger. The man claimed to have intel on an ultra-classified wartime Naval experiment involving teleportation, human test subjects, and disastrous results that the government would do anything to cover up. 

When Terry and Gwen Sherman bought their dream ranch in Utah, they never suspected they were entering a hotspot of paranormal activity: glowing orbs, hovering aircraft, mutilated cows… A team of researchers was finally called in to investigate—and two scientists witnessed perhaps the most terrifying phenomenon of all. 

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 seemed to vanish into thin air. Less than an hour after takeoff, the plane disappeared from radar—and though seven countries launched a search and rescue operation, the 227 passengers on board were never heard from again.  

In 1991, singer-songwriter Pam Reynolds underwent a daring operation to remove a life-threatening aneurysm. Afterwards, Pam was able to describe the entire procedure in detail… even though she was clinically dead throughout. 

In February 1981, a man named Cheyenne Johnson stabbed his girlfriend’s boss to death. His defense? He’d been possessed. It turns out, he might’ve actually caught a demon from his girlfriend’s brother the summer before, when the young boy allegedly had forty-three demonic spirits inside him.

In the early 1900s, a strange peasant from Siberia charmed Russia’s royal family. Grigori Rasputin gained entry into the Romanovs’ inner circle using his reputation as a healer and prophet—but not everyone was brought under his spell. 

A young man went missing for five days in 1975, and when he returned claimed he’d been abducted by aliens. There to witness it? His six lumberjack coworkers, who reported it to the police the night he went missing. 

He only wanted to use the Ouija board to contact his Aunt Helen… He didn’t mean to summon anything evil. And yet, Roland Doe became the most thoroughly documented case of demonic possession in American history, inspiring the 1973 movie The Exorcist. 

On December 4th, 1872, the Mary Celeste was found drifting in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was fully stocked with food and drinking water, and its cargo still intact—but the crew was nowhere to be found. What had happened to the so-called “Ghost Ship”? And what if the answer came from the ship itself?

In small-town Georgia, there’s a strange monument with bizarre instructions for reordering society. The whole town knows how it got there, but nobody knows why—or just how dark a secret it may be hiding.

In 1953, Army scientist Frank Olson jumped out of a hotel window in New York City. His death was ruled a suicide, but two decades later, word of a top-secret CIA program cast new light on the case. The program’s purpose? Assess the use of LSD… for mind control. 

From 1764 to 1767, a strange creature terrorized a mountainous French region called the Gévaudan. But though myths and stories surrounding the “Beast” are still around to this day, nobody knows what exactly was roaming through the area… 

In September of 1890, inventor Louis Le Prince got on a train in Dijon, France, on his way to present his latest invention to the world… But no one saw him get off, and he was never heard from again.

On the last day of 1992, Debra and Tony Pickman moved into a rented house in Atchison, Kansas. A few months later, they began to notice flickering lights, cold spots, and items moving by themselves. They learned the house was haunted by the ghost of a little girl named Sallie. But as the haunting grew more extreme, they began to wonder if there was something else lurking in the home.