Scary Mysteries That Left Historians Baffled

Beneath the veneer of everyday life, the world is full of scary mysteries. In fact, bizarre events and sightings are commonplace everywhere from Main Street to remote Turkish mountains if you know where to look. Many of these scary mysteries remain unsolved even though sleuths and debunkers devote their lives to trying to get to the truth. Take a look at six scary mysteries that have left historians baffled.

6. The Kentucky Meat Shower Mystery

We’ve all experienced downpours heavy enough to have us proclaim that it’s raining “cats and dogs” out there. Nature took things one step further in a small community in Kentucky where it rained beef, lamb, deer, bear, horse and other unidentified meats one strange day. It is documented that the sky rained meat in a little settlement called Rankin in Bath County, Kentucky. It occured during a period lasting one hour between 11am and 12 pm on 3 March 1876.

Very little about this bizarre event has actually been settled in the decades since it happened. However, it was recorded that chunks of red meat measuring in at about two inches by two inches fell from the sky in a square area covering about 100 yards by 50 yards. These weren’t neat, cubed chunks of meat like you might find in the grocery store. Residents sitting on their porches observing the downpour reported that the meat looked grizzly.

People at the scene were able to identify a wide variety of meats. They ranged from your everyday beef to bear flesh. Bits of meat were sent to Newark Scientific Association for further review. This revealed that there was a high possibility at least some of the meat was human in origin.

What caused meat to pour down on this town 150 years ago? We may never know. The most popular theory blames birds. Locals who witnessed the event largely believed that buzzards or vultures had vomited up large heaps of meat after embarking on a feeding frenzy. Of course, some locals saw the carnage drizzling from the sky like a cruel storm as a warning sign from God. What happened in Kentucky will likely remain one of the weirdest unsolved scary mysteries of all time!

5. Scary Mysteries: The Smurl Haunting

This next creepy story was the subject of a book and accompanying 90’s film called “The Haunted”. It all started when a couple named Jack and Janet Smurl moved into their home on Chase Street in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, in 1986.

Before long they were disturbed by what they described as demonic activity. It’s been alleged that the aggressive being in the Smurl’s home battered their dog against a wall, shook their mattress, dragged Jack Smurl out of bed and pushed one of the couple’s children down a flight of stairs. It’s also said that the dark, otherworldly being also physically and sexually assaulted members of the household.

Famed paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were brought in to examine the residence and determined the home was occupied by a powerful demon. It was after the intervention of Reverend Joseph Adonizio of Immaculate Conception Parish in West Pittston that they finally got relief. The couple claimed the activity quieted down, however the occasional knocking sound or lurking shadow could still be observed.

The Smurls eventually moved on from their infamous home just a few years later. The next family to move in shared that nothing strange at all could be observed. Questions have always lingered regarding what the Smurls really experienced inside their supposed haunted house.

Professor Paul Kurtz of State University of New York at Buffalo was a vocal skeptic regarding the case. Kurtz and many others pushed the theory that the Smurls were experiencing a psychological event instead of a supernatural one.

One interesting plot twist is that Jack Smurl told a newspaper reporter he underwent surgery to remove water from his brain in the early 1980s. This was after experiencing short-term memory loss stemming from meningitis in his youth. Could the famous Smurl haunting have been nothing more than hallucinations that got out of hand?

4. Scary Mysteries: Clinton Road

Is Clinton Road in West Milford, New Jersey, the most haunted road in America? This 10-mile stretch of undeveloped, woodsy terrain is reported to be a highway of unsavory activities. In fact, it is the subject of at least a dozen strands of folklore.

Legend says that Clinton Road has been a gathering spot for everyone from witches to the Ku Klux Klan. Adding to the unsavory history of the road are rumors that professional killers take advantage of the area’s remote, secluded, and unmaintained terrain to dump bodies. This was partly confirmed by the discovery of a dead body in May 1983.

It’s hard to know where to begin when talking about all the spooky accounts of Clinton Road. The most famous is an area called “ghost boy bridge”. There have been sightings of a young child who supposedly drowned in the reservoir just off Clinton Road.

Other commuters have allegedly seen a “ghost” Camaro driven by a girl who perished in an accident on the road in the 1980s. It’s also common for people to report seeing oddly dressed people who simply appear and disappear into the shadows. People also claim to see a variety of supernatural or out-of-place creatures ranging from hell hounds to monkeys hobbling along the overgrown borders.

Adding to the strangeness of Clinton Road are a collection of odd structures. The list includes a druid temple and crumbling castle ruins dating back to the 1800s and 1900s. People who cross Clinton Road or hike in surrounding woods report odd occurrences that range from seeing phantom headlights to experiencing mysterious bruises on their bodies.

The bottom line? It’s probably best to reroute your path if your travels will bring you to this hot spot for nefarious activity.

3. The Mannequins at the John Lawson House

Were life-sized mannequins on the porch of a house on Main Street in a sleepy New York town trying to convey messages from the beyond?

Believed to be the oldest house in New Hamburg’s historic downtown, 9A Main Street hosted bizarre, eerie mannequins. These mannequins changed clothes and positions regularly between 2005 and 2017. Little is known about who lived in the home during this time. However, the history of the property is well known.

On a cold night in February 1871, a 25-car freight train on the Hudson line derailed about 200 feet from the John Lawson House. It then erupted into a fiery ball that claimed the lives of 22 people. More tragedy enveloped the property just a few years later. A fire took out nearly all the properties surrounding the John Lawson House.

This is where the theory of the origin of the mannequins becomes interesting. Many people believe that the mannequins are inhabited by the souls of those who perished in the fiery incidents. Many astute observers have noticed that the mannequins always seem to be staring toward the site of either the train derailment or the origination point of the fire that followed. Of course, many dismiss the mannequin mystery as nothing more than a creative hobby of a homeowner. Perhaps taking advantage of a scenic porch that’s visible from the town’s busiest road.

Adding to the confusion is that the John Lawson House has been sold and listed on the market several times within the last decade. This means that successive owners of the house would have had to been in on the mannequin mystery.

Unfortunately for anyone looking to scout out the home, mannequin activity stopped after it was sold to its current owner in 2017.

2. Demon Cat Prowling the Nation’s Capital

This next item on the list of unexplained scary mysteries makes a strong case for dog lovers.

For hundreds of years, residents of Washington have been spotting a ghost cat haunting government buildings in the nation’s capital. This devilish cat supposedly lives in the basement crypt of the Capitol Building when it’s not busy prowling. In addition to being creepy, the ghost cat of Washington may also be a bad omen.

The feline was supposedly spotted by security guards just prior to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. Some who have seen the cat describe it as being a typical-looking black house cat. However, some have said that it can transform into a pouncing menace that engorges to the size of a tiger.

It’s alleged that the cat is so terrifying that a Capitol Hill guard actually died of a heart attack after encountering it in the 1890s. However, cooler heads claim that the legend of the Washington demon cat is actually the creation of a security guard who was patrolling while drunk in the 1940s.

1. The Ararat Anomaly

Scary mysteries sometimes require a little faith. Believers are convinced that an object photographed in the the snowfields of Turkey’s Mount Ararat are actually the remains of Noah’s Ark. Pictures of the structure were first taken during a U.S. Air Force aerial reconnaissance mission in 1949.

Cited in the eighth chapter of the book of Genesis, Noah’s Ark ran aground in the ‘mountains of Ararat.’

The CIA investigated the area a number of times but were left baffled by the structure.

Such a big mystique may not have been built up around the photos if it weren’t for the fact that they were classified as “secret”. This is before they were released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act in 2006.

The photos show a long, elongated ‘anomaly’ that many have stated looks nautical in nature.

For believers, the structure possibly confirms the biblical story of Noah. However, the Defense Intelligence Agency has faith that the structure is nothing more than what it calls “linear facades in the glacial ice”. What do you believe?