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The Museum of Witchcraft - The world’s largest collection of witchcraft regalia 

When one thinks of persecuting and burning witches, one imagines long-ago rural England or Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s. However in England persecution of “witches” lasted well into the 1950s , at least in the form of attacks on the Museum of Witchcraft.

As a young man Cecil Williamson stayed with his uncle, the vicar of North Bovey, in Devon. It was there he met a woman accused of witchcraft and, after intervening to stop local teens from harassing her, the he and the “witch” became friends.

Williamson later is said to have been the “occult advisor” to the British secret service during the war.

Cecil went on to start the Museum of Witchcraft with his friend and occultist Gerald Gardner, but during its early years the museum faced some harsh persecution as well as problems from within. Eventually, Gardner and Williamson had a falling out, resulting in the museum being split into two entities.

Williamson’s new Museum of Witchcraft was forced to move three times due to vandalism and pressure from the locals in the towns. In Bourton-on-the-Water dead cats were strung up outside the museum and the museum was set on fire, a kind of modern day witch burning.

Finally, Williamson settled the museum in the picturesque fishing port of Boscastle where it remains today.

Williamson died in 1990 leaving the museum in the hands of Graham King, who organized a burial for the skeleton (which was in the museums collection) of accused witch Joan Wytte, which had been on display in the museum for many years.

Today the museum has a very large collection of Occult and Witch related history and artifacts and among the exhibits are “Images of Witchcraft,” “Devil Worship and Satanism,” “The Hare and Shape Shifting” and appropriately an exhibition on “Persecution of Witches.”

Robert, otherwise known as Robert the Doll, Robert the Haunted Doll, or Robert the Enchanted Doll; is a doll that was once owned by Key West painter and author Robert Eugene Otto. The doll is alleged to be possessed by evil spirits and has a terrifying reputation.

The doll, which is allegedly cursed, has become a fixture of ghost tours in the Key West area since it was inducted into the Fort East Martello Museum. Aesthetically, Robert resembles an early 20th century American Naval officer. Contrary to popular belief, however, the doll’s hair is not made of human hair, but rather, it consists of a synthetic material resembling wool yarn.

Eugene was given the doll in 1906 by an African servant who, according to legend, was skilled in black magic and voodoo and was displeased with the family. Soon afterward, it became clear that there was something eerie about the doll. Eugene’s parents said they often heard him talking to the doll and that the doll appeared to be talking back. Although at first they assumed that Eugene was simply answering himself in a changed voice, they later believed that the doll was actually speaking.

Neighbors claimed to see the doll moving from window to window when the family was out. The Otto family swore that sometimes the doll would emit a terrifying giggle and that they caught glimpses of it running from room to room. In the night Eugene would scream, and when his parents ran to the room, they would find furniture knocked over and Eugene in bed, looking incredibly scared, telling them that “Robert did it!”. In addition, guests swore that they saw Robert’s expression change before their eyes.

When Eugene died in 1974, the doll was left in the attic until the house was bought again. The new family included a ten-year old girl, who became Robert’s new owner. It was not long before the girl began screaming out in the night, claiming that Robert moved about the room and even attempted to attack her on multiple occasions. More than thirty years later, she still tells interviewers that the doll was alive and wanted to kill her.

The doll is annually rotated to the Old Post Office and Customhouse in October, with the museum staff claiming that strange activity in the museum increases during such times.

The doll made an appearance at Taps CON, a paranormal convention held in Clearwater, Florida in May 2008. This was the first time that it had left Key West, Florida in the 104 (at the time) years of its existence.

Individuals who desire to visit Robert in the Fort East Martello Museum and wish to take a picture of him, according to legend, the person must ask the doll politely, and if he does not agree (by tipping his head to one side), and the individual takes a picture anyway, the doll will curse the person and their family.

Lemp Mansion - A historic house in St. Louis is reported to be haunted by a series of suicides committed by family members involved in a successful brewery.

The story of the Lemp Mansion runs hand-in-hand with the story of German immigration and beer brewing in St. Louis. Johann “Adam” Lemp, a German immigrant, moved to St. Louis in 1838 and set up a grocery store in South St. Louis. By 1840 he was focusing primarily on brewing and selling beer. He formed Western Brewery, one of the first breweries to produce German Lager in the United States, at 37 South Second Street (where the south leg of the Arch now stands).

Adam’s son, William J. Lemp, took over Western Brewery after serving as Orderly Sargeant for the Union in the American Civil War. Under William, the brewery grew to be the largest in St. Louis and the largest outside of New York with a single owner.

William “Billy” J. Lemp Jr., William Sr.’s first son, followed the same educational path as his father, however it was William Sr.’s fourth son, Frederick, born in 1873, whom William Sr. hoped to groom to run the company. In 1876, William and his wife, Julia, moved into the Lemp Mansion (built in 1868). William changed the company to William J. Lemp brewing company in 1892 with his son William Jr. as Vice-President and his son Louis as Superintendent. It was now a family affair.

Unknown to the Lemp family, Frederick had significant health problems, and in 1901 Frederick died of heart failure. William Sr. became despondent and slowly deteriorated mentally and psychologically until he committed suicide by shotgun on February 13, 1904.

Billy took over after his father’s death. His wife filed for divorce in 1908 charging Billy with desertion, cruel treatment, and other indignities. Billy was only granted visitation rights for their only son, William III. The company began to slide after prohibition, eventually shutting down and being auctioned for a minuscule fraction of its original worth. On December 29, 1922, Billy Lemp shot himself in his office. Today that office is the dining room of the mansion.

William Sr.’s youngest child, Elsa Lemp Wright, married Thomas Wright in 1910 and filed for divorce in 1919. They reconciled and were remarried in 1920, but she shot herself while in bed on March 20.

Charles Lemp, William Sr.’s third son, moved into the mansion in 1929. On April, 1941, Charles Lemp sent a letter to a south St. Louis funeral home requesting that in case of his death, his remains should be taken by ambulance to the Missouri Crematory. His body should not be bathed, clothed, or changed. His ashes should be put into a wicker box and buried on his farm. There were to be no funeral held or a notice put in the papers. On May 10, 1949 he shot his dog, then himself in the head, leaving the following note: “St. Louis Mo/May 9, 1949, In case I am found dead blame it on no one but me. Ch. A. Lemp”.

That was the only suicide note in the family’s history.

Edwin Lemp, the only remaining child of William Sr. (Louis died of natural causes in 1931), never moved back into the mansion. Edwin died in 1970 at age 90. His final order to his caretaker was to destroy his art collection and family heirlooms.

Today, the Lemp Mansion has been made into a restaurant and inn by the Pointer family and offers tours (historical and haunted), murder mystery dinner theatre, and Halloween parties.

List of unusual deaths ›

Chapel of Bones (Evora, Portugal)

A reverent grimness falls over every soul visiting this chapel (Capela dos Ossos) inside the Church of São Francisco. Its walls and columns are covered in artistically composed designs of bones from more than 5,000 exhumed skeletons. Meticulously placed ribs and tibias form the bands of arches. Tightly arranged skulls and vertebrae fill every gap. Each bone was arranged by a 16th-century Franciscan monk with a message (and a dark sense of humor): Life is temporary.

Chapel tours ($3) take you beneath the entrance’s warning, which is translated, “We bones, lying here, for yours we wait” and into the beautifully lit chapel. On one wall a child’s dried corpse hangs from a chain. That a display can be both gorgeous and gruesome at once is troubling. Here’s a 360-degree view.

Chernobyl Amusement Park 

In the zone of alienation in northern Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus.  Its population had been around 50,000 prior to the accident. Today, the only residents are deer and wolves along with a solitary guard.

Prypiat used to be proud for being home to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. But something happened on April 26, 1986…

It took three days before all permanent residents of Chernobyl and the Zone of alienation were evacuated due to unsafe levels of radioactivity. People from around the Soviet Union were forced to come and work here in order to liquidate the danger and evacuate the residents. Many of the workers died or had serious illness from radiation. 

More pictures here.