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It can be a zoo out there, especially in the world of crime. Just when authorities think they’ve seen it all, they’re reminded that, no, they really haven’t. In 2018, a man was kidnapped and held for ransom in a hotel room… by an alligator. Not weird enough? How about a parrot that helped put a murderer behind bars? Or the Florida Gators fan that used an actual Florida gator as a weapon? So yeah…that happened. You know it’s a jungle out there when animals get involved.

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When the events leading up to someone’s death raise more alarm bells than the actual cause of death, you know there’s a rabbit hole just waiting to be explored. The more chaotic and random the victim’s movements are prior to their demise, the more challenging it can be to put the pieces together. If the case doesn’t go cold, that is. The strange last days of both Blair Adams and John Wheeler top the list of bizarre cases of erratic behavior that still have investigators puzzled.

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In a German convent near the River Rhine in the 15th century, a nun started biting her fellow sisters who, in turn, began biting other nuns. Soon, the convent was full of holy servants uncontrollably biting each other. From there, it spread to other convents throughout the region. Physicians at the time could find no medical reason to explain the bizarre behavior and it would be a while before the term “mass hysteria” was coined. The biting eventually subsided, but that wouldn’t be the last time a large group of people experienced a collective psychological episode, nor would it be the strangest. Not even close.

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There’s the short con and there’s the long game. The short con is quick, over in the blink of an eye while the long con can take days or even weeks. Then there’s Christian Gerhartsreiter. The game he played was on a whole different level. His con took place over the course of three decades and involved one of the most famous and wealthy families in America.

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On January 25, 1972, an explosion ripped through the baggage compartment of JAT Flight 367. The plane tore apart at 33,000 feet. Metal, luggage and people fell to the earth. When the fuselage was found moments later, people were stunned to hear a scream coming from inside. They found flight attendant Vesna Vulovic, broken and battered, but still alive. She has the distinction of surviving a fall from the highest recorded height. She’s not the only one, however, to have fallen thousands of feet and survived.

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In the world of medicine, there are plenty of curious cases that keep doctors guessing. Every now and then, however, there are things happening with a patient that simply can’t be explained. Such is the case of Gloria Ramirez, whose mysterious condition transformed her into a chemical weapon. With medical staff falling like dominos all around her, the patient would become known as “The Toxic Lady”.

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At first sight, Marilyn Hartman looks like the quintessential grandmother – white hair, petite, with a friendly smile and overall disarming disposition. You don’t really give her a second look. However, over the years, her unassuming natural camouflage has enabled her to sneak past security and onto numerous commercial flights, earning her the nickname “the serial stowaway”.

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Since 1927, giant inflatable character balloons have been an iconic part of the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The balloons can be a staggering 6 stories tall and are maneuvered through the streets of Manhattan by groups of almost 100 strong people below. That may seem like a large number of people to handle a helium-filled balloon, until something goes wrong.

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They say that funerals are for the living, not for the dead. While traditions may vary, the sentiment remains the same, sending departed spirits off to their next adventure. For some of these rituals, the only limit, beyond the law, is the imagination. From extreme embalming, otherwise known as corpse posing, to Tibetan sky burials, where the entire body is devoured by vultures, there’s no shortage of fascinatingly macabre practices. Oh, did we mention erotic funerals?

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In January 1935, just 24 hours after Roland T. Owen checked into room 1046 at the Hotel President in Kansas City, Missouri, he was found beaten and tortured. His wrists and ankles were bound with a cord, he had a skull fracture on the right side of his head, and had been stabbed multiple times in the chest. He was only semi-conscious and barely able to speak when police asked him if anyone else had been in the room, but he did manage to say one word before dying, “nobody.” That was the beginning of one of the strangest and oldest murder mysteries in US history.

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