Miracle Mike: The Headless Chicken Who Defied the Odds, Mike survived 18 headless months!
From Nation, For Nation - Pulse of the Nation
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What's the Strangest Thing in Gatlinburg, Tennessee?
This March, oddity enthusiasts around the world joined Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for a wild ride through March Strangeness-a head-to-head bracket of our most bizarre, mind-blowing, and totally unbelievable artifacts. Thousands of votes later, it all came down to four unbelievable finalists... and one ultimate champion.
Let’s dive into the Final Four!
Manson’s Prints
Dark history made its mark with this unnerving entry. At Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Gatlinburg, you can get up close with the actual fingerprints of cult leader Charles Manson!
The prints were taken from his Folsom State Prison booking card and signed by Manson himself. A chilling reminder that truth is often stranger (and scarier) than fiction.
Tibetan Skull Drum
Equal parts eerie and sacred, this drum was crafted from a real human skull and used in Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies to drive away evil spirits.
Its haunting look struck a chord with voters, earning it a spot in the Final Four. Looking to take a deeper dive into the history of the Tibetan skull drum?
Human Roast
Meet Chamouni, "The Incombustible Man," who turned up the heat-literally.
This performer would climb into an oven with a raw leg of mutton and roast alongside it until the meat was fully cooked. It’s the kind of act that leaves you speechless (and sweating). However, even this red-hot oddity couldn’t survive the final round.
The Winner: Shrunken Torso
Fans voted, and the strangest of them all is the Shrunken Torso—one of only six in the world and formerly owned by Ernest Hemingway himself.
With its rare, creepy history and head-turning appearance, this torso beat out fierce competition to earn its rightful place as the Weirdest Wonder in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Gatlinburg.
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From Globe, For Globe - Pulse of the Planet
Who's up for a trip to Transylvania?
Vampire-like creatures have been described in myths, legends, and tales for millennia, but the vampire craze of the 17th century is still apparent today. People in the eastern reaches of Europe were so scared of vampires that they took precautions lasting to this day. A graveyard in Poland, for example, was discovered to have people shackled at the neck.
Dracula and the Spread of Vampire Lore
As Bram Stoker’s Dracula swept Victorian England, vampire fears finally made it out of Europe, and travelers toured the hills of Transylvania with grave caution.
The vampire is first and foremost an undead being who rises from the grave to feed on blood. The particulars of how this works vary from story to story, but many involve curses or deals with the devil.
A vampire’s abilities and weaknesses are as varied as their origins and appearance. Traditionally, they were horrid and frightening, but as Victorian sentiments were injected into the mythos by Stoker, vampires could also be seductive.
Strange Powers and Shapeshifting
While there are indeed real bats who feast on human blood, the vampire was said to shapeshift into all sorts of things, including wolves and clouds of mist. They were rumored to control rats, wolves, and maggots. They could hypnotize people in their sleep, teleport, and even propagate their powers to minor thralls.
Fighting the Undead: Vampire Killing Kits
Despite the vampire’s vast arsenal of advantages over the common person, history has always featured ways to fight the undead. The many vampire-killing kits in the Ripley’s collection contain everything one would need to fight a vampire.
The kit featured here includes a wooden stake for destroying the heart of a vampire-one of the few ways to permanently kill a vampire, according to legends. A cross and holy water have also long been countermeasures against the undead-the antithesis to their supposed satanic origins.
The gun and equipment for making silver bullets may seem like they were better suited to fighting a werewolf, but you’d have to assume that European travelers’ own ideas of what’s used to fight a vampire match our own.
Curious Contents
If the gun seems questionable, look closer at the vials. We can only guess what “Professor Blomberg’s New Serum” is. The Elixir of Vitriol is less cryptic, often a name for a stomach tonic including sulfuric acid, but the vial simply labeled “vampirism” brings us back to mystery.
Fact, Fiction, or Fear?
While Ripley’s has been able to authenticate the age of some of the components in these kits-the firearms most notably-we can’t be as certain that the boxes, crucifixes, or other contents were assembled in the same time period. Perhaps sometime later to give the impression of an old-timey vampire-hunting ensemble.
Were they sold to witlessly terrified travelers in the forests of Transylvania? Were they assembled later by mysterious individuals for purposes unknown? Either way, these kits are real; they exist and can be seen in person in our many Ripley's Believe It or Not! locations around the world!
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