Category: Bazaar News

In 1937, 20-year-old Patricia Douglas was brutally attacked and raped at an MGM party. And when she tried to get justice, the film studio did everything in its power to silence her.

It seems the history of Hollywood is marred with scandal — and its glorious Golden Era of the early 20th century was no exception. But it would take victim Patricia Douglas 66 years to get the public to fully understand what the industry did to her.

In 1937, an MGM salesman raped Douglas, then a 20-year-old dancer, at a company party. When Douglas demanded justice, the studio smeared her reputation using bribes, dirty detectives, and perjury. Douglas’ career was in tatters — and all because she was victimized by a powerful media mogul.

Here’s the story of a woman’s struggle against the Hollywood patriarchy in an era long before #MeToo.

Patricia Douglas’ Hollywood Journey

Making it in Hollywood wasn’t Patricia Douglas’ dream – it was her mother’s. Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1917, Douglas and her mother Mildred Mitchell moved to Hollywood when she was still a child. As Mitchell looked for work designing costumes, Douglas tried her hand at dancing.

After dropping out of school at 14, Douglas lived at the edge of fame. She socialized with stars like Bing Crosby – but Douglas never drank or even dated.

Before her 16th birthday, Douglas nabbed roles as a dancer in classic films like So This Is Africa and Gold Diggers in 1933.

By 1937, Douglas was still living with her mother and picking up small dancing roles posted by major studios like MGM. That was when she was hired alongside 120 dancers for MGM’s Wild West Show. Douglas assumed the part was for a movie, she had no idea what they really had planned for her.

“You’re trusting with the studios. You’re not expecting anything except to work in a movie. That’s what you’re there for.”

Horror At The ‘Wild West Show’

MGM invited salesmen from across the country to a five-day convention to celebrate the studio’s Depression-busting profits. Co-founder Louis B. Mayer welcomed the salesmen with his dancers, Douglas among them.

“These lovely girls – and you have the finest of them – greet you,” Mayer told his 300 guests. “And that’s to show you how we feel about you, and the kind of a good time that’s ahead of you. Anything you want.”

The studio also trucked in 500 cases of scotch and champagne, and then gave Douglas a skimpy costume and screen-ready makeup. Then, MGM bussed Douglas and the other girls to a remote lot where the party was held.

During the party, 36-year-old sales executive David Ross cornered Douglas on the dance floor. She escaped to the restroom, but Ross lurked outside.

“I’ve got a man, and he’s really sticking,” Douglas told the restroom attendant.

And Douglas wasn’t the only woman dealing with a “creep,” as she described Ross. “I’m tired of being mauled,” complained 18-year-old Ginger Wyatt.

Indeed, one waiter at the party saw “girls get up and move from the tables because the men were attempting to molest them.” Another waiter said, “The party was the worst, the wildest, and the rottenest I have ever seen.”

The Assault And Coverup

Meanwhile, MGM salesman David Ross would not take no for an answer.

“He and another man held me down,” Patricia Douglas said. “One pinched my nose so I’d have to open my mouth to breathe. Then they poured a whole glassful of scotch and champagne down my throat. Oh, I fought! But they thought it was funny. I remember a lot of laughter.”

Douglas ran to the bathroom and threw up. Then she escaped outside. But Ross followed her.

“Make a sound,” Ross threatened, “and you’ll never breathe again.”

Ross dragged Douglas into the backseat of a parked car. When Douglas nearly passed out, Ross slapped her, yelling, “I want you awake.”

After the brutal rape, Douglas rushed to the Culver City Community Hospital. The experience there traumatized her more. “I was given a cold-water douche. Then the doctor examined me. It’s no surprise he didn’t find anything. The douche had removed all evidence.”

Douglas didn’t know it, but the doctor who treated her was known as the “family doctor” for MGM. That doctor stated that he did not think Douglas was raped.

With a swollen face, Douglas returned to MGM two days later. “You ought to know what happened to me,” Douglas told an MGM employee, “so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Instead, MGM handed Douglas $7.50 – her payment for attending the party.

Furious that the studio was ignoring her trauma, Douglas went to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. She filed a complaint against David Ross.

The D.A. was Buron Fitts who, six months earlier, had been re-elected even after he was indicted for perjury in a rape case himself. It didn’t help that Fitts’ top campaign contributor was MGM.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Fitts ignored Patricia Douglas’ pleas. Weeks later, Douglas hired her own attorney and told Fitts that if he didn’t act, she would go to the press.

The Rape That Couldn’t Be Called Rape

And she did. But in 1937, newspapers refused to print the word “rape,” so headlines instead claimed she was “ravished” during a “studio orgy.”

The press published Douglas’ full name and her address, while MGM went unnamed in the stories.

As the story captured headlines, MGM responded by destroying Douglas’ reputation.

They went so far as to hire the Pinkerton Detective Agency to smear her and pressure others at the party to cover up the rape. Two dancers were pushed to describe Douglas as “unrefined” and a drunk. Another claimed the party was “a jolly affair, with lots of good clean fun.”

Douglas shot back, “And since when is getting raped ‘good clean fun?’”

An internal MGM memo claimed, “Douglas must have attempted to proposition men. Many of them must have turned her down but can testify to her solicitation.” They even reached out to Douglas’ doctor and pressured him to lie that Douglas had gonorrhea.

The Trial Of ‘Girl 27’

“Shut this down, make her stop,” William Randolph Hearst wrote to Mayer. “Do you realize how damaging this is to the whole movie picture industry?”

Patricia Douglas’ case went to a grand jury in June 1937. Ross’s lawyer pointed at Douglas and asked the jury, “Look at her. Who would want her?”

MGM also bribed the parking attendant who saw a screaming Douglas run from Ross. The studio offered the attendant “any job he wanted” for lying about seeing Ross at the scene. After perjuring himself, the attendant spent the rest of his career driving for MGM.

The lies ended the criminal trial, but Douglas did not stop. She filed a civil lawsuit, naming MGM executives. The case died after Douglas’ attorney dropped her as a client so he could run for D.A.

“It ruined my life. It absolutely ruined my life,” Douglas said in 2003. “They put me through such misery.”

Then, six decades after MGM destroyed her reputation, Patricia Douglas told her story again to the world. Historian David Stenn interviewed Douglas for a Vanity Fair article. In 2007, the documentary, Girl 27, brought Douglas’ story to an even wider audience.

MGM treated Patricia Douglas like a disposable object, but she outlived all her abusers. Louis B. Mayer died from leukemia in the 1950s. Burton Fitts died by suicide in the 1970s. And David Ross died from rectal cancer in the 1960s.

Douglas, meanwhile, became a great-grandmother until 2003 when she died at the age of 86.

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Hollywood has a long track record of covering up scandals. Next, read about the shocking death that put a 1920s star on trial, and then learn more about golden-age Hollywood scandals.

King Charles III ascended the British throne on September 8, 2022—but he wasn’t the first to claim the title of Charles III. 

Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart was born just over 300 years ago, the eldest son of the eldest son of a monarch. According to paternalistic hereditary succession, he was directly in line to the throne. But he never gained his birthright. Here are 12 facts about the man who came to be known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

King James II of England and VII of Scotland was the son of Charles I. He ruled from 1685–1688, and was an unpopular monarch due to his religious beliefs. Though he was born into the reigning Protestant Stuart dynasty, in 1669 he had converted to Roman Catholicism. To understand why this was of utmost concern to the citizens of the day, we have to go back to the reign of Elizabeth I.

In 1559, having inherited a country embroiled in religious intolerance and hatred, Elizabeth I had brokered a lasting peace that unified Protestants and Catholics. The 1559 Act of Supremacy stated that the queen, rather than the Roman Catholic Pope, would be the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, while the Act of Uniformity enabled both the Catholic and Protestant interpretations of communion.  All subsequent monarchs were Protestant—until the succession of James II stoked fears that the country was once again going to tip into turmoil.

At first his presence as monarch was tolerated, helped possibly by the Protestantism of his two children, Mary and Anne. Mary, the next in line to the throne, was married to the Protestant William of Orange, himself a grandson of Charles I, so a Protestant succession seemed guaranteed. However, in 1688, James’s second wife, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son, James Frances Edward Stuart, who was promptly baptized a Catholic. This dealt the death knell to James II’s sovereignty; with the assured Protestant line of succession in tatters, a group of English noblemen wrote to William of Orange, inviting him to take the Crown. In 1688, William and Mary deposed James II in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. James II fled to France and the protection of his cousin, King Louis XIV. 

The young James Frances Edward Stuart lived in exile in France under the protection of Louis XIV until James II’s death in 1701, whereupon the French King declared him to be James III of England and James VIII of Scotland, titles that were also recognized by Spain and the Pope. Seven years later, as a reaction to the Act of Union and with Louis’s backing, 19-year-old James led an attempt to invade Scotland but was thwarted by inclement weather and the British Navy.

As time passed, the British monarchy moved peacefully on. After the deaths of childless William III and Mary II, the Crown had passed to Anne, Mary’s sister and the last Stuart monarch, in 1702. The 1707 Succession to the Crown Act had legislated that the throne must be passed to the next Protestant in the line of succession. As Anne had no surviving children, on her death in 1714 it went to a distant cousin, George, Elector of Hanover, who became George I.  

However, the would-be James III’s supporters in Britain, known as Jacobites (from Jacobus, the Latin for James and first derived for supporters of James II) continued to plot his restoration. The passage of the throne to George I rather than to James himself prompted the first Jacobite uprising in 1715, in which James was again defeated and forced to return to France. A second uprising in 1719 was also unsuccessful. 

By this time, James’s hankering after the Stuart succession was considered an embarrassment in some quarters. He became known as “The Old Pretender” due to his continued pretense for the Crown, a claim further maligned by the stories that had abounded since his birth. His mother, Mary of Modena, suffered the loss of 10 children through miscarriages, stillbirths, and deaths in early infancy. When James was born four years after her last unsuccessful pregnancy, it was perhaps easy to spread a conspiracy theory that the child was actually an impostor, smuggled into the bedchamber in a warming pan. To some James was considered a “pretender” from birth, and his son inherited this condescending title, becoming known as “The Young Pretender.”

After the failure of the uprisings, James Frances Edward Stuart spent much of his remaining life in the vicinity of Rome. He married Polish Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska, with whom he had two children. Charles Edward Stuart, later to become known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or “The Young Pretender,” was born in 1720 in the Palazzo del Re (or Palazzo Muti)—where the exiled Jacobites held court—in Rome. A little over four years later, Henry Benedict Stuart, later to become Cardinal Duke of York, was born. 

Infant Charles was in the care of a nurse, governess, and chambermaid in addition to his mother. When Henry was born, the boys’ father had Charles separated from his mother and moved to the tutelage of men, one being a governor whom Maria hated. She reacted by joining a convent; she returned after two years, but Charles’s parents’ relationship never recovered, continuing instead in a state of unhappiness until her untimely death when the prince was only 14.

Despite any antagonism Charles may have felt toward James for the breakdown in his parents’ marriage, when his father invested him as Prince Regent in 1743, he took it upon himself to restore the succession in his name.

His first attempt at invading was in 1744, with a well-armed French fleet that succumbed to bad weather before they could make landfall. Undeterred but now without French support, Charles took advantage of the British Army being engaged in war overseas and made a second attempt, embarking on a French frigate. He landed on July 23, 1745, with a small group of men on the Island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides. His aim was to rally a Highland army and gather enough followers as he marched south to entice the English Jacobites and the French military to support the cause. 

The third and final Jacobite uprising began on August 19, 1745, when Charles and his army of Highlanders raised the standard at Glenfinnan. On September 17, they entered Edinburgh, setting up court at Holyrood Palace and proclaiming James to be King.

The Jacobite Army is often assumed to have comprised mainly Highlanders, not least because of its alternative name of the Highland Army. The third uprising indeed commenced in the Highlands. But many locals that joined the cause would have done so at the behest of their clan chief, rather than due to their own calling, given the social structure in the Highlands at the time. 

Many other Scots joined from the lowlands and the East, likely under the influence of pro-Jacobite landowners. Once the army reached Edinburgh, more lowland Scots also joined the ranks, as did some English, like the Manchester regiment, after they had crossed the border. 

Loyalists to the Jacobite cause were also found among the Welsh, Irish, and French. Irish and French units were part of the Jacobite Army at Culloden. There was a history of Jacobitism in Ireland due to the English subjugation of the Irish; they hoped that restoring the throne to the Stuarts would rid them of their oppressors. The French were already engaged in war with the British, and by supporting the travails of the Jacobites they hoped to destabilize Britain for their own gains.

But not every Scot was loyal to the Jacobite cause. Glasgow was predominantly Hanoverian, and Edinburgh retained a government stronghold in its castle throughout the 1745 rising. Additionally, some Highland chiefs withheld their support, wary that without adequate French backing, there was insufficient power for victory to be assured.

It’s unsurprising that the Jacobites found support among the Catholic community. In addition to sharing the exiled house of Stuart’s faith, British Catholics had many grievances since the time of William III and Mary II, when they had been subject to a number of punitive acts of government. 

However, not all Jacobites were Catholic. Evidence suggests that many Highlanders were actually Protestant. Furthermore, many Jacobites believed that monarchs ruled under direct authority from God, otherwise known as the divine right of kings. The Stuart dynasty had ruled in Scotland since 1371, joining with the English Crown when James VI of Scotland inherited it in 1603, becoming James I of England. Many Scots, Catholic and Protestant alike, saw the Stuart male line as the rightful heirs to the throne. Some Jacobites, regardless of religion, wanted to regain the autonomy that Scotland had lost in the 1707 Act of Union. 

Despite the likelihood of receiving more religious freedom under a Catholic monarch, prominent British Catholics such as the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk remained staunch supporters of the Hanoverian king, although this was likely due to Norfolk’s previous pardoning as a Jacobite supporter. Others seemed content to practice their religion discreetly without challenging the Protestant monarch. 

Charles’s plan of invading while the British Army was involved in the War of the Austrian Succession in mainland Europe seemed to be paying off. After taking Edinburgh, he was victorious against the British at the Battle of Prestonpans on September 21, 1745. The Jacobites then marched south, crossing the border into England. They captured Carlisle after a short siege and followed a route that took them through regions that had supported the 1715 uprising. However, fewer English than expected joined the Jacobite cause, and the expected invasion by the French failed to materialize. 

On December 4, the Jacobite Army reached Derby, some 480 miles from Charles’s first landing on British soil at Eriskay and a mere 120 miles from London. By this time, the Duke of Cumberland had been recalled from commanding the British Army’s incursions in mainland Europe and was known to be advancing from London. To his dismay, Charles was outnumbered at a meeting of his council of war, who felt growing unease at being isolated from Scotland while gaining less support than expected; they advised turning back to await French support. Despite making remarkable gains and getting so close to his goal, the prince reluctantly returned to Scotland, where reinforcements once again swelled their ranks. They found victory at the Battle of Falkirk Muir and took Inverness. 

As winter turned to spring, the Jacobite Army was in need of money and food; Cumberland’s men, meanwhile, had received training in the Jacobites’ fighting techniques. The Royal Navy had intercepted a French ship carrying funds for the Jacobites, and Charles decided he could wait no longer. On April 16, 1746, the two sides met at the infamous and brutal Battle of Culloden—the last pitched battle (a planned fight at a pre-determined location) on British soil—with the Jacobite troops vastly outnumbered by the Hanoverians. It took about an hour to dash Bonnie Prince Charlie’s hopes of regaining the Crown. He fled, a fugitive with a price of £30,000 on his head.  

In the months after his defeat at Culloden, the Hanoverian forces relentlessly pursued Charles across the Highlands and islands; he narrowly avoided capture on several occasions. Many brave Scots risked their lives to give him provisions and shelter, smuggling him to safety. He arrived in the Western Isles on April 27, hotly pursued from place to place until June 28, when he escaped from South Uist with the help of a local heroine, Flora MacDonald. 

MacDonald suggested Charles dress as her Irish maid, Betty Burke, and they set sail with a group of five boatmen to the Isle of Skye, across the treacherous waters of the Minch, under cover of nightfall. Charles and his supporters made their way across Skye, parting company with MacDonald and eventually crossing to the mainland. They made their way to Loch nan Uamh, from where they boarded a French frigate on September 20, 1746. 

Many consider Charles’s whole life story to be one of a tragic hero, perhaps no more so than during the months he spent evading capture after Culloden. The song that immortalizes his struggles is the “Skye Boat Song.” Its lyrics were actually written over 100 years after the event by an Englishman, Sir Harold Boulton. It has the form of a traditional Gaelic rowing song set to the tune of an older song that translates as “The Cuckoo in the Grove” (the general tune will be familiar to Outlander fans). The first verse is particularly rousing and evocative of the Jacobites’ wistful lament:

“Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing
Onward, the sailors cry!
Carry the lad that’s born to be
King Over the sea to Skye.”

Historically, it wasn’t uncommon for royal portrait artists to paint their subjects in a more favorable light than that nature originally bestowed. A portrait was supposed to convey ideas about its subject as much as any truthful representation. In the words of Murray Pittock, a historian and professor at the University of Glasgow, “Charles was portrayed as a young, fair and feminine figure because Jacobite ideology wanted to show him as the renewer of Scotland: an image of youth, fertility, fecundity.” It is perhaps therefore unsurprising that Charles is so often pictured as a dashing young man. But what of the truth? 

He was given his popular “Bonnie” (meaning beautiful) moniker during his time in Edinburgh in the third Jacobite uprising, having many admirers among the local women. Reports from his adolescence suggest he was both physically attractive and had an engaging personality. Contemporary accounts from the time of the 1745 uprising confirmed his affability and handsome nature. 

A digital facial reconstruction made from his death mask by forensic artist Hew Morrison shows Bonnie Prince Charlie as an old man, but his features are symmetric and evenly placed along conventional standards of attractiveness; it’s not hard to imagine that as a young man he was indeed bonnie.

Accounts of Charles’s behavior later in life are far from bonnie. After escaping from Scotland in 1746, Charles initially returned to France thinking he would raise an army and return to his campaign but support was not forthcoming. In 1748, the French and British brokered the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle, ending the War of the Austrian Succession. Charles’s removal from French territory was part of the treaty’s terms. He relocated to Papal lands, and after his father’s death in 1766, was granted permission from the Pope to inhabit the Palazzo Muti. When the exiled James died, Pope Clement XIII did not bestow upon him the title of Charles III. It was another bitter blow.

Charles was already a seasoned drinker as a young man and had turned to alcohol more as his disillusionment grew. In 1753, Charles had had a daughter, Charlotte, with his lover Clementina Walkinshaw; both mother and daughter left him due to his alcoholism and abusive behavior. In 1772, with his supporters concerned about his lack of legitimate issue, Charles married Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern. The couple did not have any children. Charles became increasingly unhappy and lonely, a continued purveyor of domestic abuse and a victim of his own hard-drinking that resulted in the breakdown of his marriage.  

He died after years of ill-health from a stroke on January 31, 1788, aged 67, in the same Palazzo in which he was born. 

The third uprising was the final straw for the British government. Determined to quash any further rebellion, they set about brutally extinguishing the Highlanders’ way of life, destroying property and executing or transporting Jacobite sympathizers—including children, who were sent to the colonies to be sold into indentured servitude, despite the fact that many Highlanders had not participated in the uprising. 

Wearing traditional Highland tartans, teaching Gaelic, bearing arms, and playing bagpipes was banned. The clan chiefs were robbed of their power; no more would they command men in service to them. The government acted to facilitate the acquisition of land such that landlords began repurposing it for agriculture, mainly profitable sheep and cattle farming. In the process, they forcibly evicted local families to coastal areas, where they struggled to survive on land unsuitable for farming. Some were removed to other areas to farm crops as crofters—but without any legal claim to the land they worked. Many Highlanders subsequently emigrated, their way of life gone for good.

 

The recovery mission involved a police drone, a trailer, a pontoon boat, and a 40-person rescue team.

“It’s always something,” Dana Vess, the wife of Seaside Chapel pastor Jerry Vess, told The News & Observer,. “We joked, ‘I wish our prodigal cows would return.’”

The “prodigal cows” in this instance were in fact a pair of troublesome calves brought in as part of a live Nativity scene put on by Seaside Chapel in North Carolina every year. The annual event is a live recreation of the birth of Jesus as told in the New Testament, complete with a manger, farm animals, and men dressed as wise men and Roman soldiers.

However, this year’s display featured an unexpected twist: The cows managed to escape, and it would take 16 hours, 40 people, and one parker ranger leaping into a river to bring them back.

The Nativity scene opened on Dec. 3, with 205 people in attendance. Somehow, at some point, the cows escaped the makeshift Bethlehem and took off down Dow Road — but it took until feeding time for anyone to notice.

Even then, Port City Daily reports, no one was quite sure how the cows managed to get out of their enclosure. Their pen was locked and undamaged, with no holes or openings large enough for the cows to slip through — Vess said the church had even held larger cows in the same shelters in the past.

Yet the cows were loose, running down Dow Road near the Mike Chappell Park that night.

Church volunteers, police, drones, and the provider of the livestock, Eric Field, ventured forth on the cow hunt. Their initial search went on until about 3 a.m. on Dec. 4, at which point Field caught two hours of shut-eye in his truck. When he awoke at dawn, he had a plan — he would bring the cows’ mother along.

“My hope was that the calves would hear her bellow,” he said. “This is when the real fun began.”

Around 10 a.m., the search party, now 15 members, received word of the cows’ location — they had been spotted on a pedestrian trail at the Carolina Beach State Park.

Armed with cattle-wrangling rope and riding four-wheelers, the search party spotted their runaways and closed in. But the young cattle startled, hoofing it before the would-be wranglers could get within lasso-distance.

“We determined this was going to be a long day,” Field said.

By now, the party had grown to 40 people, comprised of volunteers, police, and park rangers. They pursued the fleeing cows to the marina, then the beach, and eventually into the Cape Fear River itself. They were then forced to abandon their four-wheelers, wading through water so deep that the calves could no longer run.

In a stroke of luck, a pontoon boat passed by and redirected the cows back toward shore. Then, a state park boat appeared on the scene with several rangers aboard. One of them tried unsuccessfully to lasso the cows from the deck.

Back on the shore, Carolina Beach Police Chief Vic Ward enlisted the help of his Dutch shepherd, Zoe. Zoe had no formal herding experience, but she came from a long line of police and bomb squad canines, and made her herding debut when she dove into the water after the cows.

“Man, I figured I could put her to use because they had been chasing these cows for almost a day,” Ward said. “It was getting to the point where we were concerned about them getting out in the road, getting hit by a car and injured.”

The cows were now facing wranglers on both fronts. Zoe herded the cows toward the state park boat while one of the rangers on board dove into the river and looped them by hand. With the cows secured, the rangers pulled them into their trailer, putting an end to the dramatic saga.

“It was like something out of ‘The X Files,’” Ward said. “I mean, I was expecting Mulder and Scully to come out of the woods and say the cows were aliens. You never hear about this stuff.”

Zoe, meanwhile, became something of a local celebrity after the police department shared a video of the rescue on Facebook.

“Last night I was walking her [at Kure Beach] and people came up to me as they were walking into a restaurant,” Ward said. “They said, ‘Oh, is that the dog that herded the cows?’ So she’s got a little following now.”

“She was pretty amazing,” Vess said of Zoe’s cow herding.

Vess thanked the members of the rescue party, the police, and the park rangers for their assistance in recovering the cows, who are safe and back home in Maco. Understandably, their roles in the Nativity scene have likely been cut — though the event itself is still going on.

“We continue,” Vess said. “We don’t let anything stop us from sharing the meaning of Christmas.”

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After reading about this bovine escapade, read the story of another runaway cow who went down a water slide at an amusement park. Then, learn why New Zealand recently proposed a new economic plan — to tax farmers for their cows’ farts.

Though some bog bodies discovered in northern Europe over the years belonged to people who fell into the bogs and accidentally drowned, researchers suspect that many were deliberately sacrificed.

While examining the site of a future housing development near Stenløse, Denmark, archaeologists came across 5,000-year-old human bones. Sunk into a former bog, archaeologists believe that this “bog body” may have been a victim of Neolithic human sacrifice.

“When we saw the bones, we thought we’re on to something really exciting,” Emil Winther Struve, a ROMU museum archeologist in Roskilde, said according to the Copenhagen Post. “It was a pretty wild experience – it doesn’t happen very often that you find a bog body.”

As Live Science reports, the archaeologists were tasked with examining the site before the construction of a housing development, per Danish law. Struve told the Copenhagen Post that he and his colleagues had joked about the possibility of finding a bog body, and that another human skeleton was found in the area some 70 years ago.

Sure enough, they soon unearthed bones. While excavating the area, the archaeologists uncovered what looked like a human femur. Soon, the team also uncovered a lower jaw — with teeth still attached — more leg bones, and a pelvis. They also found several other items nearby, including animal bones and a flint ax, which suggests that this bog body was a victim of human sacrifice.

Though more research is needed to determine the gender and age of the victim, archaeologists have hypothesized that they were likely sacrificed during the Neolithic or New Stone Age (10,000 B.C.E – 2,200 B.C.E).

“That’s the early phase of the Danish Neolithic,” Struve explained to Live Science. “We know that traditions of human sacrifices date back that far — we have other examples of it… In our area here, we have several different bog bodies. It’s an ongoing tradition that goes back all the way to the Neolithic.”

Indeed, bogs and former bogs across Denmark have offered up ancient skeletons before, some of which also appear to be victims of human sacrifice. The world’s oldest bog body, the so-called Koelbjerg Man, was discovered in Denmark in the 1940s and might be 10,000 years old. And one of the most famous bog bodies, the Tollund Man, was also found in Denmark in the 1950s and dates back to 400 B.C.E, per Live Science.

Though some of the ancient remains found in bogs belonged to people who accidentally drowned, researchers believe that many of them were sacrificed and then deliberately placed there. Thousands of years ago, people understood that bogs preserved human remains, which made them seem like a place between life and death.

For now, however, much about the bog body found near Stenløse remains a mystery. Live Science reports that the team of archaeologists will briefly suspend their examination of the site for the winter and will return for further excavations next year once the ground has thawed.

In the meantime, they’re hoping to learn more about the bog body from the bones that they’ve already excavated. Struve explained to Live Science that they may be able to determine the sex of the remains by examining the pelvis and more about the victim’s age by studying the wear on their teeth. The teeth might also offer up DNA, which could paint a picture of the bog body’s life.

Struve, and others, are eager to learn more.

“It is clear that when you stand with such a jaw from a person who lived in ancient times, you think about what kind of person it is,” Struve told TV 2, “and what kind of story lies behind how that person ended up in the bog.”

Charlotte Haagendrup, the culture committee chairman in Egedal Municipality, seconded Struve’s enthusiasm to learn more.

“I think it’s crazy exciting,” she exclaimed to TV 2. “I would like to have ten minutes with the victim and ask: Who were you, what is your story, and how did you end up in the bog?”

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After reading about the bog body found in Denmark that may have been a victim of human sacrifice, discover the story of the Llullaillaco Maiden, a 500-year-old victim of child sacrifice whose remains have been eerily well preserved. Or, learn about Moloch, the pagan god of child sacrifice.

If you’ve yet to get your fill of human anomalies and suspected mermaids, you should act quickly. The Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is set to close its doors to the weird and wild on December 31.

According to the Associated Press, the museum-slash-sideshow operates under a franchise agreement with the Ripley’s organization. Since the agreement is expiring, the franchisee is opting to repurpose the building for a new business.

It may be hard to absolve themselves of the Ripley’s brand. Debuting in 1996, the building is known on the boardwalk for its façade, which makes it look like it’s about to topple over as the result of a collision with a globe. Museum manager Chris Connelly told the AP that the peculiar architecture may be incorporated into future plans.

Over the years, visitors to the 12,000-square foot collection have been able to browse items like the world’s smallest car, a lock of George Washington’s hair, and more.

The museum in Atlantic City is one of dozens of Ripley’s museums around the world. The brand was built on the work of cartoonist Robert Ripley, who parlayed a successful comic strip into a multimedia franchise. With researcher Norbert Pearlroth, Ripley dazzled readers with facts and trivia about curiosities.

So consumed was Ripley by the bizarre that his home in Mamaroneck, New York, was brimming with oddities, including a whale penis. His housekeeper once observed that “The most unusual thing in the house is Mr. Ripley.” Fittingly, Tim Burton was slated to direct a Ripley biopic with Jim Carrey in the role circa 2007, but it never came to pass.

[h/t Associated Press]

In 2006, actor William Shatner – aka the original Star Trek series’ Captain Kirk – had a kidney stone. That wouldn’t be a very interesting fun fact except that he decided to sell it. William Shatner’s kidney stone was sold to a casino for a whopping $25,000. The money went towards building homes for the homeless.

Selling William Shatner’s kidney stone

Shatner himself set up the auction, and an online casino known for collecting kooky memorabilia won the bid. Of course, they were in it for publicity. The company is called GoldenPalace.com, and in 2006, they reported:

“The former Captain of the Enterprise passed a kidney stone at warp speed and beamed it into the waiting hands of GoldenPalace.com. The casino paid $25,000 for Shatner’s specimen, the entirety of which will go to Habitat For Humanity to help provide housing for those in need.

Although the kidney stone that broke down Shatner’s shields caused him more discomfort than a Klingon pain stick, the sci-fi/pop-culture icon is more than happy that his calcium offspring fetched such a price.”

A kidney stone for a cause

While this all seems silly, something good came out of it. GoldenPalace.com reports that Shatner held out for a higher price for the sake of charity.

“When I was contacted about selling my kidney stone to GoldenPalace.com for an original price of $15,000 I turned it down knowing that my tunics from Star Trek have commanded more than $100,000. I offered the stone, stint, and string for $25,000 and informed them that 100% of the proceeds would go to benefit Habitat for Humanity and I retain visitation rights?”

At the time, that was enough to build about half a house.

The stone itself? Shatner said it was so big, “you’d want to wear it on your finger.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Shatner Sells Kidney Stone For $25,000” — CBS News

Charles Domery had such a bottomless appetite that he’d devour grass, candles, and sometimes even live cats — making him the subject of numerous science experiments.

History is rife with intriguing individuals who defy traditional human limits and decency. For Charles Domery, also known as Charles Domerz, a Polish-born soldier serving in the Prussian and French armies, it was his ​​insatiable hunger that eventually brought him worldwide fame — and proved to be his downfall.

Domery had an unusually large appetite that grew over time, leading to him eating any available food. His hunger led him to trade his loyalty to the Prussian army for the French, due to food shortages. And Domery’s uncontrollable hunger reportedly led to the consumption of over 174 cats in a year, as well as five pounds of grass daily, despite his distaste for vegetables.

Perhaps Domery’s most shocking act, he reportedly once tried to eat the severed leg of a crew member hit by cannon fire during his time serving on the French battleship Hoche. Despite his odd meals, Domery remained physically intact with no ill effects from his diet.

If you think this is strange, just wait until you learn the full extent of the meals and adventures of Charles Domery. This is everything you need to know about a man who remains a baffling medical mystery to this day.

The Life Of Charles Domery

Charles Domery was born in 1778 to a Polish family with nine boys who, like Charles, all shared a rather large appetite. Despite his unusual hunger, Charles was born a healthy boy and grew to be over six feet, three inches tall, with an average build. At the ripe age of 13, he joined the Prussian army fighting during the War of the First Coalition, where he grew, along with his hunger.

Over time, Domery found a major flaw with the Prussian troops: their rations. Much to his dismay, the troops were suffering from a food shortage. Even after the Prussians doubled his portions, Charles decided to quell his hunger by joining the enemy, the French. He was greeted by French officers with a melon, which he fully devoured including the rind.

Unfortunately, hunger soon returned and Domery was left unsatisfied, even after utilizing his own pay to buy extra food as well as eating all the available food for the troops. This resulted in the unimaginable. With an unfulfilled stomach, Charles reportedly ate cats along with a few pounds of grass almost daily when other food was unavailable. This diet acted as a stepping stone for the even stranger events that followed.

Charles Domery’s Insatiable Hunger

Charles Domery, even with what would be considered an appropriate amount of food for a young man, felt as though he was always starving. This led to him making some surprising, desperate, and unfathomable culinary choices in order to cure his food cravings.

Domery loved to eat raw meat, with bull’s liver being his favorite delicacy. Yet, while serving on the French ship Hoche, he almost devoured human flesh. His crewmates recalled having to wrestle Domery from a sailor’s leg that had been shot off by cannon fire. They ultimately succeeded — but only by throwing the severed leg into the sea.

You would think that after indulging in these food choices that one would get sick. However, Domery’s stomach and health remained intact even after eating raw meat, various animals, and large quantities of grass. In fact, he reportedly never vomited or defecated after his eating binges.

A Starving Captive Soldier

In February 1799, tragedy struck aboard the Hoche in Liverpool, England, when Charles Domery’s ship was captured by British forces. Soon after, Domery and his crewmates were held as prisoners of war in a prison camp near Liverpool. During his time in captivity, Charles continued to shock his captors with his voracious appetite and surprising food choices.

In a prison camp, meals were hard to come by. During this time period, rations for prisoners were set by the country in whose army the prisoners served. For Domery and other French prisoners, the daily rations included two ounces of bread, half a pound of vegetables, and two ounces of butter or six ounces of cheese. Troops were also given some ration of beer, diluted rum, and sometimes tea.

Yet again, these rations proved to be inadequate for Domery. This resulted in him eating spare candles, at least 20 rats, and the prison cat. At times, Domery ate the medicine that was left over in the camp’s infirmary and washed it all down with water or his ration of beer.

After learning of Domery’s rather peculiar food choices, the British army decided to double his rations. His insatiable hunger led to a constant increase of rations, until he was at serving size that equaled the daily rations of 10 men. This piqued the interest of a prisoner commander who brought the matter over to the Sick and Hurt Commissioners, a party responsible for the overall welfare of prisoners of war.

Soon, Charles Domery became the subject of medical experiments to test the limits of his hunger.

Attempting To Solve A Medical Oddity

Dr. J. Johnston, a member of the Sick and Hurt Commissioners, decided to test Domery’s eating abilities. One night, Domery was awakened at 4 a.m. and fed four pounds of cow udder without hesitation. Shortly after, he devoured five pounds of raw beef and a dozen candles. For lunch, beef, and candles were again relished and washed down with some beer.

The entire medical experiment left personnel stunned. Perhaps what was most shocking was that Domery remained in good spirits despite his extreme culinary adventures.

Unfortunately, what happened to Domery after this experiment remains unknown. In fact, the medical mystery surrounding his large appetite in general remains unsolved. Many suspect that polyphagia, an intense desire to eat due to an underlying medical condition like abnormal blood glucose levels, may have been at play. For now, we can look back at Charles Domery’s uncontrollable appetite with both sympathy and curiosity.

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After learning about Charles Domery’s uncontrollable appetite, read about the 10 weirdest people to exist in history. Then, learn about these 17 terrifying cannibal attacks.

“Carol of the Bells” is a classic Christmas carol for a reason: Its simple four-note refrain is easily adaptable across genres and, depending on who’s singing it, it can sound silly, stirring, or even ominous.

But “Carol of the Bells” isn’t an original. The well-known holiday tune was actually adapted from the Ukrainian composition “Shchedryk,” a New Year’s ballad that doubled as a cry for independence in the aftermath of World War I.

“Shchedryk,” which is sometimes known as “The Little Swallow,” was arranged by composer Mykola Leontovych in 1916, but its lyrics existed long before he put pen to paper. The tune belongs to a category of Ukrainian folk songs known as shchedrivka, which honored the sun god. They emphasized bounty, and were usually performed during New Year’s Eve or feasts pegged to the holiday. As Humphrey Kowalsky wrote in his 1925 book Ukrainian Folk Songs: A Historical Treatise, “The forces of nature and heavenly objects are usually personified, and even often referred to as opulent husbandmen or landladies, who give bounteously to all who sing them a paean.” In this case, “Shchedryk” is about a little swallow, who chirps happily about a man’s fertile farm animals and beautiful wife.

Leontovych paired the traditional song with his iconic four-note melody in 1916, and it was performed around Kyiv. But “Shchedryk” soon gained international acclaim due to an unusual set of geopolitical circumstances. 

In 1918, Ukraine declared its independence, hoping the world would recognize its autonomy as borders were redrawn under the peace treaty ending World War I. Symon Petliura, the new president, believed a worldwide tour of Ukraine’s best singers performing the country’s music would help their cause. So a delegation led by conductor Oleksander Koshetz embarked on a years-long tour that took them to Vienna, Prague, and Paris. One of their selections was “Shchedryk,” and it was very well-received—especially once the choir made its way to New York in 1922.

The Ukrainian choir hit Carnegie Hall on October 5, in a concert that received rapturous reviews. “The sudden fortes struck like blows. The swells were like the heave of the deep sea,” The New York Herald wrote. Meanwhile, The New York Times raved, “Admirably trained, the singers responded to the slightest gesture of their leader. The chorus sounded like an instrument played upon by a virtuoso.”

While the group traveled to several American cities, Koshetz and a few of his singers wound up in New York after the tour officially ended in 1924. They continued to perform, and according to the Ukrainian Institute, the American composer Peter Wilhousky wound up at one of their concerts. He was looking for another song to fill out an upcoming NBC radio program, and after hearing “Shchedryk,” he wrote American lyrics that emphasized sweet silver bells over small swallows. In his 1936 copyright, he dubbed it “Carol of the Bells.”

Unfortunately, the Ukrainian musical mission did not succeed. Soviet Russia and Ukraine had been locked in a power struggle since before the choir even left, and the Soviets claimed victory toward the end of 1921—the same year that Leontovych was killed by Afanasy Grishchenko, who was described as a Soviet “agent” in at least one official document. While initial reports speculated that Leontovych’s death was the result of a robbery, Slate suggested that the composer was targeted because of his association with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

But the international acclaim of “Carol of the Bells” and its predecessor did bring Ukrainian culture to the world. And now, a century later, it’s being performed once again as the country’s oldest children’s choir tours the globe with a message of freedom and peace. Their name? The Shchedryk ensemble.

Writer, poet, and satirist Dorothy Parker is known for her wit. But she was also a civil rights advocate who, in her will, arranged for her entire estate to go to Martin Luther King Jr. – and then to the NAACP after his death. The NAACP still owns the rights to Parker’s oeuvre today.

Parker’s death and legacy

Dorothy Parker became famous for her writing as well as her founding membership in a group of elite writers known as the Algonquin Round Table in New York City. In the 1930s, she also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, receiving two Academy Award nominations.

In 1967, Parker died of a heart attack. By then, she had already alienated many of her peers. So when her ashes were never claimed, they were sent to her lawyer. However, he had already retired, so a colleague took charge of the ashes, and they sat in an office cabinet for 17 years.

Eventually, the NAACP took the ashes, where they were on display at the national headquarters in Baltimore for 32 years until she had a formal, private burial in 2020.

It made sense for the NAACP to take Dorothy Parker’s remains since she had been such a notable civil rights advocate. In fact, the organization still benefits from owning the rights to her work.

According to the NAACP website (cited below):

“Preserving the legacy of Dorothy Parker has been an essential part of the NAACP’s history…Dorothy Parker will always be part of the NAACP story as the NAACP was part of hers. Her life and legacy will continue to be remembered throughout NAACP history.”

While many of us own a copy of The Portable Dorothy Parker, much of her life after her heyday in NYC remains unknown. But it’s more interesting than we could have imagined. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Dorothy Parker, An Unwavering Legacy ” — NAACP

Across many cultures, cookies are synonymous with the holidays. They’re festive, giftable, and more likely to please a crowd than fruit cake. If you want to bring something new to your annual cookie exchange, consider one of these traditional holiday treats from around the world.

Chrusciki started as a pre-Lenten snack in Poland, but the cookies’ festive shape makes them a popular treat at Christmastime as well. Consisting of twisted strips of fried dough, they’re known by the nickname “angel wings” in the U.S. Their powdered sugar coating (a recurring theme on this list) contributes to their wintry vibe.

With their intricate, snowflake-like patterns, pizzelle fit right in to the holiday season. They originated in south-central Italy around the 8th century, making them one of the oldest cookies in known history. Prior to the invention of electric pizelle makers, the anise-flavored batter had to be poured into hand-held irons and suspended over a fire. 

According to legend, Austrians invented Vanillekipferl in 1683 to commemorate their defeat of the Ottoman Empire. The pastry’s crescent shape is said to mimic the moon symbol on the Turkish flag. Today, the vanilla sugar-dusted walnut cookies are a common Christmas treat in Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Hungary as well as Austria. 

Norwegian sandbakkelse are known for their distinctive shape. They’re baked in special fluted pans and served narrow-side-up so they resemble upside-down cupcakes. Made from a simple vanilla and almond batter, they’re typically served around Christmas in Norway.

Made with orange, cloves, and cinnamon, baking a batch of melomakarona is a quick way to make your house smell like Christmas. The Greek dessert is famous for its decadent honey coating. Once the cookies come out of the oven, they’re submerged in a spiced syrup. We recommend eating them after opening presents to avoid creating a sticky mess.

It’s easy to see how this star-shaped confection came to be associated with the Christmas season. Zimtsterne is a simple cookie made from almond and cinnamon. Though it’s most famously connected to German cuisine, it’s also a popular part of holiday spreads in Switzerland. 

Brunkager, or “brown cake,” is Denmark’s take on gingerbread cookies. They’re made with traditional winter spices like cinnamon, ginger, and cloves and contain pieces of almonds incorporated into the dough. If you really want to celebrate the holiday season like the Danes, enjoy these cookies with a cup of tea beside a roaring fire for maximum hygge.

Ma’amoul is a celebratory snack in Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East. The plain biscuits are stuffed with a luxurious date filling that reveals itself once you take a bite. They’re served in Middle Eastern Christian households for Easter and Christmas, but the cookies are most commonly eaten during Eid al-Fitr to celebrate the end of Ramadan. 

Hamantaschen is a traditional part of Purim throughout the Jewish diaspora. The triangular cookie is meant to symbolize the three-cornered hat worn by the holiday’s villain, Haman. It’s typically stuffed with a fruit or poppy seed filling.

If cinnamon is your favorite winter spice, add hojarascas to your holiday cookie menu. This Mexican shortbread cookie is flavored with cinnamon in the dough and an extra sprinkling of cinnamon sugar once it comes out of the oven. The simple base frees bakers to mold the cookies into whatever festive shape they desire.

Pryaniki, or Russian spice cookies, vary in their presentation. The humblest version is a bite-sized cookie with a plain sugar glaze. More impressive pryaniki are baked into loaves and branded with elaborate stamps. No matter its size and shape, the cookie’s flavor profile of honey and winter spices makes it perfect for dunking in tea around Christmas or any time of year.