The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths

Once upon a time, there was a kindly old lady who specialized in creating gruesome murder dioramas. Her name was Frances Glessner Lee, and her little scenes went on to educate criminologists for decades.



Follow the link for a whole book about her.

Posted By: Paul - Tue May 08, 2012 - Comments (8)
Category: Crime, Death, Eccentrics, Education, Toys, 1940s, 1950s

The Art of John Wayne Gacy

WU readers are surely familiar with John Wayne Gacy, if only because his middle name is Wayne. Convicted of at least 33 murders. He liked to dress as Pogo the Clown at charity events. Executed in 1994. And (what I didn't know) is that he took up art while in prison. He liked to paint Disney characters, clowns, and skulls.

According to Wikipedia: "Exhibitions of Gacy's artwork have been held since the 1980s and continue to be held. Gacy dismissed criticism that he was permitted to keep money from the sale of his paintings, claiming his artwork was intended 'to bring joy into people's lives'."

Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 01, 2012 - Comments (6)
Category: Art, Clowns, Crime

12 year old stops robbery in Turkey

Before you put on a mask and try to rob a jewelry store, make sure this kid isn't standing close by.



Hope he got a reward!!

Posted By: gdanea - Mon Oct 03, 2011 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime

Black Money Cleaning

Look! A video! It must be real!

Black Money Scam.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 04, 2011 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime, Stupid Criminals, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Money, Baths, Showers and Other Cleansing Methods, Africa

Worst Theme Park Experience Ever

Click either image to enlarge.

More info here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 04, 2011 - Comments (6)
Category: Crime, Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts, 1950s

Weird Shorts – 4

Talk about a mammoth appetite, when most of the world’s large mammals went extinct roughly 10,000 years ago, the vast majority of the vanished species were herbivores. This of course meant that they were no longer around to eat the plants they otherwise would have, and - according to Christophers Doughty and Field from Oxford and Stanford Universities respectively – this freed up an extra 1.4 trillion kilos of food, roughly 2.5% of the net product of all Earth’s dry land. However, the researchers add, this excess had been ‘used up’ by burgeoning human numbers by around 1700 and today we consume six times as much as the Pleistocene critters ever did while simultaneously driving down land productivity by 10% (Nature)(PDF).

That’s not to say that our massive consumption doesn’t have it’s upside, As Vangelis Kapatos of Manhattan discovered when he attempted suicide by jumping from his ninth floor flat, only to survive when his fall was broken by a pile of uncollected garbage. Mr. Kapatos’ timing, from his perspective, couldn’t have been worse, the unusually large garbage pile was due to collections being suspended because of snow. They were due to resume the day after his impromptu dumpster dive (Today Online).

Mind you, we’re not the only animals prone to excess. After finding the bodies of dozens of starlings near the city of Constanta in Romania, locals were concerned that the cause might be bird flu, instead post-mortems of the birds have revealed that they in fact died of alcohol poisoning, having ‘drunk’ themselves to death on the discarded leftovers of the local winemaking industry. A least they died happy (BBC News).

Better than dying happy, though, is living happy, and the secret of that, says the UK’s Office for National Statistics, is having a job. But it’s not the pay but the job security that counts, say the government statisticians, which ironically are facing staff cuts themselves due to the economic downturn. Other key happiness factors, according to the preliminary report, are good personal health and a decent family life. What will we do without these people (Telegraph)?



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Thu Jan 13, 2011 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures, Armageddon and Apocalypses, Babies, Crime, Death, Human Marvels, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Religion, Sexuality, Weird Names, Body Fluids, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

Brazilian ATM Robbery

Subtle they ain't.....

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 08, 2011 - Comments (4)
Category: Crime, South America

Branded!

This TV theme song and imagery has stuck with me since childhood. It's undeniably powerful still, I think.

But who knew that the armed forces today still do the same thing? Read about the Canadian response to the conviction of a twisted soldier.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 20, 2010 - Comments (6)
Category: Crime, Public Humiliation, Rituals and Superstitions, Television, 1960s, Armed Forces

See A Thief, Catch A Thief

I don't know about you but I've been looking for a new job lately and have not had much luck. But I got excited when I saw this article today - a company in Britain is going to start streaming video feeds from surveillance cameras in the hopes that "armchair cops" can help catch thieves in the act. Participants can earn up to $1,000 pounds when offenders are caught. Of course there has been some criticism about the scheme. You can read more about it here.

Posted By: Nethie - Thu Oct 07, 2010 - Comments (6)
Category: Business, Cops, Crime, Government, Jobs and Occupations, Video, More Things To Worry About

Quis Fabricariet Ipsos Fabricares?

Dresden art dealer Petra Kujau was found guilty of forgery this week, after passing off three hundred paintings she had come into possession of as the work of her "great-uncle", Konrad Kujau. The 51 year-old singer turned dealer would add a facsimile of Kujau senior's signature to the paintings, then sell them on at a greatly inflated price.

So far, so mundane. What makes this story particularly WU worthy is that Konrad Kujau was himself a forger, and his self-proclaimed niece was selling her forgeries as "genuine forgeries" created by her famous uncle Konrad. It all begins to make sense once you learn that Mr. Kujau did not limit himself to forging paintings, but was also known to forge the odd diary or two, specifically those of one Adolf Hitler. Although ultimately unsuccessful, his forgeries of the Hitler Diaries were good enough to fool not just many newspapers and magazines, but also at least two historians, and the unmasking of the hoax caused many a journalist and editor a red face. But the notoriety afforded Konrad Kujau as the man "behind" the Hitler diaries meant that he could command considerable sums for something a small as Hitler's signature on a card, and original "Kujau forgeries" soon became enough of a collector's item that he could make a comfortable living from them after his release from prison in 1987.

After his death in September 2000 his business was carried on by Petra Kujau, who evidently decided that one forgery was as good as another, and began importing cheap copies of famous works from Asian suppliers and passing them off as eminently more desirable "Kujau forgeries", which in one sense they were. But soon the sheer volume of Kujau forgeries on the market aroused the suspicions of at least one collector, who tipped off the police to the double forgery.

Which just leaves the question, just where can I get hold of a genuine Petra Kujau double forgery? Now that's something I'd like to own!

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Sun Sep 12, 2010 - Comments (6)
Category: Art, Business, Crime, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators