Bizarre Stories: The Green Children of Woolpit

Green Children on the Woolpit Sign
Courtesy of Rod Bacon

The Green Children of Woolpit were a young girl and a young boy found in a Suffolk, England village called, you guessed it, Woolpit. Their supposed appearance dates back roughly 900 years. These were no ordinary children. What makes them so memorable is the fact that they were reportedly, you guessed it again, green. Well, that and they may have been from a mythical underground land or outer space.

The story of the Green Children of Woolpit emerged in English history during the 12th century CE. The events in the story are said to have occurred in the same century, possibly less than one lifetime before the story was first penned. That lends some credence to the story because often legend is either ambiguous about time, dates far before documentation or does not mention time at all. The first written account of the Green Children of Woolpit dates to 1189. The next known account dates to 1220 CE and states that the events took place sometime between 1135 and 1154.

The story (both early versions) has it that the villagers in Woolpit found the Green Children near some wolf pits. The children had a green tinge to their skin, wore strange clothes and spoke a language that the locals did not recognize. When brought back to Sir Richard de Calne's home, the children refused to eat. It took days before the villagers could find food the children would accept -- green beans. They eventually developed a taste for other foods and lost their green coloring. After a time, the children were christened, but the boy was unhealthy from the moment he was found. He died soon after his christening.

Depending on which version you read, either the girl or both the boy and the girl learned English. In the version where just the girl learned -- as the boy was dead -- she told the villagers that the boy was her brother and that they were from "The Land of St. Martin" where twilight is perpetual and there is a big river separating them from another land. All the people there are green. She and her brother were tending the family herds one day and went into a cave that led them to Woolpit. In the version where both learn English, the boy corroborates this story. The girl supposedly grew up, took the name Agnes and married, though she was "wanton."

There are a few possible natural explanations for the children and the ordeal they described. There are also supernatural ones. Supernatural suggestions include that the children are extraterrestrial or that their supposed story is true, though no cave to the underworld has been found in Woolpit. Natural suggestions for their skin color include malnourishment, which is known to cause a green tinge to the skin, arsenic, also known to turn the skin green, and diet. As for what happened to them, without superstition, one must conclude that the children got lost, -- on the Earth, not beneath it -- were abandoned, lost their parents or were abused. There is no mention of their age, so it is hard to tell just how young they were when they told their story, but they may have been young enough to interpret memories incorrectly or to fabricate a story to suppress trauma. Whatever the case, there was a town by the name of Fornham St. Martin near Woolpit. It is possible that is "The Land of St. Martin."

The Green Children of Woolpit are a part of England's history and a part of Woolpit's culture. People have been trying to track down Agnes' descendants, if any, for centuries just to show that the green girl lived. It is not certain that the story is true, but it is so explainable that it is difficult not to separate it from folklore, which typically has obvious deviations from reality that cannot be explained away. Thusfar, Agnes' descendants elude us, making it impossible to prove anything and effectively keeping the story of the Green Children of Woolpit in the realm of mystery.

Sources

Haughton, Brian, The Green Children of Woolpit, retrieved 9/4/11, brian-haughton.com/articles/green-children-of-woolpit

Bizarre Stories: Angelique Cottin's Poltergeist Activity

Édouard Isidore Buguet
fakes telekinesis

Angelique Cottin was the alleged generator of poltergeist activity in France over a few months in 1846. Cottin came from a poor Catholic family who saw her supposed power of manipulating objects as a way to make money. Whether that was the plan all along or the Cottins simply cashed in on their misfortune, no one knows for sure. Either way, it did not help their credibility. Nonetheless, Angelique's story is prominent among stories of alleged poltergeist activity and has yet to be debunked or proven, so it remains a mystery.

Angelique was living near La Perriere, France when the alleged phenomenon started on January 15, 1846. The story goes that she was working silk with a few friends when either the weaving frame or the table on which they worked started shaking. They told adults, but were not believed, so they tried to go back to work. Apparently, it kept happening, but only when Angelique was near the frame or the table, depending on the source.

Note: Small variations in the sources regarding Angelique Cottin may be the result of French to English translations. However, there are large discrepancies of note as well.

Angelique Cottin's parents found out about the occurrence and told people they believed her. They took her to the parish priest for exorcism. Lucky for Angelique, the priest sent her to a doctor instead, obviously believing that the girl was not possessed. Whether he believed her a fraud or someone with a strange illness is unclear.

Interestingly, the doctor allegedly saw objects move quickly away from Angelique Cottin after so much as brushing against her skirt or hand. People near her said they felt electric shocks. Chairs and couches that Angelique sat in were flung against the wall. The doctor's reports supposedly state that men were made to hold down furniture that was affected by Angelique. They were unable to hold it still when her powers were active. There were breaks in the activity, but the doctor said she was most active in the late evenings.

Eventually, the case of Angelique Cottin was referred to academics, one of which was a physicist. They went over the reports given by the doctor, by the girl and presumably by her parents. They made their own report based on these and their own tests. According to some sources, the committee of academics concluded that the phenomenon was genuine and published those findings in the Journal des debats in February of 1846. In truth, the committee observed none of the phenomena described by the doctor and the Cottins save one. They observed the chairs she sat in shaking, though they were never able to ascertain whether the shaking was of her doing. They were going to arrange further tests, but the poltergeist of Angelique Cottin suddenly ceased activity on April 10, 1846. At least, that is what the committee was told.

Despite never returning for follow up experiments with the committee, Angelique continued to display her malady for money. How she was able to replicate it after it supposedly stopped is unknown. Whether she had been faking it and simply continued to do so is also unknown. The biggest unknown here is how she would have faked it. It seems that without either the help or incompetence of her doctor, she would not have been able to pull such an elaborate fast one. Maybe she fooled the doctor. Maybe her parents promised him a cut of the profits. Maybe she was not faking it at all.

It is important to mention that sources regarding Angelique Cottin vary wildly. Some say she could manipulate magnets, though the only claim made at the time was that she could find the North Pole on magnets by touch. There are also some that say she made compass needles spin, though that was never claimed possible by her observers. Contemporary sources are available to peruse for those who are interested. Just don't expect them to shed any light on the subject.

Sources

Haughton, Brian, Angelique Cottin -- Electric Girl, retrieved 11/19/11, mysteriouspeople.com/poltergeist_girl.htm

Figuer, Louis. The Electric Girl, Popular Science Monthly March 1875, Volume 6

Bizarre Stories: Melonheads

Urban legends have a tendency to be bizarre, though we know most of them to be false. That is Bizarre! tends to focus on that which we know is real. That is, of course, unless an urban legend is just too weird to overlook. Melonheads are an example of such. This urban legend contains all the medical, horror and backwoods oddities that Americans love in their campfire stories.

Melonheads are reportedly small human-like creatures whose defining features are oversized melon-shaped heads. They are apparently vicious and will attack people at random. Most of the stories of these angry little mutants come out of Connecticut, Michigan and Ohio. Each of these areas has their own legends about the melonheads. However, they are very similar and tend to differ only in small details about how they melonheads came to be melonheads.

One of the most important aspect of the legends to remember is that, while they are often called "humanoid," melonheads are actually human, according to every legend about them. Their odd-shaped heads are attributed to water on the brain in every instance. Their small stature is because they are supposedly children. In some cases, they are children who have escaped from an institution, sometimes said to have been horribly abused. In others, they are inbred children of institution escapees or a family that was banished into the woods for practicing witchcraft.

The most obvious holes in these stories are the apparent absence of institutions that could account for the stories in nearly every area in which the legend arises, the "children" aspect of it and the lack of any physical evidence. With the children part of it, it seems odd that only the children of these mutant colonies would attack. It also seems odd that they either stayed children for all of this time or that they had children of their own and stopped their attacks, letting the kids take care of it. All in all, it is unbelievable. However, it is creepy and bizarre enough to be a decent story.

Bizarre Stories: The Monster of Glamis

Glamis Castle circa 1880
(photograph in the Public Domain)

The Monster of Glamis is the moniker given to a human, not a monster -- human who may have been dead at infancy. Now, the Monster of Glamis also refers to a ghost that supposedly haunts Glamis Castle in Scotland, the ghost of that very same individual. Whatever it/he really is and whether it/he existed or not, its story takes place in the centuries old castle from whence it name came.

Glamis Castle is situated in Angus, Scotland next to Glamis. The original structure was built in the 1300s. Naturally, several ghost stories have come out of the castle. There is nary a structure that can exist for that long and escape rumors of otherworldly guests. In the case of the Monster of Glamis, the guest was supposedly a resident and member of the aristocratic family that dwelled there.

The Monster of Glamis was born Thomas Bowes-Lyon. Of the existence of this child, there is little doubt. He was the son of Charlotte Grimstead and George Bowes-Lyon and an ancestor of the current Queen of England. The child is recorded as having been born on October 21, 1821 and having died that same day.

According to later accounts, a rumor began not long after the boy's alleged death. The rumor was that the child was horribly deformed. It went even further, claiming that the boy had not died at all. Thomas survived and was locked away in a room for the remainder or his life. There, his deformities kept him from taking on his rightful role as lord of the castle. He was kept in the room at all times, save the darkest nights when he was taken for a walk. Some claims go as far as to say he was fed through the door.

The deformities that led to such familial disgust and abandonment were supposedly weak and small limbs. Thomas is also said to have had a hairy egg-shaped body. Why a hairy Humpty-Dumpty lording over a castle was such a stretch is anyone's guess. He may have also been mentally infirm or his weak limbs were worse than the above description. Whatever the case, he said to have lived and died in the castle. There is no gravestone for the infant or the monster he is said to have become.

Bizarre Stories: Lal Bihari and the Walking Dead

Lal Bihari Mritak is an Indian man who holds the rather rare distinction of having been dead for 18 years before being legally declared alive again. In 1976, Mr. Bihari was declared dead by the government at the behest of his uncle, though he was still alive. The uncle, like any good villain, was motivated by greed. With just a simple bribe, the uncle was able to have his nephew Lal declared dead so he could then assume ownership of his property. Thankfully, he did not see to it that Lal was actually dead, though that seems to be a common fear among people like Lal Bihari. Yes, there is more than one case of a person being declared dead in India, despite the obvious fact that he or she are still living.

Over the course of the 18 years following Mr. Bihari's untimely legal death, he struggled to overturn the declaration. He ran for public office, held his own funeral, fought for widow's compensation for his wife and repeatedly appealed to local officials. These tactics only served to get him beaten on occasion. However, through this process, he also found others like himself. In order to gain support for himself and others, he formed Mritak Sangh -- an association for the dead. The Mritak stands for "dead," which is why Lal had the word added to his name. He was desperate for his plight to be recognized and his living status to be upheld by the law.

In 1994, Lal Bihari Mritak finally got his wish. Strangely, he did not take his land back from his wayward uncle. Even more surprisingly, Lal is one of very few who have lived again after being wrongfully declared dead. There is real resistance to overturning these decisions by officials. That is likely because the plague of the dead in India is caused by corrupt officials who are willing to take a few dollars to end a person's life on paper.

Bizarre Stories: Fan Death

A murderer waiting in your room so
it can kill you when you fall asleep?

Among the bizarre history, places, events, animals, etc. that this planet and the people on it have to offer are what we call urban legends. Urban legends may have some basis in fact, be a result of mass hysteria or stem from misinformed reporting, as is the case with so-called fan death. This interesting urban legend has no basis in fact. Because this is demonstrably true, this urban legend is more bizarre than most. At least Chupacabra has obscurity to hide behind. No one can conclusively say it is not true. However, fans are located on every continent and it is easy to prove that they do not kill people.

In South Korea and, according to some sources -- Japan, electric fans can kill you if you leave them on overnight in a closed room. The excuses for this silly idea range from "it causes hypothermia" to "it chops air particles into pieces so you cannot breathe." Given that fan blades cannot chop particles -- most of them cannot even chop a finger -- it is easy to say that is not true. As for the hypothermia claim, most reported fan deaths happen in South Korea in the summertime. Anyone who has tried to use an electric fan to cool his or her room on an 85-degree Fahrenheit night can tell you that is not happening.

Fans in South Korea now have timers on them to stop them after a person has fallen asleep. The interesting thing about this is that all of the "fan deaths" that are reported in South Korea, from what we could find, occur at night. People surely leave fans on without a timer during the day in South Korea. Why are they only dying at night? The most popular theory is that these people are actually dying from heat-related causes. Heart conditions, lung conditions and other medical issues coupled with extreme heat, of which there is plenty in South Korea during the summer months, can and do kill people. They say elderly are more susceptible to fan death. The elderly are also more susceptible to heat-related death. Timers and death scares can conserve electricity. Case closed?

The Lead Masks Case

Among the most bizarre topics in the world are countless deaths. The saying, "Dead men tell no tales." describes the reason for this quite clearly. Without a witness or clear forensic evidence, anything odd at the scene of death is relegated to the ranks of the bizarre and unexplained. Such was the case the death of two electronic technicians in Brazil in 1966. The circumstances of their deaths are unknown. Objects found near their bodies are strange and unexplainable.

On August 20, 1966, Jorge da Costa Alves found two dead men on Vintem Hill in Rio de Janeiro. Later investigation ascertained that the two men were last seen by a bartender who sold them a bottle of water on August 17. They are presumed to have died later that day, meaning they were on the grassy hill for roughly three days when Jorge found them. There are rumors that UFOs were seen over the hill that night, but there is no evidence of such, apart from alleged witness testimony.

Naturally, Jorge contacted the police who did a search of the area and the bodies. The two men were dressed in suits and wore raincoats. They were also wearing lead masks, which would have protected them from radiation. These masks were not full-face masks, but more the shape of a masquerade mask, with no eyeholes, of course. There was also a notebook that contained the following notes, translated from Portuguese: Be at the agreed place at 16:30 [4:30 p.m.], 18:30[6:30 p.m.] swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for mask signal. There was also an empty water bottle and two towels near the bodies, which were next to each other.

There were no injuries at first glance and no injuries found during autopsy. Some sources say that the organs were too far gone for toxicology. Others say that testing was done, but turned up nothing. Others still say that radiation testing was done and found nothing at first, but that radiation turned up during a second round of testing. What all sources agree upon is the outcome of the investigation. The cause of death is unknown.

The evidence at the scene leaves us more questions than it answers. Why were these men on the hill? Was this the specified location or is it where their bodies were dumped? What substance did they consume? Were these capsules the cause of death or were they meant to protect them from something? Why in the world were they wearing protection from radiation? Were they conducting an experiment that went wrong? Were they part of a larger team that wrote them off as collateral damage? Were they meeting aliens up on the hill? No one knows and it is likely that we never will.

Bizarre ways to ensure the well-being of your family: Alien abduction insurance

Terrified that E.T. is going to "beam you up" and take you through a "Wrinkle in Time?" Afraid that Will Smith will not have a handy black suit or fighter jet on the day the grey men show up for the "War of the Worlds?" Want to make sure your family will be covered when you have one of those "Close Encounters of the Third Kind?" Well, have no fear. Some, rather unscrupulous, insurance companies have your back. Cough up the dough for an alien abduction insurance policy and you will be all set while Mulder and Sully are on vacation.

To most people, the very idea of purchasing insurance for something as difficult to prove, unlikely and nuts sounding as an alien abduction is bizarre. Well, of course it is bizarre. Why else would we mention it here? The thing is it is also true, which is the only other rule for content on That is Bizarre. According to various sources, the Saint Lawrence Agency was the first company greedy or insightful enough to offer this type of insurance. Oddly enough, they had takers.

According to this article on the NASA website, a whole group of people purchased alien abduction insurance policies before committing suicide - together. You might have heard of this group of suicidal alien doomsdayers. They were known as the Heaven's Gate Cult. If you have not heard of them, you must read their story before considering purchasing alien abduction insurance. Let us just say it was a huge waste of 10,000 dollars.

For those of you who are more concerned about getting pregnant or probed by an alien, do not worry. Some insurance companies offer these options. If you can't find one, you might be able to find an insurance company willing to start for you. After all, what insurance policy can resist those kind of odds?

Bizarre fact: If you hold your pee for too long, you can die!

The knucklehead of whom we speak.

Urine is a liquid that comes from the kidneys and must be expelled by urinating. This seems like an idiot-proof process, but there are those who manage to mess it up by holding their pee for too long. Bizarrely enough, this can lead to death by uremia, so yes; you can hold your pee for so long that you die.

Most people would not be able to resist the urge to urinate for long enough to cause a problem. However, if you are able to hold it long enough, you can damage bladder and kidney functioning, making it matter very little if you finally bother to use the toilet. Gradual loss of kidney function will then lead to kidney failure, also known as renal failure.

You might be thinking, who would be so daft as to hold their urine for long enough that they die? You might also be thinking, who the hell would be able to do that without pissing himself? Surprisingly, that is bizarre has an answer. His name was Tycho Brahe.

Tycho Brahe was an upper class 16th century astronomer who was actually rather intelligent, in some ways. In other ways, he was a little on the nutty side. He kept an elk as a pet, but it died when it went to a party, got drunk and fell down the stairs. He lost his nose to a sword, though sources vary regarding how exactly that happened. Regardless, he wore a prosthetic metal nose most of his days thereafter. He needed his nose to keep up with all of his stargazing and partying.

One day in 1601, Tycho was attending a banquet when his body told him he should go take a leak. He ignored it . . ., ignored it . . ., and ignored it. He later claimed that he did not want to be rude by leaving the table. Well, he ruined his chances at taking another healthy piss for the rest of his life. At first, he could not urinate at all and he got sicker and sicker. Later, he could pee only a little and it was not comfortable. Then, he died, presumably from uremia.

There you have it - the bizarre story of the man who held it to death. Those of you who have seen "Liar, Liar" with Jim Carrey know that holding it can damage the prostate. Now you know you have bigger things to worry about. Next time you feel like you have to go, do it. Do it in your pants if you have to. Call it self-defense against your kidneys.

Bizarre stories: The world's youngest mother

In honor of Mother's Day, which is tomorrow, as of the time of this writing, here is a story of a very bizarre birth. It is a little horrifying as well, so if you are sensitive, we do not mind if you click away and check out something bizarre, but less nauseating. This is the story of the world's youngest mother.

Lina Medina of Peru holds the distinction of being the youngest mother to give birth in recorded history. She was a shocking five-years-old when she had her son in May of 1939. She is an old woman now, but she must have been a little trooper to have survived an ordeal that has brought much older women to the brink of insanity - or so their husband's claim. So, Lina Medina, as bizarre as your story is, we salute you and your tough, younger self.

Sadly, what is bizarre about Lina's story is not that she was having sexual relations at the age of four or five. That is all too common. What is bizarre is that she was actually impregnated. She must have hit puberty very early. Five is young for even precocious puberty. Furthermore, for her little body to have carried the baby to term and have delivered a healthy baby is astonishing. To this day, she refuses to say who the boy's father was.