History Uncovered

In 1958, the Kingston Trio released a hugely popular folk song called "Tom Dooley," which even inspired a 1959 film, but few listeners realized the song was based on a real person — Tom Dula (pronounced "Dooley") — a young Civil War veteran from Wilkes County, North Carolina, who was executed in 1868 for the murder of his lover, Laura Foster. According to the story, Dula was romantically involved with both Anne Melton and her cousin Laura, but in May 1866 Laura disappeared after riding off on her family's horse, and her body was later found in a shallow grave; Dula, though he briefly fled, was arrested, tried, convicted, and hanged at just 23 years old. Whether he was truly guilty, however, remains an open question, and his tale of love, betrayal, and possible self-sacrifice has continued to captivate people, particularly in his home state of North Carolina. https://allthatsinteresting.com/civil-war-battles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though many spies have been named as the inspiration for James Bond, Dusko Popov actually knew Sir Ian Flemming and gambled with him in between his international espionage escapades. https://allthatsinteresting.com/dusko-popov Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Joe Pichler mysteriously vanished at the age of 18 in 2006, police suspected suicide — but his family remains convinced that foul play was involved. https://allthatsinteresting.com/joe-pichler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rey Rivera was just 32 years old when he vanished without a trace on May 16, 2006. A week later, he was found dead in Baltimore's Belvedere Hotel. https://allthatsinteresting.com/rey-rivera Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slender Man was a popular internet legend created in June 2009. But when two 12-year-olds tried stabbing their friend to death, this mythical creature took on a life of its own. https://allthatsinteresting.com/slender-man Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From their roots in ancient pagan celebrations of the winter solstice to their ban in colonial America, the history of the Christmas tree is longer and more complicated than most people realize. https://allthatsinteresting.com/christmas-tree-history Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the Manson murders, Charles Manson's followers gruesomely killed actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles on August 9 and 10, 1969. https://allthatsinteresting.com/manson-murders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1818, Mary Shelley published her classic novel about Dr. Frankenstein and his disturbing experiments with reanimation — but the stories of these seven scientists from history prove that reality can sometimes be stranger than fiction. https://allthatsinteresting.com/real-frankenstein-experiments Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After suffering from mysterious hallucinations for four days straight, Edgar Allan Poe died of unknown causes in Baltimore at age 40 on October 7, 1849. https://allthatsinteresting.com/how-did-edgar-allan-poe-die Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Again and again, in desperate times throughout history, people have turned to desperate measures and committed what many societies consider to be the worst of all human sins — cannibalism. Members of the Donner Party infamously resorted to cannibalism to survive when they became stranded in the Sierra Nevadas in the 1840s, as did survivors of the Andes Flight Disaster in 1972. At sea, castaway sailors often followed a long-held tradition known as the "custom of the sea," an implicit agreement that, if they were stranded, sailors would draw lots to pick who would be killed — and eaten. But the story of cannibalism involving a 19th-century ship called the Mignonette is a bit different.  https://allthatsinteresting.com/history-uncovered/mignonette Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices