# Cases and true stories that just creep you out **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 14, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573 "2022-09-14T18:20:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/61 "2022-09-29T17:44:31Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I don’t know what to call the case of [Austin Harrouff](https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/courts/2019/08/15/three-years-later-austin-harrouff-case-still-puzzles-many/984663007/) I think that qualifies as creepy. I wonder if he has a successful insanity defense, he has to stay confined until he is “cured”? Prison or psych ward, I don’t see him being released into the public. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/62 "2022-09-29T17:48:32Z")
I’m not a lawyer and I’m sure states differ, but my understanding is that the insanity defense can be used when you can show that the accused didn’t know that what they were doing was wrong. It doesn’t mean the person is or isn’t insane. ---
**Author:** ![thejusticecode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thejusticecode/32/12146_2.png) [@thejusticecode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thejusticecode)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/63 "2022-09-29T18:06:27Z")
Joseph James DeAngelo AKA the East Area Rapist AKA Original Night Stalker AKA Visalia Ransacker. > **[Joseph James DeAngelo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_James_DeAngelo)** > > Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, sex offender, burglar, and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986. He is responsible for at least three separate crime sprees throughout the state, each of which spawned a different nickname in the press, before it became evident that they were committed by the same person. In the San Joaquin Valley, he was known as the Vis Durin... They caught him… after 40 years. He got away with these sickening crimes for so long and then went and had a normal life. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/64 "2022-09-29T19:23:21Z")
> **[Richard Ramirez](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez)** > > Ricardo "Richard" Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (/rəˈmɪərɛz/; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), dubbed the Night Stalker, the Valley Intruder (as his attacks were first clustered in the San Gabriel Valley), and the Walk-in Killer was an American serial killer and sex offender whose crime spree took place in California between June 1984 and August 1985. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989. He died in 2013 while awaiting execution. > Ramirez's childhood is considered an influence on his cri... ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/65 "2022-09-29T19:29:10Z")
Speaking of Ramirez, a story which was while like a horror movie, but while it did not inspire _fear_ in me per the OP, it _was_ touched on by Cecil in one of his columns, which has to count for something: > **[Death of Gloria Ramirez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gloria_Ramirez)** > > Gloria Cecilia Ramirez (January 11, 1963 – February 19, 1994) was a woman from Riverside, California, who was dubbed "the Toxic Lady" or "the Toxic Woman" by the media when several hospital workers became ill after exposure to her body and blood. She had been admitted to the emergency department while suffering from late-stage cervical cancer. While treating Ramirez, several hospital workers fainted and others experienced symptoms such as shortness of breath and muscle spasms. Five workers req Sh... ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/66 "2022-09-29T20:01:12Z")
That’s what insane means in a legal sense. The states do differ on how they say that in the law. John Hinckley who shot Ronald Reagan and others was then found not guilty of a slew of charges because of a mental defect according to the laws in place at the time. Other laws are more specific about a defendant’s ability to realize their actions are wrong. For instance in cases where someone hearing voices telling them that it is right to kill someone also has to not realize that it would be illegal and others would consider it to be wrong, ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/67 "2022-09-30T12:48:59Z")
This case of Munchausen by Proxy - the mother poisoned him with salt. All Munchausen by proxy cases creep me out, because of their twisted way of gaining attention and accolades (when they “save” the child.) > **[Murder of Garnett Spears](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Garnett_Spears)** > > Garnett-Paul Thompson Spears (December 3, 2008 – January 23, 2014) was a 5-year-old boy who died at a hospital in suburban Valhalla, New York. The cause of death was determined to be high levels of sodium leading to swelling in his brain. > After his death, Garnett's mother, Lacey Spears, was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter of her 5-year-old son. On March 2, 2015, a jury found Spears guilty of murdering her son by poisoning him with table salt, which she had adminis... ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/68 "2022-10-02T13:53:41Z")
It’s hard to explain the one staffer who wound up in intensive care for an extended period. In other cases, “toxic exposure” is less believable. “Electric shocks administered during emergency defibrillation could have then converted the DMSO2 into the highly toxic dimethyl ester of sulfuric acid, exposure to which could have caused some of the reported symptoms of the emergency department staff.” Seems like a bit of a stretch. There are numerous people who have self-treated with DMSO for a variety of reasons. Some of them surely wound up in the hospital for one reason or another, but I haven’t heard of any mass poisonings of staff who treated them. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/69 "2022-10-02T15:53:10Z")
Might be a case of group hysteria. Bad odors can trigger emotional responses in people. From there the story can get muffled. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/70 "2022-10-02T19:08:23Z")
There have been mass hysteria cases where one person (the index case) was physically ill for whatever reason - and then, others who saw the sick person and smelled odd odors (toxins!) started experiencing symptoms and it became a chain reaction. I remember [one situation](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/08/21/sandy) where a child sick with a cold passed out in school. Classmates noted the presence of an odor (from adhesive used on carpet that had just been laid down), a few reported feeling faint or nauseous, and before long there was an auditorium half-full of kids with similar complaints. The Ramirez case was investigated and a genuine toxic response was postulated, so I could be wrong. I suspect at least some of the symptomatic health care workers were psychologically affected. ---
**Author:** ![X.L.Lent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a5b964/32.png) [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/71 "2022-10-02T20:08:20Z")
I can’t provide a link to this tale so I will tell it to the best of my memory. Back in the 1990’s late one night, a gasoline tanker truck was transitioning from the 5 freeway to the 91 freeway when it was cut off by a car. The driver of the truck lost control, went over the side of the ramp and fell onto the 5 freeway below. The truck burst into flames but the driver was able to escape with the help of some motorists who stopped to help. Unfortunately, he died the next day due his injuries. Witnesses told the police that the tanker truck fell on top of a small car. After the wreckage had cooled the truck was removed. And just as the witnesses had described there was a small car underneath. There was no body to be found - the heat of the fire burned everything away. The car itself so badly burned and melted it could not be identified completely. Any part that had a VIN or serial number had been destroyed. They only were able to identify the make, model and approximate year. About a year later the local paper ran a story that the police still didn’t know who had been driving the car on that night. No one had come to the police to report a missing friend or relative who had been driving in the area of the accident that night. I never read or heard anything after that and as far as I know this case was never solved. Here is another story has always creeped me out. Was this some sort of mass murderer committed over 150 years ago? We will probably never know. [Bones found in attic of Civil War era home](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213688/Could-mystery-bones-attic-Civil-War-era-home-belong-runaway-slaves-sought-shelter-Underground-Railroad-sympathizer.html) ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/72 "2022-10-04T19:32:07Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I remember [one situation](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/08/21/sandy) where a child sick with a cold passed out in school. Classmates noted the presence of an odor (from adhesive used on carpet that had just been laid down), a few reported feeling faint or nauseous, and before long there was an auditorium half-full of kids with similar complaints. Something similar happened at a high school here, about a decade ago; students complained about dizziness, nausea, and stomach pains after experiencing an unknown odor. A friend’s sons went to that high school, and her eldest called her mid-day: “The school’s being evacuated 'cuz of a weird smell like a gas leak or something. Can [Younger Brother] and I go to Taco Mac?” Mom: “_What?! Say that again!_” Son: “Can. We. Go. To. Taco. Mac?” My friend’s son later told me the cause of the symptoms and smell: a group of 9th graders who wanted to get out of a biology test. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/73 "2022-10-04T23:21:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There are numerous people who have self-treated with DMSO for a variety of reasons. 30+ years ago, one of our cats had a condition that we were instructed to treat with a DMSO-based ointment. I vaguely recall that it did tend to smell sort of rotten-egg-like. It’s hard to imagine using enough of it to cause the kind of fallout described in the article - but if the patient was in that much pain, she might really have been overdoing it. It’s surprising that nobody has tried to replicate this experimentally - surely it could be done safely in a laboratory. ---
**Author:** ![WhyKickAMooCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc29f/32.png) [@WhyKickAMooCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyKickAMooCow)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2022, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/74 "2022-10-05T15:07:54Z")
Two famous but really genuinely creepy cases come to mind: 1. Tourist found dead in a hotel roof top water tank after erratic behaviour [Death of Elisa Lam - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam) 2. Woman horrifically mutilated by pet chimp [Travis (chimpanzee) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_(chimpanzee)) The second falling into the primal dread of sudden animal attack like the “bears” story up thread. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/75 "2022-10-06T02:56:10Z")
Reflections and refractions are the likely explanation of numerous ufo sightings, especially from aircraft windshields. I get them from my eyeglasses from time to time. It’s worst when it disappears from my peripheral when I move my eyes because it only hits my retina at that exact angle. Creeped me out for a long while ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/76 "2022-10-06T04:47:21Z")
A while back, some Trump cronies said that what they dubbed a “satanic portal” had opened up above the White House. Even I, not a photographic expert by any stretch of the imagination, knew that was a lens artifact. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wX2wZK6TahM/hqdefault.jpg "RWW News: Roger Stone Claims There Is A 'Satanic Portal' Over The White House") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX2wZK6TahM) That anyone would believe these doofi is pretty creepy in itself. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/77 "2022-10-27T14:47:51Z")
Couldn’t just have been some DJ sneaking his own or a friend’s group song on the radio? ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/78 "2022-10-27T15:58:16Z")
I still shudder when I think of this crash: > **[Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1771)** > > Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 was a scheduled flight along the West Coast of the United States, from Los Angeles, California, to San Francisco. On December 7, 1987, the British Aerospace 146-200A, registration N350PS, crashed in San Luis Obispo County near Cayucos, after being hijacked by a passenger. > All 43 passengers and crew aboard the plane died, five of whom, including the two pilots, were presumably shot dead before the plane crashed. The perpetrator, David Burke, was a disgrun... It was a commuter flight between silicon valley and the LA area. Down and back in the same day. Like going to work. I, and most people I knew, had used it. The creepy part is that it’s outside of natural statistics. It’s not just risk. You’re locked inside of an aluminum tube and your very existence is at the whim of any one of 44 strangers. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/79 "2022-10-29T20:35:07Z")
> [@WhyKickAMooCow](#): > > Tourist found dead in a hotel roof top water tank after erratic behaviour I remember watching the video that was released before they found her. It was weird/creepy enough to have been in a slasher movie. > [@WhyKickAMooCow](#): > > Woman horrifically mutilated by pet chimp I wished I’d never heard of this one. Just horrific all around. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/80 "2022-10-29T21:59:39Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > It was a commuter flight between silicon valley and the LA area. Down and back in the same day. Like going to work. I, and most people I knew, had used it. I lived very near this crash site when it happened. It was unspeakable. Knew most of the Sheriff’s deputies who were responsible for the clean up. Let’s just say there were few pieces of anything larger than around 2 inches, and departmental trauma ensued for a long time. Terrifying crash. On the bright side, a lot of changes were made to security measures for crew after. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573.md?page=5)