# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/121 "2024-11-11T18:37:30Z")
Not so much creeped out, but “Hmm!”: Stephen King relayed a story he got from the Wallachinsky folks (The Book of Lists) about a little girl who was trampled to death in a circus fire back in the 1940s. Even though her face was untouched and there was nationwide media coverage, including pictures in all the major newspapers, _nobody_ claimed her. To this day, no one is sure who she is. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/122 "2024-11-11T18:41:13Z")
I _think_ you’re describing [Little Miss 1565](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_circus_fire#Little_Miss_1565), one of 167 people killed in a Ringling Brothers Circus tent fire in Hartford, Connecticut in 1944. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Eleanor_Emily_Cook_post_mortem.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Eleanor_Emily_Cook_post_mortem.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/123 "2024-11-11T18:42:48Z")
That’s the one; Charles Nelson Reilly was there as a toddler. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/124 "2024-11-11T18:45:01Z")
I learned about that fire at _some_ point in a Connecticut public school education. (And, BTW, she’s since been identified.) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/125 "2024-11-11T18:48:29Z")
Wikipedia was sorta sketchy regarding who claimed her; do you have a name? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/126 "2024-11-11T18:55:26Z")
The Wikipedia article says she was identified in 1991 as Eleanor Emily Cook. [Here](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/02/nyregion/our-towns.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZE4.wPGN.TULdIQqUru2M&smid=url-share)’s a gift link to a New York Times article about how she was ultimately identified. It doesn’t mention DNA matching, though that may not have been possible in 1991 but says, “On March 8, 1991, the Connecticut State Medical Examiner ruled that corpse 1565 was Eleanor.” ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/127 "2024-11-11T18:56:58Z")
Much obliged! Another good yarn slain by the facts. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/128 "2024-11-11T18:59:16Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Charles Nelson Reilly was there as a toddler. Actually he was a teenager, and the fire had a profound effect on him for the rest of life as would be expected. Even though he spent most of his acting career on the stage he all but refused to sit in an audience and when he did he insisted on sitting at the very back next to an exit. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/129 "2024-11-11T19:07:13Z")
The Wikipedia article also mentions that the actress who played Madge the manicurist in those old Palmolive commercials was also present. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/130 "2024-11-11T19:11:23Z")
And thanks for the NYT article. Some people in this world still know how to write. BTW: Eleanor is sometimes mislabeled as Little Miss Nobody, which is a whole different story. Accept no substitutes. (It was a good yarn while it lasted.) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/131 "2024-11-11T23:23:58Z")
There continues to be doubt as to whether that child really was Eleanor Cook. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/132 "2024-11-11T23:57:58Z")
They _could_ do DNA testing, though that would require disinterring the remains. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/133 "2024-11-12T00:03:41Z")
Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? > **[Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_put_Bella_in_the_Wych_Elm%3F)** > > "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?" is the final form of a series of graffiti connected with the discovery in 1943 of the remains of a murdered woman inside a wych elm on the outskirts of Hagley in Worcestershire. The body has remained unidentified and the case unsolved since then, prompting many media articles and films, as well as dramas, an opera and a musical. > On 18 April 1943, four local boys (Robert Hart, Thomas Willetts, Bob Farmer and Fred Payne) were poaching or bird–nesting\[n 1\] in Ha... ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/134 "2024-11-12T00:17:05Z")
And the community does not want this done. They want her to stay at rest, whoever she was. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/135 "2024-12-08T20:19:42Z")
I just watched an episode of Diabolical on Cindy McKay. That woman left so much wreckage behind her. She stole from so many people and killed several. She effortlessly moved from one name to another and escaped justice for years. I do not understand people like her, thankfully. Whew, it’s a lot. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/136 "2024-12-08T21:54:25Z")
Video Unavailable. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/137 "2024-12-08T22:15:47Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > The Serial Killer Israel Keyes creeps me out. Especially if you see the picture of Samantha Koenig. I’ve heard the picture you see online was actually a fake made for the movie on it, but even if that is true (it may be real) still creepy af after hearing the backstory on how the real photo was made. ETA: If you read this and don’t know what I’m taking about that’s a good thing. It is seriously fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/138 "2024-12-08T22:44:25Z")
Very late reply, but it doesn’t seem all that mysterious that the lake would contain bodies - looking at the photos in the article, it’s basically at the bottom of a steeply conical crater. It’s easy to imagine that if there was a fair bit of ice cover, a person could slide down into the bottom of that place and not be able to climb back out before dying of exposure. The sheer quantity of bodies there is disturbing, I suppose, depending on how remote or frequented the place is. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/139 "2024-12-08T23:35:27Z")
Regarding the hundreds of bodies around the remote lake: My guess as to why they were there, only to be killed most likely by a freak storm, is that the lake held some kind of religious or cultural significance that is long forgotten, and they were there for a ritual gathering. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2024, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/140 "2024-12-09T06:13:51Z")
But the BBC article says > They found that the dead were both genetically diverse and their deaths were separated in time by as much as 1,000 years. > “It upends any explanations that involved a single catastrophic event that lead to their deaths,” Eadaoin Harney, the lead author of the study, and a doctoral student at Harvard University, told me. “It is still not clear what happened at Roopkund Lake, but we can now be certain that the deaths of these individuals cannot be explained by a single event.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573.md?page=8)