False Walls
Location: Stockholm Sweden This year, I found myself in various locations in the Nordic countries, a region that contains stunning natural phenomena as well as a deep folklore populated by an endless cast of mystical beings. Trolls inhabit lakes and dark caves, elves are found in deep forests and waterfalls, giants inhabit mountain ranges and rocky islands. And yet even in the modern cities, folklore and legend can be found, ghosts and traces of history, real and imagined, overlap in certain places, hiding in plain sight but available for those of us who know where, and how...
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Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait Welcome to part two of our search for hidden statues, figurative memorial symbols of power or commemoration that have fallen from favor, pulled from their pedestals and have been defaced, destroyed, decapitated and/or hidden away in secret locations as shameful totems of the past. In our last episode, I brought to you my adventures in statue hunting in Albania, a beautiful place with a dark past that is physically impossible to ignore. I found a small but potent gang of dictators lurking behind the local art museum, a graven...
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If there exists a moment in time in which the powers that be go through the machinations to create and erect a figurative memorial statue, the powers that be may eventually fall from favor, the moment in time the statue represents may eventually be seen as a less than ideal moment of history, and these symbolic construction may be pulled from their pedestal, dragged through the streets, and thrown into the river. Or worse.
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This story involves murder, mystery, cryptic clues, hidden identities, and ulterior motives, all wrapped around one the best known tales in what we now call the True Crime genre. But we’ll look beyond the usual voyeuristic parlor games and shine a little light on the real people, and the real circumstances, that lead to the horrific real life killing of several women in Victorian London, as well as the strange secret that some feel the museum itself is built upon.
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Over 1500 prisoners made their way to Alcatraz federal Penitentiary during the 33 years it was operational. Those individuals who caused the most trouble at their respective home prisons were carefully evaluated and sent to Alcatraz. But make no mistake, prison behavior aside, the walls of this prison were filled with murderers and thieves. Let’s get to know some of them.
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The isolation is eerie and palpable, and insult is even more injurious as the glittering lights of downtown San Francisco and all of it’s wanton freedoms are within plain sight, only 1.25 miles away. And as far as we know, though there is some margin for debate that we shall explore, there’s no solid evidence that anyone who has attempted to escape from Alcatraz ever survived. Or did they?
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It is Friday the 13th, 1973
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“The Ten Courts Of Hell are contained in a large, snake shaped mountain of crumbling plaster, which at one point was in the form of a large dragon. Small severed heads adorn the outside, with an inscription in Chinese that I would later learn translates to “The sea of bitterness has no boundaries, turn back and you will find shore”. I suppose this was meant as a warning, a portent of what lay waiting for me inside, but I ignored the heads and ominous writing and headed toward the opening…”
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"Graceland Too is a garish, decaying colonial home in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the world’s most insane fire hazard of an Elvis museum, a decrepit doppelganger, alternate universe facsimile of the real thing. Every single inch of the home is covered in multiple layers of Presley memorabilia, an impenetrable strata of priceless junk, a hoarder’s heaven. It’s a handmade shrine to the King, the dream of a man who exhibited signs of utter dedication and, in retrospect, serious issues..."
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“Traveling around the Middle East, sometimes I was able to find a guy with a car who I could convince to be as excited about as I am about discovering hidden local gems, people that were up for a little adventure. Mr Islam, though polite, was not one of them. It took a little extra persuasion, and a couple extra bucks, but eventually we headed out of Doha proper in search of camelbots…”
info_outlineIt is Friday the 13th, 1973...
Misty morning… clouds in the sky.
Without warning… a wizard walks by.
Well, perhaps not a wizard, but rather a magician, and occultist, paranormal investigator, a vampire hunter...