fascinatinghorror

The Tay Bridge Disaster

In this video I show a picture of the locomotive that pulled the train which was destroyed in the collapse. It’s in pretty bad shape, not only because of the crash, but because it was accidentally dropped while being retrieved from the water.

I...

The Worst Poet in History

Here's another of my "Fascinating Failures" - although this time it's a little different, as it's a creative failure rather than a business one. William McGonagall of Dundee was, and is, known for being quite possibly the worst poet ever to put pen to paper.

There are a good few examples of his poetry in the video, but if...

The Accidental Death Row Electrocution

While researching this short I came across a similar but somewhat different story: that of Troy Leon Gregg. Gregg was a convicted murderer, sentenced to death in Georgia. He wasn’t able to have his sentence commuted… but he did manage to escape from prison in 1980, along with two other prisoners. Again, though, his freedom was short...

The Roseville Yard Explosion

You might be wondering what became of the town of Antelope which was destroyed by this disaster. At the time, it consisted of only around 30 buildings: a post office, a general store and a handful of homes. The Roseville Yard explosions practically wiped it off the map.

It wasn’t until the late 1980s that Antelope was rebuilt… albeit i...

The Glass Tower Disaster

This one was a lot of fun to work on – a movie that I’ve enjoyed and had on my radar for quite a while, and one that rivals The Poseidon Adventure when it comes to classic 1970s hammy disaster-movie action sequences.

There are so many weird bits of trivia about this film, but here are two that I particularly enjoyed.

In ...

The Winecoff Hotel Fire

In this video I mention the hugely influential photograph taken by Arnold Hardy. It’s an interesting one, because it’s one of the last photographs he took. Although he had a keen interest in photography, he gave it up after winning the Pulitzer Prize, as he believed all his future work would be measured against that one incredibly high-profi...

The Fish with Human Teeth

You might have seen pictures of this fish elsewhere, perhaps under a different name. It’s sometimes known as the “convict” fish, because the stripes along its body resemble the stripes on an old prison jumpsuit. More recently videos have been posted on TikTok describing the creature as a “demon” fish. Which, 2024-03-22 11:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post

A Brief History of Hazing (Part Two)

There was one other unusual hazing death from the 1970s that I wanted to include in this video… but ultimately I just couldn’t find enough imagery to cover it. Here’s a newspaper article I did locate, though, ...

Adrift in the Pacific

There’s so much to this story that I couldn’t find space for in the video. If you’re interested in it, I definitely recommend the book 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin. It was written after months of interviews with Alvarenga himself, and is probably the most authoritative source that exists.

One thing I found particularly inte...

The Most Important Snail in History

If this story interests you at all, I’d definitely recommend reading more about it. The Wikipedia article on the case is a good place to start, as it contains a blow-by-blow summary of the whole incident, including extracts from various judgements. It ma...

The Buncefield Explosion

I’m old enough to have a clear memory of this accident, which was a pretty big news story all over the UK. There had, I recall, quite recently been a terrorist attack in London, and so people were very much on high alert. When the news first broke, many commentators were convinced that it was another deliberate bombing.

Another thing I r...

The Khodynka Crush

Given when this disaster took place, I was surprised to see that there are quite a few of the souvenir cups that were handed out at the banquet still in circulation. Here’s a listing for one that sold at auction in 2007 for around £300.

1896 was over...

The Oubliette

Identifying an oubliette is sometimes an easy task: if it’s stacked full of human bones, it may well have been an oubliette at one point or another. In some cases, though, it’s much more tricky. Features that look like an oubliette in design may actually be storage facilities, strong rooms, ice houses or latrines. 

2024-02-23 11:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post

The Hoover "Fly for Free" Fiasco

Here's another "Fascinating Failure" that I thought I'd share with you a little early (I'll be publishing it on the channel next week). This one covers the Hoover Holidays scandal, which was quite a big deal in the UK in the 1990s.

My family happened to have a Hoover-brand vacuum cleaner when I was growing up. I was too young to be tuned i...

The Pemberton Mill Collapse

While researching this video I spent quite a long time trying to determine what the new Pemberton Mill building is used for today. Other mills in the area have been converted into apartment buildings, or are used for other industrial activities.

But the Pemberton Mill itself is unlabelled on Google Maps, and even when you 2024-02-20 11:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post

The Zacatón Sinkhole Accident

While I was doing some background reading for this story I came across this rather unusual form. It’s posted on a very old-looking site dedicated to diving with a particular mix of gases known as Trimix. The purpose of the form? Ostensibly it’s to be given to a...

This Fungus Turns Ants Into Zombies

I can’t complete a short about the Ophiocordyceps fungus without mentioning the video game The Last of Us. It’s an excellent game with a very compelling story, set in a world where a fungus that infects and controls humans has spread out of control. The TV series made after the video game is also very good – though be war...

Workplace Horrors

I showed a few lockout/tagout devices in the last part of this video… but there are many, many more out there. In fact, there’s pretty much a device custom-designed for locking out any machine you can think of.

Here’s one to prevent a device from bein...

The Estadio Nacional Disaster

I wasn’t able to find footage of the disputed goal that I could get permission to use in the video… but it appears that it was captured on camera. Here’s some footage that I was able to find elsewhere on YouTube. At around the 00:50 mark there’s ...

The Quietest Room on Earth

When I was working on this short I watched some videos of the anechoic chamber to get an idea of what it’s like inside. Here’s one that I really enjoyed. There’s an excellent demonstration of a man clapping while they slowly close the door of the chamber �...

The Big Bayou Canot Disaster

There’s one other notable accident involving the Sunset Limited that also took place in the 1990s – although in the case of this one it’s not particularly clear what happened. In the early hours of the morning on the 9th of October, 1995, the Sunset Limited derailed in the Arizona desert.

One person (a conductor) was killed,...

The Blitz

In the video I mention that there was a lack of deep shelters early on in the Blitz… and that it took a lot of protest by ordinary people to change this. One person who really stands out when it comes to this bit of history is Michael (or “Mickey”) Davies.

2024-01-16 11:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post

The Unluckiest Lucky Escape

This is an example of a very well-documented close call. It’s interesting to note, though, that in the months after the sinking of the Titanic, it appears that quite a large number of people claimed (mostly without evidence) to have “just missed” boarding the ship. 

2024-01-12 11:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post

The Gillingham Fair Disaster

The inquest into this disaster was unable to determine what had caused the house to burn before it was scheduled to… but they weren’t totally without evidence. The testimony of 16-year-old dock worker Jack Richards sheds some light on what might have happened.

Jack testified that he entered the house before the demonstration, ...

The Worst Speech in History

Here's something a little different: today I'm sharing a video from my other channel (https://www.youtube.com/@KristianCrow) that I'm hoping will be the first in a series. I'm tentatively calling them "Fascinating Failures".

Instead of covering a crash, sinking, ...

The Daegu Subway Fire

The construction of a "Safety Theme Park" is a rather unusual development in the wake of a disaster. From the accounts I’ve read of this one, though, it certainly seems to be effective. The attraction helps visitors prepare for earthquakes, rollover car accidents, subway train evacuations, and common medical emergencies... and it does so using...

The English City Underneath New York

There’s apparently not much to see at Bristol Basin, although there is a plaque that was installed in 1974, which has a rather poetic way of describing the situation:

“Beneath this East River Drive of the City of New York lie stones, bricks and rubble from the bombed City of Bristol in England. Brought here in ballast from...

2023-12-29 11:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post