Despite our high school teachers' painstakingly crafted curriculums, there's a whole lot more to history than your AP Euro exam. Just ask the brave camerapeople who snapped these photos, ones depicting war, terror, and the darkest parts of our human history.
From an ominously worded tourist brochure to off-duty serial killers and even a glimpse at former First Lady Jackie Kennedy moments after her husband, President John F. Kennedy's assassination, here are 22 harrowing images from the darker side of history.
1
“The liquidators worked in the immediate vicinity of the damaged reactor. Tschernobyl 1986.”
2
“A highly radioactive fish photographed following Baker Nuclear test, Bikini Atoll, 1946.”
3
“A Serbian soldier sleeps with his father who came to visit him on the front line near Belgrade, 1914/1915.”
4
“Advertising brochure from The World Trade Center, 1973.”
5
“Jail cell used during the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s.”
6
“An excavation of victims at one of Californian serial killer Juan Corona's burial sites, 1972.”
7
“[German] Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels before and after finding out a photographer was Jewish.”
8
“A Hiroshima man's shadow imprinted onto the ground by the atomic bomb.”
9
“The legend of Charlie No-Face spread among children of 1960s Pennsylvania like wildfire. Otherwise known as The Green Man, this faceless figure was said to roam the roadways at night and glow green as the result of an industrial accident. While the legend was eerie enough, the truth was far scarier — and all the more tragic. The story begins with eight-year-old Raymond Robinson who, in 1919, accidentally shocked himself with 11,000 volts of electricity, causing his face to all but explode. He survived despite sustaining disfiguring injuries to his face and arms, then became a hermit by day to avoid ridicule over his appearance.”
10
“The contents of Ted Bundy's murder kit.”
11
“Lyndon B. Johnson stands next to Jacqueline Kennedy while he's sworn in as President after the assassination of JFK. (1963).”
12
“Italian soldiers wearing gas masks. Shot by my great grandfather in Italy, 1916.”
13
“Yossi Ghinsberg, the day he was found, having been lost alone in the Amazon for three weeks. 1981.”
14
“In 1901, French police received an anonymous tip that a woman was being held captive. Officers found a 55-pound prisoner named Blanche Monnier, pictured here just after her discovery. She had been trapped against her will in that room for 25 years - by her very own mother.”
15
“‘Titanic orphans’ Michel and Edmond Navratil, 1912.”
16
“Two men making a death mask, New York, circa 1908.”
17
“34-year-old Homer Peel kisses his 12-year-old bride on the courthouse steps in Madisonville, Tennessee, 1937.”
18
“The last public execution by guillotine, France, 1939.”
19
“Mickey Mouse Gas Mask For American Children In WWII.”
20
“Creepy 1000 yard smile from unknown WWI soldier 1916 -1918.”
21
“The message in lipstick left on Frances Brown's flat wall by The Lipstick Killer in 1945: ‘For heaven's Sake, catch me Before I kill more I cannot control myself.’”
22
“Christmas Day 1981. Seen in this photo is Kerri Rawson and her father Dennis Rader, better known to the world as serial killer BTK.”
