Photos are a way of keeping the past and your memories are frozen in time. It is a very impressive technology and a lot of happy memories remain with us thanks to photography. But what we don’t pay attention to is that photos sometimes capture the creepiest things and documents them as well.
Sometimes, you might even have a photo with your killer. Maybe a wanted criminal might be seen in the background of your photo or nobody knows if the last photo you took might be the last. A lot of upsetting and unsettling stories are woven behind photographs. Here is a viral Reddit thread where people share and discuss the stories behind some of the world’s creepiest photos.
Reddit users share a lot of photos and also information on them. These photos include the photo of John Lenon talking with and signing an autograph for his killer, hours apart from his murder. KermitTheFraud92 the initiator of this thread explained to Bored Panda that this collection is a good example to be aware of people because some of these killers, seem to be very comfortable moments before or after murders.
These photos help us to understand that evil is never truly gone and taking care of ourselves, loved ones, and people, in general, should never stop. It might creep you out that only some of the famously known criminals are brought to justice while others have disappeared.
Let’s check out the collection of photos that we picked up for you from this thread. Scroll down to read the stories behind these pictures below. Please share your thoughts with us in the comments sections below.
More info & Photo courtesy: Reddit
#1 The Beginning Of The End.
This photo of JP Morgan and Lya Graf, a performer for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, caused her to become an overnight sensation, but she couldn't deal with all the attention. So she moved back home to Germany, where she was later arrested and sent to Auschwitz for being Jewish and she was deemed an unfit human. Not much is known about her, but it's assumed that she and her family did not survive.
#2 Death Coming At These Three Girls.
#3 In The Hands Of A Killer.
This is serial killer John Edward Robinson (yellow sweater) holding baby Tiffany Stasi, whose mother he murdered the day before. He later gave baby Tiffany to his brother, saying she was adopted. His brother, along with Tiffany, didn’t find out the truth for 15 years. Only eight of his victims have been identified, and he's been on death row since 2000.
#4 Not A Happily Ever After.
#5 One Trail Ended Short.
This is the photo Kurt Diemberger took after his companion, the illustrious alpinist Hermann Buhl, fell into the abyss on the Himalayan mountain Chogolisa. Buhl was walking behind Diemberger and momentarily left the trail after which he fell through an overhanging cornice. He remains in the ice.
#6 The Smiles Are Not The Same.
That night Ashman told Menken they needed to have a serious talk when they got back to New York, and when they got back a couple days later, Ashman told Menken he had AIDS and was going to die. They had been songwriting partners for over a decade and were in the middle of working on Beauty and the Beast. So it looks like a happy photo of two men achieving their wildest dream, but it's really a record of the last normal moment they had together. And while Menken is all smiles, if you look closely at Ashman you can tell something's wrong.
#7 Their Death Was Waiting.
Just a couple of astronauts posing in zero gravity happy to have such an incredible opportunity, like astronauts often do. Meanwhile they have no idea that their space shuttle is irreparably damaged, and in fact will be dead in a few days during reentry (which was considered “safe” until then). It’s the crew for Columbia for those who don’t know, whose tiles were damaged during the launch of the shuttle into space by foam. No one knew how bad the damage was until it disintegrated.
#8 He Was Right There.
#9 The Polish Killer.
This is a picture of First Lady Rosalynn Carter in 1978 shaking hands with serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who was active in politics at the time. By that time, he had already killed over 20 young men. He's wearing an "S" on his lapel, which was given to him by the Secret Service to indicate that he'd been given security clearance. The picture was even signed, "To John Gacy, best wishes, Rosalynn Carter."
#10 Desperation Can Be Horrific As Well.
This picture was taken of a group of survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash in the Andes. They were eventually saved but had to resort to cannibalism to survive. They are all smiling in the photo, but it becomes eerie when you see the human spine to the right of them in the picture.
#11 The Disturbed Woman.
Here is Juana Barraza, former Luchadora and Mexican serial killer. Her mother sold her to a man for three beers when she was 12 until her stepdad found her at 17. Ended up with four failed marriages and four kids and worked doing odd jobs as a cleaner. She strangled old ladies that reminded her of her mother by pretending to work for the government.
#12 The Girl Who Sat Through Her Childhood.
Genie was a 'feral' child. She was tied to a chair in a room her whole childhood and punished when she made noise. She was found, rescued, and they tried to teach her to speak, and she actually managed to learn to communicate a bit. By all we know now, she was curious, intelligent, and eager to learn. Her brain had just literally missed the window to learn language. As far as we know, she's been in an assisted living facility somewhere.
#13 The Blurry Picture Of Horror.
I still distinctly remember the first time I saw it. At the time, James Bulger was only missing, and it was regarded as a cause for optimism that he was last seen with other children. The truth was far worse than anyone imagined, and still inspires a visceral reaction unlike any other crime in my lifetime.
#14 The Famous Tank Man at the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Now, have a look at the guy in the background, top left. Have a look what's in the background, top right. That's the Tank Man from the Tiananmen Square massacre. Thought to be student Wang Weilin, this photo was snapped minutes before the famous one was taken. Nobody knows what happened to Weilin. He may have been executed, he may still be in prison, he may have fled to another country.
#15 Speaking To Your Killer.
#16 Moments Before He Met With His Fate.
#17 The Violin Which Calmed The People On The Titanic.
This is the Hartley Violin, owned by Wallace Hartley, the bandmaster and lead violinist on the Titanic. It was the one he carried with him and played on the night the ship sank. Survivors reported seeing Hartley and his band on the deck of the ship during the sinking, playing to calm passengers as they boarded the insufficient lifeboats. Hartley and every member of the band died in the sinking. We have his violin because at some unknown point before his death, Hartley tucked the violin back into its monogrammed case for safekeeping. That's how it was found, floating in the debris field, by one of the ships sent to recover bodies from the wreck. They were able to identify it as Hartley's because of an engraved brass plate, and it was returned to his fiancé, who kept it until her death. Her family authenticated it and sold it for $1.6M to an organization that collects Titanic artifacts."
#18 An Off Day Of The Auschwitz staff.
#19 Two Guys.
#20 Not His Real Daughter.
This is the leading image on Franklin Delano Floyd. In actuality, the little girl is Floyd's stepdaughter, Suzanne Marie Sevakis, who he'd kidnapped around 1974, when Suzanne was under 10 years old. He would go on to raise her as his daughter, putting her through high school under several pseudonyms, have a son with her in 1988, and marry her in 1989, under the name Tonya Hughes. By 1990, Suzanne had decided to leave Floyd and take her son, Michael, with her. In April of that year, she was found beaten and bruised on the side of a highway, and she subsequently died in the hospital. Michael went into foster care and was adopted, only to be kidnapped by Floyd in 1994 and to never be seen again.
#21 Hours Before Dying.
#22 Walking Hand-In-Hand To Their Death.
#23 Harold Agnew
This is physicist Harold Agnew holding the nuclear core of the Fat Man atomic bomb, which was dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. The bomb ended up killing about 80,000 people, many of whom died from the long-term effects the bomb caused, like radiation illness and leukemia.
#24 Before The Omagh car bombing,1998.
This happy photo of the father and daughter was taken moments before the Omagh car bombing in 1998. The bomb placed by a group known as the Real IRA was in this red car and killed 29 people, including the photographer who took this photo. Both the father and daughter survived.
#25 The Pair Of Killers.
#26 Serial Killer On A Reality Show.
#27
A kid went missing while hiking a spot on the Big Island of Hawaii. He texted some pictures of the scenery while he was hiking. After he never showed up at home, his family noticed somebody lurking in bushes in the photos he sent. [If I remember correctly], my family that live in Hawaii said the spot is illegal to hike at, so it’s not like it would have been a heavily populated trail.
#28 The Family Photo.
#29 Final Family Dinner.
The kid on the right, Bart Whitaker, had paid two of his buddies to murder his family that night. They would kill the mother and brother, but the father, who took the photo, survived.
Bart was later sentenced to death, but after his father strongly opposed it, Texas Governor Greg Abbott granted him clemency, and he is now serving a life sentence
#30 A Photo With The Murderer.
This is a photo of Tyler Hadley, the one holding a cup, at a party at his house. Just before this party, he murdered his mother and father with a hammer and hid their bodies in the master bedroom. During the party, Tyler showed his best friend, Michael Mandell, the room where he killed his parents, and he took this photo because he wasn't sure when he'd see Tyler again.