By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories ​Poyang Lake is a large 1400 square mile body of water in China's Jiangxi Province. The lake was formed around 400 A.D. when the Gan River backed up and the flood swallowed the countryside sending people fleeing for their lives. Was this ravenous hunger from the newly formed lake a foreshadowing of a hunger that is never satisfied? Ships on Lake Poyang (Source - VagabondJourney) There are places on earth, which like a magnet to steel draws in things and people to a doomed ending. Sometimes there are no clues left in order to answer the question ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories Over a hundred years ago on April 1, 1922, all the newspapers carried the news of the death of Josefa and Rosa Blazek conjoined Siamese twins who died two days before in Chicago. Blazek twins as babies with their mother The doctor treating them said "the death of one sister would result in the immediate death of the other," unless they were separated. Their brother, Frank Blazek refused to permit an operation to separate their bodies. According to Illinois law he was the only adult relative capable of giving consent for the procedure. Many cla ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories ​Burton Agnes Hall is a manor house built in the 17th century by Sir Henry Griffith. Close by is the original manor house that dates back to Norman times built by Roger de Stuteville. No doubt a structure with so much history has more than one phantom, but none as mysterious as the ghost of Katherine Anne Griffith. Portrait of the 3 Griffith sisters which might not be accurate YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND 1620 Sir Henry Griffith died in 1620; he had served as attorney general to Henry VIII. He had several children, and upon his death his son Henry (1603 ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories It was a freezing January morning in 1937, only months before Japan occupied the Forbidden City of Peking, when Pamela Werner's savagely, mutilated body was found near the Fox Tower just outside the city's Legation Quarter where the foreign embassies were located.  Legation Street, East Gate, this area was home to foreign diplomats. PEKING, CHINA 1937 Two teenage girls made plans to go skating at the new French ice rink on the evening of January 6. The girls along with most who lived inside the Legation Quarter were ignorant that the occu ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories​ Despite our ignorance about the vast oceans that cover the majority of our planet's surface, many find it difficult to believe that gargantuan, humanoid-type animals have been seen in different parts of the Pacific Ocean.  Ningen is believed to prefer cold water, and is a nocturnal creature Ningen translates as human in Japanese, and it was given this name by the fisherman who saw it in the 1990s. They were shocked by its large size, albino appearance and humanoid profile. It considered an Unidentified Mysterious Animal (UMA) ​They ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories Human sacrifice, animal slaughter, human trafficking and child pornography are some of the terrifying crimes that have been investigated in South Africa by a police unit that is tasked specifically to uncover the perpetrators of these heinous acts. However the work has become so dangerous that for the last few years amid rumors they were disbanded is the belief that they have gone underground. Sangomas or traditional healers are very common in the Dark Continent, especially in the area of South Africa. Sangomas or isangomas describe themselves ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories In 1970 Carol Anne Fitzmaurice, a 23-year-old nurse, without any known enemies was savagely stabbed to death in her home. Both her family and the investigators in the case, not only question the identity of the killer but the motive as well. Despite the passage of more than 50 years both of these questions have never been answered. Daniel Fitzmaurice (1944-1972) Carol Ann Fitzmaurice née Manzo was murdered on October 20, 1970 in her home at the corner of West Five Mile Home and Chapin roads in Allegany, New York. She was found st ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories The Roaring Twenties were in full swing in Miami when the Cuban Consulate was established in NW Dade County. Little did anyone imagine, the building would go on to become one of Miami's most famous haunted houses. Villa Paula c.2015 Built for Don Domingo Milord, Cuba's consul general, Cuban materials and laborers were imported for its construction. Moorish arches and Spanish tiles exemplified a luxurious Cuban-style villa. Havana architect Cayetano Freixas designed it with 18-foot-high ceilings, hand-painted floor tiles and Tuscan columns ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories This 19-foot crocodile-like reptile roamed China about 1000 B.C. Remains have been found ritualistically beheaded and scientists believe this new species was driven to extinction by being over-hunted. Hanyusuchus sinensis The fossil remains of two creatures were killed between 1400 to 1000 B.C. during southern China's Bronze Age. Chinese researchers first discovered the fossils in the 1960s and 1970s. Still, it was misidentified as a living species and was ignored. Closer study of the skulls and other bones identified it as a gharial, an anim ..read more

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories ​Texarkana is a small town that straddles the state line between Texas and Arkansas, and in the spring of 1946 an unidentified assailant attacked eight people in the span of ten weeks. Five of them were killed. The news media named him the "Phantom Killer" or the "Phantom Slayer" because witnesses later described him as wearing a white mask or sack with holes cut for eyes.  Jimmy Hollis  Between February 22 to May 3, 1946, this killer who only struck on weekends, terrorized a town. Police suspected that because he would not kill durin ..read more