CREEPIEST WIKIPEDIA Pages You Shouldn't Read At Night

Summary

This video script delves into the macabre corners of Wikipedia, exploring disturbing historical events and medical curiosities. It covers Unit 731's heinous WWII experiments, the unethical human radiation tests by the US and USSR, bizarre cases like Tarrare's insatiable appetite, and Armin Meiwes' cannibalism. The script also touches on mass psychogenic illness, unusual deaths, and the bleak predictions of the Timeline of the Far Future, reminding viewers of humanity's small place in the cosmos.

Takeaways

• ☠️ Unit 731 was a covert Japanese military unit that conducted lethal human experiments, resulting in thousands of deaths and contributing to hundreds of thousands of fatalities through disease and warfare.
• 🧬 Human Radiation Experiments, including those by the Soviet Union and the USA, involved exposing individuals to radioactive materials without their consent, causing severe health issues and birth defects.
• 🔬 The US has a history of unethical human experimentation, with cases spanning from the 1840s to the 20th century, often targeting vulnerable populations like children, the mentally ill, and racial minorities.
• 💣 The 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia led to the destruction of homes and the deaths of several MOVE members, including children, in a controversial law enforcement action.
• 🍽️ Tarrare, known for his insatiable appetite, consumed both inedible objects and live animals, and was used as a military courier, swallowing documents to deliver messages.
• 🥩 Armin Meiwes, known as the 'Rotenburg Cannibal,' murdered and ate another man with the victim's consent, leading to a life imprisonment sentence.
• 🤯 Mass psychogenic illness, or mass hysteria, can cause widespread symptoms like headaches and dizziness without a clear organic cause, affecting groups of people simultaneously.
• 💀 The List of Unusual Deaths on Wikipedia documents bizarre and rare causes of death, from ancient times to recent events, highlighting the unpredictability of fate.
• ⏳ The Timeline of the Far Future article predicts the eventual extinction of humanity and the decay of all matter in the universe, instilling a sense of cosmic dread and our insignificance in the grand scheme of time.

Q & A

What was Unit 731, and what kind of activities did it engage in during World War II?

Unit 731 was a covert research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army dedicated to testing and manufacturing biological and chemical weapons during World War II. It engaged in lethal human experimentation on prisoners, leading to the deaths of thousands and contributing to the spread of infectious diseases that caused further fatalities.

How many people are estimated to have died as a direct result of Unit 731's activities?

Between 1 and 14 thousand prisoners are estimated to have been killed in Unit 731's experiments between 1937 and 1945. Additionally, around three hundred thousand are thought to have been killed by infectious diseases caused by their activities, and up to four hundred thousand died as a direct result of biological warfare using the weapons they developed.

What were some of the gruesome experiments conducted by Unit 731 on their prisoners?

Unit 731 conducted a range of inhumane experiments on prisoners, including injecting them with diseases, subjecting them to controlled dehydration, placing them in hypobaric pressure chambers, organ harvesting, limb amputations, and live vivisections, as well as testing weapons on thousands of people at a time.

Can you provide an overview of the human radiation experiments mentioned in the script?

The script refers to human radiation experiments conducted by both the Soviet Union and the United States. These experiments involved exposing individuals to ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination to study its effects on the human body. They included injecting terminally ill patients with plutonium, feeding radioactive substances to children, and irradiating prisoners, among other unethical practices.

What is the significance of the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia?

The 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia was a police action that resulted in the destruction of multiple homes and the deaths of several MOVE members, including women and children. The police's use of excessive force led to a fire that spread to neighboring homes, leaving many homeless and raising questions about civil rights and police militarization.

Who was Tarrare, and why is his story considered disturbing?

Tarrare was an 18th-century Frenchman known for his insatiable appetite, which led him to eat both inedible objects and live animals. His condition deteriorated his health, and he became the subject of medical experiments. His story is disturbing due to the extreme nature of his appetite and the gruesome details of what he consumed.

What was the unusual case of Armin Meiwes, and how did it become internationally known?

Armin Meiwes was a German computer repair technician who gained notoriety for murdering and consuming another human being who had willingly volunteered for it. Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter initially, which was later changed to murder upon retrial, resulting in a life sentence. His case drew international attention due to the bizarre and gruesome nature of the crime.

What is meant by 'mass psychogenic illness,' and how does it relate to the script?

Mass psychogenic illness, also known as mass hysteria, refers to the spread of illness symptoms among a group of people without a clear organic cause. The script mentions this phenomenon as an example of disturbing psychological occurrences, highlighting how such illnesses can affect large groups without any biological agent.

What are some examples of unusual deaths mentioned in the script?

The script mentions a variety of unusual deaths, including being killed by a hippopotamus, smothered by hats and cloaks, accidentally setting oneself on fire while hiding the act of smoking, being struck by a meteorite, and even dying in a homemade electric chair.

How does the 'Timeline of the Far Future' contribute to a sense of disturbance or dread?

The 'Timeline of the Far Future' contributes to a sense of disturbance by illustrating the vast timescales of the universe and the eventual extinction of humanity. It reminds readers of the cosmic insignificance of human existence and the inevitability of the end of all matter.

Outlines

00:00

🔬 Unit 731: The Horrors of Human Experimentation

This paragraph delves into the gruesome activities of Unit 731, a covert Japanese military unit that conducted lethal human experiments during World War II. The unit, responsible for developing biological and chemical weapons, is estimated to have caused the deaths of thousands of prisoners through various inhumane methods, including disease injections, organ harvesting, and live vivisections. The experiments led to a significant number of casualties, with hundreds of thousands dying from diseases and the effects of biological warfare. The paragraph highlights the atrocities committed and the lack of survivors, emphasizing the disturbing nature of such historical events.

05:04

☢️ Human Radiation Experiments: A Dark Chapter in Science

The second paragraph explores the unethical human radiation experiments conducted by both the Soviet Union and the United States. It discusses the Soviet Union's use of prisoners for radiation experiments and the mining of radioactive ore, with much information remaining classified. The focus then shifts to the US, where government agencies funded numerous experiments involving the injection of radioactive materials into patients without their consent. The paragraph also touches on the use of radiation on soldiers and prisoners, and the exposure of vulnerable populations, including children and pregnant women, to observe the effects of radiation. The summary underscores the lack of ethics and the long-term impact of these experiments on the victims and their families.

10:04

🏥 Unethical Medical Practices in American History

Paragraph three discusses the extensive history of unethical scientific experiments on human subjects in the United States. It starts with the case of J. Marion Sims, who performed surgeries on enslaved women without anesthesia, and continues with other examples of experiments conducted by doctors and government agencies, including the CDC, the military, and the CIA. The paragraph covers a range of experiments, from exposure to chemical and biological weapons to mind-altering substances and torture during the Cold War. It highlights the consistent targeting of vulnerable populations, such as children, the mentally ill, racial minorities, and prisoners, and the lack of oversight or authorization from Congress for these experiments.

15:05

💥 The Tragedy of the 1985 MOVE Bombing

This paragraph recounts the disturbing events of the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia, where the city's police department used excessive force against the MOVE organization, leading to the destruction of homes and the deaths of multiple people, including children. The MOVE group, part of the black liberation movement, was targeted by the police, who dropped explosives on their residence, igniting a fire that spread to neighboring homes. The incident resulted in legal action against the city, with the police's actions deemed a violation of constitutional rights. The summary captures the tragedy and the dehumanization of the MOVE members by the authorities.

20:06

🍽️ Tarrare: The Man with an Insatiable Appetite

Paragraph five introduces Tarrare, a man with an extraordinarily insatiable appetite, who became known for his ability to consume inedible items and live animals. Born in France in the 18th century, Tarrare's hunger forced him to leave home and find work as a showman and soldier. His condition led to medical experiments where he consumed massive quantities of food and even live animals. Tarrare's unique ability was briefly utilized by the French army for courier purposes, but he was captured and tortured during his first mission. Despite attempts to cure his condition, Tarrare continued to scavenge for food and even resorted to consuming blood and corpses. His death was marked by unusual medical findings, including a large stomach with ulcers. The summary provides a glimpse into the life of a man whose condition was both a curse and a source of morbid fascination.

25:07

🗡️ Armin Meiwes: The Cannibal of Rotenburg

The final paragraph details the chilling case of Armin Meiwes, a man who murdered and consumed another human being with the victim's consent. Meiwes, a former computer repair technician, sought a willing victim through an online post and found one in Bernd-Jürgen Armando Brandes. The encounter was filmed, and Meiwes went on to eat parts of Brandes' body over a period of ten months. Meiwes was arrested and initially sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, which was later increased to life imprisonment after a retrial. The paragraph also touches on Meiwes' mental health diagnosis and the burning of his former home in 2023. The summary captures the disturbing nature of Meiwes' actions and the dark fascination surrounding his case.

🌀 Mass Psychogenic Illness: The Power of Suggestion

This paragraph explores mass psychogenic illness, also known as mass hysteria, which refers to the spread of illness symptoms without a clear infectious agent. The condition can affect groups of people and is thought to be triggered by external factors affecting the nervous system. The summary mentions historical examples, such as the dancing manias of the Middle Ages and a 1974 case in Alabama, where students experienced itches due to fears of a poison gas attack. The paragraph also discusses the psychological aspects of the illness and how it can manifest in anyone under the right circumstances, highlighting the complex nature of collective psychological phenomena.

💀 List of Unusual Deaths: A Macabre Chronicle

The paragraph discusses the Wikipedia article 'List of Unusual Deaths,' which chronicles rare and unique causes of death throughout history. It includes ancient examples, such as an Egyptian pharaoh killed by a hippopotamus and a Greek lawmaker smothered by gifts from admiring citizens. The summary also mentions more recent cases, like the death of a cosmonaut during a space mission and the tragic demise of a pizza delivery man who was forced to wear a bomb collar. The paragraph serves as a reminder of the unpredictability and diversity of fatal incidents that can befall humans and animals, adding a layer of morbid curiosity to the discussion of mortality.

🌌 The Timeline of the Far Future: A Cosmic Perspective

The final paragraph of the script introduces the 'Timeline of the Far Future' Wikipedia article, which attempts to predict the future of humanity and the universe based on current scientific understanding. The summary highlights the vast timescales involved, from the potential extinction of humanity to the eventual decay of all matter. It underscores the cosmic insignificance of human existence and the inevitable end of all life on Earth, invoking a sense of existential dread and awe at the immensity of time and space. The paragraph serves as a thought-provoking conclusion to the script, encouraging reflection on humanity's place in the universe.

Keywords

💡Unit 731

Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. It was involved in lethal human experimentation to develop its weapons, resulting in the deaths of thousands of prisoners. The term is significant in the video as it sets the tone for disturbing historical events and underscores the theme of unethical human experimentation.

💡Human Radiation Experiments

Human Radiation Experiments refers to the exposure of humans to ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination to study its effects. The video discusses these experiments, particularly those conducted by the Soviet Union and the United States, highlighting the unethical nature of scientific research when carried out without informed consent, emphasizing the video's theme of the dark side of scientific progress.

💡Ethics in Science

Ethics in Science pertains to the moral principles that should guide scientific research, especially regarding the treatment of human and animal subjects. The video uses examples of Unit 731 and radiation experiments to illustrate the violation of these ethical standards, showcasing the consequences when science is detached from moral considerations.

💡MOVE Bombing

The MOVE bombing was a law enforcement action in Philadelphia in 1985 that resulted in the deaths of several people and the destruction of homes. The video references this event to highlight state-sanctioned violence and to underscore the theme of disturbing historical incidents that have been overlooked or not fully addressed.

💡Unethical Human Experimentation

Unethical Human Experimentation in the United States is a Wikipedia page that details numerous cases of scientific experiments on human subjects without their knowledge or consent. The video uses this as a springboard to discuss the breadth of such practices, emphasizing the video's focus on the darker aspects of human history and the abuse of power.

💡Tarrare

Tarrare was a Frenchman known for his insatiable appetite and consumption of unusual items, including live animals. His story in the video serves as an example of the bizarre and disturbing aspects of human behavior and the limits of human physiology, adding to the video's exploration of the macabre.

💡Polyphagia

Polyphagia is a term used to describe an abnormally increased appetite, often leading to the consumption of inedible items. In the context of the video, it is associated with Tarrare and is used to provide a medical perspective on his extreme eating behaviors, furthering the video's theme of unusual human conditions.

💡Armin Meiwes

Armin Meiwes is infamous for a case of cannibalism in Germany, where he killed and ate another man with the victim's consent. The video mentions Meiwes to delve into the disturbing realm of extreme and illegal human behaviors, reinforcing the theme of the video's exploration into the darker aspects of humanity.

💡Mass Psychogenic Illness

Mass Psychogenic Illness, also known as mass hysteria, is a phenomenon where a group of people exhibit similar symptoms without a clear organic cause. The video discusses this to illustrate the power of suggestion and collective psychology, adding to the narrative of the unpredictable and sometimes inexplicable nature of human behavior.

💡Timeline of the Far Future

The Timeline of the Far Future is a Wikipedia page that speculates on long-term astronomical and cosmological events. The video references this to create a sense of existential dread and to emphasize the insignificance of human existence in the grand scale of the universe, aligning with the video's overarching theme of disturbing revelations.

Highlights

Unit 731 was a covert research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, notorious for its lethal human experimentation.

Between 1937 and 1945, an estimated 1 to 14 thousand prisoners were killed in Unit 731 experiments, with hundreds of thousands more dying from related diseases and biological warfare.

Experiments at Unit 731 included injecting prisoners with diseases, controlled dehydration, and live vivisections, among other heinous acts.

The Soviet Union and the United States both conducted extensive human radiation experiments, with many subjects being unaware of their participation.

The US government funded various unethical human radiation experiments, including injecting terminally ill patients with plutonium without their knowledge or consent.

Throughout American history, there have been numerous cases of scientific experiments on human test subjects without their informed consent.

J. Marion Sims, known as the father of gynecology, performed surgical experiments on enslaved African women without anesthesia.

The 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia resulted in the destruction of multiple homes and the deaths of several MOVE members, including children.

Tarrare, born in 1772, was known for his insatiable appetite and consumption of unusual items, including live animals.

Armin Meiwes, known as the 'Rotenburg Cannibal,' murdered and ate another human being with the victim's consent in a shocking case of cannibalism.

Mass psychogenic illness, also known as mass hysteria, can cause symptoms to spread rapidly through a group without a clear organic cause.

The List of Unusual Deaths on Wikipedia documents rare and unique causes of death throughout history, including those caused by animals and unusual accidents.

The Timeline of the Far Future predicts the eventual extinction of humanity and the disintegration of all matter in the universe, highlighting our insignificance in the cosmos.

Transcripts

Sadistic human experiments. A pizza man  trapped in a deadly game that would put Saw  

to shame. Diseases that make you dance yourself  to death. A lethal cannibal love affair, and so,  

so much more. Why would you watch a horror  movie when you could just visit Wikipedia? 

So, let’s delve into some of the most disturbing  Wikipedia pages, starting with Unit 731. 

As its harrowing Wikipedia entry explains,  Unit 731 was the name given to a covert  

research and development unit, otherwise known  as Manchu Detachment 731, the Kamo Detachment,  

and the Ishii Unit. Owned and operated by the  Imperial Japanese Army, Unit 731 was dedicated  

to testing and manufacturing various biological  and chemical weapons throughout the Second World  

War. And as if the existence of such weapons  wasn’t disturbing enough, the Wikipedia page  

also further details how the research was  conducted at Unit 731 – and to say it wasn’t  

pretty would be a significant understatement. This unit engaged in lethal human experimentation  

to develop their weapons. While the estimates for  the total number of deaths vary, it’s thought that  

between 1 and 14 thousand prisoners were killed  in Unit 731 between the years of 1937 and 1945.  

A further three hundred thousand are thought to  have been killed by infectious diseases caused by  

the experiments and activities of Unit 731, with  as many as four hundred thousand dying as a direct  

result of biological warfare using the weapons  this unit developed by testing on living people. 

Victims included kidnapped men, women, and  children, with the majority being Chinese  

prisoners captured as a result of the Second  Sino-Japanese War, the conflict fought between  

the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan as  part of World War Two. Over the course of the war,  

Unit 731 became the site of some of the Japanese  armed forces’ most heinous war crimes, including  

injecting prisoners with diseases, subjecting  them to controlled dehydration, placing them  

in hypobaric pressure chambers, harvesting their  organs, amputating limbs and live vivisections,  

as well as testing standard and biological  weapons on as many as three thousand people  

at a time during single experiments. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there are zero  

documented survivors of Unit 731. As well as the  nearly half a million people killed as a result of  

its experiments and related programs, any leftover  prisoners were executed in the final moments of  

the Second World War to conceal evidence. And sadly, Unit 731 isn’t the only page  

on Wikipedia that details some  truly gruesome human experiments. 

One entry, simply titled Human Radiation  Experiments, delves into attempts to understand  

the effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive  contamination on the human body. As you may have  

guessed, the page dedicates a portion to  the nuclear program of the Soviet Union. 

As of 1950, the Soviets had around 700,000 people  participating in radiation experiments linked to  

the program, around 50% of who were taken from  their forced labor camps or Gulags. Prisoners were  

also used to mine radioactive ore. However, a lot  of the information about the scale and severity  

of the Soviet Union’s human radiation experiments  is still classified under the Russian government. 

But a considerably longer section of the article  details the human radiation experiments conducted  

by none other than the good old US of A, many of  which were actually funded by various government  

agencies, including the US Department of  Defence, the US Atomic Energy Commission,  

and the US Public Health Service. According to over 1.5 million pages of  

classified reports uncovered by the Advisory  Committee on Human Radiation Experiments,  

the Atomic Energy Commission had sponsored  numerous tests since the forties that involved  

secretly injecting terminally ill patients  in American hospitals with varying amounts of  

plutonium as well as other radioactive materials  – without the patient’s knowledge or consent. 

Other experiments included the secretive feeding  of radioactive traces to children to observe the  

effects of radiation on the human body and  enlisting doctors to administer injections  

of radioactive iron to pregnant women from  impoverished backgrounds. During the Cold War,  

both United States soldiers and prisoners  were exposed to high levels of radiation,  

as well as the latter group having… well,  parts of them irradiated, which led to  

severe birth defects in their future children. Some of these US radiation experiments even went  

as far as to exhume dead bodies to test them for  radioactivity without the consent of the families  

of the deceased. If you ever want to get really  disgusted over a total lack of ethics and morality  

on a huge scale, then this Wikipedia entry will  have you wondering if anything you’ve ever eaten  

or drank was actually laced with deadly radiation. But there’s another article linked at the bottom  

of the previous one that might also catch your  eye, since how could it not with a name like:  

Unethical human experimentation in the United  States. That’s right, the ways in which the  

US has conducted experiments on human test  subjects are so varied that it has its own  

Wikipedia page. Throughout American history, there  have been numerous documented cases of scientific  

experiments carried out on human test subjects,  performed without the knowledge or informed  

consent of these people… even more disturbing is  the belief that there are unethical experiments  

of this nature that are still ongoing. Among the earliest examples listed  

in the Wikipedia entry detailing the  gruesome practice is the mention of  

J. Marion Sims. Often referred to as the father  of gynecology, between the years 1845 and 1849,  

Sims performed surgical experiments on women  from Africa who had been sold into slavery in  

the US as part of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.  These women weren’t offered anesthesia since,  

at the time, this wasn’t commonplace during  surgical procedures, as anesthesia had yet to be  

widely accepted as safe and effective. One woman  was operated on by Sims 30 times and suffered  

infections from the multiple failed surgeries. The article cites further gruesome examples of  

experimentation on human beings by the United  States, some carried out by doctors who viewed  

terminally ill patients as research opportunities  instead of people, and others that were endeavors  

sponsored by agencies within the US government  despite violating United States law. The Centres  

for Disease Control, the United States military,  and the Central Intelligence Agency have all had  

their hands in secretive human research  programs, as have private corporations,  

of course, especially those with  close ties to military activity. 

Other experiments include exposing human test  subjects to chemical or biological weapons without  

their knowledge and infecting unwitting patients  with fatal diseases. The aforementioned human  

radiation experiments also get a whole section  of the article dedicated to them, as do other  

haphazard surgical experiments from the 1840s to  as recent as the sixties. There are the infamous  

interrogation and torture experiments and  tests involving mind-altering substances  

that the US government sanctioned during  the Cold War, such as various projects to  

develop a ‘truth serum’ and, of course, the  CIA’s infamous mind control project, MKUltra. 

Of this whole wide and grisly variety of human  experiments, the Wikipedia page also highlights an  

alarming consistency; despite the various fields  and absurd methods used, many of these experiments  

were performed on children, as well as other  vulnerable people, including those suffering from  

mental disabilities and illness, who were often  involved in these tests under the false pretense  

of being offered medical treatment. In many of  these unethical experiments, the subjects were  

also either from poorer economic backgrounds,  members of racial minorities, or prisoners. 

Oh, and as if all that wasn’t already horrible  enough, then it’s also worth noting that even the  

human experimentation the US government has had a  hand in was carried out without any oversight or  

authorization from Congress. In fact, in most  of the cases cited in the article, the public  

didn’t learn about these experiments until the  details of them were released, some decades after  

the horrific testing had been performed. Next up is an article with the relatively  

unassuming name of the 1985 MOVE bombing, but  what you’ll see is that it’s well placed on  

the disturbing list due to its description  of the lengths to which people are capable  

of dehumanizing their fellow human beings  and subjecting them to abject cruelty. 

Known to residents of Cobbs Creek in  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, simply by the  

date it took place – that being May 13, 1985 – the  MOVE bombing saw the destruction of multiple homes  

in the area… at the hands of Philadelphia’s own  police. The Philadelphia Police Department used  

a helicopter to drop two explosive devices onto  the roof of 6221 Osage Avenue, a house that had  

been occupied by members of the Christian Movement  for Life, also called MOVE. MOVE was a communal  

organization that formed part of the black  liberation movement, a branch of the civil rights  

movement that demanded more immediate action  be taken against white supremacy in America. 

In the years leading up to the bombing, members of  MOVE had relocated to the Cobbs Creek area of West  

Philadelphia. Their arrival was almost immediately  met with complaints by neighbors to the police and  

the city. Some reported confrontations with MOVE,  or took issue with a bullhorn that the group used  

to make announcements and give political messages.  This same bullhorn was broken and inoperable three  

weeks before the fateful night of May 13th, 1985. Having obtained arrest warrants and charged  

multiple MOVE members with crimes such  as parole violations, contempt of court,  

illegal possession of firearms, and making  terrorist threats, the Mayor of Philadelphia  

and the city police commissioner classified the  group as a terrorist organization. Police then  

evacuated other residents from the area and then  attempted to forcibly enter the house to arrest  

the MOVE occupants. When they refused to comply  with the police’s demands, an armed standoff  

ensued. Philadelphia police threw tear gas into  the building and exchanged gunfire with the MOVE  

members, firing more than 10,000 rounds  of ammunition in the span of 90 minutes. 

Then, the police bombed the house, using  2.5-pound explosives made of a dynamite  

substitute combined with C-4 plastic explosives  provided by the FBI. The explosion ignited a  

gasoline-powered generator inside the house,  causing a fire that the police allowed to  

burn out of control. 61 of the neighboring homes  were also destroyed, leaving 250 people homeless. 

Inside the house, there had been seven  adults and six children, all but two of  

whom were killed in the blaze. One of them was  John Africa, the founder of MOVE, and a bunch  

of other unfortunate members. Only one child  and one adult survived. A later federal court  

lawsuit filed against the city of Philadelphia  determined that this was a use of excessive  

force by the Philadelphia Police Department  that violated constitutional protections  

against unreasonable search and seizure. There are disturbing moments in history,  

disturbing acts perpetrated against other  human beings… but once every few centuries,  

there comes a figure whose entire life and  even their very nature is, in and of itself,  

disturbing. Allow us to introduce you to  the Wikipedia article on Tarrare. Born in  

France circa 1772, Tarrare was a man of what  we’ll call a particularly refined taste… His  

unusually insatiable appetite garnered him work as  a showman, a soldier, and even a spy because his  

superpowered stomach could keep down just about  anything he threw at it – from corks, stones,  

and a whole basket full of apples to inhuman  quantities of meat… including live animals. 

From a young age, Tarrare expressed a constant  state of hunger, one so severe that his parents  

couldn’t provide enough food for him and  eventually forced him to leave home as a  

teenager. Tarrare would then travel across the  country, eventually finding some form of work  

as the warm-up act for a traveling charlatan;  think of them like the ringleader of a circus,  

except the goal is to swindle the audience  out of their money. Making his way to Paris,  

Tarrare would continue onto a career as a solo  act, working as a street performer for a time. 

Then, the famished Frenchman joined the  French Revolutionary Army, where he ate  

four times the standard military rations – and  even that was unable to satisfy his insatiable  

appetite. He ate any and all food that he  could get his hands on, and this included  

anything discarded in gutters and rubbish heaps.  A delicacy for the discerning palate, no doubt. 

Gradually, his unusual condition caused his body  to deteriorate through constant hunger. Tarrare  

was sent to the hospital for exhaustion linked  to this perpetual need for food, and this led  

to him becoming the subject of several medical  experiments. Doctors sought to fully test the  

capacity of his seemingly never-full stomach.  During one of these tests, Tarrare effortlessly  

ate a meal intended for 15 people in one sitting.  Among the long list of things he ate were – and  

brace yourselves if you’re at all squeamish – live  cats, snakes, lizards, puppies, and even eels,  

which he was able to swallow whole without so  much as chewing. Phew, anyone got a Pepto Bismal? 

Now, one of the generals in the French Revolution,  Alexandre de Beauharnais, received word of Tarrare  

and his… acquired tastes, and naturally,  the first question that came to mind was:  

‘How can we put this ability to military use?’ So, Tarrare became a courier for the French army;  

the plan was to have him swallow documents,  then sneak through enemy lines, recover the  

messages from… well, his other end, and safely  deliver the intact military intelligence when  

he arrived at his destination. We can’t imagine  that these documents smelled all that pleasant. 

However, during his first mission, Tarrare was  captured by Prussian forces and severely beaten  

before confessing to his mission. He was promptly  chained to a latrine, and 30 hours after it had  

been swallowed, the message “Came out.” But it  turned out that the valuable documents Tarrare  

had within him were actually only a test and  strategically useless. Furious at this waste  

of time, the Prussian commander subjected him to a  mock execution – this isn’t the same as an actual  

execution, but is instead a psychologically  devastating form of torture wherein a victim  

is made to believe they are just about to be  executed, making them recount their last wishes,  

dig their own grave and otherwise face  the imminence of their apparent ‘death.’ 

After being sent back to the French army  and utterly humiliated by his experience,  

Tarrare felt it was time to search for a  definitive cure to his condition. He agreed  

to undergo any medical procedure presented to him  if it meant a chance to be rid of his appetite  

for good. He was treated with laudanum, tobacco  pills and fed large portions of soft-boiled eggs  

to suppress his appetite, but unfortunately,  not one of these procedures was successful. 

Doctors thought the best thing would be to  keep Tarrare on a medically controlled diet,  

but even that wasn’t enough to subdue his ravenous  appetite. He would sneak out of the hospital to  

scavenge for refuse left in the gutter and in  rubbish heaps outside butchers’ shops. Tarrare  

even drank the blood from other patients who had  been bloodletting in the hospital and occasionally  

snacked on corpses kept in the morgue. At one point in 1794, a 14-month-old toddler  

disappeared from the hospital. Immediately, there  was only one suspect in everyone’s minds who could  

have been responsible. Staff forcibly ejected  Tarrare from the hospital, and he never returned.  

After going missing for a time, he reappeared  four years later in Versailles with severe  

tuberculosis that would soon claim his life… after  a final battle with continuous exudative diarrhea. 

Following his death and an initial refusal  to dissect the rapidly rotting corpse,  

surgeons found that Tarrare had an abnormally wide  gullet and a bigger-than-average gallbladder and  

liver. Additionally, when his jaws were opened,  surgeons discovered a broad canal leading all  

the way into Tarrare’s stomach – big enough for  them to actually see his insides. His stomach  

itself was enormous and covered in ulcers. In the modern day, some have since described  

Tarrare as having polyphagia, meaning excessive  hunger and the ability to ingest a wide variety  

of items, including inedible ones. However,  polyphagia isn’t strictly speaking a medical  

condition in and of itself. It’s a symptom  that can be triggered by a myriad of other  

factors and is more likely an indicator of  whatever Tarrare’s underlying condition was. 

But given the scarcity of medical records from  the time, it’s likely we’ll never know what  

brought on such ravenous polyphagia, whether  it was the result of a stressful life and poor  

living conditions or even an extreme case of  an undocumented form of genetic disorder that  

has yet to be seen in a patient since. But  as it just so happens, Tarrare’s isn’t the  

only disturbing page on Wikipedia that revolves  around someone with pretty usual eating habits. 

Fans of Hannibal will like this one. The rest  of you? Well, maybe don’t watch right after  

eating… or on an empty stomach. Back in 2023,  the former home of a man named Armin Meiwes was  

burned down. According to his Wikipedia page,  two juvenile suspects were under investigation  

for what was thought to be an act of arson, but no  one was ever arrested over it – at least, at the  

time this video was written. Now, nobody was hurt  in the incident; in fact, Meiwes no longer lived  

in the house… because he’d been incarcerated since  2004. So, just who the heck is Armin Meiwes? Well,  

look no further than his Wikipedia page. Formerly a computer repair technician,  

Armin Meiwes would garner the  international morbid curiosity  

of thousands when he murdered and ate another  human being. Oh, but just you wait; the story  

gets wilder and far more disturbed than that. Back in 2001, Meiwes made a post on an online  

forum, advertising that he was looking for a  well-built man between 18 and 25 years old.  

While this might sound like the criteria for  someone’s online dating pool, not many of those  

come with such an upfront stipulation: you see,  Armin Meiwes wasn’t interested in dating anyone;  

he was looking for someone who would  willingly volunteer to be “slaughtered  

and then consumed.” And not in a fun way, either. There were a number of responses, many of whom  

probably thought the solicitation was a dark  joke and who responded expecting it to be such.  

However, any potential applicants backed out when  they realized this wasn’t a joke at all. Despite  

the disturbing proposition, Meiwes was shockingly  brazen, upfront, and open about his intentions,  

never once even attempting to pressure anyone  into doing anything they didn’t want to do. Then,  

in March 2001, a 43-year-old man from Berlin,  Bernd-Jürgen Armando Brandes, replied to  

the advertisement with genuine interest. The pair met pretty soon after, in Meiwes’ home in  

the small town of Wüstefeld, Germany. Meiwes and  Brandes filmed the entire encounter, including the  

agreement in which Brandes consented to be killed  and eaten. The video has never been made public,  

and descriptions of its contents aren’t something  we can describe in too much detail here on YouTube  

without risking demonetization. But, what we do  know is, after Brandes had taken 20 sleeping pills  

and chased it down with a whole bottle of cough  syrup, he insisted that Meiwes bite off… part of  

his body. When this didn’t work, Meiwes switched  tact to using a knife – which did the trick. 

The pair of them both tried to eat the  removed piece raw, but after finding it far  

too chewy – yes, Meiwes even described it as such  – it was fried in a pan with salt, pepper, garlic,  

and wine, cooked in some fat… that Brandes himself  provided. By then, the flesh was too burned to be  

consumed, and it was instead fed to Meiwes’  dog. After letting Brandes bleed in the bath  

until he lost consciousness, Meiwes then stabbed  his volunteer and victim in the throat. Over the  

next ten months, he would dismember and eat what  was left of Brandes’ corpse, storing the body in  

his freezer and eating up to 44 pounds worth  of human flesh. If there’s ever been a story  

that could put us off leftovers, it’s that one. Once Meiwes was discovered to have body parts and  

the incriminating videotape in his home, he was  arrested in 2002. His actions led to him being  

known by some as the ‘Rotenburg Cannibal’ or  ‘Der Metzgermeister,’ which roughly translates  

to ‘the Master Butcher’ in English. He was  convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to  

eight and a half years in prison in 2004 until a  retrial two years later upped his conviction to  

murder and his sentence to life imprisonment. The  house that was burned down in April of 2023 was  

the same one where Meiwes had eaten Brandes’ body. Interestingly, before he was sentenced to prison,  

Meiwes was deemed still fit to stand trial despite  a diagnosis of schizoid personality disorder.  

This is a personality disorder that tends to  present itself as a lack of interest in social  

relationships, emotional detachment,  and a tendency to prefer a solitary,  

sheltered lifestyle. And if you were to,  say, fall down a rabbit hole looking through  

Wikipedia articles about other psychiatric  conditions, then you might stumble across our  

next entry in the most disturbing Wikipedia pages  we could find, entitled Mass psychogenic illness. 

Now, you might have heard of this before by the  name of ‘mass hysteria,’ but mass psychogenic  

illness more widely refers to any instance where  symptoms of an illness spread without a clear  

infectious agent being responsible. Symptoms can  start from a disturbance in the nervous system  

and then spread rapidly to affect a cohesive  group of people. This is all caused by external  

factors but without any organic basis for them. For example, a population undergoing mass  

psychogenic illness might all quickly  start developing headaches – that’s  

one of the most common symptoms – despite all  being healthy and having nothing about their  

bodies that should be currently causing  them to all experience these headaches. 

Other symptoms of the mass psychogenic illness  include dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain,  

coughing, fatigue and many, many other  symptoms. Outbreaks of mass hysteria can  

affect nearly everyone, although they’re thought  to be particularly prevalent in children and  

adolescents. But no one person is any more or  less predisposed to mass psychogenic illness,  

and these symptoms can manifest in  anyone under the right circumstances. 

Even more unsettling than the idea that this  can happen almost at any time to anybody is  

the fact that mass psychogenic illness is  thought to have existed since as far back  

as the Middle Ages. ‘Dancing manias,’ a  widespread phenomenon that occurred all  

across mainland Europe between the fourteenth  and seventeenth centuries, were thought to have  

been the result of mass psychogenic illness. One case that took place in 1974 saw school  

children in Berry, Alabama, afflicted  with episodes of recurring itches after  

rumors among students sparked fears about a  poison gas attack. Back in October of 2001,  

directly after the 2001 anthrax attacks in  the United States, there were over 2,300  

false alarms from people reportedly suffering from  the physical symptoms of anthrax exposure despite  

having never come into contact with the infection. There’s naturally something disturbing about  

developing unusual symptoms, seemingly  without any biological cause. And there  

can be something equally disturbing –  if admittedly also a little morbidly  

funny – about people who have died unusual deaths. Luckily, Wikipedia has a whole article dedicated  

to extremely rare and sometimes completely unique  causes of death recorded throughout history: List  

of Unusual Deaths. Some of the earliest examples  date as far back as the days of Ancient Egypt and  

Ancient Greece; take Menes, an Egyptian pharaoh  responsible for unifying Upper and Lower Egypt,  

who, in 3200 BC, was kidnapped and killed  by… a hippopotamus. Seems like Oscar Isaac  

was onto something with that song of his. Or how about an Athenian lawmaker who was  

killed in 620 BC as a result of being  just too darn being too popular? Ugh,  

tell me about it! Hard as it is to believe,  Draco of Athens was supposedly smothered to  

death when he was buried in a shower of hats and  cloaks thrown at him by the appreciative citizens  

of Aegina in Greece. But the more you look at  the long – and we mean long – list of unusual  

deaths detailed in this Wikipedia article, the  more you start to come across ones that aren’t  

just absurd but far more unsettling than others. Jumping way down the list to the 19th century,  

there’s the likes of Mathilda of Austria.  Every teen has a rebellious phase, sure,  

but when your father is Archduke Albrecht, Duke  of Teschen, you can’t exactly be seen breaking  

social norms. Still, on the sixth of June, 1897,  Mathilda had been smoking when all of a sudden,  

she heard her father returning home. Desperate to  hide her bad habit from her aristocratic old man,  

who had forbidden her to smoke, in  her panic, Mathilda accidentally set  

fire to her own dress… the resulting fire  claiming her life. Smoking kills, folks. 

Arguably, one of the more unsettling, frightening  deaths from this era came in August of 1888,  

when an unknown man in Iraq suffered an  almost statistically impossible end. Around  

half past eight, over a village in Sulaymaniyah,  Iraq (which was part of the Ottoman Empire at the  

time), a shower of meteorites came raining  down from above. Although far from being an  

apocalyptic, Armageddon-style shower of burning  rocks and devastation, one unidentified man was  

struck and killed by a falling meteor, with  another being hit and permanently paralyzed.  

It’s a disturbing reminder that while your  chances of being killed by a meteor are low,  

it turns out they’re never quite zero. Once again, scrolling our way even further through  

the history of strange deaths, we come to the 18th  of August, 1960. Clarence Hudson, a 66-year-old  

janitor at a department store, was found dead  in his apartment by police. Even stranger that  

the question of who would kill a janitor in his  60s was the elaborate method used to kill him:  

a homemade electric chair. Whoever had taken  Clarence Hudson’s life had tied him to a chair  

with several wet towels over his head and  feet. The police estimated that as many as  

a thousand volts were shot through the man’s body. On the 29th of June 1971, the Soyuz 11 spacecraft  

depressurized during preparations for re-entry  into Earth’s atmosphere. Soviet cosmonauts Georgy  

Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev  became the first – and so far the only – human  

deaths that didn’t take place on Earth, dying  instead outside our own atmosphere. Sure,  

being a cosmonaut in the early days of space  exploration was a job that came with more than  

its fair share of risks, but you wouldn’t expect  one of the most disturbing of the deaths detailed  

in this article to belong to a pizza delivery man. In 2003, Brian Wells, a delivery man from Kent,  

Washington, attempted to rob a bank by having  a bomb collar locked around his neck. The  

contraption consisted of two pipe bombs and a  hinged collar, almost like a large handcuff,  

as well as a couple of kitchen timers and even  decoy wires to avoid it being disconnected.  

Co-conspirators allegedly told Wells that the bomb  was fake but was killed when the collar detonated. 

In June 2022, a woman named Maya Murmu  was trampled to death in Oshida, India,  

by an elephant. Maybe an uncommon cause of death,  sure, but hardly unwarranted – elephants are huge,  

wild animals and easily startled, of course. But  what was so strange about the incident was what  

happened at Maya’s funeral. The same elephant  reportedly came back to find her lifeless body,  

attacking the corpse and hurling it into the  air. Even as recently as 2023, Adam Johnson,  

a 29-year-old member of an English professional  ice hockey team, the Nottingham Panthers,  

died during a game against rivals the Sheffield  Steelers. Falling over on the ice, Adam was  

killed when an ice skate cut open his neck. Oh, and as if the list of human deaths wasn’t  

disturbing enough for you, the List of Unusual  Deaths on Wikipedia has an entirely separate  

table dedicated to strange animal deaths, too,  just in case you felt like really ruining your  

day. But if you wanted to do that, then we might  have just the disturbing Wikipedia page for you,  

one that’s liable to keep you awake at night,  staring at your ceiling in abject horror:  

the Timeline of the Far Future. As the article itself states,  

it would be impossible to accurately predict the  future with any degree of certainty; however,  

using our present understanding of various  scientific fields, we’re able to make some  

predictions about what the future might look like  – even if those mainly amount to a broad outline.  

And here’s a mild spoiler: things don’t look good. What’s so unsettling and disturbing about reading  

through the Timeline of the Far Future is how  horrifying it is. Few other articles on Wikipedia  

really hammer home just how tiny humanity is  compared with the wide expanse of the universe,  

even the lifetime of the Earth itself. Most  projections indicate that humanity will be  

long gone, as in extinct, before the Sun  expands or radioactive decay eventually  

disintegrates all matter in the universe. Take this, for example: 10,000 years from now  

is considered the most probable lifespan for human  technological civilization. That might sound like  

a lot, but get this: according to the predictions  on this timeline, it’ll take 1.2 billion years  

for all plant life to die out. Once that happens,  any remaining animal life on Earth will be cooked  

by rising temperatures. Do you want to feel  even more of that cosmic, existential dread? 

Try to imagine how unfathomable a billion of  anything already is. Well, guess what? The  

predictions in this timeline go so far that the  timeframe stops being measured in recognizable  

numbers. Billions and trillions become  quadrillions, quintillions, even unvigintillions,  

and novemvigintillion, that's a 1 followed by  90 zeros, and so on. The most disturbing thing  

about the Timeline of the Far Future isn’t just  its predictions… it’s the way it reminds us just  

how tiny we really are. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Now check out, “Terrifying Wikipedia Pages That  You Should Never Click On.” Or watch this instead!