54 Oddly Terrifying Photos from History

Some photos from history do not need ghosts or ghouls to be frightening.

They are unsettling for reasons you cannot quite explain, a strange expression, an eerie coincidence, a moment that feels frozen in time. These are the kinds of images that stay with you long after you have looked away.

Here are a few of the most quietly terrifying photos ever captured, each one a real moment that feels anything but ordinary.

A mother hiding her face as she puts her children on sale (Chicago USA, 1948)

One of the last known pictures taken by the hikers of the dyatlov pass incident (1959)

Body riddled with parasites as a result of eating raw pork for 10 years.

Pablo Picasso’s first and last self portraits

The Mask worn by Dennis Rader when dressing and carrying out his attacks.

Stomach contents of a psychiatric patient who passed away from pica disorder, a disease characterized by an appetite for inedible objects.

A radium mask, used in the 1920s to treat cancer of the face and neck.

‘The Anguished Man’ is a self-portrait painted with the artist’s own blood mixed into the paint.

The unsettling 17th-century mask, crafted from real human hair, leather, feathers, and false teeth, was worn by the outlaw preacher Alexander Peden as a disguise to evade arrest for preaching illegally in Scotland.

This inmate spends his time in prison creating dolls in his cell.

The “snow” in the Wizard of Oz movie was 100% pure asbestos

The face of a deep sea rough skin shark.

A photo of Los Alamos scientists during the Trinity Test of 1945. The two scientists in the middle, Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotin, would both die within a year after exposure to the so called ‘Demon Sphere’, a sphere of plutonium involved in two separate criticality accidents.

Full face swimming mask from 1928

In 1985, the infamous Action Park in New Jersey built this waterslide with this kind of loop at the end. It was only open for one month before shutting down due to many injuries.

Halloween in the 1930s.

In 2007, Grainne Kealy shattered her face when an airbag deployed during a 120mph crash, launching her knees into her head as her feet rested on the dashboard. She suffered a brain leak, minor brain injury, and lost two teeth. For two years, she lived without a forehead.

Many Chinese medical tourists who travel to South Korea for affordable, high-quality plastic surgery face difficulties re-entering China because their passport photos no longer match their appearance after the procedure.

Nikola Tesla’s death mask, at age 86.

This is a stain left in a lunatic asylum by a woman called Margaret Schilling in 1978. Numerous efforts to eliminate the stain have proven unsuccessful. It is still there to this day.

Chang Tzu Ping was a Chinese man who was born with two faces. When Chang would open his mouth on his first head, the second mouth would also open.

The hands of the l King Of England, Charles.

28 years of sun exposure made the left side of truck driver’s face look 20 years older.

The hands of Fritz Honka.

Depression era Gangster; Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, had his finger prints removed to help evade identification. 1934

Charlie No-Face was an urban legend about a monster who walked along the side of a highway at night in Pennsylvania. In reality, he was a man named Raymond Robinson, and he went out at night so that his face, disfigured in a childhood accident, wouldn’t scare people.

North Koreans react to “Mr. Bean” at the Pyongyang International Film Festival.

Bonnie Aarons’ transformation into ‘The Nun’

Govardhan Das has been living with neurofibromatosis type 1, a rare genetic condition that has significantly altered his life. This disorder is characterized by the growth of tumors along nerves in various parts of the body, including the skin, brain, and other areas.

Sigourney Weaver’s boneless body double for Alien.

This high-rise tower in China isn’t a housing block or a prison — it’s a pig farm.

This is Point Nemo, the spot farthest away from any land in the world. You are closer to astronauts aboard the ISS than humanity

In 2015, wildlife photographer Christophe Courteau took this close up of a 6ft 6, 400lbs silverback gorilla, right before it punched him in the face.

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II floats untethered away from the safety of the space shuttle, with nothing but his Manned Maneuvering Unit keeping him alive.

This Mickey Mouse gas mask from the 1940’s

Stuart Freeborn, the designer of Yoda, predominantly based Yoda’s face on his own.

A soldier’s face after four years of war: 1941 vs 1945.

Robert Hardister’s face transformation 9 times he was arrested from 2009 to 2017.

A NYC police officer comes face-to-face with Ming, a 350 lb tiger secretly living in an apartment.

Following a head injury in 2014, an Indian man called Shyam Lal Yadav, developed a cutaneous horn, commonly referred to as a “devil’s horn”.

For ten years, Stefan Zoleik lived with a disfiguring 13-pound facial tumor, an alarming growth caused by a rare disorder called Madelung disease. In 2014, surgeons changed his life forever by removing the tumour.

Ted Bundy removed the passenger seat in his VW Beetle so that his victims wouldn’t be seen while he was driving.

The mouth of an Artic Lamprey.

A doll with 2 faces, 1920

The death mask of Oliver Cromwell (died 1658)

Halloween costumes from the 1930s. USA.

Patent model of creeping baby doll, 1871

Commander Richard Byrd, wearing a specially designed leather helmet and mask, used during his flight from Spitzbergen over the North Pole and back in a Fokker Plane, making the trip of 1,360 miles. May 10, 1926.