Real Story Behind The Great Escape From Alcatraz

Once upon a time, Alcatraz was one of the world’s most notorious penitentiaries. Nobody thought that escape was remotely possible. We’ve heard the stories of at least 36 prisoners who tried to break out, but all had failed in the attempt.

Then, one day in June of 1962, the world was shocked. Three men took the leap into the dangerous waves of San Francisco Bay and nobody heard from them again… until one day.

In January of 2018, the police got a shadowy letter that turned everything they thought upside down and even compelled the FBI to restart their age-old investigation.

Keep reading to hear the harrowing and mind-blowing tale of the greatest escape—ever. What really happened to those men who managed to get out of Alcatraz?

1. A Letter from John Anglin

It was on a day just like any other. Then, out of the blue, the San Francisco Police Department received a sensational letter that they just couldn’t believe to be true. It said, “My name is John Anglin. I escaped from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris.”

This very escape, the one that he claims to have pulled off, is one of the greatest mysteries in all of US history. When it happened, the officials claimed that the three men perished in the freezing waters. But who could say for certain? Was this letter true or just a fake trying to stir up some sensation? What was the motivation?

2. The Incredible Post

For many years after the incident, this escape from Alcatraz left countless law enforcement agents completely clueless. And yet, out of no-where, this incredible piece of post came to the office, claiming that the truth may yet be known. What really happened on that night?

The San Francisco Police Department got the letter in 2013, but they had to keep quiet about it for many years. This is because it contained enough info for the FBI to get back to work on the case. They didn’t tell a soul until January of 2018.

3. The Great Escape

Prior to shutting its doors in 1963, Alcatraz was the most feared and well-guarded jail in the entire world. This high-security prison was planned with the sole purpose of keeping the worst of the worst criminals well away from the rest of the world.

Over the course of its 29-year run, dozens of inmates had tried to get out. None had succeeded. How was it possible that these three men could break out of such tough security? What did they do that was so different?

4. Careful Planning

While the careful planning stage was easy, putting it into practice was a whole different story. They would need everything to go off just perfectly if they wanted to be successful. Everyone who had ever tried to overcome this impossible feat had failed. What would be special this time?

Before this fateful night, nobody had escaped. 23 of the would-be escapees were caught in the act, six were shot to death, two drowned in the bay, and another two were said to be “missing or presumed drowned.”

5. Putting It into Motion

The men who decided to put this famous plan into action were two brothers named Clarence and John Anglin, alongside Allen West and Frank Lee Morris. These four guys occupied nearby cells, meaning they had easy contact and plenty of time to cook up their grand escape plan.

It was not the first time these criminals had spent time together. The Anglin brothers were familiar with Morris from a prison in Atlanta.

Now, together in Alcatraz, this plan would test their true mettle. Would be they brave enough? Could they pull enough resources together?

6. Frank Lee Morris

Frank Lee Morris, a hardened criminal, was no stranger to breaking out of prison. Through his skills, brains, and slyness, he had escaped in the past.

When he was orphaned at the age of 11 years old, he drifted from one foster home to the next, learning how to fend for himself and taking on an independent streak.

Morris was an agitator from an early age, and he was even convicted for the first time at just 13 years old.

Still, nobody could guess what the history books would say about this troublemaker. He is now known as the man in charge of the Great Escape from Alcatraz.

7. Regular Jail-Rat

Throughout his adult life, Morris was a regular jail-rat, evening spending time at the infamous “Alcatraz of the South,” Louisiana State Penitentiary. It may sound like a rough place, yet Morris was even tougher.

After robbing a bank, Frank Lee Morris was sentenced to 10 years of hard time. And yet, against all the odds, he escaped.

He ran loose as an outlaw for a whole year before he was re-arrested, again during a robbery. This time, they didn’t want to take any chances. They sent him to Alcatraz.

8. The Anglin Brothers

Frank couldn’t get off “The Rock” alone though; he needed some help. So, he recruited the Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, alongside a man named Allen West.

The brothers hailed from Georgia and were raised in Florida when their parents moved there for work. Mom and dad were seasonal workers, blowing around to wherever the next job was.

Every June, the entire Anglin clan, which contained 13 children in all, would head north to pick cherries. The skills that the brothers learned in these years would prove invaluable to escaping from Alcatraz.

9. Skilled Criminals

John and Clarence were best friends growing up and would eventually end up becoming partners in crime.

During their childhoods, the Anglins headed north to pick cherries, even heading up as far as Lake Michigan. At this time, the two brothers enjoyed swimming a lot and became expert swimmers.

That skill would certainly prove invaluable in their later years. Once the two grew up, they went into the bank robbing business. This lifestyle would eventually lead to their arrest in 1956.

But this was just the beginning..

10. Creating the Team

While serving time in Atlanta, the Anglins tried to escape on many occasions. This got them a one-way ticket to Alcatraz. Once they were locked up on The Rock, they got together with Frank Lee Morris, the ringleader of the escape.

Along with Allen West, this team came together with a lot of jail-breaking experience between them. They began plotting the impossible task ahead of them.

11. Getting Everything Together

Before they could put their plan into action, they had to get everything ready, including all the tools that they would need if they wanted to pull off their master plan. Luckily for them, Alcatraz wasn’t just a prison: it was also a factory.

There, prisoners made clothes, shoes, and furniture for the American military. From this work, they were able to sneak off some useful goods. Plus, this team was fairly lucky, being some of the few non-violent offenders locked up on “The Rock.”

The guards may have paid them less attention than some of the other more seemingly nefarious inmates.

12. The Goods

Slowly, the team began to implement their scheme. It was complicated, even ingenious to a certain point. In addition to getting out of the toughest prison in the world, they also planned to leave back dummies to prevent the alarm from sounding.

Even beyond this, they had to think of how they would get off the island if and when they managed to escape the prison walls. How would they get past the guards?

Remember, the guards back then were no joke. If they saw the gang trying to escape, they would shoot on sight.

13. The Dummies

Each teammate had his own part to play, even in addition to the daunting task of breaking out of their jail cells. The Anglins were set with the task of making decoy heads that they would leave behind in their beds.

Using toilet paper, soap wax, and hair that they stole from the Alcatraz barber shop, they created make-shift dummy heads.

Morris, on the other hand, was set with the job of creating an accordion-esque tool that would blow up their life jackets and their raft.

14. Digging Out

Another matter that they had to take care of was creating tools to dig out of their cells and unscrew the vent bolts.

Somehow, they created makeshift picks and wrenches out of ordinary objects that they stole, like cafeteria spoons and pieces of wood from the workshop.

Each and every day, from 5:30 to approximately 9 PM, they toiled away, chipping a hole big enough to fit through. They took off the vents in their cells and then used their home-made picks to make the holes bigger.

15. An Aging Prison

One thing that certainly helped the guys was the fact that Alcatraz was an aging prison. It was showing signs of age and deterioration.

The saltwater that went through the pipes, both for washing dishes and showering, eventually wrecked the pipes, causing that same water to seep out into the walls.

As time went on, that salty water corroded the cement, making it loose and crumbly. On top of this, that water was a bit warm so that nobody could ever get accustomed to the frigid waters that they would encounter out in the Bay.

16. Covering the Noise

You may be wondering why nobody heard them chiseling out the cement. The fact is that they were hidden behind a wall of sound.

Because of prison reform in the 60’s, prisoners were given a music hour that created a raucous noise all throughout the prison.

Whenever he could, Morris would loudly play his accordion to cover up the sounds of the others banging on the cement. The holes led to an unguarded utility hall behind their cells that housed many pipes.

17. Climbing Out

Once they finally made holes big enough to crawl out of, they could then go to the next phase of the operation: climbing up three stories to the roof. From there the real task would begin.

At the top of the utility hall, they needed to pry open one of the large shafts to access the roof.

However, much to their chagrin, most of these shafts were cemented closed. At last, they found one that they could force open with their wrench.

18. Raft and Vests

Once May of 1962 came around, the Anglins and Morris had chipped holes in their walls big in enough that they could just squeeze through. That was all that was necessary.

During this time, they also fabricated some make-shift life vests and a raft by gluing and stitching together a bunch of raincoats.

To make this, they used over 50 raincoats—and it certainly would be needed if they didn’t want to drown in the freezing waves.

19. It’s Go-Time

Now that they had all of their instruments and plans in place, they just needed to wait for Allen West to chisel out a hole in his cell.

At long last, in June of 1962, West sent out the signal to his cohorts to indicate that they had indeed finished digging his hole.

And yet, not everything would go according to plan. Nobody could have possibly predicted what happened next..

20. The First Move

As soon as it was time for lights-out, the team made their first move. None of them could have known if they would make it out alive. Though they all worried for their own survival, they were too tempted by the idea of living on the outside, free as a bird.

They were ready to risk their lives to get out of Alcatraz. Their hormones were on fire, and they couldn’t contain their excitement at the thought of at last getting out. They moved quickly, set out their dummies, and climbed through the holes in their cells.

21. Not According to Plan

Morris and the Anglins quickly crawled out of their cells, but it wasn’t so easy for poor Allen West. Though he had finally given the signal that his hole was good to go, it seems that he had a lapse of judgement in regard to the size of the hole and how easily he could fit through it.

Frank Lee Morris did everything he could to try and assist West, but he was stuck. By 9:30 PM, Morris requested that West give him some water. They then decided that they would have to abandon West.

22. Man Down

fter planning and preparing together for months, it was no easy task to leave West behind. But they were running out of time and options.

If they made a lot of noise trying to increase the size of the hole, the guards would be on them in no time.

So, West was a man down. Who knows? Maybe it was a good thing that the raft would have to support one less man.

The three remaining guys began climbing up through the plumbing in the utility hall, 30 feet towards the rooftop.

23. The Final Descent

Once they had climbed on top of the jailhouse roof, their hearts were racing in their chests. The gang traversed no less than 100 feet over the roof, and then began their final descent.

They scrambled down 50 feet of piping that was attached to the side of the building and eventually made it to the ground, near the shower area.

There, they stealthily crept past the guards. They went by unnoticed, and at last made it to the shoreline. There they began the final phase of their operation, inflating their life jackets and raft.

24. Sounding the Alarm

And that was that. Nobody ever saw or heard from the Anglins or Morris again. Around 11:30 PM, they braved the waters of San Francisco Bay in their makeshift raft, leaving The Rock for good. Nobody even realized that they were gone until the next morning.

Early that morning, the Alcatraz inmates awoke to the startling sound of the alarm going haywire. They were puzzled. Nobody, they thought, could possibly escape from this impenetrable place. It was impossible—or so they thought..

25. Free at Last

Even though West had been left behind, he was still determined to break out with the rest of them. He continued to work on his hole, eventually slipping out to the utility hall. With excitement in his heart, he climbed up after the others.

By the time he got to the shore, there was nobody in sight. Then he was left with a difficult decision: try to swim to shore, a task that would most likely be the end of him, or crawl back to his cell.

26. The Morning After

After some time, Allen West decided that life was too precious and went back to the safety of his warm jail cell.

There, he waited until the morning after, when the rest of the prison came to the shocking realizing that three prisoners has broken out. The entire prison was searched for the trio.

West decided to cooperate and informed them of everything he knew. But nobody knows whether or not he told the truth.

By his account, the gang was going to Angel Island, where they planned to jack a car, steal some clothes, and part ways.

27. Problems Arise

However, some problems started to arise. There were no car robberies reported within twelve days after the team escaped. They must have landed somewhere else, either intentionally or not, or they drowned in those cold waters.

Allen West also informed the police that the entire plan had been his design, that he was the mastermind.

They called in the FBI to start a formal investigation, trying to get to the bottom of just what had happened on that night.

28. Frigid Waves

The authorities scoured the area for days and never found any bodies. Still, they found some personal items floating around the area over the next few days. Now, that water was really cold, around 50 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit.

The San Francisco Bay is known for its year-long frigid waves. Experts say that a person could survive no more than 20 minutes.

Even beyond that, the prisoners wouldn’t be used to such cold waters because the water in Alcatraz was intentionally kept warm.

29. A Long Investigation

About a month after the grand break out, a Norwegian freighter claimed that they sighted a body about 17 miles away from the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently, the corpse was dressed in clothes that resembled those of an Alcatraz inmate.

However, since they never found the body and it took too long to file the report, they never found that corpse.

A long and drawn-out investigation followed that eventually led to a countless dead-ends and an ultimate termination on December 31, 1979, a total of 17 years after the escape. The FBI decided that the prisoners probably drowned in the icy waters.

Nonetheless, disparate clues kept popping up over the years, and nobody could be sure what was true..

30. A Merry Christmas

In 2015, the History Channel released a documentary that showcased new evidence that could confirm the successful escape of the Anglin brothers on that fateful night.

For one, they had sent a signed Christmas card to their family, and experts confirmed that the handwriting matched that of the suspect’s. However, they just couldn’t confirm the actual date of delivery.

The Anglin family also showed a picture that was taken of the brothers in Brazil in 1975. After forensic analysis, experts confirm that the men in the picture was “more than likely” the infamous John and Clarence.

Yet this compelling tale was far from over..

31. Family Contact

Another fact that eventually came to light that could confirm that they managed a success escape from the impenetrable Rock was a deathbed confession from another one of the Anglin brothers, a man named Robert. He claimed that he had contact with John and Clarence from 1963 to 1987 but eventually lost touch with them.

The truth is that the rest of the Anglin family hasn’t wanted to actively search for John and Clarence in Brazil because Interpol still has an open investigation on them. If they found their siblings, many questions could finally be answered, but they would have to pay for it.

32. The Last Survivor

In the incredible 2013 letter from the supposed John Anglin, he both denied and gave credibility to some of the rumors that had been circulating regarding their escape. “Yes we all made it that night but barely!

I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer,” wrote ‘John Anglin.’ “Frank passed away in October 2008. His grave is in Argentina under another name. My brother died in 2011.”

A bit lower in the letter, he claimed that he could say where he’s been living since the great escape from Alcatraz.

He writes, “This is the real and honest truth. I could tell you that for seven years of living in Minot, North Dakota and a year in Fargo,” which he claimed that he had resided in until 2003.

Some sections of the letter were illegible, and yet a BBC report claimed that the letter said he had lived in Seattle “for most of my years after the Escape.”

You’ll never guess what he said next!

33. Back in Cali

The author who claimed to be John Anglin then included the simple phrase, “Living in Southern California now.” How could this be? This man, who had pulled off one of the craziest jail-breaks in all of history, was living a mere few hours south of San Francisco?

This supposed John Anglin was in terrible health and desperate for medical attention, even if he had to spend more time behind bars. The letter tried to strike a deal with the authorities. But would they go for it?

34. A Strange Deal

The letter says, “If you announce on TV that I will be promised to first go to jail for no more than a year and get medical attention, I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. This is no joke…”

Before they could agree to any deal, the authorities first had to look into the letter. They had to investigate the details of the letter and figure out if they could find any more information hidden in its contents.

35. Verification

The US Marshals said that the FBI lab carefully analyzed the letter to look for DNA traces on the paper, fingerprints, and clues in the handwriting that they could compare to other samples that they had. What did they find?

A local CBS station, KPIX in San Francisco, reported “the FBI’s results were inconclusive.” One expert claimed that the FBI’s conclusion “means yes, and it means no, so this leaves everything in limbo.” Nobody could truly verify the authenticity of the letter.

36. No Credible Evidence

At one time, the US Marshals Service claimed that “it is possible” for the three men to have made it out alive.

After publishing the letter in January of 2018, a representative from that service said to the Washington Post that they believed that they letter was not real.

So, said the same article, “The Marshals Service has continued to investigate leads and said it will do so until the men are proven deceased, or until they turn 99.”

Still, at the time that FBI ceased its investigation in 1979, they claimed that “for 17 years we worked on the case, no credible evidence emerged to suggest the men were still alive, either in the US or overseas.”

37. US Marshals Statement

At the time of the letter’s release, the local CBS station, KPIX, said that they couldn’t name the source of the sensational document. The US Marshals gave a statement in regard to this.

They said, “There is absolutely no reason to believe that any of them would have changed their lifestyle and became completely law-abiding citizens after this escape.”

Remember, the US Marshal had continued to pursue the case even after the FBI has closed their case, so we need to respect their opinion. Still, will we ever know what actually occurred on that fateful night?

38. The Case Goes Cold

A team of researchers in 2014 used computer modeling technologies to determine that, if they had in fact left sometime around midnight, then the current would have helped them to reach land alive and well. But what actually transpired?

“There’s an active warrant, and the Marshals Service doesn’t give up looking for people,” said Deputy US Marshal Michael Dyke during a 2009 interview with NPR. It looked like the case had run cold nonetheless.

39. The Last Guard Left

Jim Albright, the final guard to leave the Alcatraz penitentiary, decided to give an interview with San Francisco’s ABC 7 in March of 2018 to honor the 55th anniversary of Alcatraz’s closing its doors.

He was on active duty during the time of the escape, so they asked him whether they thought the men had survived, like in the account of the letter, or if he thinks they had met their end in the cold waters.

He responded, “It depends on whether you’re talking to me or you’re talking to their mother. I believe they drowned, I really do.”

According to his opinion, the author of the letter from ‘John Anglin’ is just someone who wants free cancer treatment.

40. Nobody Knows

Still, up to this very day, nobody knows the truth about the fates of Frank Lee Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin.

Did they make it or not? We also don’t know if the authorities ever contacted the author of the 2013 letter.

Either way, if they are still alive, John would be 86 years old, Clarence would be 87, and Frank would have just celebrated his 90th birthday.

Even if they are old men at this point, the authorities will still be looking for them for at least one more decade.

READ MORE: The 5 Most Bizarrely Unlucky People

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The 5 Most Bizarrely Unlucky People

We're not saying these are the unluckiest people in history; we realize the world is full of starving children and cancer victims. But sometimes you see people who have weird, one-in-a-million instances of bad luck, often over and over again, and you can't help but wonder if they didn't piss off a Gypsy at some point.

We're talking about people like...

Tsutomu Yamaguchi
Unlucky Because: Only two cities have ever been destroyed by atomic bombs. This man was in both of them.

Born in 1916, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a business trip to Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. As he stepped off a tram an atomic bomb blew up less than two miles away, fucking shit up in an extraordinary way.

Eardrums destroyed and temporarily blind, Yamaguchi scrambled to figure out just what the hell happened.

After spending a night in an air raid shelter, Yamaguchi decided Hiroshima probably wasn't the safest place to conduct business, so he went home.

To Nagasaki.

A few days later, Yamaguchi was in the office of his supervisor, regaling him with the story of his near-miss with this mythical city-vaporizing super bomb.

And just as he was trying to explain to his boss that it's impossible to sell cars in a city that's literally on fire, there was the distinct sound that few men on earth but Yamaguchi would have recognized: that of another atomic bomb, again detonating just two miles away.

Not only did Yamaguchi survive (while somehow not gaining any superpowers from the ordeal) but he's still alive today, at the age of 93.

Yamaguchi currently uses this tragedy to enlighten people on the dangers of atomic bombs.

He has written books on his experience and is an anti-nuclear protester, though it seems like he'd be the one guy out there saying we shouldn't worry about nukes because, really, you can just walk away from that shit.

Jeanne Rogers
Unlucky Because: Pretty much everything.

Jeanne Rogers lives her life like a sitcom. She's basically a female George Costanza. She's more of an encumbrance than a friend, really, resembling those annoying hostages in first person shooters that have terrible AI and need to be led to safety while continually stumbling into danger.

Sure, she hasn't been struck by lightning as many times as Roy up there, but she has been struck. Twice.

Then, when she was 18, Rogers was with a friend on a cruise ship taking pictures. She backed up a little too far and fell over the railing into the ocean. Her friend ran to get help but slipped and knocked herself unconscious.

The Three Stooges were painting a wall nearby but were too engrossed in their slapstick routine to help. After regaining consciousness, Rogers' friend got the boat to turn around and pick her up.

Years later, she was walking down the street with her son who suddenly yelled, "Mommy, funny bird!" at which point a bat grabbed her fucking scalp.

Panicked, she started frantically knocking on doors to get help, but each time someone answered the door they decided screaming was a better way to spend their time. The screams angered and confused the bat, which started pissing in her hair and scratching her scalp.

Crying and desperate, an acquaintance finally gave Rogers the keys to her car so she could drive herself to the vet. The acquaintance opted not to drive Rogers herself because it's funnier that way.

Ok that's, like, the same plot as an episode of The Office.

The unfunny parts of Rogers' struggle with adult-onset ineptitude include being mugged, shot at, strangled, and falling into an open manhole. "Dying doesn't scare me, but living scares the crap out of me," said Rogers.

She also accidentally pantsed Mister Rogers at a swimming pool. Not her husband Mr. Rogers, mind you, but the actual Mr. Rogers of children's TV fame. So that more or less makes up for everything.

Roy Sullivan
Unlucky Because: He was struck by lightning. Seven times.

Statistically, getting hit by lightning is a three-thousand to one chance. Therefore getting hit seven times is about twenty-two septillion to one. That's 22,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. To 1.

Still not long enough odds for Roy Sullivan, who was a U.S. park ranger in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park. He was, in fact, hit by lightning seven different freaking times.

Some "scientists" theorize that Sullivan's occupation as a park ranger in an area prone to thunderstorms might have something to do with his problem. We prefer to think of him as an undiscovered X-Man with the worst superpower ever.

Sullivan first got struck in 1942 while on a lookout tower. The bolt entered his leg and exited his big toe, shooting the toenail into space. Sullivan has also been hit while driving down a mountain, fishing, and inside of a ranger station.

You've got to wonder if there's something wrong with you when lightning searches you out inside of buildings. It set his hair on fire and Sullivan decided to carry a pitcher of water around with him wherever he went.

Three years later he got struck in the ankle and since we're pretty sure ankles don't catch on fire the water was useless.

Even Sullivan's wife got in on the action while drying clothes outside. They were hanging metal laundry on a steel wire when they both got hit. Things cooled down for two years, but by his sixth strike Sullivan reported that he was actively trying to escape clouds that were "following him."

Lightning didn't do him in, though. Sullivan sadly shot himself when he was 71 years old, over a girl. Take that, lightning.

Ann Hodges
Unlucky Because: She got hit by a fucking meteorite.

On November 30, 1954, Ann Hodges was taking an afternoon nap on her couch. Unbeknownst to her, a meteorite was fireballing its way across the sky. The chondrite rock, which we're assuming means "douchebag" in Latin, fragmented into three pieces during its descent. One of the pieces smashed through her roof and hit Hodges in the hip.

But that could happen to anyone, right?

Actually, no. She is the only one to ever be hit by a meteorite. Seriously, there's no other case in recorded history.

Mrs. Hodges' luck almost changed when she realized she had a rare toddler-sized fragment of potential money on her living room floor. This light was immediately burnt out by swarms of people who wanted to claim the meteorite for themselves.

The United States Air Force, who subscribe to the philosophy that getting crushed by something expensive doesn't denote ownership, helicoptered in and took the rock, presumably mooning Hodges and wagging their dicks as they flew away.

Eugene Hodges, Mrs. Hodges husband, hired a lawyer and got it back. With $5,000 offers coming in, their unfortunately-named landlady Bertie Guy tried to claim it to cover the damages made to the house.

The legal battles, public attention and dwindling offers finally become too much for Hodges and she donated the meteorite to the Alabama Museum of Natural History. We like to think she wiped her ass with it first.

Violet Jessop
Unlucky Because: She almost went down with a sinking ship... three times.

Traditionally, sea captains considered it bad luck to have a woman on board when they weighed anchor. Women were said to make the sea angry. On the flip side, the superstition said, if the woman was naked, it would calm the sea. If only Violet Jessop had gone around showing off her hoo-ha, perhaps the Titanic would never have hit the iceberg.

Jessop's story doesn't start on the Titanic, however. It starts on board Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic. In 1911, Jessop was a stewardess aboard the luxury liner, getting her bottom pinched by mustachioed men in long coats who added a "harroomph" to the end of every sentence. Or so we assume.

On September 20, 1911, the Olympic collided with a British warship. No one was hurt in that mishap but Violet Jessop decided to move on, to serve on a much bigger, unsinkable ship: the Titanic.

Look how unsinkable!

There she brought not only the same bad fortune but also the captain of the Olympic, one Edward J. Smith. Then there was an iceberg and, well, you've seen that movie. Now, we know what you're thinking. It's hardly bad luck that she was on two boat accidents when it was the same captain both times. Clearly he was the problem, right?

We're not done.

You see, Jessop made it to one of Titanic's lifeboats and could only watch as the world's largest metaphor slipped under the waves, setting the stage for James Cameron's disappointing follow up to True Lies.

Then in 1916, after a short time away from the sea, Jessop signed up to serve as a nurse aboard the Britannic. Sure enough, it floated into a mine and quickly sunk. This time, Jessop's lifeboat didn't get far enough away from the sinking boat, forcing her to jump into the water. Her head klunked in to the keel of the boat but she survived and, for the third time, made it back onto dry land.

Violet Jessop died of congestive heart failure in 1971. She was buried at sea.

READ MORE: Most Bizarre Forms of Human Sacrifice

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World Mysterious People Disappearances

Everett Ruess

In the 1930′s there were still sections of the American Southwest largely unexplored. Everett Ruess became one of the first non-Native Americans to see these places and document them, as an artist and a writer. He was a contemporary of Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams, and was well-known for his love of nature and solitude. One day, he ventured out into the Utah desert with two burros and never returned, leaving behind only the corral he built. He was only 20 years old. The body of Everett Ruess has been found and his cause of death was murder by Navajo Indians.

Jean Spangler

Jean Spangler was a bit-part actress in Hollywood. She left her young daughter in the care of her sister-in-law on October 7, 1949. She said she was going to meet her ex-husband to talk about an overdue child support payment and later, to work at a movie set. Two days later, her purse was found near the entrance of Griffith Park. It contained an unfinished note addressed to a “Kirk,” which read, “Can’t wait any longer, Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away,”. No one knew who “Kirk” or “Dr. Scott” was, and no body was ever found.

James William Tate

“Honest Dick” Tate was the Treasurer of Kentucky who vanished in 1888, along with about $250,000 that belonged to the state! He had a sterling reputation until the gubernatorial race of 1887, when candidate William O. Bradley (pictured above) brought up the need to audit the treasury. Tate said he needed a little time to get the books in order. Instead, he headed to Louisville where he boarded a train. Years later, his daughter admitted to having received letters from him postmarked from Canada, Japan, China, and San Francisco. The last communication from him was in 1890.

Jim Thompson

Thompson was a businessman who revitalized the Thai silk industry by inventing color-fast dyes and bringing modern weaving equipment to Bangkok. He kept his business cottage-based which allowed his weavers to make money while staying home with their children. On Easter Sunday, 1967, he left his home to go for a walk and was never heard from again. The mystery surrounding his disappearance eventually spawned a book.

Oscar Zeta Acosta

Hunter S. Thompson immortalized his friend in his novel “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, Acosta was the basis for Dr. Gonzo, the Samoan attorney. In May 1974, Marco Acosta, spoke with his father by telephone before he boarded a boat “full of white snow” in Mexico. Although they never found the body, the family believes that he was most likely the victim of violence by the people he was traveling with.

Etta Place

Many mysteries surround Etta Place, girlfriend of the notorious Harry Longabaugh aka The Sundance Kid. No one is even sure what her real name was, but she most likely met the Wild Bunch while working as a prostitute. She accompanied Butch Cassidy and Sundance to Argentina, and became the first woman landowner in that country under a new law enacted in 1884. She was last known to have been in San Francisco when she tried to obtain a copy of Longabaugh’s death certificate in order to settle his estate. After that, it is believed that she changed her name and may have returned to prostitution.

Benjamin Briggs

Benjamin Briggs was the center of one of the most significant maritime mysteries of all time – the disappearance of the members of the Mary Celeste in 1871. Briggs was the captain of the ship when it was found inexplicably abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean. Briggs, his wife, two year old daughter, and the remainder of the crew were never found. Briggs has been referred to frequently in fiction and in conspiracy theories surrounding the old mystery.

Dorothy Arnold

The daughter of a wealthy perfume importer went shopping for a new dress in New York on December 12, 1910. She visited several stores and those who saw her said she seemed to be in a good mood. Her well-to-do family suspected she may have run away with her boyfriend, but when confronted, he claimed to have no idea what happened to her. The last person to see her on the street said she had planned to walk through Central Park, but she never made it home. It took her family six weeks to notify the police of her disappearance.

Richard John Bingham

On the evening of November 8, 1974, Lady Veronica Lucan (wife of Richard, 7th Earl of Lucan) ran into a local pub, covered in blood and screaming that her husband had tried to kill her. When the police went to the Lucan home, they found the children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, dead of head trauma in the basement and a bloodstained length of lead pipe. That night, several phone calls to friends were made by a very agitated Lord Lucan, who stated he had been at the house, but had interrupted the real attacker. A few days later, Lord Lucan’s Ford Corsair was discovered in Newhaven. There were bloodstains in the car and a pipe matching the one found at the scene, but Lord Lucan was nowhere to be found. If he is still alive, he would be 74 years old.

Joseph Crater

Joe Crater was a judge from New York City who disappeared one evening in 1930. He had been vacationing with his wife in Maine, when he got a mysterious phone call. He told his wife he had to go back to New York for business, but would be back in a few days. On the evening of August 6, he went to a restaurant with his mistress and some friends, who watched him get into a taxi after dinner. What happened after that remains a mystery. However, he was not reported missing until September 3, almost a month later. His mistress, a showgirl named Sally Lou Ritz, also disappeared that September.

READ MORE: Europe's Most Famous Places of Rest For The Dead

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World Most Famous Ghost Ships Story

Ghost Ships are defined as: “fictional haunted ships, or ones found adrift with their entire crew either missing or dead, or one which has been decommissioned but not yet scrapped”.

Ourang Medan

In June, 1947, frantic Morse Code messages were received from the Dutch freighter Ourang Medan. The message was received by many ships and several responded. The message reported ‘All officers including captain are dead lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead.’ A second message was received shortly after, this time a voice over the radio simply stating ‘I die’. Dutch and British listening posts were able to triangulate the position and vector a rescue attempt to the Ourang Medan. After several hours the Silver Star the arrived on scene. After failed attempts to hail the vessel using whistle signals and flashing lights. they assembled a small team and boarded the apparently undamaged Ourang Medan. They first ventured to the bridge where a radio was playing, several members of the Ships’ Company, including the Captain, were found dead, more corpses were discovered on the Cargo Deck including a dog standing on all four legs, frozen and snarling into thin air.

No survivors were found on board, but what was most disturbing was the nature of the bodies, all frozen in place looking up towards the sun, their arms outstretched, mouths gaping, and a look of immense horror on all their faces. A trip to the communications room revealed the author of the SOS messages, also dead, his hand still on the Morse sending key, eyes wide open and teeth bared. Strangely, there was no sign of wounds or injuries on any of the bodies. The crew of the Silver Star attempted to enter the Cargo Bay but a small explosion from an unknown source soon resulted in an uncontrollable inferno. Beaten back, they were forced to abandon the vessel and return to the safety of the Silver Star. Within minutes the vessel sank to the depths of the ocean floor.

Although there are no clear records of a ship by the name Ourang Medan existing, many conspiracy theorists believe the vessel was acting under a false name and was transporting something that ‘officially’ did not exist.

The fate of the Ourang Medan and her crew remain a mystery. Speculation has been made that pirates killed the crew and sabotaged the ship, although this doesn’t explain the peculiar grimaces and lack of injuries on the corpses. Others have claimed that clouds of methane or other noxious natural gases could have bubbled up from fissures on the sea bed and engulfed the ship. Even more fantastical theories involving aliens and ghosts abound.

Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste can rightly claim the title of the greatest maritime mystery of all time, and is definitely the most documented case of a missing crew. To this day the events that lead to the 8 crew and 2 passengers apparently vanishing from the face of the Earth are a topic of great controversy and debate.

On December 13th, 1872, onlookers witnessed a small 2 masted sailing vessel entering the Bay of Gibraltar. The Mary Celeste had sailed from New York on November 7th, and was bound for Genoa; she had a cargo of 1701 barrels of Alcohol. On the Afternoon of December 5th, Captain Morehouse of the Dei Gratia came upon a Brigantine following a parallel course that he recognized as the Mary Celeste. He and the Master, Captain Briggs, were close friends and had dined together before setting sail. Morehouse was alarmed to see the Celeste Yawing irrationally, surprising as he knew Briggs to be a talented seaman. After 2 hours of attempted hails with no reply, Morehouse proceeded to board the out of control vessel.

The Celeste appeared sea worthy and seemed to have been abandoned with haste. All of the ship’s papers were missing with the exception of the Captain’s Log, with the last entry stating the ship had passed the Azores on November 25th. Stories arose of warm cups of tea, half eaten breakfast and still smoking pipes, these stories are most likely untrue but it was clear the vessel had been abandoned in a hurry, but there were no signs of violence or a struggle. A six-month supply of uncontaminated food and fresh water was still aboard, and the crew’s personal possessions and artifacts were left untouched, all the cargo was accounted for with the exception of 9 barrels being empty. There was water damage to the vessel which lead some to believe the Celeste was abandoned due to inclement weather, but this contradicts Briggs personality: he was described as a brave and courageous man who would only abandon ship if there was an imminent risk of loss of life. Morehouse sailed the Celeste into Gibraltar, arriving on December 13th.

A marine surveyor who was charged with investigating the mystery discovered what he believed to be a few spots of blood in the captain’s cabin, an “unclean” ornamental cutlass in Briggs’ cabin, a knife and a deep gash on a railing that he equated with a blunt object or an axe, but while he did not find such a weapon on board, he believed the damage was recent. He found no trace of any damage to the vessel and she was found seaworthy.

Many explanations were put forward for the events: Piracy, Insurance Fraud (Briggs and Morehouse colluded), murder by the crew of Dei Gratia, Sea quake or other phenomena, an explosion caused by the fumes from the cargo, Ergotism from contaminated flour causing the crew to become mad, mutiny and several paranormal explanations.

Over the next 13 years the Mary Celeste changed hands 17 times, with several tragic deaths. Her final Captain deliberately grounded her to make a false insurance claim. In 2001, the National Underwater and Maritime Agency claim to have found the wreck of the Mary Celeste, although skeptics claim that there are hundreds of similar wrecks in the area and cannot determine with any certainty the identity of the vessel.

Lady Lovibond

13th February, 1748 – Celebrating his marriage, Simon Reed took his new bride, Annette, aboard his ship, the Lady Lovibond, for a cruise to Portugal. At the time it was considered bad luck to bring a woman onboard. Unbeknownst to Reed, his First Mate, John Rivers, was in love with the Captains wife and paced the deck in an uncontrollable rage. Overcome with jealousy, he attacked the helmsman with a belaying pin, killing him instantly. Rivers took the wheel and steered the Lovibond towards the notorious Goodwin Sands. All souls were lost and the subsequent inquiry ruled a verdict of Misadventure.

50 years later to the day, 2 separate ships witnessed a phantom ship sailing the Goodwin Sands. On the 13th February, 1848, local fishermen saw a vessel wreck on the area and lifeboats were sent out to investigate, with no sign of ship on the sands being found. In 1948, the ghost of Lovibond was seen again by Captain Bull Prestwick and was described as looking real but having an eerie green glow.

Unfortunately, you will have to wait until the 13th February, 2048, for the next sighting, as she is said to appear only once every 50 years: don’t forget to mark your calendar. The Goodwin Sands are England’s most fertile grounds for ghost ships, and are also the location of the legendary island of Lomea. The Lady Lovibond shares the area with two other phantom vessels: a liner called the SS Montrose and the Shrewsbury, a man-of-war.

Octavius

The Octavius was allegedly discovered West of Greenland by a whaler on October 11th, 1775. Crewmembers of the Whaler Herald boarded the assumed derelict Vessel, discovering the entire crew dead, frozen, apparently at the moment of their death. The Captain was found in his cabin, also frozen at his desk with his pen in hand, still writing in his log. He was accompanied by a dead woman, a child covered in a blanket and a sailor holding a tinderbox. The petrified boarding party left in a hurry, taking only the log back to the Herald. Unfortunately, its frozen state meant that it slipped from its binding and they only recovered the first and last pages. The partly complete entry in the log was dated 1762, meaning the vessel had been in the state they discovered it for 13 years.

The Octavius had left England for the Orient in 1761. The Captain opted to take the treacherous, but much shorter route of the unconquered North West Passage. It is believed the ship became trapped in ice whilst traveling past Northern Alaska. The discovery of the ship meant that the Octavius was the first ship to Navigate the North West Passage, albeit the crew never lived to witness it. The ship was presumed to have broken free of the ice in the winter months and the crew, dead from exposure, drifted with the winds for 13 years. The Octavius was never seen again after this strange encounter.

Young Teazer

Built in 1813, the Young Teazer was an American Privateer Schooner preying on sea trade of the British Empire off the coast of Halifax. She was a remarkably fast vessel taking many prizes from Nova Scotia, several right at the mouth of Halifax Harbour. In June, 1813, the Teazer was chased by the Nova Scotian Privateer Brig Sir John Sherbrooke, but Teazer was able to escape into the Fog. Shortly after, HMS La Hogue, a 74-gunned third rate ship of the line, pursued the Schooner as she was reportedly cornered in Mahone Bay. With nightfall pending, La Hogue was joined by HMS Orpheus and the vessels prepared to board Young Teazer, which had no where left to run.

The La Hogue sent a five boat boarding party towards the Schooner. As the boats approached, the Young Teazer exploded. 7 of the crew survived and claimed they last saw the Teazers First Lieutenant, Frederick Johnson, running to the main magazine with flaming embers, considered mad Johnson threw the embers into the ammunition killing himself and 30 other crew members, many of whom lie in unmarked graves in an Anglican Cemetery in Mahone Bay.

Soon after the tragic event, eye witness reports began to surface that the Young Teazer had reemerged from the depths as a fiery spectral ship. The Following year, on June 27th, people of Mahone Bay were startled to see an apparition sailing into the same water where the Young Teazer had been destroyed. As it came nearer they recognized it as the privateer, and then it vanished in a huge puff of flame and smoke. The story spread through the country, and on the next anniversary many more were on hand, watching for “the fire ship.” Sure enough, it appeared again, and it is legend to this day that many persons have witnessed the appearance of the ghost ship, and have seen it disappear in flame. If you are standing on the deck of a ship at sea, the apparition appears to threaten to ram your vessel. Many report an overwhelming sense of fear when they see the phantom pirate ship. The Ghost Ship, known locally as ‘The Teazer Light’ can be seen on foggy nights, most notably those that fall within 3 days of a full moon.

Flying Dutchman

Probably the most famous Ghost Ship, The Flying Dutchman has been popularized by ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ and for the big kids amongst you ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ (The Frying Dutchman). But what many people will not know is that ‘The Flying Dutchman’ refers to the Captain of the vessel, and not the vessel itself.

Several Spectral ships around the World are known as ‘The Flying Dutchman’ but I am going to refer to the original, located off the Cape of Good Hope. Here is the embellished tale:

“The Captain of the vessel, Hendrick Van Der Decken, was voyaging around the Cape of Good Hope with a final destination of Amsterdam. He swore to Round the Cape if it took him ’til Doomsday’. With a terrible storm abound, Van Der Decken refused to turn the ship around despite the pleas of the crew. Monstrous waves pummeled the vessel while the captain sang obscene songs, drank beer and smoked his pipe. Finally, with no options remaining, several of the crew mutinied. The Captain, aroused from his drunken stupor shot dead the lead mutineer and threw his body overboard, above him the clouds parted and a voice billowed from the Heavens.

‘You’re a very Stubborn Man’, to which the Captain replied ‘ I never asked for a peaceful voyage, I never asked for anything, so clear off before I shoot you too’ Van Der Decken made aim to fire into the sky but the pistol exploded in his hand.

‘you are condemned to sail the oceans for eternity, with a ghostly crew of dead men. Bringing death to all who sight your spectral ship, and to never make port or know a moments peace. Furthermore, gall shall be your drink, and red hot iron your meat’”

There have been many sightings of The Flying Dutchman, often by reputable and experienced seamen, including Prince George of Wales and his brother, Prince Albert Victor of Wales,

According to Admiral Karl Doenitz, U Boat crews logged sightings of The Flying Dutchman off the Cape Peninsula. For most or all of these crews, it proved to be a terrible omen. The ghostly East Indiaman was also seen at Muizenberg, in 1939. On a calm day in 1941, a crowd at Glencairn beach saw a ship with wind-filled sails, but it vanished just as it was about to crash onto the rocks.

MV Joyita

The MV Joyita was a luxury yacht, built in 1931, in Los Angeles for Movie Director Roland West. During the Second World War she was outfitted as a Patrol Boat and worked around the coast of Hawaii until the end of the War.

On October the 3rd, 1955, the Joyita set sail from Samoa bound for the Tokelau Islands 270 nautical miles away. Her departure had been delayed due to a clutch malfunction on the port main engine, the clutch was not repaired and the Yacht sailed on one engine. There were 25 souls on board, including a Government Official, 2 children and a surgeon on his way to perform an amputation. Though the journey should have taken no more than 2 days, by the 3rd day Joyita had not arrived in port. No distress call had been received even though the vessels course would have kept her well within radio range of coast guard and relay stations. A 100,000 sq mi search was conducted by aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force but there was no sign of the Yacht, her crew or passengers.

It was not until November 10th, 5 weeks later, that the vessel was found. The Tuvalu sighted the Joyita 600mi from her planned route. The vessel was listing heavily to port with her deck edge partially submerged. 4 tonnes of cargo were missing and none of the crew members were onboard. The ships VHF radio was tuned to the International Distress Frequency. The vessel was found to still be running on one Engine, with an auxiliary pump rigged but not running. All the clocks on board had stopped at 10:25 and switches for cabin and navigation lights were on. A doctor’s bag was found on the floor with 4 blood stained bandages. The logbook, sextant and chronometer were missing, along with 3 life rafts.

A subsequent enquiry found that the vessels hull was sound and that the fate of the crew was ‘inexplicable on the evidence submitted at the inquiry’. The missing life rafts were especially intriguing as the vessel was cork lined, making her unsinkable, a fact the Master and the crew would have been fully aware of. No mention of the use of the medical equipment was in the investigation. The missing cargo also remained a mystery.

Theories ranged from the outright bizarre: Remaining Japanese forces from World War II were to blame for the disappearances, operating from an isolated island base to the more believable: insurance fraud, piracy, mutiny.

The Joyita was repaired, but ran aground on several more occasions, being dubbed a cursed ship she was eventually sold for scrap in the 1960s.

Eliza Battle

Launched in Indiana in 1852, the Eliza Battle was a luxury wooden hulled paddle steamer regularly entertaining Presidents and VIPs. Disaster struck on a cold night in February 1858, when the steamer navigated the Tombigbee. A fire started on cotton bales on the main deck and soon spread out of control. The strong winds helped the fire spread quickly over the upper deck. Out of control, the Eliza Battle drifted downstream, coming to rest at Kemp’s Landing. Men died in efforts to save their loved ones and women died in their efforts to save their children, though, fortunately, there were few aboard the ill fated final trip of the Eliza Battle. Of the estimated 100 people on board, 26 souls were lost, mainly attributed to death by exposure. The ship sank in 28ft of water, and its wreck remains to this day.

During the spring floods, late at night during the full moon, it is said the riverboat can be seen rising out of the water and floating up the river with music playing and fires burning on the deck, sometimes only the outline of the steamer is sighted. The fire is so bright a name plate bearing the name Eliza Battle can be seen on the side of the vessel. Local fisherman believe that sighting the Eliza Battle is a sign of an impending disaster and ill omens to ships still plying the Tombigbee River.

Baychimo

Built in Sweden in 1911, the Baychimo was a Pelt trader along the routes of North West Canada. She was given to Great Britain by Germany as part of War reparations.

The 20 year old Cargo Steamers final (crewed) voyage occurred in October 1931, carrying a cargo of fur. The vessel became ice packed off the coast of the town of Barrow. The crew temporarily abandoned the vessel and headed 1/2 a mile inland in search of shelter from the freezing conditions. The ship eventually broke free of the ice a week later, on the 8th October, and the crew returned, only to become trapped in ice, again, on the 15th October. 15 crew members built a makeshift shelter some distance away, intent on waiting out the winter and eventually sailing the ship free.

On the 24th November, a blizzard struck. When it calmed, the crew found that the Baychimo had vanished, presumed sunk in the storm. Several days later a seal hunter informed the crew that he had sighted the vessel about 45 miles from their camp. The crew tracked the vessel to retrieve their precious cargo and left the Baychimo to its fate.

Over the next 4 decades there were numerous sightings of the Baychemo along the coast of Canada. Several boardings were attempted, few were successful, the ones that were often resulting in the salvagers becoming trapped inside due to adverse weather conditions. The last confirmed sighting occurred in 1969, 38 years after she was abandoned, she was found frozen in an ice pack. In 2006, the Alaskan Government began an operation to locate the ‘The Ghost ship of the Arctic’ but, to date, they have been unsuccessful.

Trapped in Ice, floating or at the bottom of the ocean, the fate of the Baychimo remains a mystery.

Carrol A. Deering

The Carrol A Deering was a 5 mast Schooner, built in 1911. Named for the owner’s son, she was a cargo vessel and her final voyage found her sailing from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, on December 2nd, 1920. The Master, William Merrit, and his first mate, Sewall Merrit (his son), had a crew of 10 Scandinavians. Both fell ill and Captain W. B. Wormell was recruited as a replacement.

After leaving Rio, the Deering stopped in Barbados for supplies. Here, the First Mate, McLennan, got drunk and complained to a fellow Mariner about Captain Wormell, his incompetence at disciplining the crew and his inability to Navigate the ship without the aid of McLennan. McLennan was arrested after he was overheard boasting “I’ll get the Captain before we get to Norfolk, I will”. Wormell forgave him, bailed him out and the Deering set sail for Hampton Roads.

The Vessel was not sighted until January 28th, 1921, when a Lightship keeper was hailed by a red haired man milling around on the foredeck. The man told the Lightship keeper, in a foreign accent, that the Deering had lost her anchors, but the Keeper was unable to relay the message due to a malfunctioning radio.

3 days later, on January 31st, the Deering was found aground on Diamond Shoals, off Cape Hatteras. Boarding of the ship was delayed due to bad weather and eventually rescue personal made it on to the vessel on February 4th. What they found made the Deering one of the most written about maritime mysteries in history. The Deering was completely abandoned. The logs and Navigation equipment were missing, as were 2 of the ships lifeboats. The Galley was midway into preparation for the following days meal. Unfortunately, the vessel was scuttled with Dynamite before a full investigation into the mystery could take place.

The crews disappearance occurred in the Bermuda Triangle, and several other vessels had disappeared in the same period and region as the Deering, including the sulfur freighter Hewitt. Many theories became popular during the investigation including Paranormal explanations, mutiny, piracy and Rum-runners stealing the vessel to sail to the Bahamas. The formal investigation ended in 1922, without any official ruling on the mysteries surrounding the apparent abandonment of the Carrol A. Deering.

READ MORE: The 5 Most Bizarrely Unlucky People

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Most Weird Jobs From History

Most of these jobs are no longer in existence so we can but look back and wonder what it must have been like to have been employed in these weird jobs.

Water Organist

The hydraulis was a type of pipe organ blown by air, where the power source pushing the air is derived by water from a natural source (e.g. by a waterfall) or by a manual pump. Consequently, the water organ lacked a bellows, blower, or compressor. The instrument was extremely popular in ancient Rome and there were regular competitions for it. At one competition, a player named Antipatros won a prize for playing the instrument for two days straight. A water organist was guaranteed a long career as the instrument was used at all holidays, and social events. Even emperor Nero played the hydraulis. Another benefit to the job was that you got the best seats in the house at the gladiators events because the organ was used to accompany the fights.

Slinger

A slinger was a man trained to use the sling. The sling was an essential part of roman military strategy because it was more effective (both in distance and damage) to an arrow. As a child, slingers-in-training would be required to kill their dinner – no kill, no food. It was an extremely good way to get youths trained fast. The slinger could throw stones up to one pound in weight and they could be used accurately up to 200 meters.

Funeral Clown

The funeral clown was paid to dress up as the dead person, wear a mask of his face, and dance about acting like him. The Romans believed that this would placate the spirits of the dead and bring joy to the living. As the funeral processed, the funeral clown would run alongside the corpse with other clowns making jokes and mimicking the dead. Some clowns were very highly regarded and even got to mock the emperor at his funeral. They were well paid and an oddly happy diversion from the clowns regular job as the head of a mime troupe.

Orgy Planner

The orgy planner had a very unusual but very exciting job – he got to plan festivities for the rich of society and, in some cases, got many perks (which I am sure you can imagine without me spelling it out). The orgy planner had to organize food, women, music, and accommodation. The downside to the job is that the orgy planner was not liked by all members of society (particularly those who were never invited to orgies) and the trade was even banned for a short time. The most famous orgy planner was Gaius Petronius who is most famous for writing the satirical book about Roman debauchery called Satyricon.

Curse Tablet Maker

Curse tablets were thin sheets of soft lead which had curses written on them. The curses were then affixed by nails to the altars or walls of temples. The poor curse tablet writer had sit day in and day out hearing the complaints and woes of his customers who needed curses written. Fortunately many of these curse tablets have survived to modern times so we can get a glimpse of life and the way thinking of the Romans. Here is one example: “bind every limb and sinew of Victorius, the charioteer for the Blue team.. the horses he is about to race… blind their eyes so they cannot see and twist their soul and heart so they cannot breathe.”

Gymnasiarch

The gymnasiarch had a busy job in ancient Greece due to the popularity of athletics. Despite being a dirty job – the gymnasiarch had to oil and scrape the athletes as well as tidy up after wrestling matches and the gymnasium in general, the position was highly sought after by the rich as it was considered the epitome of philanthropic occupations. To qualify as gymnasiarch you had to be between 30 and 60 and you have a large net worth. One benefit of the job was that you got to carry a stick with which to beat sullen youths who misbehaved in the gym.

Litter Carrier

The litter carrier was a slave whose job it was to cart women (and later men) around in little carriages. It was a hard job and a tedious one and could be dangerous (picture carrying a carriage up a flight of stairs!) The litter carriers were usually dressed in fine garments and the litters became more and more extravagant over the years. In fact, in later years many wealthy romans had windows of glass in their litters instead of the traditional curtains. Documents from the Roman times tell us that it was very uncomfortable to travel by litter as it could make one sea sick. This job has remained to a certain extent in that there is a group of men trained to carry the Papal Sedia Gestatoria (a throne carried on men’s shoulders). The sedia was last used in the 1980s but may make a come back due to recent security complications surrounding Pope Benedict XVI.

Urinatores

The urinatores were salvage divers from Ostia. The name – with its similarity to urine – is probably a reference to the fact that the deep diving caused so much pressure on their abdomens that they urinated a lot. The divers had but one tool – a kettle shaped diving bell filled with air for breathing and weighed down with lead weights – to help the divers reach up to 30 meters below the surface. Their job was primarily salvage but they also moved construction equipment around. The dangers in this job are obvious but the pay was good – with many of the divers becoming very affluent members of Roman society.

Stercorarius

Rome was famous for its extensive sewer system. But despite having such an advanced method of dealing with poop, most Roman’s didn’t have access to it (either because they lived on the hills, or were too poor for plumbing). And sometimes even those who could afford it, didn’t want it due to the smells that would leak into people’s homes and the rats and other vermin that lived in the sewers. This meant that most houses needed to deal with their poop in some other way. This is where the stercorarius comes in. He would travel door to door collecting all the human waste and cart it off to the edge of town. Farmers would buy the dung for their crops, so effectively the Romans had a better way of dealing with their waste than we do in modern times.

Silver Miner

This is not so much strange as it is downright dangerous and dirty. Not having tools strong enough to do the job without labor, the ancients had to mine everything by hand; and those hands were usually the small hands of children. Life expectancy in the silver mines was 3 months – but that didn’t bother the Romans because it was slaves that did the work. Young boys would be pushed down very small holes that were extraordinarily deep considering they were dug manually. The holes were hot and stuffy and prone to collapse. Outside the mines the silver ore was smelted down, producing poisonous gasses. Needless to say, this added to the danger of the job.

READ MORE: World Mysterious People Disappearances

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