Top 10 most mysterious people

By Joan Seth

In this article, we look at ten of the most mysterious people ever to have lived. They exhibited mysterious abilities or just had strange enigmas attached to them.

1. Ice Woman of Minnesota

Jean Hilliard was a ordinary 19 year old woman, but an incident in her home town of Lengby Minnesota was enough to make her a one in a million mystery woman after she was discovered completely frozen. Her neighbor discovered her outside in temperatures of 25 degrees below zero. When she was brought to the hospital, the doctors were shocked. Her body was as frozen as ice, and her skin was like snow and her limbs were all frostbitten. A nurse commented that touching her was like 'reaching into a freezer'.

With nothing else they can do, her family prayed and gathered friends and relatives to pray for her. And prayed hard they did, because after a month, Jean totally recovered. She did not show any signs of organ damage nor frostbite.

What happened here? Was the power of prayer? Or was it some aspect of medical science that we still do not understand fully? Some animals have shown to be able to survive being frozen solid. Was Jean manifesting some form of mutation?

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2. Donnie Decker

Donnie Decker was visiting his friend’s house when he abruptly went into a trance-like state. Immediately after, the ceiling began to drip water and a mist filled the room. His friends immediately called on the landlord who was alarmed by what he was seeing. Police were later called, who were baffled by the scene.

Some time later, Donnie was at a restaurant with other companions when rain started pouring down their heads. The restaurant owner immediately forced him out. Years later, due to a petty crime, Donnie was put into jail where he caused chaos when rain started to pour down in his cell. After angry inmates complained, Donnie explained that he could make it rain when he wanted to, and proved his point by dumping rain on the jailor on duty.

Eventually, a priest was summoned to perform an exorcism on him. After the exorcism, the mysterious rains never appeared again.

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3. The Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short was discovered murdered on 15 January, 1947 in Los Angeles. Her severely mutilated body had been severed at the waist and drained of blood and her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears. She had been "posed" with her hands over her head and elbows bent at right angles.

She received the nickname 'Black Dahlia' from a newspaper reporter covering the murder, as a word-play on a movie named "The Blue Dahlia".

Many rumours, tales and conspiracies have been sounded out since, and the investigation into her murder was one of the largest ever conducted in the history of Los Angeles, till date, the murder has never been solved.

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4. Count of St. Germain

The Count of St. Germain (allegedly died February 27, 1784) was a courtier, adventurer, inventor, amateur scientist, violinist, amateur composer, and a mysterious gentleman; he also displayed some skills with the practice of alchemy. He was known as ‘Der Wundermann’ — ‘The Wonderman’. He was a man whose origin was unknown and who disappeared without leaving a trace.

In subsequent centuries after his death, many people have claimed to have seen or acquainted with him. Some have even claimed to be the Count himself! Reports have been coming as late as 1926, almost 200 years after his claimed death.

Did the Count, through his alchemy experiments, discovered the elixir of life which granted him immortality? Or is the whole story just blown out of proportions and fueled by his fanatic followers? We might never know the answer.

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5. Mystery of the Somerton Man

On 1st December, 1948, on Somerton Beach in Australia, a dead man was found. The police found only a used bus and rail ticket, a comb, chewing gum, matches and cigarettes on his body. He had no form of identification on him, and fingerprint and dental records were unable to verify his identity. An autopsy also failed to discover the cause of death.

Luggage found in a hotel was then proven to belong to the man, where the most mysterious aspect of the case was unveiled. A cryptic code was found in a book:



Subsequent investigations failed to positively identify the man nor the cause of death till date. The code has never been solved.

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6. Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper was a name given to a serial killer notorious for killing prostitutes in London in 1888. At least 5 murders have been attributed to him. The bodies were all found severely mutilated, having their throats cut and some internal organs removed.

The name, 'Jack the Ripper' came from a letter sent to the police, purportedly from the murderer himself. In this letter, he threatened to 'clip the lady's ears off and send them to the police', and signed off with "Jack the Ripper". Initially thought of as a hoax, police came to believe it was authentic, as 3 days later, the second victim was found with one earlobe cut.

Police investigations never discovered the identity of the murderer. As internal organs had been removed from 3 of the dead bodies, it was speculated that Jack was a surgeon or a butcher who was skilled with knives.

Up to a hundred theories about his identify have been formed since, but the murders have never been positively solved till date. The legend of Jack the Ripper still lives on in fiction and history.

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7. The Babushka Lady

During the analysis of the film footage of the assasination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, a mysterious woman was spotted. She was wearing a brown overcoat and a scarf on her head (the scarf is the reason for her name as she wore it in a similar style to Russian grandmothers – also called babushkas).

The woman appeared to be holding something in front of her face which is believed to be a camera. She appears in many photos of the scene. Even after the shooting when most people had fled the area, she remained in place and continued to film. Shortly after she is seen moving away to the East up Elm Street. The FBI publically requested that the woman come forward and give them the footage she shot but she never did.

Even though a woman, Beverly Oliver, came forward and identified herself as the lady, she was regarded as a fraud, and till date, the identity of The Babushka Lady has not been solved.

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8. Nostradamus

The Great Fire of London. Napoleon's rise to power. Adolf Hitler raging World War II. Apollo Moon Landings. The September 11 terrorist attacks. All of these historical events had one thing in common - Nostradamus predicted them.

The seer had started writing prophecies in 1550. Altogether, he had written at least 6,338 of them. Modern believers of his prophecies have stated that in certain ways, his writings can be interpreted to be linked to a world event. Skeptics have claimed that most of his writings are vague and believers are just 'fitting the words to the event', or known as retroactive clairvoyance.

Did Nostradamus really had prophetic powers? Or was he just a ordinary person with good luck? Or was there something else in play here?

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9. Daniel Dunglas Home

Daniel Dunglas Home, or D.D. Home as he was more commonly known, was a physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will.

Various famous people of the mid 19th century have witnessed his psychic powers; confounding many experts at that time. In 1868, he was reported to have levitated out of a window and into another during a séance.

Still, skeptics have claimed that his abilities were the result of fraud. He was caught cheating a few times, but the episodes were never made public.

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10. D. B. Cooper

D. B. Cooper (aka “Dan Cooper”) is a pseudonym given to a notorious aircraft hijacker who, on November 24, 1971, after receiving a ransom payout of $200,000, leapt from the back of a Boeing 727 as it was flying over the Pacific Northwest somewhere over the southern Cascades.

Cooper has not been seen since and it is not known whether he survived the jump. In 1980, an eight year old boy found $5,800 of soggy $20 bills washed up on the banks of the Columbia river. The serial numbers matched those of the ransom money which had been noted to make it easier to track Cooper later.

Till today, his identity has never been proven nor any trace of the remaining money ever found.

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