Author's Preface: 13 living city stories gleaned from 30 years of reporting across 33 European countries.

Part 1 Curse

① A scary song that causes suicide [Gloomy Sunday]
The terrifying song [Gloomy Sunday] that drove countless people to their deaths | “Please play [Gloomy Sunday] at my funeral” | [Gloomy Sunday] is deeply related to a BBC broadcast program] | The correlation between [Gloomy Sunday] and suicide is key to ‘frequency’ | The person who created the song [Gloomy Sunday] that brings misfortune was the ‘dark era’ | [Gloomy Sunday] that miraculously saved Šeresi Reszo from death in a Nazi concentration camp | “The more this song sells, the more unhappy I become” | There is a restaurant in Budapest where you can still hear [Gloomy Sunday] played live] | The reason why Hungarians are proud of the horrific suicide song [Gloomy Sunday]

② A dangerous picture that could cause a fire [Crying Boy]
Even a reproduction that is not the real thing can lead people to misfortune]]| A strange painting [The Crying Boy] that survived a house that was reduced to ashes by fire without a single soot | Shocking cases related to [The Crying Boy] are fabricated or exaggerated by The Sun] | A strange painting that does not burn even when burned and returns even when thrown in the trash]| The secret behind [The Crying Boy] that withstood the temperature of a fire scene exceeding 1,000 degrees | “]The Crying Boy] could really be the devil’s child”

③ Annabelle, the cursed doll that actually existed
]The Conjuring] is a film based on the world's most famous 'cursed' doll, Annabelle! | A strange doll that moves on its own, possessed by the spirit of Annabelle Higgins, who died at the age of seven | Why did the Warrens decide to display the 'possessed' Annabelle doll in a museum? | "If you're going to harm someone, go ahead and do it!" | Strange phenomenon that occurred on the set | "The Annabelle doll escaped from the museum"

Part 2: Strange phenomenon

④ The Enfield incident that resulted in 1,500 strange phenomena
Were the series of deaths that occurred during the movie screening real, or was it fake news created to promote the movie?] | The Enfield case, which is marked by over 1,500 bizarre incidents | Strange incidents revealed by the investigation of Maurice Gross of the Society for the Study of Psychic Phenomena | 140 hours of audiotapes and 500 pages of strange and surprising records collected from 30 witnesses to the Enfield case | “Why are you sleeping on Janet’s head?” “Because it’s my bed!” | Marie Curie, the great scientist who won the Nobel Prize twice, and Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of ‘Sherlock Holmes’, were also members of the SPR | The secret truth surrounding the Warrens is gradually being revealed | Why did the Enfield poltergeist phenomenon suddenly stop in September 1979?] | Peggy’s house, where an ominous feeling continued even after the Bennet family moved in.

⑤ The miracle of Fatima that continued to appear to three children
The Virgin Mary Visits Three Shepherd Children Six Times | Why Only Lucia Had a Conversation with the Virgin Mary]] |[Why Lucia Vowed Never to See the Virgin Mary Again | The Third Apparition of the Virgin Mary - “Consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Virgin Mary” | Why Did Santos, a Liberal Freemason and Former Administrator, Interrupt the Fourth Apparition of the Virgin Mary] | The Fifth Apparition of the Virgin Mary and an Amazing Miracle in the Gathering of 30,000 People | The Sixth Apparition of the Virgin Mary - “Build a Basilica on This Site” | Did Francisco Really Go to Heaven?] | The Amazing Revelation of the Virgin Mary to Jacinta | The First Prophecy: A Vision of Hell | The Second Prophecy: The Russian Revolution and World War II | Why Was the Third Prophecy Shrouded in Veils and a Riddle?] | Why The Official Announcement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Is So Questionable | The Virgin Mary Was Riding a UFO and Jesus is an Alien]!

⑥ A terrifying doppelganger that takes the life of anyone who witnesses it
Death comes to those who witness their doppelganger!] | Cases of witnessing a doppelganger ① Elizabeth I of England - “I am dead in bed!” | Cases of witnessing a doppelganger ② Catherine II of Russia - orders her doppelganger to be shot] | Cases of witnessing a doppelganger ③ President Lincoln of the United States - assassinated after seeing himself lying in a coffin | Cases of a doppelganger foretelling death ① Poet John Donne - A deceased baby comes to tell his father of his death | Cases of a doppelganger foretelling death ② Admiral George Tryon - Tryon, who died in a battleship collision, shows up at his wife’s social party | Cases of a doppelganger speaking to him ① Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley - Walks and talks with his doppelganger | Cases of a doppelganger speaking to him ② Author Maupassant - His doppelganger appears and tells him about the novel he was writing | Cases of witnessing a doppelganger but not dying ① The great writer Goethe - Survives after witnessing his doppelganger twice | [#2: Witnessing a Doppelganger but Not Dying] British Member of Parliament Parker - Lived for Eight Years After Encountering a Doppelganger | Doppelgangers in Literature ① Heinrich Heine's Poem "The Return" | Is the Doppelganger Phenomenon a Function of the Mind or the Brain?

Part 3 Incident

⑦ The Mad Countess Who Sacrificed 650 Virgins
In search of the horrific scene of a mass murder | The surprising reason why there are so many mentally ill people in the Bathory family | Elizabeth, who committed serial murders and endlessly indulged in blood because she felt like she was getting younger | The Bathory family of Elizabeth became a thorn in the Habsburgs' side | Why was Elizabeth so isolated from the world and kept under strict silence? | Were her evil deeds true, or was she falsely accused? | The world finally learned of the horrific incident when a book was published 100 years after the publication of the book.

⑧ The legendary Jack the Ripper serial murders, the beginning of the 'theatrical crime'
The unprecedented and bizarre serial murders that even gave rise to new terms like 'Ripperology' and 'Ripper researcher' | Mary, the first victim found in a gruesome state | The reason the weekly magazine 'Manchester Guardian' made a big story about the 'leather apron's' handiwork] | The reason the third victim, Elizabeth, was not disemboweled | If only she had slept for 30 more minutes in the police station holding cell... | Kelly, a working woman in her 20s whose body was found in the most gruesome state | The letter that established the killer's name as 'Jack the Ripper' | What does the 'double event' in the killer's letter mean? | The reason the killer sent a dried-up kidney to the police station | The killer was Prince Edward, grandson of Queen Victoria and heir to the throne] | Patricia Cornwell, a famous writer who took on the challenge of solving the mystery surrounding Jack the Ripper | Edwards, a Ripper researcher who auctioned off a shawl stolen by a police officer at the scene and performed a DNA test | Another Ripper researcher explains why Morris was convinced the killer was a woman.

Part 4: The Darkness of History

⑨ The strange mystery surrounding the death of Ludwig II
Elisabetta, a thirteen-year-old girl who met the ghost of Ludwig II at Neuschwanstein Castle | Ludwig II, the King of Bavaria, whose life was shrouded in mystery from birth to death | The reason why Ludwig II gave enormous privileges to Wagner, who harshly criticized the monarchy, and appointed him as the palace conductor of the Kingdom of Saxony | Why did Ludwig II side with France during the Franco-Prussian War? | Ludwig II, who died with his personal physician, Dr. Guden, while out for a walk | Persuasive arguments and testimony denying the theory of Ludwig II's suicide | All the prophecies spoken by the ghost of Ludwig II came true!

⑩ The unsolved mystery surrounding the assassination of the monstrous monk Rasputin
“This guy is the culprit!” | Are the rumors about Rasputin’s promiscuous sex life true? | Rasputin cured the Crown Prince’s incurable hemophilia through prayer | Why did Rasputin strongly oppose Russia’s war against the German Empire? | Rasputin survived even after drinking a lethal dose of cyanide and poison, but… … | Several mysteries surrounding Rasputin’s assassination | Why the theory of British involvement is highly probable? | Rasputin’s prophecies all came true | Is Rasputin’s genitals on display at the Museum of Erotica in St. Petersburg really real?

⑪ The amazing undeveloped technology of the genius scientist Nikola Tesla
Why do Serbs worship Tesla like a god? | The 'eye-rolling episode' that changed Tesla's life | A fateful, yet unfortunate encounter with the 'fake inventor' Edison | Tesla's perfect victory in the current war with Edison | "A married inventor cannot create great things" | Morgan's refusal to provide additional funding led to the 'world system' being left unfinished and the opportunity for an era of free energy disappearing | Many inventors' bloody and tearful 'free energy' research that began with Tesla's research | It is said that a warship suddenly disappeared during the 'Philadelphia Experiment'! | The unsolved mystery of '3·6·9'

Part 5 Tradition

⑫ Dracula, the vampire reborn in modern times
It is said that vampires and Frankenstein were born at a gathering hosted by the British poet Lord Byron] | Why Romanian dictator Ceausescu idolized Vlad III, the model for Dracula] | Seven characteristics of vampires | The strange vampire incident in the village of Medveja | Why they drive a stake into the heart of the dead who have become vampires] | How are vampires different from Dracula] | The identity of the legendary vampire, Saba Savanovic

⑬ The Jewish artificial human Golem
Only Jewish religious leaders can create a golem] | Rudolf II, who met Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through Rabbi Loeff's magic, but was in a desperate situation | What did the golem created by Rabbi Loeff look like? | How to create a golem | The first human, Adam, in the Old Testament is a golem | The golem, a homunculus, before being transformed into the ideal human form | Why does the golem come back to life every 33 years?

References

13 strange, fascinating and dangerous European city tales,
Become a fascinating history!

『The more you read, the more you get sucked into the world of urban spooky tales』 contains 13 of the world's most terrifying and exciting European urban spooky tales, including the story of the scary song [Gloomy Sunday] that drove countless people to death, the story of the dangerous painting [The Crying Boy] that constantly causes fires, the story of Annabelle, the world's most famous 'cursed doll' that became the motif of the horror movie [The Conjuring], the story of the terrifying and mysterious 'doppelganger' that takes the lives of those who witness it, and the story of the mad Countess Elizabeth who sacrificed 650 virgins as blood sacrifices.

The two authors of this book, a journalist and a travel journalist respectively, who are also a married couple, traveled extensively across 33 European countries, including Austria, Hungary, and Serbia, for over 30 years from 1991 to the early 2020s, reporting and uncovering frightening, interesting, and bizarre stories.
The 13 stories in this book are the precious fruit and achievement of the two authors' tremendous dedication, passion, perseverance, and tenacity.

What makes "A World History of Urban Oddities That Draws You Into Its Reader" stand out from other similar books and hold such a special significance? While many similarly conceived works largely reference and reproduce, or even patch together, diverse sources like newspapers, magazines, books, and academic papers, this book is the result of the authors' 30-plus years of research, collecting, verifying, and systematically organizing stories from countless cities across 33 European countries.

Let's be more specific.
First, in Chapter 7, “The Mad Countess Who Sacrificed 650 Virgins,” the authors raise the possibility that, contrary to popular belief, Countess Elizabeth Bathory was not a murderer, but rather a political scapegoat of some kind.
In fact, after visiting the main scene of the incident, the Nadershdi Castle, and thoroughly investigating it, they discovered that there were no torture chambers or torture or murder instruments that could prove that horrific torture and murder had occurred.
In addition, the authors, through meticulous investigation, reporting, and research, persuasively present the possibility that Countess Elizabeth was a political scapegoat, citing the fact that no piles of skeletal corpses have been found around the castle to this day, and that if a large number of corpses had been left in piles inside the castle, a foul odor would have been generated and the local residents would have been suspicious, but no such circumstances have been found.
So who, and why, put such an unjust accusation on Elizabeth? The authors note that Elizabeth's Báthory family and her husband's Nádèszdy family were among the few remaining Hungarian nobles, and were a thorn in the side of the Habsburgs, the family that had produced successive Holy Roman Emperors and was the most powerful ruling power in Europe at the time.


In addition, the authors uncovered connections to modern European politics while researching Episode 9, “The Strange Mystery Surrounding the Death of Ludwig II,” and in Episode 10, “The Unsolved Mystery Surrounding the Assassination of the Monk Rasputin,” they discovered a new perspective that overturns the existing image of Rasputin as someone who cleverly approached the Russian imperial family and intervened in politics.

Lastly, in episode 12, “Dracula, the vampire reborn in the modern age,” the authors also revealed that while many people believe that Dracula originated in Romania due to the widespread popularity of Bram Stoker’s masterpiece, the tale “Dracula,” it actually originated in Serbia.
And they also unearthed the world's oldest document (an Austrian newspaper from 1752) supporting evidence that the vampire originated in Serbia.
If this document is verified as fact, the history of vampires, which has been accepted as established until now, may need to be completely reexamined.

The story of "Gloomy Sunday," the terrifying song that led countless people to their deaths.

[Gloomy Sunday], a scary song that makes you want to die just by listening to it.
Created in 1933 by composer Széresy Reszó in a bar in Budapest, Hungary, this song killed 157 people in Hungary alone and hundreds more worldwide.
What on earth is in the music and lyrics of this song that has caused such a series of horrific events?

Initially, Sheresh Rezo had submitted several songs to music publishers, including one where he had composed music based on lyrics written by his lover, but each time it was rejected for being "too dark."
Then, in 1935, it began to attract public attention when the popular singer Pal Kulmar officially recorded it, and it became a sensation when it was introduced on the radio under the title [Gloomy Sunday].

It was from this time that [Gloomy Sunday] became a 'suicide song' that drove countless people to their deaths.
First of all, the radio station director who planned the broadcast of [Gloomy Sunday] suddenly died.
Shortly after that incident, it was revealed that the sheet music for [Gloomy Sunday] was found at the scene of a girl's suicide by drinking poison.
A week later, it was rumored that László Muros, a Treasury official, had attempted suicide by shooting himself in a taxi, leaving behind a blood-stained [Gloomy Sunday] note instead of a suicide note.
There was also an incident where a gentleman at a bar requested a gypsy band to play [Gloomy Sunday], and then went outside during the performance and committed suicide with a pistol.
These unfortunate incidents followed one another, and in a short period of time, 17 similar incidents occurred in downtown Budapest alone.

This song, which brought misfortune to countless people, also brought misfortune to its composer, Sheresh Rezor.
After the huge success of [Gloomy Sunday], Rejoy contacted his former lover, who had inspired him to write the lyrics and helped create the song, and dreamed of a bright future together, but horrifyingly, the next day, she committed suicide by drinking poison, leaving behind a suicide note that read, “Gloomy… Sunday.”

Ironically, this tragic song of death [Gloomy Sunday] saved a man's life just once.
It miraculously saved the life of the song's composer, Sheresh Rezor, who was in a desperate situation in a Nazi concentration camp.
It was thanks to a Nazi soldier who rescued him from the concentration camp after learning that he was the composer of the already famous song [Gloomy Sunday].


The story of the dangerous painting [The Crying Boy] that constantly causes fires

A painting that will definitely cause a fire if hung on the wall.
There is a very dangerous painting that burns down all objects, houses, and buildings, but the painting itself survives without a single soot, constantly causing fires.
It is a painting called [Crying Boy].
This painting was initially created as a souvenir for tourists in Venice, Italy, and since the 1960s has been made into a series of reproductions known around the world as [The Crying Boy].
It is generally accepted that the original artist was a Spanish painter named Bruno Amadio, and that the model for the painting was Don Bonillo, a boy who became an orphan after losing his parents in a fire.
But surprisingly, it was rumored that the boy had a special ability to start fires without any apparent external source or tools.
In other words, the boy was not a victim of the fire, whether intentional or not, but an arsonist who killed his parents.

“That child is the seed of the devil.
“It is better for your health not to get involved with that child.”

When Bruno Amadio began to paint the boy's portrait, the villagers warned him not to, but the artist, captivated by the boy's eyes, ignored the warnings and continued painting.
And four years before he became famous for his 'cursed painting', Bruno Amadio died in a mysterious fire at his studio in England.

After a long period of hiding, the boy resurfaced about ten years later in a car crash in the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​Spain.
The driver's body was found in the burned-out car, and his driver's license read 'Don Bonillo'.

The existence of the cursed painting [The Crying Boy] was first made known to the world in an article dated September 4, 1985, in The Sun, the British tabloid daily newspaper with the largest circulation at the time.
The article had the chilling title, "Blazing Curse of the Crying."

The full story of the incident is as follows.
One day, a pot in the kitchen of Ron and Mary Hall, a couple living in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, suddenly caught fire.
The fire spread quickly and almost completely destroyed the 27-year-old house.
But surprisingly, [The Crying Boy], which was framed and hung on the second floor wall, suffered no damage.
After that, rumors continued to circulate that [The Crying Boy] had been hung on the wall and then caught in a terrible fire.
At one time, there were rumors that the shocking incidents related to [The Crying Boy] were fabricated or exaggerated by The Sun to boost its rapidly declining sales, but the disasters continued to occur.
There have been a series of strange incidents where the body survived a fire that was over 1,000 degrees Celsius, and even returned to the trash after being thrown away.

A terrifying and mysterious story of a doppelganger that takes the life of anyone who witnesses it.

A doppelganger is a phenomenon in which a person is seen by another person who looks exactly like them or by someone else.
There is a popular belief that anyone who witnesses a doppelganger will die soon after, so it has been feared since ancient times as a sign of death.
Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher, is said to have been seen by many people at two different places at the same time on the same day, and then died shortly thereafter!

There are surprisingly many cases of people dying after witnessing their doppelganger, and Queen Elizabeth I is a representative example.
She died four days later while sitting in a chair after seeing herself dead in bed one day.
Catherine II, Empress of the Russian Empire, also discovered a ghost that appeared to be her own alter ego and ordered her guards to shoot it, but passed away shortly thereafter.
Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was shot and killed by an assailant in a theater not long after seeing himself lying in a coffin.

There are many other cases of people witnessing doppelgangers, including the case of poet John Donne, whose wife's doppelganger, who was supposed to be in England, visited her husband in France and gave birth to a stillborn child; the case of Admiral George Tryon, whose husband's doppelganger, who died in a battleship collision, showed up at his wife's social party; the case of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who walked and talked with his double; and the case of French writer Maupassant, who had the surprising experience of his double appearing and telling him the contents of a novel he was in the middle of writing.

Interestingly, there are cases where people did not die even after seeing their doppelgangers. These include the great writer Goethe, who saw his doppelganger twice and survived to the age of 82, and the British member of the House of Commons Parker, who lived for eight years after meeting his doppelganger before dying.

The 13 urban tales of the world history in 『A World History of Urban Tales That Will Make You Immerse Yourself in The More You Read』 are so terrifying that they will give you goosebumps all over your body and so exciting that you won't be able to take your eyes off them for even a moment. They will immediately grab the reader and pull them into the book without hesitation.


13 of the world's scariest and most exciting European urban horror stories!

Part 1.
The story of the terrifying song [Gloomy Sunday] that led countless people to their deaths.
Part 2.
The story of the dangerous painting [The Crying Boy] that constantly causes fires
Part 3.
The story of Annabelle, the world's most famous "cursed doll," which became the motif for the horror film [The Conjuring].
Part 4.
The Anfield Incident, which resulted in over 1,500 bizarre incidents.
Part 5.
The story of Fatima's mysterious miracles that repeatedly appeared to three children.
Part 6.
A terrifying and mysterious story of a doppelganger that takes the life of anyone who witnesses it.
Part 7.
The story of Countess Elizabeth, the madwoman who sacrificed 650 virgins
Part 8.
The story of the legendary Jack the Ripper serial murders, which became the forerunner of the "theatrical crime" era.
Part 9.
The strange story of the death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who built Neuschwanstein Castle.
Part 10.
The unsolved mystery surrounding the assassination of Rasputin, the infamous monk who led the Russian imperial family to its downfall.
Part 11.
The amazing undeveloped technology of genius scientist Nikola Tesla and 'Tesla vs.
The Story of Edison's Historical Technological Wars
Part 12.
The story of vampires and Frankenstein reborn at a gathering hosted by the British poet Byron
Part 13.
The story of the strange Jewish artificial human, the Golem