The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories (45 page)

THE BURTON AGNES SKULL

In 1598, the Griffin family decided to build a new home on their lands in Yorkshire. The three Griffin daughters were quite interested in the project, Anne in particular. Anne paid great attention to the construction of the Burton Agnes Hall from start to finish, and she was quite attached to the old house by the end.

One night, Anne was walking home on a road and was suddenly attacked by a gang of thieves. They struck her on the head, and if she had not been rescued by the villagers who had heard her screams, she most likely would have died immediately. She was quickly brought home to her family, but things did not look good. Before
dying, Anne begged her sisters to keep a part of her in the Burton Agnes Hall forever. She decided, upon her final goodbye, that they should bury her skull within the walls of the house that she helped to build.

Anne died five days after she had been attacked, and her sisters ignored her request. Instead, they buried her, in one piece, in the church graveyard. Soon after the burial, the Griffin family heard bloodcurdling screams ringing out in Burton Agnes Hall, and no one could discover their source. Chilled to the bone, the sisters feared that the screams were a call from Anne to fulfill her dying wish. With no other solution in mind, the Griffin family decided that they must obey Anne's wishes and dig up her body immediately. When the coffin was opened, they received another terrible shock—the body had not decayed, but the head had fallen off and lost every bit of hair and tissue, leaving only a bare skull. The Griffins took Anne's skull home, and the screams subsided.

Everything was fine for many years after that, until the house was sold to another family who banished the skull from the Burton Agnes Hall. The screams promptly returned, and the horrified new inhabitants returned the skull to its place. The screams stopped yet again.

Later, a new owner moved in, hid the skull away within a wall, and never told anyone where it was. No one has found the skull since, and yet the screams have not returned. Some people claim to have seen Anne floating around the house in October, the month in which she was killed, perhaps searching for her own skull. They can recognize the ghost as Anne because it matches her portrait, which still hangs in the house to this very day.

JUNG AND HIS PATIENT

One night, after returning home from a lecture he had given, Carl Jung lay awake in bed for a long time. At about two o'clock, he had just fallen asleep, when he awoke with a start and had the feeling that someone had come into the room. He even thought that the door had been hastily opened. He turned on the light, but there was no one there. The room was still and quiet. He even leapt from his bed to check the corridor, which was also eerily quiet. He tried to recall exactly what had happened and why he had the urgent feeling that someone had come into the room. It suddenly occurred to him that he had been awakened by a feeling of dull
pain, as though something had struck him in the forehead and then the back of skull.

The following day, Jung received a telegram telling him that one of his patients had committed suicide. The man had shot himself in the head; the bullet had gone through his forehead and come to rest in the back wall of his skull.

In January 2008, the Dukinfield Crematorium in Manchester, England, asked local residents and clergymen to support its plan for heating and powering its chapel and boiler using the heat created by burning bodies.

MESSY MESSAGE

Are you prone to slovenly ways when dining? Food always falling off your fork and dropping onto your clothes? This may be a message from beyond. Judika Illes, known psychic and witch, tells us that this action can be a result of your ancestors trying to get your attention. She recommends setting up communication with them and then seeing if your table manners improve!

Ancient Mesopotamians buried their deceased infants in large kitchen jars.

In the ancient city of Jericho, the dead were buried under the houses they had lived in. But first their heads were severed, covered with plaster and clay, and decorated for their families to worship.

EVERLASTING GREEN

The Ecopod is a 100 percent biodegradable coffin, made from paper, untreated plywood, and fair-trade bamboo or handwoven willow. The Natural Burial Comany makes these eco-conscious vessels for the afterlife in a variety of colors, linings, and styles.

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