12 Innocent Looking Images With Creepy Backstories That Will Leave You Petrified

Happy photos that hide grave truths! These are ordinary images with extraordinarily horrifying backstories that will make your skin crawl!

1. A Static Moment of Ecstasy!

---

Michael McQuilken, right, was 18 and his brother Sean, 12, when this picture was taken after they had climbed California’s Moro Rock in 1975. Two brothers happily grinning at what seemed to be a funny scenario of their hair standing on end at that moment, were totally unaware of the fact that they were minutes away from being struck by lightning. Fortunately both of them survived the attack, but only slightly. The younger boy suffered third-degree burns to his back and elbows and Michael only barely made it out alive.

Electrical charges in the atmosphere just before a strike can lift hair into the air as a result of huge amounts of static electricity produced in the atmosphere, which is a grave sign providing nature’s last warning of a bolt from the blue.

 

2. The Car Bomb

---

On August 15th 1998, a father and daughter had their photo taken in Omagh, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. Shortly afterwards, the red car seen in the photograph would explode, killing 29 people and injuring 220 others. The car bombing was carried out by the ‘Real IRA’, an IRA splinter group who opposed the IRA’s ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement.

3. Pogo The Clown

---

What seems as a harmless clown in this picture was a lot more after the clown paint came off. John Wayne Gacy, aka Pogo the Clown, was a convicted serial killer and rapist in the 1970s. When he wasn’t appearing as a clown at children’s birthday parties, Gacy was sexually assaulting and murdering over 30 young males in just over 6 years. He became known as “The Killer Clown” and was sentenced to death in 1980.

4. James Bulger and his Abductors

---

This photo was taken by a security camera in February of 1993, showing two ten-year-old boys abducting 3-year-old James Bulger from a mall in Kirkby, England. After taking him on a 2.5 mile walk, the boys tortured him in ways indescribable and finally murdered him by throwing a heavy iron rod, leaving his body on some railroad tracks. The boys were found guilty of murder and became the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century.

5. Tyler Hadley And His After Party

---

A normal party pic right? But what you don’t know about this moment of celebration captured in this pic is that the kid on the right, named Tyler Hadley, had just murdered his parents a few hours ago and hidden their bodies in an upstairs bedroom. He apparently spent three hours cleaning up after his act of horror before inviting his friends over for a party, during which Hadley told a friend about the killings who later tipped off the police.

6. The Infamous Columbine Class Picture

---

What looks like a happy class group picture, which it is, has the identities of the students (top left), who would go on and slaughter their classmates just weeks after this picture was taken, in what came to be known as the Columbine High School Shootings of 1999. The students in the top left pretending to aim guns at the camera are Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the teens who went on a ravaged shooting spree and ended up killing their classmates just a few days later.

7. Hiroshima Shadows

---

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are by far the most inhumane and notorious incidents in world history, killing off more than 200,000 people, half of whom died on impact. As terrifying as it may sound, the horror did not end there. When the bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, there was an intense “bright blinding blast” that consisted of traces of radiation. A person standing near a wall could have obstructed the light from the blast long enough that no radiation hit the wall behind him. This atomic flash hit the walls around where the person was standing and charred the walls thus creating permanent shadows, markers that serve as a constant reminder of the victims that stood in those spots, instantly vaporized by the blast of the atomic bomb. It’s a chilling reminder that war is hell.

8. Autograph For The Assassin

---

This is a photo of John Lennon giving an autograph to a fan, Mark David Chapman, the man who would murder him only hours later. Apparently, John Lennon was on his way to the recording studio when Chapman approached him for an autograph. The unwitting musician signed the record and then went on his way. Hours later after Lennon returned back, Chapman fired several shots from a .38, striking Lennon in his back and shoulder, and then remained at the scene until police arrived Chapman later said that he was incensed by Lennon’s remark that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus”, calling it blasphemy. He made no attempt to flee or resist arrest.

9. Travis Alexander

---

This photo was found on a damaged camera that had gone through the washing machine at the home of Travis Alexander. The next few shots show Alexander bleeding on the bathroom floor, minutes after being stabbed and shot to death by his girlfriend, Jodi Arias. She supposedly hopped into the shower and took this picture, one that would be his last snap before his death, followed by others after committing the murder.

10. The Heaven’s Gate Suicides

---

This photo depicts the sad influence and power of cults and its consequences. In this photo lie the bodies of members of the Heaven’s Gate cult who, in March of 1997, were convinced to commit suicide by leader Marshall Applewhite. They believed Earth was about to be wiped out and that suicide was necessary to escape and reach an alien spaceship that was traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet.

11. Death Photography

---

In the early 19th century, people had to remain very very still for photographs, so that the camera could process slow shutter speeds. You’ll notice the mother and father have the natural blurriness that’s caused by swaying or movement, but the daughter is perfectly still. That’s because she had passed away earlier that day. It wasn’t uncommon in those times for families to take photos with their deceased loved ones. Seriously, creepy!

12. The Happy Creepy Killer

---

And we saved the creepiest for the last. What seems like a cheerful teenager in this pic is actually Jeff Franklin, 17, grinning from the backseat of a police car after using a hatchet and sledgehammer to murder his parents and critically wound three of his siblings on March 10, 1998. HORRIFYINGLY CREEPY! The smile gives me the creeps!