#phone rang but went unanswered. she didn’t reject the call & the phone was definitely on and had signal

[fingertipsmp3]

Just sitting here eating breadsticks in the calm before the storm tbh

[lokisgame]

A Generous Donation [12]

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6] [part 7] [part 8] [part 9] [part 10] [part 11]

The food looked and smelled as delicious as always, but when Charlie took his place at the table, looking around the faces gathered there, it all felt wrong, he didn't feel grateful at all. Dana and Will's absence gaped like a black hole, a fearful reminder sucking up all cheer. Even young Mathew kept his head down, bending under pressure of being the only child present. Him, Bill and Tara, lived their lives in California where Bill was stationed, making them rare guests at the table. That however didn't stop the eldest Scully son from taking place of honour and carving the turkey. After short and meaningless grace, he started handing out thick slices, leaving the best and most tender for himself. "Dana isn't coming?" He asked, finally sitting down. "She's at the hospital," Maggie said, "with Will." 

Charlie noticed disproval on his brother's face and glared, ready for the sermon, Bill Jr. was about to deliver. "I always knew that pride would be her fall." He said apropos of nothing, around a mouthful of turkey. "Like you said mom, back in the day, IVF was for people who can't have kids, not to satisfy her whims, and now God is making her see it." He stuffed his face while others looked at him in disbelief. "She should accept his will, letting the boy spend last days with his family and not keep poking and prodding him, if it was clearly never meant to be." Bill loaded his fork with stuffing and peas and Charlie snapped, pushing his chair back so hard it almost fell back. His fists were clenched, knuckles white, but he said nothing. Instead he rounded the table and took Bill's mostly full plate away from him. "What the hell!" "Shut up Bill," he said, "just shut up." "What do you think you're doing?" Bill yelled, while the rest of the family sat frozen in their places. "I'm taking this to Dana," Charlie said not bothering to stop, his voice thick with rage. "She needs this more than you do." "Charles, please." Maggie said, finally finding her voice among tears and shame. "No, mom, I'm not sharing table with him, not tonight." He said and went to the kitchen. Doors and drawers began slamming and Emily got up, taking her plate with her. "I'm going with him." "Emily, don't." Missy said with a hint of plea and warning. "Don't what? Tolerate this kind of talk?" Emily looked at her mother, cold fury burning behind her blue eyes, then around the table, at all the food and family, growing colder by the second. Charlie came back with boxes, handing one to her, and they began loading them up with turkey, mashed potatoes, salads and stuffing, while the rest watched in stunned silence for a few excruciatingly long minutes. "I'll get you the pie," Maggie said, finally getting up and wiping tears from her eyes. "Thanks mom." Charlie said, and started loading another box. "Now listen, Charles," Bill tried to get up, but Tara caught the sleeve go his jacket and pulled him down. By the time Maggie was back, they had all four boxes filled and packed, along with their own plates. Somewhere in the middle, Missy and Tara began to help, while Bill sat with his arms crossed, in stubborn silence. "I should go with you," Maggie said, walking Charlie and Emily to the door. "No point, they won't let all of us through the quarantine zone." "Right, right," she sighed, resigned, and Charlie let go of some of his rage, putting his arm around her. "I'll call you once I know how Will is doing, okay?" "Thank you, give them my best." "Will do," Charlie said and followed Emily out.

They did the best they could to blow out his spark, reducing him to a tiny blue flame, a tea-light with one last drop of paraffin keeping it alive. She held his hand, stroking its' back with her thumb, while life trickled down the line, back into his veins. She should have asked Mulder about that vampire joke. "Why does Mulder call you Scully?" Will spoke suddenly, his voice barely audible, head turning on the pillow with tremendous effort. "It's an FBI thing." She said and his brow furrowed. "He did some consulting for the bureau in the 90's and it turned into a habit. I don't mind really. Do you?" Will's head twitched sideways. "Rest honey," Scully said, pressing her lips to his hand, ignoring the sterile mask, "save your strength." Her phone chirped in its' ziplock bag and she glanced anxiously at the ID. It was her second favourite caller.   "Hi sis," said a cheerful voice, "come out for a minute, we brought you something." Scully looked up and through the glass to the corridor beyond, and saw Charlie and Emily waving at her just outside the airlock doors. "I'll be right with you." She said and hung up. "Who is it?" Will mumbled half awake. "Charlie and Em are here," she said, patting his hand and he opened his eyes, managing a faint smile. He lifted his head and waved at the couple outside. Emily grinned and made a face, crossing eyes and sticking out her tongue and Will smiled back, a little wider this time. "Tell them hi," he said and fell back down. "I'll be right back."

"Hi," Scully grinned, hugging her brother and niece, "did mom send you?""We sent ourselves," Emily said, handing her a paper bag, "but grandma cooked." "We figured you could use some real food." "Thanks," she said, opening the box, "how bad was the dinner?" "I hate Bill," Emily said, staying by the window, her eyes never leaving Will. "He's been a royal asshole." "Charlie." "Good thing you weren't there to hear it." "That bad?" She looked up from her cold turkey, fork half way up to her mouth. "I wanted to kill him," Charlie said, gritting his teeth, "self-righteous prick. You know, sometimes I think he's been switched in his crib and he's some kind of half-troll changeling." "His neck is short enough for it," Emily said, grin in her voice. "You're both so mean," Scully said, but smiled as well. Mocking Bill behind his back was a long-standing tradition of theirs. "How's Will doing?" Charlie asked. "He got the marrow around 3pm, so now we wait. He's stable, no sign of immediate rejection." "That's good, right?" "It's too soon to tell, but it's definitely not bad." "When will we be able to see him?" "Give it a couple of days, it will all depend on his progress." "I hate waiting." Emily said. "I know Em," Scully said and got up, standing by the window with her arm around her, "I'll make sure he calls you, once he's lucid enough." "Okay," Em nodded, locking her eyes with Will, and putting her hand to the glass. She never saw him this fragile, even when he was a child and she filled her with dread. "We'll let you go back to him," Charlie said, joining them, "unless you want to feed him turkey as well." "Can't, hospital food only." "Rain check then, you need anything else?" "No, I think I'm good now," she said, feeling a little more human. Few days ago she wouldn't be able to swallow home cooking without bursting into tears, but she ate it all and talked to her family and finally had a feeling, that life would go back to normal. "You know," she said remembering the calls she made earlier, "I tried to reach Mulder but he didn't answer, could you?" "Sure," Charlie said, "just give me the address." "Thanks."

Mulder slept through the day. His aching back chained him to the couch, making anything beyond a bathroom trip, not worth the pain or the nausea. He ate toast for breakfast and canned soup for lunch, and slept with the tv on low for background. It was easier to handle the stress that way. If the transplant wouldn't work and the kid forfeited his life, the pain Scully would feel was impossible for him to imagine. So when the doorbell rang somewhere around seven, his heart began to pound, filling his head with worst images possible. He forced himself to get up, bracing for tears, fists and knives in his heart, then turned the lock and his jaw dropped. "Good evening," said Charlie Scully, accompanied by willowy, short-haired girl, who looked like something between him and Scully. "It's too soon for carolling," Mulder said, trying to read the news from their faces. "We're the Thanksgiving committee." The girl grinned and relief washed over him, making his knees weak. "Easy man, Will's okay," Charlie said catching him and stepping through the threshold, guiding Mulder back to the couch. The girl closed the doors behind them from the inside. "They did it?" "Yeah, this afternoon, he's sleeping it off." Charlie eased Mulder to the seat, lifting his face up for a second, glancing at his eyes and checking pulse. "You feel dizzy? Faint?" "You a doctor too?" "No, but I had first aid training." "EMT?" "Cop," Charlie smiled, and moved back. "This is my niece, Emily." "Hi," Emily said, smiling. Mulder looked at the girl, who looked like a punk who raided Scully's closet for her business casual. She showed him the paper bag. "We brought dinner." Mulder laughed and leaned back. "Sure you did." "May I?" Emily asked and nodded towards the kitchen. "Go ahead." "We brought more, mind if we join you?" "Not at all." Mulder said and looked at Charlie again. "How's Scully," "We fed her too, don't worry, she asked us to come check up on you, said you didn't return her calls." "She called?" Mulder picked up his phone from the coffee table and found three unanswered calls and the switch on the side set on mute. "Frohike must have turned it off so no one would wake me. Excuse me." "Sure, I'll go help Emily."

Scully picked up on the fourth ring. "Hi." "Hi, it's me, sorry I didn't call back, a bee stung me, had to sleep it off." She laughed. "It's okay, how are you feeling?" "Weak and aching, but I'll live. Will's better?" "He's not worse." She said cautiously. "Afraid you'll jinx it?" "Something like that. Charlie’s there?" "Yeah, I guess feeding people runs in the family." "We're old fashioned, if we feed you, you're part of the family." "In that case, I'll have seconds." "Knowing my brother, you'll have enough for it and probably lunch tomorrow." "We'll see, smells good." Mulder paused, then added softly. "You're not bailing on me, are you?" "Wouldn't dream of it," she said and the warmth in her tone was all the assurance he needed. Someone tapped his shoulder and he looked up to see Emily. "Dinner's ready." "Thanks," he said to the girl, then to the phone. "Food's here, wanna know what I'm thankful for?" "You'll tell me when I see you." "Why?" "Because I want to tell you too, in person." "Then, I'll see you." "Take care of yourself." "Ha, I've got people for that now." "Right, go eat, we'll talk later." "Bye." Mulder hung up and dragged himself off the couch. “Who wants to say grace?” Asked Charlie, reaching hands across the table, palms up. “I’m half jewish,” Mulder said, but took Emily’s hand. “No problem,” Charlie grinned and closed the circle, pausing, before he began speaking in a low voice. “We’re thankful for this year, with all its’ graces and trials, ones we've overcome and the ones we’re still facing. We’re thankful for our family and friends, old and new, and all the kindness we received, hoping that we can be there for them too, in time of need.” Both hands tightened around Mulder’s fingers and when he looked up, he couldn’t speak. “Amen,” said Emily, smiling at him. “Amen,” Charlie echoed and Mulder nodded, touched to his core. “We should have brought some gravy,” Emily said, breaking the moment as she reached for potatoes. “I’m hungry.” “There’s wine,” Mulder said, clearing his throat, “I shouldn’t, but you’re welcome to it.” “Got beer?” Charlie asked. “Yeah,” he chuckled, “there’s beer too.” “Perfect.” “I’ll have one too.” Mulder stared to get up, but Charlie stopped him. “Fridge?” He nodded and Charlie retrieved two bottles and glasses from the cupboard. “Glass, classy,” Emily grinned. “It’s Thanksgiving, you can behave like a human for one evening.” “Do I have to?” She looked at Mulder and hit him with a pout that would befit a five year-old, if it wasn’t for all the piercing. He couldn’t stop the laugh. “You brought food, do what you want.” “Thank you!” She sang and took the bottle from Charlie, who too, gladly skipped the glass. “Less dishes,” he chuckled and sat back down. “Try the turkey,” Emily told Mulder, “it’s the only reason I dress up for grandmas’ dinners.” “I had your aunts’ lasagna, was that where Scully learned to cook?” “Mostly,” Charlie said, finally tasting the turkey. Even reheated, it was great. "Don’t get your hopes too high though, lasagna is her specialty, watch out for the meatloaf.” “Okay.” “I like Dana’s meatloaf," said Emily. “Because you’re still practically a student, if it’s free, you’ll eat anything.” “It’s not a money thing, I work too much,” she bristled, “I get distracted, and things just...” “Burn.” Charlie finished for her. “Is that a challenge?” “Yup, when you’re staying with me, you cook once a week.” “Sure,” she said, unfazed. “But if you burn it, it doesn’t count.” “Fine.” She mixed the potatoes with stuffing, her interest fading. “And it can’t be takeout,” Charlie insisted. “I said fine!” Emily mumbled around mouthful of turkey. “Mulder heard you, so you can’t back out” Charlie grinned, then turning to Mulder said in a stage whisper, “I’m joking, she only burned one pie.” “And I’ll never live it down.” Emily said, taking a swig from her bottle to wash down the food. “So what do you do Emily?” Mulder asked, changing subject politely. “I’m a programer," she replied, before taking another bite, "I spent some time in Silicon Valley, but I’m moving back here, to finish my thesis at MIT.” “I have friends there, what's the thesis about?” “Statistical analysis of data shared through social media and potential applications. But let's not talk about work, or at least not my work, Charlie catching bad guys is so much more interesting." "Yeah, like I can ever talk about it." He chuckled, deflecting, "Mulder, Will showed me your book." "He did?" "You wrote about this former FBI guy, who though he was abducted by aliens." "Duane Barry, yes." "Any truth to that? He was injured in the line of duty, wasn't that just the brain damage talking?" "He did have pieces of metal in various places inside his body." "So you believed him?" "Every story of alien abduction is different, touching different people, coming from different backgrounds. Some accept it, feeling chosen, and some break under the pressure of constantly looking over their shoulder. Ask yourself, why would you make up a story, that would make everyone think you've gone crazy?" "Attention?" Emily asked, sipping her beer. "It's usually negative, where's the pay off?" "You're the psychologist," Charlie said, "you tell me." "I can't, that's my point, some of these people are lying, that's just people, but some of them have gone through crazy things, and they didn't do it to themselves. Someone had to seek out and target these specific individuals, using them for their experiments without their consent, and since it's all so crazy and no one really takes it seriously, these people end up marginalised, ridiculed and never see justice, so the circle of exclusion closes. There are private groups and societies that provide support and connect people with similar experiences, but like I said, it's all very us against them." "I know what you mean," Emily sighed, chasing peas around her plate, "try being a math geek in a hippy home. Mom was supportive, but she never really understood me." "Good thing you're a Scully," Charlie said, "we're a stubborn lot." "And thank God for that." Mulder smiled and raised his glass of water, for lack of a better toast. "To stubborn Scully's, who never give up without a fight." Emily glanced up and met Mulder's eyes, his warm smile oddly familiar, and a thought dawned on her. "Never," she grinned and raised her beer, looking at Charlie. "We don't mind some help, though." He said, raising his bottle. Glass clinked. "And that's probably the core of your strength."

They left Mulder's place around nine, full and happy, the Bill incident all but forgotten. Emily looked out the windshield at the rain that started drizzling, waking up the wipers to squeak lazily. The streets were almost empty, carb coma took over the city. "Does Will know?" She said, moving her gaze to Charlie. "Know what?" "No Will," she let her breath wheeze, "I am your father." "What?" "Search your feelings," she kept up the poor Darth Vader impression, "you know it to be true." "Stop that." "C'mon Charlie," she grinned, sensing she was onto something, "the smile, the jaw, the matching DNA!" Charlie kept his eyes on the road. "You really are a Scully." "Holly shit!" "Language!" "So it is true." "Dana's going to kill me," he sighed, "yeah, Mulder is Will's dad." "How does that work?" "Listen kid," he said, emotions flaring, "it was a long time ago. You were just a toddler, rambling with your mother when it happened. What Bill said tonight, was just a shadow of how it was back then and none of us want to go back. If you have the guts, ask Dana about it. All I can say, is that it ended when Will was born and everybody loved him ever since, he's ours. And even if Dana's reasons might have been childish, she loved him the most and she's a great mom." "Easy there, uncle Charlie," she said, teasing but only slightly, "I won't tell anyone, if that's what you mean." "Don't tell Will," Charlie took a deep breath, reining in his temper, "or Mulder. Let Dana do it, when she's ready." "Okay, I promise." She said, smiling slightly. "But you have to admit, it's cute as hell." "Em, Will is going to live," he sighed, "that's all I care about." "What are the odds." She mused, laugh still in her voice. Charlie smiled and said, "Apparently, one in five billion."

[fortey]

4 Rejected Articles (at one low price!)

These were 4 pieces rejected from Grunge.  I was told if they needed too much work to get them up to publication quality they wouldn’t be used, so here they are in their terrible, unusable form. No pictures!

#1 Unsolved celebrity deaths that will keep you up at night

There is something about a mystery that is just incredibly compelling and irresistible to people.  Maybe it's the puzzle, the need to find a pattern in chaos that drives human minds to try to answer an unanswered question, to try to solve it at any cost.  Whatever the case, unsolved mysteries are absolutely fascinating to most people. That's why we had a show called Unsolved Mysteries!

While law enforcement officials do their best to piece together clues and unravel those mysteries that pop up now and again, some just seem to be unsolvable. We'll probably never hear about even a fraction of those, either. When the case involves a celebrity, however, especially a celebrity death, or even a murder, then that's the kind of thing that can haunt a person. People just crave celebrity news and gossip, look at social media on any given day. We can delve into the details of these things for years trying to figure out what went on. Who knows, maybe someday one or two of these ones will be solved and the whole puzzle can be put to rest.  Until then, there are entirely too many mysterious celebrity deaths to drive yourself crazy trying to figure out.

Jack Nance was beaten by mysterious strangers

The image of Jack Nance from the poster for David Lynch's Eraserhead is iconic at this point. A favorite of Lynch, Nance appeared in not just Eraserhead but Lost Highway, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks amongst numerous other roles.  On December 30, 1996, he was found dead in his South Pasadena home.  The official cause of death was subdural hematoma cause by blunt force trauma, according to Premier Magazine.

The mystery around Nance's death starts the day before he passed. On that day, the actor went out to lunch with two friends. When he arrived to meet them, one noticed a bruise under his eye and asked him what happened.  According to Nance, he had been punched in the face after mouthing off to some kids on the street. His friends thought the story was a little fishy, but left it at that. The next day, Nance was dead on his bathroom floor, his injuries consistent with the blow to the face he said he suffered.

No one was ever caught for the death of Jack Nance, even though it was treated as a homicide, according to E Online. There were never any suspects identified and Nance's friends never believed his story, either, feeling it was inconsistent since the older and frail Nance claimed he had scrapped with guys in their twenties and held his own.  The mystery of what happened may very well have died with Nance himself.

David Carradine's death was labelled an accident

For most modern audience, David Carradine will always be known as Bill from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.  But part of the reason he even got that role was because of his incredibly long run as Kwai Chang Caine in the TV shows Kung Fu and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.  Kung Fu saw Carradine rise to fame as a star in his own right, carving a niche for himself from the famous Carradine acting family.

In 2009, Carradine was in Thailand shooting a film. A maid at the hotel discovered him in his room's closet with a rope, possibly from the curtains, around his neck, according to ABC. It was quickly linked to the practice of autoerotic asphyxiation, and as ABC later noted it would be difficult to determine if it was accident, suicide or murder.  

A year after Carradine's death, his ex-wife Marina Anderson wrote a memoir in which she concludes that Carradine had to have been murdered. She contends that while Carradine did enjoy things like asphyxiation, she never knew him to be the sort of person to do it alone. She believes another person must have been in the room when he died.

Based on the conclusions of the coroner and the fact Anderson has no idea if it might have been a stranger, someone Carradine knew or perhaps someone he hired, it's unlikely the truth will ever be fully known.

George Reeves was shot at a party

Superman has been portrayed on screen by numerous actors at this point, from Henry Cavill to Dean Cain to Christopher Reeve. But the first on-screen Superman dates all the way back to 1951 when actor George Reeves took on the iconic role. As the Telegraph details, Reeves was not entirely thrilled with the part. He felt trapped by it more than anything, and was typecast in a way that seemed to ruin his career. He was literally cut out of From Here to Eternity because they didn't want to be associated with Superman.

On June 16, 1959, George Reeves died of a gunshot wound to the head. He'd been injured months earlier in a car accident and had been taking a lot of painkillers, as well as drinking on the night he died.  Though there were several other people in the house, the official ruling was that Reeves had died by suicide. That determination has remained controversial since it happened.

No one checked the gun that killed Reeves for prints. No one checked his hands for gunshot residue, or even the distance at which he'd been shot to determine if it could have been self-inflicted or not. Worse, the actress who played Lois Lane got a call the night of the death from one of the people in the house saying it was a murder.

There were a number of suspects, but nothing ever came of it and to this day, no one is entirely sure what happened.

William Desmond Taylor was shot but not robbed

William Taylor was one of the early stars of Hollywood.  He directed 59 films in the silent era and was also an actor in some as well. On the morning of February 2nd, 1922, Taylor was found in his Los Angeles home with a bullet in his back.

As the Guardian points out, when Taylor was found, there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle. Nothing of value was taken so it was clearly not a robbery. Something else was afoot.

Based on the placement of the bullet holes in Taylor's jacket, the coroner concluded his arms had been raised when he was shot, according toBuzzfeed. So it wasn't a surprise, someone held him at gunpoint from behind. This happened only months after Fatty Arbuckle had been arrested for rape and murder, and Hollywood was primed to keep the scandal ball rolling.

Word is that police didn't arrive until 12 hours after Taylor had died, and when they got there studio bosses from Paramount were already on the scene, burning papers. The press had a field day with the story and it became such a circus that in the days afterwards, over 300 people confessed to the murder. How could anyone have hoped to solve the case with that working against them? It would have been, and was, impossible. The crime was never solved.

Jam Master Jay was shot in his studio

Jason William Mizell was better known to most of his fans as Jam Master Jay, part of the legendary hip hop group Run DMC. He was an amazing musician, SPIN ranked him at number 10 in their 100 Greatest Guitarist of All Time, and even had his own label.

On October 30, 2002, Mizell was in the studio working on a new album. An unknown assailant entered the studio and shot both Mizell and his friend Uriel Rincon.  Rincon, who survived with a shot to the leg, insists Mizell must have known the killer, according to an article reprinted in XXL. Rincon said he'd been hanging out with Mizell who had been armed that night. Mizell's phone rang and when he got up to retrieve it, footsteps alerted them to someone's presence behind Rincon.  He never even saw who shot him. All he saw was Mizell take a bullet to the head.

According to Rincon, Mizell would have used his own gun to defend himself if he thought whoever took the shot posed a threat. That means, in Rincon's opinion, Mizell knew the shooter.  But since Rincon never saw them, there were no definitive suspects. No one has ever been arrested for the crime.

Actress Barbara Colby was shot on the way to her car

Barbara Colby had barely begun to make her mark in the world of acting by 1975. A veteran of the stage who had done work both on and off Broadway, Colby had been in episodes of Columbo, Gunsmoke, Kung Fu and The Mary Tyler Moore Show amongst others. Her role in Mary Tyler Moore impressed the producers and they brought her character, a sassy prostitute, back for a second episode.  The initial episode even won an Emmy. Later, Colby was given a co-starring role in The Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoff Phyllis. She only filmed three episodes of the show.

On July 24, 1975, Colby was leaving an acting class with a friend.  According to The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, Colby and fellow actor James Kiernan were on the way to her car when a pair of gunmen opened fire.  Colby died instantly while Kiernan lived long enough to make a statement to police before also passing.

Kiernan had said he didn't recognize either shooter, and neither he nor Colby had been robbed.  With no other witnesses and no motive, police were stumped. They chalked the crime up to a potential thrill killing and left it at that. No one was ever arrested and the crime remains unsolved.

Bob Crane was bludgeoned to death

If you ever saw the classic TV show Hogan's Heroes, you know Bob Crane. Crane's role as Colonel Robert Hogan netted him a couple Emmy nominations and made him a household name. Even though he never achieved that level of fame again after the show ended, he was still a recognizable personality and very much a part of TV's golden age.

In 1978, Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his apartment.  A friend of his named John Carpenter was arrested and initially let go due to lack of evidence. The case was reopened however and Carpenter went on trial for the crime in 1992.  He was ultimately acquitted. Along the way, the story took a number of bizarre twists and turns that made it the compelling mystery it is today.

Blood found on Carpenter's car is what implicated him in the first place, and it was type-matched to Crane. In 1994, it was DNA tested and proven to not belong to Crane. More exciting to the media was that the investigation revealed Crane had a habit of filming his sexual encounters with women, according to People. The Phoenix New Times pointed out that defense attorneys for Carpenter suggested a woman fearing blackmail or any number of jealous husbands could have been the real killer. No weapon was ever found, and with Carpenter exonerated, the case remains unsolved.

B.H. DeLay's plane may have been sabotaged

The name Beverly Homer DeLay is not well known these days, but once upon a time DeLay was an absolute boss of a stuntman. A pilot by trade, DeLay performed stunts during the silent era in dozens of films. He even opened his own stunt pilot school to train others in the fine art of doing crazy aerobatics. He revolutionized movie effects by demonstrating a real pilot could crash a real plane and survive, replacing the old and unconvincing method of using a fake model plane.

During a 4th of July show in 1923, DeLay was flying stunts before a crowd of thousands. He was flying a plane called a Wasp that had two sets of wings for use - one for stunts and one for cross-country flying. For some reason, the cross country wings had been installed on the plane that day.  As DeLay took the plane in for a dive, the wings tore off and the plane crashed, killing DeLay.

During the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that the bolts used to secure the wings were the wrong size.  According to the book The Crowd Pleasers: A History of Airshow Misfortunes from 1910 to the Present, this lead some to speculate foul play. There was no good reason for anyone to have used the wrong bolts, which were too small for the job. No one was ever caught, however, and the case is unsolved to this day.

David Bacon crashed his car after being stabbed

In an age when characters like Deadpool and Iron Man dominate the box office, it's good to look back at the roots of superheroes and appreciate the classics.  If you go way, way back you'll discover a character named the Masked Marvel, a superhero portrayed by Tom Steele in 1943. David Bacon played Bob Barton, one of the Marvel's side kick characters. Bacon's story is as mysterious and bizarre as any comic book.

It was September 13th, 1943 and David Bacon's sports car was seen driving erratically down a road in Santa Monica, California. He the road and plowed through a bean field.  Bacon staggered from the car as rescuers came to his aid, and collapsed on the ground. According to the new England Historical Society, his car was soaked in blood, though he'd hit nothing with the force that could have made him bleed so much.

The ensuing investigation showed that Bacon had been stabbed in the back with a 6-inch blade. The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes notes thatBacon was discovered wearing only a swimsuit. His car contained an unidentified wallet and a camera.  The camera film had one image - Bacon smiling on a beach. Police figured the killer had snapped the photo.

Bacon's wife would later suggest Howard Hughes as a suspect, admitting she was a lesbian and Bacon was gay, their marriage merely a sham to protect them both. She believed Hughes and Bacon were having an affair, but nothing was ever proven.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was attacked with a machete on her porch

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was something of a renaissance woman known for a variety of things including modelling, dancing, activism and for hosting the game show Winner Take All. In her neighborhood she was also known for having a standing feud with a man by the name of Alan G. Stanford Jr.. According to the Constantine Reporter, Stanford had an issue with 6 stray dogs Lindsley had taken in that barked incessantly. This would be used to establish motive after Lindsley was attacked on her porch by a man wielding a machete. She was hacked repeatedly and nearly decapitated.

Neighbors heard the screams but were unable to accurately identify the assailant, though one saw someone and assumed it was Stanford.  For his part, Stanford was arrested, put on trial and acquitted of the crime.  Lawyers claimed there was no way the jury could have even properly reviewed the evidence - they only spent two and a half hours deciding the case and that included having lunch brought in. The police were also accused of doing sloppy work on the case, deciding right off the bat that Stanford was their man to the point that they didn't even investigate Lindsley's husband.

In the end, with Stanford's acquittal, any leads in the case ran dry and no one else has ever been brought to justice.

Venus Xtravaganza was found strangled under a bed

In the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning, audiences are introduced to "ball culture," an underground scene in New York City where gay and transgender performers were able to take the stage and walk in front of a crowd looking as glamorous and powerful as they possibly could. It was a competition where the winners took home trophies, admiration and validation. One of the performers in the film was Venus Xtravaganza.

Venus had been a performer for years but struggled to make ends meet. Rebel Circus delves into how, in the documentary, she hints at the idea that she's been escorting to pay the bills, which was obviously a risk. She said she was a hustler, and men would give her gifts and money for spending time with them.  She also admits to prostituting in the past, and how she'd had her life threatened by clients when they found out she was still biologically a man.

The documentary took several years to complete. During that time, on Christmas Day in 1988, Venus Xtravagaza's body was discovered in a hotel room. She had been strangled and stuffed under the bed, her body had been there for perhaps four days at that point.

Because of who and what she was, it's alleged perhaps the police were indifferent to the murder and put little effort into solving it. No suspects were ever named, no one was ever arrested.

#2 The saddest on-screen deaths that shook us to the core

(This one originally had a video embed for each one of the scene in question.  I like the idea it was unusable because.  Research?  It’s an opinion piece, so who knows.  Typos?  You let me know, I didn’t edit this any more after they rejected it)

Every so often a movie comes along that really hits you in the feels and you can't help but get wrapped up in the drama of it all, even though you know it's just a piece of fiction played out by actors.  Aristotle once wrote that the purpose of drama is to arouse the feelings of pity and fear in an audience. You purge these emotions through the process of catharsis and end up emotionally stronger in the end.  Drama, and feeling what the characters go through, makes you a stronger person. At least, that's the idea.

Now obviously everyone is different and some of us don't seem to be affected by tearjerker movies and their attempts to get us emotionally invested.  But man, some movies try really, really hard. Sometimes the writing and the acting is just so powerful that even though you know it's not real, when a character dies in front of you on screen, you can feel yourself being emotionally destroyed.  It's not every movie death by any means, some of them don't have that gravitas to them. But the best characters, the best actors, can make an onscreen death hit you hard and leave you feeling like a wreck. It's not a weak thing to feel that way.  It's just a sign you have a capacity for empathy and that you definitely need to put on a good comedy after you watch these scenes.

Ellie in Up

Everyone loves Pixar movies, a fact born out by the incredible success of literally every single film Pixar makes.  Even an unsuccessful film by Pixar standards is an incredible achievement in any other terms. Their films are incredible displays of animation technology with great storytelling and voice acting. If you need proof of that, you need look no further than 2009's Up, a movie that gutted its audience in the very opening sequence in a way few other movies would dare.

Up tells the tale of Carl Fredrickson, an elderly man who has lost his wife and plans to honor her by literally flying their house to South America. But it's the opening montage in which we meet a young Carl and his future wife Ellie, and follow their romance and life together that takes an emotional toll.  We go from childhood through adulthood and into old age until Carl finally loses the love of his life. Even though it's only a few minutes of screen time, articles like this one in The Guardian are quick to point out just how impactful that scene is. You become a part of Carl's life, you see how and why Ellie meant so much to him and you feel her loss as she dies.  It may be "just a cartoon" but the emotion is raw and real and is reduced many an audience member to tears.

Thomas in My Girl

After his big break in the movie Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin really branched out with a lot of roles, some of which showed an incredible diversity. The most famous of these was arguably the 1991 coming of age drama My Girl.

The film follows the life of an 11-year-old girl named Vada who lives in a funeral home and has a bit of a death obsession. Her best friend, played by Culkin, is a kid who is allergic to pretty much everything. They're both outcasts in their own way and their relationship is a sweet, innocent one. It also punches you in the gut when it comes to an end.

Culkin's character Thomas is trying to do something nice by finding Vada's lost mood ring in the woods, which she lost track of earlier in the day. As he does so, he runs afoul of a nest of bees, to which he is allergic. Our final images of the character are in the woods, swarmed by the insects, alone and terrified as he dies.  The next time we see him is at his funeral service when Vada breaks down upon seeing his body, wondering where his glasses are because he can't see without them. It's absolutely heartbreaking.

John Coffey in the Green Mile

Generally speaking, when you think of Stephen King, you don't think of emotional impact and any deep feelings.  He's a man famous for terror, not tears. But that's just the usual, not the rule. As King proved very well with The Green Mile, he can make you care deeply for a character.

The Green Mile is the story of a man named John Coffey, imprisoned for murder in 1935. As the story progresses we come to learn Coffey was wrongly convicted of the crime.  He's a simple man with a sweet disposition and a desire to help people, which he can do with an amazing, supernatural power to take pain and illness from others into himself.  Played perfectly by the late Michael Clarke Duncan, the character of John Coffey was railroaded because he was found with the victims and, being a physically imposing black man with two dead white girls at that place and time, his guilt was presumed.

Duncan's performance sells the role of John Coffey so well. He's so sympathetic and so likeable that seeing the injustice his character faces being played out is a visceral experience. And when the inevitable happens, when Coffey is taken on the walk down the green mile to his execution, it's brutal to watch and will leave you reaching for a tissue.

Glenn in The Walking Dead

Television's ability to make you care about a character is often underexploited. Unlike a film with a finite timeline, since TV shows can go for years, producers are often reluctant to kill off a character unless absolutely necessary. They're especially reluctant to kill a fan favorite character. That's not the case on The Walking Dead however, where it's a given that every character's days are numbered. Knowing that your favorite character could die at any time doesn't make it any easier to watch, though. Just ask fans of Glenn Rhee, played by Steven Yeun. Glenn lasted for 7 seasons on the show until he ended in the most traumatic way imaginable.

Glenn had been a staple of The Walking Dead since very early in the series. His character was funny, likable and heroic. He was one of those characters you can imagine yourself being friends with in real life, a testament to Steven Yeun's ability as an actor.

When season of the Walking Dead ended, the villainous Negan had just swung his baseball bat Lucille at an unseen victim. Rumors circulated that Glenn would be the victim, and when season 7 premiered audiences discovered it was Abraham. But then, in a cruel twist, Negan turned his rage on Glenn and in a brutally violent scene that even Yeun admitted was too much according to ComicBook.com, beat him to death also in a scene you may not want to watch with kids in the room.

Bambi's mom in Bambi

Few deaths are more iconic and more disturbing in people's minds than the death of Bambi's mother.  It's not that it's drawn out or gory; it's the opposite in fact. We never see what happens to Bambi's mother, we only hear it. A single shot in the woods, with an extremely heavy implication. She's been felled by a hunter leaving the little fawn alone.

The reason the death of Bambi's mother elicits such a visceral response from audiences is very much about context. Bambi came out in 1942, it's one of Disney's earliest hits. It also means nearly everyone alive today experienced Bambi's death as a child. The memory of that deer dying is very much tied to your understanding of it as a child, and for a lot of kids it's one of their earliest experiences is seeing death on screen. The movie is very innocent and inoffensive, a perfect film for children of any age. The death is a hard one to shake because of it, and it sticks with audiences for years.

Some may ask why so many Disney movies include the death of a parent, and Buzzfeed spoke to Disney producer Don Hahn, who offered up an incredibly heartbreaking possibility. After Walt Disney achieved a measure of success, he bought a home for his parents. The heater malfunctioned however, and though his father survived, his mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning, in the gift he had bought for them.

Han Solo in The Force Awakens

It's no secret that Harrison Ford famously disliked being in Star Wars and was no fan of his character Han Solo. As Screen Rant points out, he'd been arguing that Solo should die for 30 years, since all the way back in Empire Strikes Back. Not necessarily because he hated the character, but because he thought it was just better storytelling to have his character die of.  It'd lend some emotional weight to the movie. But marketing trumps emotion, and Solo lived on for decades.

It wasn't until Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens that Ford finally got his wife, his character dying at the hands of his own son. Many would argue that the Star Wars films have always been lighthearted, effects-laden adventures meant to do little more than entertain, but there is more to it. You can't deny the cultural impact of these movies. They're a legitimate phenomenon. Whether Harrison Ford intended it or not, his portrayal of Han Solo was iconic. He was a hero for more than one generation. And his death was likely welcomed by no one.  To be sure, it added depth and gravitas to the story, but that doesn't mean it's fun to watch. It's seeing a legend pass on, in many ways, and that's a hard thing to do. To understand that a story has well and truly ended is something no fan wants to experience.

Mufasa in The Lon King

Disney's ability to make you care for a character is unparalleled. That they can so quickly get you emotionally invested in the life of this creation, even an animated one, is nothing short of remarkable. And make no mistake, they are well aware of that power. It's used very well to give serious emotional weight to stories like The Lion King. Simba's father Mufasa's death is so impactful it's actually been named the most iconic death in cinema, according to Metro UK.

Mufasa only has a very short amount of screen time in The Lion King before his brother Scar murders him, but it's such a powerful scene.  We watch Simba practicing his roar which leads into the wildebeest stampede from which he needs to be rescued. Mufasa risks his safety to rescue his son and then just as it seems like he might make it to safety, Scar betrays him, casting him to his fate.  The layers of emotion pile up fast - Simba's panic and feeling that he is to blame for his father's death, Mufasa's selfless bravery and Scar's evil betrayal all run together. It's no wonder people recognize it as a gut-wrenching scene that haunts audiences long after the movie ends.

Marley in Marley and Me

In a very weird way, some people are more able to connect with animals than humans. Maybe it's the idea that any animal is inherently pretty good and innocent while humans don't always get the benefit of the doubt.  Whatever the case, if a beloved pet dies on screen in a movie, it's almost always tough to deal with. The movie Marley and Me hits you right in the chops with that idea, showing you the life of a family from the time they get a puppy to the dog's old age and eventual passing.

Even though Marley and Me is ostensibly about a couple finding their way and building a family together, the dog Marley is used as a conceit to tie the themes together. In many ways Marley represents the chaos and uncertainty of trying to establish your life, your career and your family, as well as the joys of all of those things as well.  Marley is the cornerstone of their lives, and when he grows ill the movie refuses to shy away from the one final part of life that we all must deal with - death. Knowing that Marley is ill, and cannot be saved, adds that one extra emotional layer to the whole ordeal, as his owners must choose to do what they can for the dog, and euthanize him to save him from more suffering, something any pet owner knows is utterly devastating.

Hodor in Game of Thrones

While it's a joke at this point that no one is safe on Game of Thrones, the remarkable cast and the engaging writing has ensured that when those deaths do happen, they're going to pack an emotional punch. What's surprising is just how the show manages to make it so much worse than you could imagine sometimes, as was the case of the unexpectedly tragic death of Hodor. Even if you went into the episode knowing he was going to die, when you see how it happens, how Hodor's entire life lead up to that moment, it's as jaw-dropping as any sequence from television can be.

Throughout the series, Hodor is often little more than a background curiosity character, the gentle giant who can only say his own name. In season 6, his tragic story is laid out for audiences when we learn that the character of Bran, who is able to warg into simpler life forms to control them, does so to Hodor and in doing so travels back in time inside him.  The stress of being overtaken by Bran, through time, while undead White Walkers close in for the kill, retroactively destroys Hodor's mind in the past. His final act is holding the door so the others can escape, cries of "Hold the door" becoming compressed as he repeats it again and again until he can say nothing but "Hodor."

Joyce Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The episode entitled "The Body" in season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a standout episode for any number of reasons. The choice to cut music entirely for the duration offset it from every other episode right away, but it's the story that elevated it to something more. While Buffy was routinely chock full of death and mayhem, it was always that violent, action-movie style chaos. It was the entertaining violence audiences crave.  "The Body" was different.

The episode opens with Buffy coming home to find her mother dead on the sofa.  No monsters, no fight, no tragically heroic send off. Joyce Summers had died of a brain aneurysm;  a real world horror played out in the fictional universe of terrors. And for all of Buffy's heroism and power and bravery, this was a thing against which she was powerless. Watching a character audiences had come to admire rendered so shattered was brutal.  The hero of the show is left a shambles. Seeing the cornerstone of the series, The Chosen One as she was so often called, made as human as all the rest of us is heartbreaking. And because it's a situation we all have to deal with in time, the all too real death of a loved one, it hits home even more.

Wolverine in Logan

Who could ever have imagined that a character most famous for having knives in his hands that he uses to slash and kill his enemies would have such an impact on audiences? That's the reality behind Wolverine, also known as Logan.  Hugh Jackman had played the character through 8 films over a staggering 17 years and brought him to life as much as any character possibly could be made real.

Jackman's final turn as Wolverine in the darkly serious Logan has been considered the best portrayal of the character and elevated it beyond the previous films which always had a sense of goofy comic book fun to them.  Logan was something more, an oddly human tale about an oddly human character, in a sad and lonely future. Building off of all of Logan's backstory, we see him as a broken man who has one last chance to make a difference and one last chance at the family he seemed to always want to be a part of.

The addition of the X-23 character, thrusting Logan into a fatherhood role he never really wanted, contrasted with his own father/son-like relationship with Professor X, creates more drama than superhero movie audiences had ever seen before. Logan wasn't a superhero in this film so much as just a hero,an admirable man whose death before the eyes of the daughter who grew to love him cut as much as any adamantium blade.

Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street

Few things in this world are more wholesome and admirable than Sesame Street. While it seems like just a kid's show on the surface, the service it has provided for years now is remarkable. The constant effort to entertain, engage and teach children is so much more than what the vast majority of television does.  It has been a part of many lives over the years, and many people all over the world have grown up experiencing its messages of kindness and understanding.

While the Muppets like Big Bird and Cookie Monster have long been the stars of the show, the human co-stars have made their own impact and been just as important. So it was stunning for a generation of children to learn one day that the beloved Mr. Hooper had died.

Played by actor Will Lee who passed away on December 7, 1982, Mr. Hooper's death was addressed on air over Thanksgiving of that year.  The producers had decided the best course of action was not to ignore Mr. Hooper's passing, recast the role or say he moved, but to address it in a real way that children would understand, according to the AV Club. Big Bird is the character who represents the audience in the scene, and he learns not just that Mr. Hooper is gone, but why he's gone and what it means going forward. Even though he's just a big, yellow puppet, the emotion conveyed is raw and real.

#3 Adored reality TV stars outed as terrible people

It's very hard to put your finger on the origin of what you might call "reality TV."  No doubt it became very popular in the 1990s when shows like Survivorbecame the biggest thing on TV. In many ways that time period is considered, at least informally, the beginning of reality TV as we know it.  Realistically, reality TV, which is anything unscripted and supposedly just showing life as it is, is about as old as TV itself. The news is reality TV. Game shows are reality TV. There were hidden camera and talent shows as far back as the 1940s.

The modern era of reality TV has one pretty significant difference from older forms, and that is stars. We have recognizable reality stars these days.  These people are, at least as audiences are lead to believe, just real and unscripted and showing their lives on television. They can become as beloved as any actor in some cases, just look at the Kardashians, the Osbournes or the Real Housewives of Fill-in-the-Blank.  These people can be huge. And as the old saying goes "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." Sometimes reality stars turn out to be much worse than their TV personas lead us to believe. Some of these people are damn near monsters.

A Sons of Guns star was guilty of rape

In 2011, Discovery premiered a new reality series about Red Jacket Firearms, LLC. The company made custom firearms for places like law enforcement and private security as well as individual collectors.  They called the show Sons of Guns, because if your show doesn't have a clever name, it's not even worth airing.

Sons of Guns aired for five seasons and followed shop owner Will Hayden and his adult daughter as they crafted weapons and demonstrated them, sometimes unsuccessfully. The show tried to balance firearm safety with an interest in responsible gun ownership and the appeal of seeing cool, unique weapons .  But there was more going on behind the scenes than audiences realized.

In real real life, not scripted reality life, showrunner Hayden was less an admirable advocate of gun ownership than he was a reprehensible monster.  In 2017, as People explains, Will Hayden was convicted of two counts of aggravated rape and one count of forcible rape.  He had been tried and found guilty of sexually assaulting two preteen girls, two decades apart.

Hayden's arrested in 2014 was what actually what ended the show, and it took until 2017 for the trial to wrap up. The aggravated rape convictions carry with them mandatory life sentences. In total, Hayden was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences plus a consecutive 40 years. He'll never leave prison alive.

Dog the Bounty Hunter uses racial slurs

For a while in the early and mid 2000s, Duane Chapman, better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, was one of the biggest reality stars on TV.  The show, featuring Dog and assorted family members hunting fugitives from justice, was huge. His life outside of the show has been riddled with controversy, however.

Prior to ever being a bounty hunter, Duane Chapman served time in prison on a first degree murder charge back in 1976. That conviction has been the reason he can't carry a firearm and the UK won't let him into the country, according to The Guardian.  Chapman has never hid that part of his past and has tried to be an inspirational story about turning your life around.  In 2003, Dog captured Andrew Luster, the infamous Max Factor heir and serial rapist, propelling him to international fame.

Based on his recognition from the Luster case, A&E gave Dog a show that proved very popular - Ozzy Osbourne even sang the theme song. But by 2007, things had taken a bad turn. Audio tape of Dog using racial slurs was released by The National Enquirer.  On the tape, Dog can be heard using the N-word in a discussion about his son's girlfriend, who was African American.  Dog later apologized, according to CBS, but the damage was already done at that point since Chapman had made it clear that he uses the word frequently.

Pawn Stars' Chumlee was arrested on drugs and gun charges

Pawn Stars premiered on the History channel in 2009 and quickly became their biggest hit, the number one show on the network in fact,  according tothe Las Vegas Sun. The show mixes some family drama with the oddly appealing world of pawn shops, where people bring in some of the craziest most unique items you could ever imagine to find out what they're worth.  It's like Antiques Road Show with some attitude and a goofy family backdrop. One of the stand out stars on the show is the man known as Chumlee.

Chumlee, whose real name is Austin Russell, was a childhood friend of Corey Harrison, whose family owns the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop.  On the show he was often depicted as a bit of a lummox, kind of a goofy, comic foil for the other characters who slowly grew to be a trusted and reliable employee.

Off camera, Chumlee has run afoul of the law when his home was raided in 2016. Police found crystal meth and Xanax as well as about a dozen illegal firearms, according to Global News. Thanks to a plea deal, he managed to avoid jail time but will be on probation for several years.

Alaskan Bush People's Matt Brown was arrested for a DUI hit and run

Alaskan Bush People premiered in 2014 and offered viewers a unique and cool look into the world of some people who seemed to live totally off the grid and were independent and self-sustaining.  The illusion was not long-lived however. In Touch Weekly has a rundown of a number of scandals that have come up in the show's history including word that much of what goes on is faked and the family never really lived full time in the woods.

More egregious than reality show fakery was the story that broke in 2015 about star Matt Brown.  The oldest son of the family, Brown had gone out for a night of partying in Juneau, Alaska. Brown chose to drive home after too many drinks and, according to witness testimony, plowed into a parked motorcycle in a Wal Mart parking lot in the middle of the night.  Instead of staying where he was, Brown drove off leaving the scene.

According to Radar Online, Brown was arrested on charges of both DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. The officer who pulled him over said Brown smelled and was acting weird, but denied being under the influence of anything.  Instead, he offered up Attention Deficit Disorder as an excuse for his behavior. The police weren't buying it, and Brown failed a field sobriety test as well as a breathalyzer, and was taken into custody.

Joshua Tel Warner of Deadliest Catch robs banks

Deadliest Catch has proven to be one of reality TV's most enduring and curiously engaging shows. Depicting the lives of crab fishermen, it's a mixture of drama and real-life danger as these boats face off with extreme weather and the unsafe waters of the Bering Sea to haul in crabs that can be worth a fortune.

While the show has been a success since 2005, it's not without some danger and drama on the land, too.  Joshua Tel Warner joined the crew of The Wizard, one of the crab boats featured on the show, back in 2009. He was a greenhorn on the boat, a rookie, and he quickly gained attention for all the wrong reasons. Warner had joined the crew after committing a bank robbery, and then proceeded to commit two more after he was featured on the show.  Surveillance footage ensured he was an extremely easy suspect to track down since he was on one of the most popular reality shows on television that you better believe law enforcement officials were also watching.

In 2010, as Oregon Live reported, Warner was sentenced to 9 and a half years for his crimes, leaving audiences to wonder how he thought he'd get away with it if he was on TV.

Ducl Dynasty's Phil Robertson made homophobic remarks

Few reality shows have achieved the fame and notoriety as A&E's Duck Dynasty. In 2013, the season 4 premier became the most watched non-fiction show in cable history with nearly 12 million viewers, according to E!.  It's safe to say that, for a time, Duck Dynasty was absolutely the pinnacle of reality TV success. Unfortunately, that success came with some controversy as the Robertson family at the center of the show began sharing some unpopular opinions.

Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the family featured on Duck Dynasty, was interviewed by GQ back in 2013.  It was in that interview when he made some extremely controversial comments about homosexuality, including basically equating it with bestiality and terrorism. He calls it a sin numerous time and tries to explain that he's not judgmental in any way.

There was an initial backlash against Robertson's comments with A&E actually suspending Robertson from the show for a brief time, according to FOX News.  The family stood by him and there was a counter backlash of support that ended up getting Robertson back on the show within 9 days.  As the NY Post pointed out, the network did try to distance itself from Robertson's specific comments, suggesting that he was just one man amongst many on the show and his views are solely his own.

Mama June rekindled a relationship with the man who molested her daughter

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo was a cultural phenomenon, an icon of cringe TV that showed up in 2012. The title comes from the nickname of child beauty pageant contestant Alanna Thompson, who became an instant star after showing off her frenetic and bubbly personality on the show Toddlers and Tiaras.

Honey Boo Boo and her family consisting of dad Sugar Bear, Mama June and sisters Chickadee and Pumpkin were the ultimate in trash TV. They were as rough around the edges as humanly possible - in one episode Mama June makes a dish called "sketti" which was spaghetti noodles slathered in copious amounts of melted butter and ketchup. But there was also a real sweetness to them at the core that kept audiences interested, or at least it seemed that way for a time.

Eventually Mama June and Sugar Bear went their separate ways and June did the unthinkable - she rekindled a relationship with a man named Mark McDaniel. McDaniel had been convicted of molesting Chickadee 10 years earlier, causing Chickadee to cut ties with her mother, as TMZ reported.  June denied getting back together with the man after he was released from prison, but TMZ had photos to prove it. The blowback was swift and TLC cancelled the show as audiences were absolutely disgusted that a woman would do that to her own children.

Toby Willis sexually abused his children

Piggybacking on the success of show like Jon and Kate Plus 8 and 19 Kids and Counting, The Willis Family was a show on TLC that chronicled the lives of a very large, very close knit family. Like both of those other shows, the happy face put on for the cameras hid a very dark secret when the cameras were off.

The Willis Family, who performed as a musical group called The Willis Clan, consisted of mom and dad Brenda and Toby, and their 12 children. They appeared as an act on America's Got Talent, presented as a family rooted in Christian values and wholesome entertainment. In 2016, that was exposed as a lie.

TLC cancelled the show in 2016 when Toby Willis was charged with four counts of rape.  In Touch Weekly details the story of eldest daughter Jessica opened up about what she had endured at the hands of her father. Toby Willis had abused his own children, when they were between the ages of 9 and 12 though Jessica said she could remember it happening much, much earlier in her life.  Willis plead guilty to the four counts he was charged with according to the Tennessean. He was handed four concurrent sentences which will see him spend 40 years behind bars.

Swamp People's Trapper Joe committed domestic abuse

There's been a tradition in reality TV to showcase the lives of people who are outside the mainstream, who live lives that are maybe more simple or rustic or old school than folks in cities. You can see it in things like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Duck Dynasty and, of course, Swamp People. It's a show about people who hunt alligators for a living. That's definitely a slice of life that's unique and interesting to most of the country.

Swamp People premiered in the year 2010 an has been fairly popular ever since. One of the show's stars who went by the name Trapper Joe was doing more than hunting gators, however. Back in 2012 Joe, whose real name is Noces Joseph LaFont Jr., was arrested on charges of assault and battery, according to TMZ. Witnesses saw LaFont and his girlfriend arguing and then LaFont punched her.

In 2015, LaFont was arrested again on the same charge. The Times-Picayune referenced the 2012 charge and also another 2013 charge, against for the same thing, but noted they couldn't find out if they were ever pursued. In 2015, however, a judge order LaFont to stay away from the victim after breaking two of her ribs.

Jon and Kate Gosselin turned their family into a circus

Jon and Kate Plus 8 was a massive hit for TLC back in 2007.  It featured the titular couple plus their 8 children - twins and sextuplets - and the everyday aspects of their lives.  It was instantly something appealing to a wide audience. But the parenting skills of both Jon and Kate has been questionable for years.

Jon and Kate Gosselin's troubled relationship became tabloid fodder incredibly quickly. By 2009, the couple had filed for divorce. Even from the beginning, the couple were at odds over who even wanted the divorce. Jon laid the blame on Kate, according to CBS, while Kate said Jon forced her into it, according to People.

Word broke that Jon had started a relationship with the 22-year-old daughter of his wife's plastic surgeon, as detailed in People. Then arguments over the kids resulted in cops being called in 2009, something that was still happening as late as 2017, as E! News reported.

In 2016, In Touch Weekly reported Kate was accusing Jon of dealing drugs in a report to the police, as well as kidnapping one of their daughters. Some of his children said they hadn't seen their father in years, which he again blamed on his wife, as detailed by NBC.  In the end, it's clear this couple has had years and years of bitterness between them with little regard for the effect it might have on the kids.

#4 False facts you always believed about World War II

There's no denying the impact World War II had, not just on the world at the time, but the world that survived and grew out of it. The toll to humanity from the acts committed during those few years, from camps in Germany to the bombs dropped in Japan to the soldiers landing on the beaches on D-Day, was staggering.  The world changed; the way wars were fought changed and the way we treated those who fought wars changed as well.

Since the war ended, our culture has been utterly fascinated with the history and stories about what happened. From the grand scale battles to the personal tales of soldiers and civilians, it seems like we can't get learn enough. You just have to look at this list of hundreds of World War II films compiled on Wikipedia to appreciate how much the war is still a part of our conscience and identity.  And yet, despite the abundance of information in the form of books and essays and films, there is a ton of misinformation. There' a good chance that what you think you know about the war isn't really what you know. Some of the most commonly quoted facts aren't actually facts at all.

The French didn't give up without a fight

It's a great disservice to the people of France that they've long been saddled with the reputation of being cowards.  Pop culture has really run with this idea; the Simpsons even included a joke once about the French being "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." Removed from the reality of what happened a generation ago, it can be seen as funny, but it's not as true as a simple joke makes it seem.

While France did surrender under the German assault, the reasons behind it are often overlooked. The most important thing to consider is the nature of the war being fought.  Germany brought the blitzkrieg- the lightning war- to France. France simply had no defense for the new tactics; they were outmatched by the Axis forces.

Germany moved quickly into France with armored vehicles and superior strategy.  France was literally using couriers to send messages to and from those in charge, while Germany was communicating by radio. The French Commander-in-Chief General Gamelin didn't even have a radio in his headquarters, according to the book War Made New.  How could France have ever hoped to keep up?

In the end, the Germans lost over 150,000 soldiers, 800 tanks and 1,300 aircraft in the month-long push, as noted on Second World War History, but they succeeded and France surrendered after being completely outmatched.

Hitler didn't become the leader of the Nazi party by one vote

If you have a friend or relative who likes to forward sourceless chain emails or make posts on Facebook that list quirky facts, you may have seen one meant to encourage you to get out and vote. This particular list goes into detail about the difference one vote can make and is supposed to be inspiring. It tells, amongst other things, of how Hitler was voted into leadership of the Nazi party by one single vote.  If only anyone else had stood up and said no, maybe the Second World War would never have happened! It's terribly untrue.

Mythbusting site Snopes looked into the popular forward which also claimed that English became the official language of America over German by one vote, and that Texas was brought into the Union by a single vote.  The so-called facts have been spread by Ann Landers in newspapers and even in a speech by Jesse Jackson.

While all the stories in the forward are fake, as it relates to the one vote victory of Adolf Hitler, it's not just wrong, but the complete opposite of what happened.  Hitler didn't get a single vote victory to lead the Nazi party, he had a single vote against him. 553 party members did vote for him to lead them, however.

The SS weren't all Aryan

The Schutzstaffel, more commonly known as the SS, were some of the elite troops of the Nazi military.  The regular German military were a separate entity. The SS were the more feared force; their subgroups included the Gestapo and the Waffen SS amongst others.  They ran concentration camps, enforced Nazi policy and fought in armed divisions. Despite their reputation as policing and enforcing the racial policies of the Nazi regime, not all members of the SS were Aryan.

The Blue Division were a group of Spanish soldiers who fought alongside the Nazis against Russian forces.  Also known as the Wermacht 250th Infantry, they took part in the battle of Leningrad and suffered massive casualties, according to Historynet.

The Tiger Legion, also called the Free India Legion, was a 3,000 strong force of Indian soldiers who aligned themselves with the Nazi party against Britain. The force was part of the Waffen SS, the armed division, and ended up retreating through France along with the rest of the German forces on D-Day, according to the BBC.

Other forces aligned themselves with the Nazis as well when the SS started foreign recruitment. Divisions existed from all over including Bosnian Muslims in the 13th Waffen SS Mountain Division, the Free Arabian Legion made up of African and Arab troops and the Ostlegionen which consisted of soldiers from places like Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine. When it came down to the wire, the Nazis weren't committed to any principles.

We held Axis soldiers prisoner on US soil

Though the war was fought in Europe and no enemy force ever landed on US soil, it's not entirely correct to say no enemies ever ended up in the United States.  In fact, quite a large number of German and Axis soldiers found their way to America as prisoners of war. From 1942 to 1945, as Allied space was running thin over in Europe, the US took on over 400,000 Axis POWs. The men were shipped stateside and held all across the country in army bases and rural areas.  Many of them ended up working on farms, harvesting corn or baling hay. Others were put to work in factories and mills. Since so many laborers had been lost when US soldiers went to war, this use of POW's to bolster the labor force actually helped out the American economy.

The Smithsonian relates a number of stories from people who were just children during the war, who recall these POW laborers in their communities.  Some worked together on farms, one person even recalls how POW stonemasons build his family a concrete garage that is still standing today.

The prisoners were held in camps, hundreds of which were constructed through the Southern US and the Midwest.  They were fed and clothed and put to work and, by all account, treated as well as any prisoner could hope to be treated. Some even returned to the US after the war to become citizens.

The bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima weren't the worst ones in Japan

One of the most terrifying events of the war was the deployment of the two atomic bombs. Never before had the world seen such destructive power and to this day the fear of nuclear war keeps many countries' aggression in check. It's no wonder then that so many people believe those bombs were the most destructive part of the war.  But they weren't, at least not at first.

The blasts that laid waste to Nagasaki and Hiroshima should never be minimized, and their effect over time has been terrible, but it's also worth noting that the US attack on Tokyo was actually more devastating and caused more damage at the time.  On March 9, 1945 leading into the morning of the following day, US forces firebombed the city of Tokyo and razed nearly half the city to the ground. The death toll was over 100,000 while one million were wounded and a million more homeless, according to ABC.

Bombers dropped 500,000 cylinders of napalm and petroleum jelly on the center of the city. The intent was to force Japan's surrender and to seek revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The effect was something beyond a nightmare, with one witness describing seeing melting bodies piled as high as a house amidst a storm of fire that was hundreds of feet tall. They called it the "Night of the Black Snow," in reference to the ash that fell in the aftermath.

The German Spandau machine gun was actually awful

If you're a war or history buff, you've probably heard of the German MG 42. Also known as the Spandau machine gun, it was a widely used weapon by German forces. Sometimes called "Hitler's Buzz Saw," it could cut through soldiers at a rate of 1,200 to 1,800 rounds per minute. Medium wrote a profile on the deadly weapon expressing just how bone-chilling it must have been for Allied forces to come up against one.  But were they really that terrifying?

On paper, the Spandau was a force to be reckoned with. In practice, things were different. For one, the rapid rate of fire caused incredible problems with overheating. Soldiers were told to not fire in bursts of more than 250 rounds, a far cry from its reported ability to fire over 1000 rounds per minute according to War History Online.

Author James Holland wrote about his misconceptions of the weapon, once believing it to be the best machine gun from the War. He was schooled by the head of the Small Arms Unit at the British Staff College. The gun, as it happens, was not particularly accurate.  It was over-engineered yet lacking basic functions that could have made it easier to use in battle. The insane amount of ammo users had to carry made it unwieldy and, by the end of the war, there were apparently very few soldiers on the ground who had any idea how to operate one.

Japan didn't surrender because of the bombs

It was August 6th, 1945 when the first atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.  The world had never seen anything like it before and no one has dared do anything like it since. While Japan surrendered shortly after the bomb at Nagasaki, it has been widely assumed the reason was solely those atomic bomb attacks.  Historians, however, have a different interpretation of events.

The director of Asian Studies at Tokyo's Temple University stated to ABC that the bombs would not have had the effect American forces believed. The American forces had already destroyed 66 cities by firebombing, so these new attacks made little difference overall. No one at the time knew of the long-term effects, after all.  In fact, what tipped the scales for Japan was not America at all but the Soviet Union.

Just after the bombing, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. As Foreign Policy argues, Japan was considering surrender while the second bomb was being dropped but days after the first. It was the Soviet declaration of war that tipped the scales.  Japanese historian Yuki Tanaka said the fear was that the Soviets would overpower the weakened army and kill Emperor Hirohito. The Emperor of Japan was regarded as divine, so to lose the Emperor would have been such a blow to Japan as to be unthinkable. So they surrendered.

Hitler would not have been defeated without the Soviet Union

The combined might of the Allied forces was absolutely integral to the defeat of the Nazis. Every one of the countries who sent soldiers into that war played their part. The contribution made by Russia, however, is often overlooked or minimized in the West when compared to America and Britain's involvement.  The fact is that the Soviets were absolutely integral to the defeat of the Nazis and they suffered far greater losses than any other force during the war.

While Stalin was no hero by any measure, his forces on the ground made an incredible sacrifice in fighting Hitler. As the Washington Post points out, the Soviets lost upwards of 11 million soldiers in the war.  What's more, 26 million Russian civilians also lost their lives. British historian Max Hastings put it this way - the Red Army suffered 95% of the military casualties endured by the three major Allied forces.

What was paid for with all those Russian lives? The German suffered three-quarters of their wartime losses at the hands of the Soviet army. This included the battle at Kursk, which was the largest tank battle in the history of the world.  The Russians caused irreparable damage to the Nazi war machine and allowed the rest of the Allies to overcome them in the end.

September 1st 1939 wasn't necessarily the start of the war

It's hard to discuss an event without having any clearly defined boundaries for it. You want to know when something started and ended to get a grasp on it and that's part of the reason why most history books will tell you that World War 2 started on September 1st, 1939. On that date, Germany invaded Poland which in turn caused Britain and France to declare war on them. That seems like a pretty solid "Oh crap, war!" moment. But it's not the only one.

There were numerous acts of war committed in the lead up to the generally recognized start of WWII in 1939.  On September 18th, 1931, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria. They took over the region despite Chinese protests, installed a new government and went on to clash with China over the ensuing years. By 1937, a clash at the Marco-Polo bridge near modern-day Beijing kicked off an undeclared war between the nations, according to the BBC.

Elsewhere in the world, fascism was gaining the upper hand in Ethiopia when Italy declared war and invaded in 1935. Though the League of Nations was not a fan of this, they were also powerless to stop it, which resulted in Mussolini and his Hitleresque views gaining some legitimacy, according to Britannica. This lead to increased tensions across Europe and bolstered the Axis nations. It was a series of events, not just one act, that lead to war.

The Frence Resistance wasn't as effective as Hollywood made it seem

Looking back on the war, especially in films, there's a recurring theme related to the French Resistance.  After France's surrender, there was naturally a movement within the country to stand against the Nazis and the Resistance has been heavily romanticized in film and novels like Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and even Inglorious Basterds.

Post-war, France declared they had been liberated from within but many historians are quick to arch an eyebrow over the claims that the Resistance was a massive, effective anti-Nazi machine.  Most stories of the resistance come from France, the very country reeling from the humiliation of surrendering during the war. They needed to save face and would readily give in to exaggeration about the accomplishments of the Resistance in the face of the enemy. According to The Telegraph, the most common train of thought in France at the time was to just wait and see.

Historynet points out that most of the French population wanted nothing to do with any war and upwards of 90% of them either supported the regime collaborating with Germany or, at the very least, were too scared to do anything about it.  Those that did resist were disorganized and lacked military leaders. They were intellectuals who opposed the regime through publishing propaganda and using their words - still bold at a time when such things would get you murdered. But they weren't Tarantino movie heroes either, for the most part.

Carrots did not actually improve the vision of WWII pilots

Did you ever learn in school that eating carrots will help improve your night vision? As the story goes, those carrots are chock full of vitamin A and vitamin A will give you the eyes of an eagle if you get enough of it in your diet.  Vitamin A is so good at improving your vision, pilots in the Second World War used to eat carrots like it was going out of style to give them the edge over their adversaries at night. It's a cool story in its way, but it's also completely fabricated.

The truth was that the Royal Air Force in Britain had just begun using on-board radar technology which was cutting edge stuff at the time. To hide the secret of why their pilots were so effective during night time fighting, the Ministry of Information released a bogus story about the efficacy of carrots in improving night vision.

The curator of the World Carrot Museum, which is actually a thing, told the Smithsonian magazine that he has no evidence this ruse duped the Germans in any real way. That said, he is aware that the myth is extremely pervasive in Germany as well, and there are unverifed claims that pilots in Germany gave it a try.  So even if the government didn't buy it, they were very well aware of it, and so was everyone else.