Top 10 most enigmatic people of all time
This is a personal work of mine were I ranked the most enigmatic people in history from my point of view. You all can share your input and make your own rankings and also discuss my inclusions.
Spoiler: My ranking
10.The Poe Toaster
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The Poe Toaster is the nickname given to a mysterious man who pays annual tribute to Poe by visiting his grave every year. The Poe Toaster tradition may have begun as early as the 1930s, according to witnesses, and continued annually until 2009.
"In the early hours of the morning on that date, a black-clad figure, presumed to be male, with a silver-tipped cane enters the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, Maryland. The individual proceeds to Poe’s grave, where he or she raises a cognac toast. Before departing, the Toaster leaves three red roses and a half-bottle of cognac on the grave."
The Toaster wears a black hat and coat and hides his face with a hood or scarf. In 2006 an unsuccessful attempt was made to indentify by some onlookers. Because of the long history of his visits , many think it might have been two persons in succession, possibly father and son.
9.Adam Rainer
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In 1917, at age 18, he was measured at 122.55 cm , some records even saying he was 1.18 at 21. A typical defining characteristic of dwarfism is an adult height below 147 cm. Then , he had a dramatic growth spurt so that by 1931 he had reached a height of 218 cm ,possibly as a result of a pituitary tumor.
As a result of his gigantism he became bedridden for the rest of his life. When he died in 1950 he had reached a height of 234 cm , his feet measured 33.3 cm , his hands 23.9 cm and he wheighed weighed 109 kg .
He is the only person in recorded history to have been both a dwarf and a giant
8.Wolf Messing
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As a teenager, Messing claimed to be a psychic. He could alter people’s perceptions and predict future outcomes based on mental telepathy and body language clues. During his shows, Messing would enter a trance-like state and attempt to find hidden objects. He performed in front of large crowds and became famous after World War II. Messing even caught the attention of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud.
In 1937, Wolf Messing predicted that Adolf Hitler would die if he ever threatened Russia and “turned toward the East.” The message angered Hitler and caused Messing to flee to Russia, where he continued to perform his act. As the story goes, Messing was then forced to prove his psychic ability for Stalin by convincing a bank teller to give him cash with nothing more than a blank piece of paper. After the successful demonstration, Messing became a teacher for the KGB.
7.Jack the Ripper
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Jack the Ripper is the best known name given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was widely disseminated in the media.
Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London and whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge.The "From Hell" letter, received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, included half of a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the victims. Mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events, the public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper".
The term "ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper cases. There are now over one hundred theories about the Ripper's identity.
6.Kaspar Hauser
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On May 26, 1828 a teenage boy appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany. He carried a letter with him which was addressed to a captain of 6th cavalry regiment. The anonymous author said that the boy was given into his custody, as an infant, on the 7th October 1812, and that he had never let him “take a single step out of my house”. Now the boy would like to be a cavalryman, thus the captain should take him in or hang him.
Hauser claimed that he had, for as long as he could think back, spent his life always totally alone in a darkened 2×1×1.5 metre cell (little more than the size of a one-person bed in area) with only a straw bed to sleep on and a horse carved out of wood for a toy. Hauser claimed that the first human being he ever had had contact with had been a mysterious man who had visited him not long before his release, always taking great care not to reveal his face to him. According to contemporary rumors – probably current as early as 1829 – Kaspar Hauser was the hereditary prince of Baden that was born on September 29, 1812 and had died within a month. It was claimed that this prince had been switched with a dying baby, and had indeed appeared 16 years later as “Kaspar Hauser” in Nuremberg. Hauser died after receiving a stab wound to the chest which was possible self-inflicted. He claimed he had been stabbed by the man who had kept him as an infant.
5.Gil Pérez
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Gil Perez was a Spanish soldier who suddenly appeared in Mexico City on October 26, 1593. He was wearing the uniform of the guards of the Del Gobernador Palace in the Philippines. He claimed to have no idea how he had managed to appear in Mexico. He stated that moments before finding himself there, he had been on sentry duty in Manila at the governor’s Palace. He told them that the governor (Don Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas) had just been assassinated.Two months later, news arrived from the Philippines by ship. They carried news that confirmed that the governor had been killed and they verified other aspects of Perez’s story.
Witnesses confirmed that Perez had indeed been on duty in Manila just before arriving in Mexico. In addition, one of the passengers on the ship recognized Perez and swore that he had seen him in the Philippines on October 23. Perez eventually returned to the Philippines and resumed his life – which was uneventful until his death.
4.Man in the Iron Mask
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It started in 1698, when a prisoner using the pseudonym Eustache Dauger was transported to the Bastille, the 17th century French equivalent of a maximum security prison. He had already spent between two and three decades rotting in various jails across the country. According to legend, he showed up already locked in the iron mask and was immediately tossed in a cell, forbidden to speak to anyone apart from the Governor who was the only person who was to see the prisoner, and he provided him with his daily food.
He was forbidden to ever show his face to anyone, and some prisoners claimed he had two armed guards with him at all times should he ever try to take the mask off , and a letter form the minister instructed the governor to prepare a cell with multiple doors – to prevent anyone outside from listening in.
3.Fulcanelli
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Fulcanelli is a pseudonym of a late 19th century French Alchemist and author whose identity is still unknown. Much mystery surrounds his life and works – leading to him being branded a cultural phenomenon. One of the more extravagant tales retells how his devoted pupil , Eugene Canseliet , successfully transformed 100 grams of lead in to gold with the use of a small quantity of “Projection Powder” given to him by his teacher.It is believed that on the verge of World War II, the German intelligence service was in active pursuit of Fulcanelli because of his knowledge of the technology of nuclear weapons.
Fulcanelli had met with a French atomic physicist and given him accurate details regarding nuclear weapons technology and he claimed that atomic weaponry had been used against humanity in time long past.
“According to Canseliet , his last encounter with Fulcanelli happened in 1953 (years after his disappearance), when he went to Spain and was taken to a castle high in the mountains for a rendezvous with his former master. Canseliet had known Fulcanelli as an old man in his 80s but now the Master had grown younger: he was a man in his 50s. The reunion was brief and Fulcanelli once again disappeared leaving no trace of his whereabouts. At this time, Fulcanelli would have been 114 years old.”
2.Green Children of Woolpit
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The Green Children of Woolpit were two children who appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, UK, in the 12th century. The children were brother and sister and they had green colored skin. They spoke an unrecognized language and even though being starved refused to eat anything other than pitch from bean pods.
Eventually they learned to eat other food and lost their green pallor, but the boy was sickly and died soon after he and his sister were baptised. After she learned to speak English, the girl explained that she and her brother had come from St Martin's Land, a world without a sun whose inhabitants are green.
1.Grigori Rasputin
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Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian peasant, mystical faith healer and private adviser to the Romanovs. He gained their trust at first by healing Tsesarevich Alexei of hemophilia B. He was accused in many times of occulitist practices and was considered as a "Dark Force" in Russia.
In the day of his assassination , he was first poisoned with cyanide but it seemd to have absolutely no effect on Rasputin. The conspirators got worried of his immunity to the poisend so they shot him. The bullet entered his left chest penetrated the stomach and the liver; it left the body on the right side. About an hour later, Felix Yusupov felt an inexplicable need to go look at the body. He went back downstairs and felt the body. It still seemed warm. He shook the body. There was no reaction. When Felix starting turning away, he noticed Rasputin's left eye start to flutter open. He was still alive!
Rasputin sprang to his feet and rushed at Felix, grabbing his shoulders and neck. Felix struggled to get free and finally did so. He then shot Rasputin four times while missing three times (according to Nelipa). The bullet entered the back and penetrated a kidney. He only died after 20 minutes and afterwards he was shot again the head and severly beaten.
After this , he was dumbed in a frozen river and found days later. When they pulled him out, they found Rasputin's hands were frozen in a raised position, making everyone believe that he had still been alive under the water and had tried to untie the rope around his hands.
The autopsy results showed alcohol but not poison found ,
Three bullet wounds and a small amount of water was found in the lungs.
The Poe Toaster is the nickname given to a mysterious man who pays annual tribute to Poe by visiting his grave every year. The Poe Toaster tradition may have begun as early as the 1930s, according to witnesses, and continued annually until 2009.
"In the early hours of the morning on that date, a black-clad figure, presumed to be male, with a silver-tipped cane enters the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, Maryland. The individual proceeds to Poe’s grave, where he or she raises a cognac toast. Before departing, the Toaster leaves three red roses and a half-bottle of cognac on the grave."
The Toaster wears a black hat and coat and hides his face with a hood or scarf. In 2006 an unsuccessful attempt was made to indentify by some onlookers. Because of the long history of his visits , many think it might have been two persons in succession, possibly father and son.
9.Adam Rainer
In 1917, at age 18, he was measured at 122.55 cm , some records even saying he was 1.18 at 21. A typical defining characteristic of dwarfism is an adult height below 147 cm. Then , he had a dramatic growth spurt so that by 1931 he had reached a height of 218 cm ,possibly as a result of a pituitary tumor.
As a result of his gigantism he became bedridden for the rest of his life. When he died in 1950 he had reached a height of 234 cm , his feet measured 33.3 cm , his hands 23.9 cm and he wheighed weighed 109 kg .
He is the only person in recorded history to have been both a dwarf and a giant
8.Wolf Messing
As a teenager, Messing claimed to be a psychic. He could alter people’s perceptions and predict future outcomes based on mental telepathy and body language clues. During his shows, Messing would enter a trance-like state and attempt to find hidden objects. He performed in front of large crowds and became famous after World War II. Messing even caught the attention of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud.
In 1937, Wolf Messing predicted that Adolf Hitler would die if he ever threatened Russia and “turned toward the East.” The message angered Hitler and caused Messing to flee to Russia, where he continued to perform his act. As the story goes, Messing was then forced to prove his psychic ability for Stalin by convincing a bank teller to give him cash with nothing more than a blank piece of paper. After the successful demonstration, Messing became a teacher for the KGB.
7.Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper is the best known name given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was widely disseminated in the media.
Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London and whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge.The "From Hell" letter, received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, included half of a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the victims. Mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events, the public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper".
The term "ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper cases. There are now over one hundred theories about the Ripper's identity.
6.Kaspar Hauser
On May 26, 1828 a teenage boy appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany. He carried a letter with him which was addressed to a captain of 6th cavalry regiment. The anonymous author said that the boy was given into his custody, as an infant, on the 7th October 1812, and that he had never let him “take a single step out of my house”. Now the boy would like to be a cavalryman, thus the captain should take him in or hang him.
Hauser claimed that he had, for as long as he could think back, spent his life always totally alone in a darkened 2×1×1.5 metre cell (little more than the size of a one-person bed in area) with only a straw bed to sleep on and a horse carved out of wood for a toy. Hauser claimed that the first human being he ever had had contact with had been a mysterious man who had visited him not long before his release, always taking great care not to reveal his face to him. According to contemporary rumors – probably current as early as 1829 – Kaspar Hauser was the hereditary prince of Baden that was born on September 29, 1812 and had died within a month. It was claimed that this prince had been switched with a dying baby, and had indeed appeared 16 years later as “Kaspar Hauser” in Nuremberg. Hauser died after receiving a stab wound to the chest which was possible self-inflicted. He claimed he had been stabbed by the man who had kept him as an infant.
5.Gil Pérez
Gil Perez was a Spanish soldier who suddenly appeared in Mexico City on October 26, 1593. He was wearing the uniform of the guards of the Del Gobernador Palace in the Philippines. He claimed to have no idea how he had managed to appear in Mexico. He stated that moments before finding himself there, he had been on sentry duty in Manila at the governor’s Palace. He told them that the governor (Don Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas) had just been assassinated.Two months later, news arrived from the Philippines by ship. They carried news that confirmed that the governor had been killed and they verified other aspects of Perez’s story.
Witnesses confirmed that Perez had indeed been on duty in Manila just before arriving in Mexico. In addition, one of the passengers on the ship recognized Perez and swore that he had seen him in the Philippines on October 23. Perez eventually returned to the Philippines and resumed his life – which was uneventful until his death.
4.Man in the Iron Mask
It started in 1698, when a prisoner using the pseudonym Eustache Dauger was transported to the Bastille, the 17th century French equivalent of a maximum security prison. He had already spent between two and three decades rotting in various jails across the country. According to legend, he showed up already locked in the iron mask and was immediately tossed in a cell, forbidden to speak to anyone apart from the Governor who was the only person who was to see the prisoner, and he provided him with his daily food.
He was forbidden to ever show his face to anyone, and some prisoners claimed he had two armed guards with him at all times should he ever try to take the mask off , and a letter form the minister instructed the governor to prepare a cell with multiple doors – to prevent anyone outside from listening in.
3.Fulcanelli
Fulcanelli is a pseudonym of a late 19th century French Alchemist and author whose identity is still unknown. Much mystery surrounds his life and works – leading to him being branded a cultural phenomenon. One of the more extravagant tales retells how his devoted pupil , Eugene Canseliet , successfully transformed 100 grams of lead in to gold with the use of a small quantity of “Projection Powder” given to him by his teacher.It is believed that on the verge of World War II, the German intelligence service was in active pursuit of Fulcanelli because of his knowledge of the technology of nuclear weapons.
Fulcanelli had met with a French atomic physicist and given him accurate details regarding nuclear weapons technology and he claimed that atomic weaponry had been used against humanity in time long past.
“According to Canseliet , his last encounter with Fulcanelli happened in 1953 (years after his disappearance), when he went to Spain and was taken to a castle high in the mountains for a rendezvous with his former master. Canseliet had known Fulcanelli as an old man in his 80s but now the Master had grown younger: he was a man in his 50s. The reunion was brief and Fulcanelli once again disappeared leaving no trace of his whereabouts. At this time, Fulcanelli would have been 114 years old.”
2.Green Children of Woolpit
The Green Children of Woolpit were two children who appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, UK, in the 12th century. The children were brother and sister and they had green colored skin. They spoke an unrecognized language and even though being starved refused to eat anything other than pitch from bean pods.
Eventually they learned to eat other food and lost their green pallor, but the boy was sickly and died soon after he and his sister were baptised. After she learned to speak English, the girl explained that she and her brother had come from St Martin's Land, a world without a sun whose inhabitants are green.
1.Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian peasant, mystical faith healer and private adviser to the Romanovs. He gained their trust at first by healing Tsesarevich Alexei of hemophilia B. He was accused in many times of occulitist practices and was considered as a "Dark Force" in Russia.
In the day of his assassination , he was first poisoned with cyanide but it seemd to have absolutely no effect on Rasputin. The conspirators got worried of his immunity to the poisend so they shot him. The bullet entered his left chest penetrated the stomach and the liver; it left the body on the right side. About an hour later, Felix Yusupov felt an inexplicable need to go look at the body. He went back downstairs and felt the body. It still seemed warm. He shook the body. There was no reaction. When Felix starting turning away, he noticed Rasputin's left eye start to flutter open. He was still alive!
Rasputin sprang to his feet and rushed at Felix, grabbing his shoulders and neck. Felix struggled to get free and finally did so. He then shot Rasputin four times while missing three times (according to Nelipa). The bullet entered the back and penetrated a kidney. He only died after 20 minutes and afterwards he was shot again the head and severly beaten.
After this , he was dumbed in a frozen river and found days later. When they pulled him out, they found Rasputin's hands were frozen in a raised position, making everyone believe that he had still been alive under the water and had tried to untie the rope around his hands.
The autopsy results showed alcohol but not poison found ,
Three bullet wounds and a small amount of water was found in the lungs.