The tale of Hansel and Gretel has been translated into 160 languages since the Brothers Grimm first published the German lore in 1812.Dark as it is, the story features child abandonment, attempted cannibalism, enslavement, and murder. Unfortunately, the origins of the story are equally if not more horrifying.Most people are familiar with the story but for those who arent, it opens on a pair of children who are to be abandoned by their starving parents in the forest. The kids, Hansel and Gretel, get wind of their parents plan and find their way home by following a trail of stones Hansel had dropped earlier. The mother, or stepmother by some tellings, then convinces the father to abandon the children a second time.This time, Hansel drops breadcrumbs to follow home but birds eat the breadcrumbs and the children become lost in the forest. Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Hansel leaving a trail to follow home.The starving pair come upon a gingerbread house that they begin to eat ravenously. Unbeknownst to them, the home is actually a trap set by an old witch, or ogre, who enslaves Gretel and forces her to overfeed Hansel so that he can be eaten by the witch herself. The pair manage to escape when Gretel shoves the witch into an oven. They return home with the witchs treasure and find that their evil matriarch is no longer there and is presumed dead, so they live happily ever after.But the true history behind the tale of Hansel and Gretel is not so happy as this ending.The Brothers GrimmModern readers know Hansel and Gretel from the works of German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The brothers were inseparable scholars, medievalists who had a passion for collecting German folklore. Between 1812 and 1857, the brothers published over 200 stories in seven different editions of what has since become known in English as Grimms Fairy Tales.Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm never intended that their stories be for children per se, but rather the brothers sought to preserve Germanic folklore in a region whose culture was being overrun by France during the Napoleonic Wars. Wikimedia CommonsWilhelm Grimm, left, and Jacob Grimm in an 1855 painting by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann.In fact, the early editions of the Grimm brothers work published as Kinder und Hausmrchen, or Childrens and Household Tales, lacked illustrations. Scholarly footnotes abounded. The stories were dark and filled with murder and mayhem.The stories nonetheless quickly caught on. Grimms Fairy Tales had such universal appeal that eventually, in the United States alone, there have been over 120 different editions made.These stories featured an all-star lineup of well-known characters including Cinderella, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, and of course, Hansel and Gretel.The True Story Behind Hansel And GretelWikimedia CommonsThe origin of Hansel and Gretel is far darker than the story itself.The true story of Hansel and Gretel goes back to a cohort of tales that originated in the Baltic regions during the Great Famine of 1314 to 1322. Volcanic activity in southeast Asia and New Zealand ushered in a period of prolonged climate change that led to crop failures and massive starvation across the globe.In Europe, the situation was particularly dire since the food supply was already scarce. When the Great Famine struck, the results were devastating. One scholar estimated that the Great Famine impacted 400,000 square miles of Europe, 30 million people, and may have killed off up to 25 percent of the population in certain areas. In the process, elderly people chose voluntarily to starve to death to allow the young to live. Others committed infanticide or abandoned their children. There is also evidence of cannibalism. William Rosen in his book, The Third Horseman, cites an Estonian chronicle which states that in 1315 mothers were fed their children. An Irish chronicler also wrote that the famine was so bad people were so destroyed by hunger that they extracted bodies of the dead from cemeteries and dug out the flesh from the skulls and ate it, and women ate their children out of hunger.Wikimedia CommonsAn 1868 rendering of Hansel and Gretel treading carefully through the forest.And it was from this grim chaos that the story of Hansel and Gretel was born.The cautionary tales that preceded Hansel and Gretel all dealt directly with themes of abandonment and survival. Almost all of these stories also used the forest as a tableau for danger, magic, and death.One such example comes from the Italian fairy tale collector Giambattista Basile, who published a number of stories in his 17th century Pentamerone. In his version, titled Nennillo and Nennella, a cruel stepmother forces her husband to abandon his two children in the woods. The father tries to foil the plot by leaving the children a trail of oats to follow but these are eaten by a donkey. The grimmest of these early tales, though, is the Romanian story, The Little Boy and the Wicked Stepmother. In this fairy tale, two children are abandoned and find their way home following a trail of ashes. But when they return home, the stepmother kills the little boy and forces the sister to prepare his corpse for a family meal. The horrified girl obeys but hides the boys heart inside a tree. The father unknowingly eats his son while the sister refuses to take part. After the meal, the girl takes the brothers bones and puts them inside the tree with his heart. The next day, a cuckoo bird emerges singing, Cuckoo! My sister has cooked me, and my father has eaten me, but I am now a cuckoo and safe from my stepmother. The terrified stepmother throws a lump of salt at the bird but it just falls back on her head, killing her instantaneously. An Evolving Story With New TakesThe direct source for the story of Hansel and Gretel as we know it came from Henriette Dorothea Wild, a neighbor of the brothers Grimm who narrated many of the tales for their first edition. She ended up marrying Wilhelm.The original versions of the Grimm brothers Hansel and Gretel changed over time. Perhaps the brothers were aware that their stories were being read by children and so by the last edition that they published, they had sanitized the stories somewhat. Where the mother had abandoned her biological children in the first versions, by the time the last 1857 edition was printed, she had transformed into the archetypal wicked stepmother. The fathers role, too, was softened by the 1857 edition as he showed more regret for his actions. Meanwhile, the tale of Hansel and Gretel has continued to evolve. There are versions today that are meant for preschoolers, like childrens author Mercer Mayers story which doesnt even try to touch any of the child abandonment themes.The trailer for the 2020 adaptation of Gretel and Hansel.Every once in awhile the tale attempts to go back to its dark roots. In 2020, Orion Pictures Gretel and Hansel: A Grim Fairy Tale has the siblings looking through the forest for food and working to help their parents when they meet the witch. It seems that the true story of Hansel and Gretel may still be darker than even this latest version.After this look at the history of Hansel and Gretel, check out more folktale origins with this quick bio on Charles Perrault, the French father of fairy tales. Then, discover the true story behind the legend of Sleepy Hollow.The post Discover The Truly Grim History Behind The Fairy Tale Of Hansel And Gretel appeared first on All That's Interesting.

On August 28, 2013, Isabella Guzman stabbed her mother Yun Mi Hoy to death in their Aurora, Colorado home. Seven years later, a video of Guzman in court went viral on TikTok. She quickly became an internet sensation.Public DomainIsabella Guzman smirks at the camera during a September 5, 2013 court hearing.Isabella Guzman was just 18 years old when she brutally murdered her mom. Her family was stunned. She had behavioral issues as a child, but loved ones described her as sweet and good-hearted.Soon after her arrest, Guzman pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her doctors found that she suffered from schizophrenia, and a judge ordered that she remain at Colorado Mental Health Institute until she was no longer a threat to herself or others.After seven years of hospitalization, in 2020, Guzman claimed her schizophrenia was under control and petitioned to be released from the institution. At the same time, footage from her 2013 court hearing resurfaced and started making the rounds on TikTok earning her a bizarre fanbase.This is the chilling story of the Isabella Guzman case and what has happened to her since she killed her mother.The Troubled Early Life Of Isabella GuzmanIsabella Guzman began having behavioral issues at a young age. Her mother sent her to live with her biological father, Robert Guzman, when she was around seven years old due to these concerns. Guzman eventually moved back in with Hoy, but she continued to struggle throughout her teen years, and shed soon dropped out of high school.In August 2013, the relationship between Guzman and Yun Mi Hoy deteriorated quickly. According to her stepfather, Ryan Hoy, Guzman became more threatening and disrespectful toward her mother, and on Tuesday, August 27, the two had a particularly nasty argument that ended in Guzman spitting in her moms face.According to CBS4 Denver, Hoy received an email from her daughter the next morning that simply read, You will pay.Terrified, Hoy called the police. They arrived at the house that afternoon and spoke with Guzman, telling her that her mother could legally kick her out if she didnt start respecting her and following her rules.Hoy also called Guzmans biological father and asked him to come and have a talk with her. Robert Guzman arrived at the house that evening, according to HuffPost. He later recalled, We sat down in the backyard looking at the trees and the animals and I started to talk to her about the respect that people should have for their parents.I thought that I made progress, he continued. But just hours later, hed discover that their conversation had tragically done nothing at all.The Grisly Murder Of Yun Mi HoyOn the night of August 28, 2013, Yun Mi Hoy arrived home from work around 9:30 p.m. She told her husband she was going upstairs to take a shower but he soon heard a thud followed by blood-curdling screams.Public DomainAfter stabbing her mother to death, Isabella Guzman fled her house. She was found by police the next day.Ryan Hoy rushed upstairs just in time to see Isabella Guzman slamming the bathroom door shut. He tried to push through, but Guzman had locked it and was pushing against the other side. When he saw blood seeping beneath the door, he raced back downstairs to call 911.When Ryan Hoy returned, according to Huffington Post, he heard his wife say, Jehovah, and then saw Guzman open the door and walk out with a bloody knife. He advised that he never heard Guzman say anything and that she didnt speak to him as she exited the bathroom [she] was just staring straight ahead when she walked past him.He ran into the bathroom and found Yun Mi Hoy naked on the floor with a baseball bat beside her, covered in stab wounds. He tried to resuscitate her, but she was already dead. Investigators later found that her throat had been slashed and shed been stabbed at least 79 times in the head, neck, and torso.By the time police arrived, Isabella Guzman had already fled the scene. They quickly launched a manhunt, informing the public that Guzman was armed and dangerous. Officers found her in a nearby parking garage the next afternoon, her pink sports bra and turquoise shorts still covered in her mothers blood.Isabella Guzman Gets Her Bizarre Day In CourtAccording to CNN, on the day of her arraignment hearing on Sept. 5, 2013, Guzman had to be dragged out of her cell. And when she finally got to the courtroom, she made a series of bizarre faces at the camera, smirking and pointing at her eyes.Isabella Guzman pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. A doctor testified that she was suffering from schizophrenia and had experienced delusions for years. She hadnt even realized she was stabbing her mother. Rather, Guzman thought shed killed a woman named Cecelia in order to save the world.Public DomainWhen Isabella Guzmans stepfather Ryan Hoy heard screams coming from the bathroom of their home, he raced upstairs to find the door locked and a pool of blood seeping out from beneath it.George Brauchler, district attorney for the 18th Judicial District of Colorado, told CBS4 Denver:We punish people who make decisions to do wrong when they knew better and they could have done something differently. And in this particular case I am convinced that this woman did not know right from wrong and she could not have acted differently than she did, given the significant schizophrenia and paranoid delusions, audible, visual hallucinations that she was going through.The judge accepted Guzmans plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and sent her to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, where he ordered her to stay until she was no longer a danger to herself or her community.Isabella Guzman had no idea she would soon be internet famous due to her strange court appearance.Guzmans Rise To Internet Fame And Where She Is NowIn 2020, various TikTok users began posting videos from Guzmans 2013 arraignment. Some were set to the hit Ava Max song Sweet but Psycho. Others showed creators attempting to imitate Guzmans odd facial expressions from the courtroom.Isabella Guzman quickly gained a fan base online. Commenters noted how beautiful she was and said she must have had a good reason for killing her mom. One video compilation of her court hearing gained nearly two million views. People even began making fan pages in Guzmans honor on Facebook and Instagram.Public DomainIsabella Guzman was 18 years old when she stabbed her mother to death.Meanwhile, Guzman was still in the mental health institution, undergoing therapy and trying to find the proper medications for her schizophrenia. In November 2020, she petitioned the court for her release, claiming she was no longer a threat to those around her.She told CBS4 Denver at the time, I was not myself when I did that, and I have since been restored to full health. Im not mentally ill anymore. Im not a danger to myself or others.Guzman also alleged that she had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her mother. I was abused at home by my parents for many years, she explained. My parents are Jehovahs Witnesses, and I left the religion when I was 14, and the abuse at home worsened after I quit.In June 2021, Isabella Guzman was granted permission to leave the hospital for therapy sessions. And despite her allegedly abusive relationship with her mother, she said of the events of August 28, 2013: If I could change it or if I could take it back, I would.To this day, Isabella Guzman sits in the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, forced to live with the memory of the grisly act she committed when she was 18.After reading about Isabella Guzman, learn about Claire Miller, the TikTok star who murdered her disabled sister. Then, read about Cleo Rose Elliott, the daughter of Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross who stabbed her mom with scissors.The post The Story Of Isabella Guzman, The Teenager Who Stabbed Her Mom 79 Times And Went Viral On TikTok appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Click here to view slideshowEven when it comes to cannibals, some are decidedly scarier than others.There are the cannibals who plan their attacks, waiting days or sometimes months to create what they think will be a perfect crime. Take Issei Sagawa, for instance, who planned his crime over a few months, calculated the best way to attack and eat a woman, only to misstep upon disposing of the body.Then there are those who attack at seemingly random times, in front of dozens of witnesses, without a care in the world. Like Vince Li, the "Greyhound Cannibal," who killed and simply started eating the man next to him on a crowded Greyhound bus in Canada.Who's to say which kind of attack is crazier, the premeditated one, or the random one? We'll let you decide. We've compiled a list of some of the most notable cannibal attacks in history, some random and some planned, in no particular order.Enjoy this look at these disturbing stories of cannibalism? Read about the most infamous cannibalistic incident in American history: the Donner Party. Then, read about the cannibalism that took place during the siege of Leningrad.The post 17 Famous Cannibal Attacks That Will Send A Shiver Down Your Spine appeared first on All That's Interesting.

The true story of the haunting in Connecticut begins in 1986, when the Snedeker family moved into the historic home at 208 Meriden Avenue.The Snedekers were desperately searching for a home to rent in the area so their son, Philip, could receive treatment for his Hodgkins lymphoma at the nearby UConn hospital. The house on Meriden Avenue seemed like a perfect fit, and the Snedekers rushed to move in.Roadtrippers208 Meriden Avenue, the home in Southington, Connecticut, where the Snedeker family allegedly experienced paranormal activity.What seemed like a lucky find quickly turned into a nightmare once the family began experiencing paranormal activity. They reported seeing and hearing unknown forces, being attacked in their sleep, and even experiencing violent personality changes.This is the true story that inspired a terrifying Hollywood horror film.The Beginning Of The True Story Of The Haunting In ConnecticutChasing the FrogThe Snedeker family in the 1980s alongside Ed and Lorraine Warren. (Back) Allen, Tammy, Ed and Lorraine Warren. (Front) Bradley, Carmen, Allen Jr., Jennifer.The Snedeker family were like any other middle-class American family. They were comprised of Carmen Reed, her husband Allen Snedeker and their four children: Philip, Bradley, Allen Jr., and Jennifer. Carmens niece, Tammy, also lived with the family.At a young age, Philip was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the bodys lymphatic system. Because of Philips diagnosis, the Snedeker family often had to travel long distances from their home to the UConn hospital for treatment. Eventually, the family felt that it would be better to move closer to the hospital so that Philip would not have to suffer through long and often painful car rides.The search began for a home large enough to house the Snedeker family, and soon they found what they were looking for at 208 Meriden Avenue. The five bedroom, two bathroom home provided plenty of space for the family, and so on June 30, 1986, the Snedekers signed a lease and moved into the home.The Disturbing History Of The Southington HomeThe move-in process seemed seamless for the Snedekers the children picked their bedrooms with minimal arguments and the family loaded their belongings into the house smoothly.Everything seemed normal until Carmen made a disturbing discovery in the homes basement. Laying among dusty boxes and old furniture were funerary items. The family claimed that the basement had embalming equipment and other materials necessary to run a mortuary. According to the 2002 documentary about the case, A Haunting in Connecticut, Carmen stated that she had no idea the home had once been a funeral parlor. When she toured the home, Carmen said that she was unable to enter the basement because renovators had blocked the doorway with materials. Carmen confirmed that the house was once a funeral home by contacting Darrell Kern, the homes owner. Kern stated that the property was once the Hallahan Funeral Home and had been in operation for decades, though he claimed that he told the family about this before they moved in, as per a 1992 piece in the Hartford Courant. This disturbing fact did not prevent Carmens sons, Philip and Bradley, from claiming the basement as their own bedroom. As the oldest Snedeker children, Philip and Bradley wanted a private space of their own, and the basement was spacious compared to the smaller rooms on the upper floors.Philip and Bradley reportedly slept in the casket display room down the hall from the embalming room.In addition to mortuary equipment, the Snedekers also found images of the deceased on the property. According to Chasing the Frog, Carmen Snedeker said There were a couple of photos in the home, but there were many toe tags and a head tag. There were other personal items of the deceased.The Snedeker Familys Terrifying Experience With Paranormal Activity The most horrifying aspects of the true story of haunting of Connecticut dealt with intense and often violent interactions the Snedekers said they had with the paranormal. The paranormal activity in the home started the night the family moved into the home and targeted Philip more than any other family member. My son started seeing this young man with long black hair down all the way to his hips, Carmen stated to People. He would talk to my son every day. Sometimes he would threaten him, other times he would stand there and just say his name, which was enough to scare him. However, the spooky happenings slowly spread to other family members and escalated in intensity. Carmen claimed that, while mopping the floor, the water turned into blood and gave off an acrid smell reminiscent of rotting flesh. The mop water was blood red. I mean a deep, deep red. It made my skin crawl. I started getting nervous that I was ruining the floor, Carmen said in the 2002 documentary. Most shocking was the claim from both Carmen and Allen that unknown forces had raped and sodomized them. While unknown forces physically tormented the adults in the family, they seemed to take a deeper interest in Philip than ever before. The Snedekers started to worry when Philips personality began to change. He became irritable and reckless, often inflicting cruel punishments on his younger siblings. On one occasion, Philip placed Bradley on a gurney and spun him around until the younger boy begged him to stop. He also locked his brother in a chest and walked away. The worst incident came after Philip attacked his cousin, Tammy, and was consequently forced to spend 45 days in a hospital. Doctors eventually diagnosed Philip with schizophrenia after he told them about the entities he saw regularly, but they noted that the medication he was on to treat his cancer could not have given him hallucinations or triggered any dormant schizophrenic illness. The Snedeker family decided it was best to send Philip to live with relatives, and reportedly Philip stopped hearing voices and seeing spirits after this. With such strong indications of paranormal activity, the Snedeker family contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren, two paranormal investigators, as well as a priest to do an exorcism on the house. On September 6, 1988, a priest performed an exorcism on the house, and the family reported that the paranormal activity suddenly disappeared. Later that year they moved out of the house and never returned, thus marking an end to the supposed true story of the haunting in Connecticut. Casting Doubt On The True Story Of Haunting In ConnecticutThe Haunting in ConnecticutThe characters Sara, inspired by Carmen Snedeker, and Matt, inspired by Philip Snedeker, in the 2009 movie The Haunting in Connecticut.With the Snedekers fantastical claims of violent paranormal experiences, some people doubted their validity. The Snedeker family went public with their experiences prior to leaving the residence, and Darrell Kern noted in the 1992 from the Hartford Courant that the reported paranormal activity seemed to escalate when the family was behind on the rent. Its a scheme to make money, Kern said. Even the familys neighbor, Katherine Altemus, believed that the whole thing was a hoax. I think they had this planned right from when they moved in, she said in the same newspaper piece.Altemus noted that the family always appeared jovial whenever they were outside, not acting like a terrified family. Friends of Philip even stated that they too didnt believe the story given his personality. He was a storyteller. He always had to be the center of attention, Jeffrey Pooler said to the Hartford Courant. Two weeks prior to the Hollywood films release in 2009, more people spoke out against the familys claims, including the new owner of the supposed haunted house. Weve lived in the house for 10 years. Our house is wonderful, Susan Trotta-Smith, the owner of the house in 2009, told NBC Connecticut. This is all Hollywood foolishness. The stories are all ludicrous.While people debate whether the story behind one of Hollywoods most spine-tingling horror films is true or not, the true story of the haunting in Connecticut and the Snedeker family has certainly solidified itself as one of the greatest ghost stories in American history.After reading about the true story behindThe Haunting in Connecticut, discover the true story of The Conjuring films inspired by the experience of the Perron family. Then, read about the terrifying Enfield haunting that inspired The Conjuring 2.The post The True Story Of The Terrifying Events Behind The Haunting In Connecticut appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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