In the winter of 1933, rural Botetourt County, Virginia, residents were attacked by a phantom menace. An invisible gas filled the homes of unsuspecting victims, causing illness and resulting in a mass hysteria that reached the city of Roanoke. Despite best efforts of local law enforcement, the Mad Gasser somehow evaded capture. Who was this Mad Gasser? Was it simply a case of mass hysteria or was there a sinister attacker responsible for these unsolved crimes? For the first time, this mystery from Virginia's past is explored here, in detail, by historian William B. Van Huss. Go beyond the legend of the Mad Gasser; retrace the timeline of events, decipher the evidence, and explore the theories that have been proposed to explain this enigmatic cold case.

The Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored is a fact-collector’s dream directory of history’s mysteries and unexplained events — rich with original illustrations throughout. An outstanding trivia and reference book for any lover of unusual lore, each date has one or more historical events, a quote, an illustration, and a “secret power.” Topics include the Crystal Skull, UFO encounters, and other enigmas of nature, uncanny experiments in science, coincidences, the unsolved and the downright peculiar.

British UFO researcher Nigel Graddon takes us to that magical land of Magonia—the land of the Fairies—a place from which some people return while others go there and never come back. Graddon discusses fairies, the wee folk, elves, fairy pathways, Welsh folklore, the Tuatha de Dannan, UFO occupants, the Little Blue Man of Studham, the implications of Mars, psychic connections with UFOs and fairies. He also recounts many of the strange tales of fairies, UFOs and Magonia. Chapters include: The Little Blue Man of Studham; The Wee Folk; UFOlk; What the Folk; Grimm Tales; The Welsh Triangle; The Implicate Order; Mars—an Atlantean Outpost; Psi-Fi; High Spirits; “Once Upon a Time...”; more.

The True Story behind the Terrifying Movie Don't think of his name... In 1990, three college students spent a long Wisconsin winter experimenting with a Ouija board; it turned out to be the deadliest mistake of their lives. The board brought them into contact with a psychic serial killer, known only as the Bye Bye Man. Learning his name makes you vulnerable, but thinking about it draws the Bye Bye Man to you. He is a relentless traveler, moving night and day, coming ever closer until the shrill sound of a steady whistle announces his arrival. He might turn up outside your bedroom door, speaking in the voice of a trusted friend, someone who would never hurt you… Here is the authentically terrifying, true-life story recounted by historian Robert Damon Schneck in a chapter of his classic underground collection of weird Americana, which formed the basis for the major motion picture, The Bye Bye Man. This unsettling tale is accompanied by seven more chapters of twisted history, and includes the author’s new afterword, “Searching for The Bye Bye Man.”

From fads, crazes, and manias to collective delusions, scares, panics, and mass hysterias, history is replete with examples of remarkable social behavior. Many are fueled by fear and uncertainty; others are driven by hope and expectation. For others still, the causes are more obscure. This massive collection of extraordinary social behaviors spans more than two millennia, and attempts to place many of the episodes within their greater historical and cultural context. Perhaps the most well known example of unusual collective behavior occurred in 1938, when a million or more Americans were frightened or panicked after listening to a realistic radio drama about a Martian invasion of New Jersey, based on an adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel "War of the Worlds." Less known but equally remarkable scares based on Wells' book occurred in Chile in 1944 (when Army units were mobilized), in Ecuador in 1949 (when riots broke out, leaving more than a dozen dead), as well as in Buffalo in 1968, Rhode Island in 1974, and Europe in 1988 and 1998. The modern civilized world is by no means immune to such peculiar episodes. In the late 20th century, scores of people in the U.S. and Europe were wrongly incarcerated following claims of Satanic ritual abuse by authorities untutored in False Memory Syndrome. This episode recalls the European witch terror of the late Middle Ages, when innocent people were tortured and executed for consorting with the Devil based on the flimsiest of evidence. OUTBREAK! THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EXTRAORDINARY SOCIAL BEHAVIOR is an authoritative reference on a broad range of topics: collective behavior, deviance, social and perceptual psychology, sociology, history, folklore, religious studies, political science, social anthropology, gender studies, critical thinking, and mental health. Never before have so many sources been brought together on the mesmerizing topic of collective behavior.

Dig up the men who tried to dig up Lincoln. Mull over the Mad Gasser of Mattoon and the 1977 thunderbird infestation, from a safe distance. Watch in horror as one of the greatest maritime disasters in U.S. history occurs twenty feet from the banks of the Chicago River or follow the course of the blimp crash that convinced a downtown bank employee that it was raining hell. Try not to blink as towns washed away by floods and shrines covered over by condominiums are dragged back from the margins of history into the center of the page, where they belong. After all, reasons author Bryan Alaspa, if the pope was eager to stop by the House of Crosses during his visit to Chicago, surely it is worth a look. Just beware: a quick glance into this book and you might not look up until you've read the whole gripping and grin-inspiring collection.