The Bound Woman of Key West Cemetery
The grave of Archibald John Sheldon Yates, adorned with a statue of a nude woman with her hands bound behind her back, is a long-standing Key West mystery.
Sin Ship: The Story of the SS Monte Carlo Shipwreck on Coronado Beach
The SS Monte Carlo was the flagship of the mob’s gambling fleet, where a host of illegal pleasures could be found floating just outside the law.
Shipwreck of the SS Monte Carlo on Coronado Beach
Beneath the sands of San Diego’s Coronado Beach lies the concrete and iron remains of a 300-foot ship called the SS Monte Carlo. Built in 1921, the oil tanker found a new life in the 1930s as “the world’s greatest pleasure ship,” the largest of several notorious mob-owned “sin ships” anchored in international waters three miles off the coast of California. There, wealthy patrons, including some of Hollywood’s glamorous elite such as Clark Gable and Mae West, could indulge in liquor, gambling and prostitution outside the jurisdiction of Prohibition-era US laws.
On New Year’s Day in 1937, a violent storm wrenched the Monte Carlo from her moorings and set the ship adrift. Eventually the iniquitous floating den ran aground on the Coronado shore, where the activities for which it was known were illegal. Not surprisingly, no one stepped up to claim ownership.
Authorities soon confiscated the slot machines and other gambling paraphernalia from the wreck. Scavengers ran off with whatever was left, and then the Monte Carlo was left to ruin, swallowed by the sand and surf, eventually forgotten.
$100,000 in Gold and Silver Coins
In the days after the Monte Carlo grounded, crowds gathered on the beach to get a look at the monstrous stranded ship. A man named Bud Bernhard, a teenager at the time, was offered $20 by a small group of men to survey the damage on board. These men, he later learned, were the owners.
Bernhard swam out to the wreck, climbed up the anchor chain, and explored the devastated interior. He found a hoard of gold and silver coins inside, but reported to the men that everything was destroyed. Over the next several weeks, he returned many times to fill his pockets with silver dollars.
In later years, Bernhard said he was convinced there was $100,000 in gold and silver coins still remaining in the buried hulk.
Weird Book Club
For more on the gambling ships of Southern California, check out Noir Afloat by Ernest Marquez. There is an entire chapter devoted to the SS Monte Carlo.
These days, the Monte Carlo can sometimes be seen underwater at low tide. On rare occasions, El Nino storms will wash away the sand and expose the ship, as seen in the drone footage below from earlier this year.
Explore the World’s Cryptids with this Poster and Interactive Website
Learn about the giant squid, Bigfoot, and other strange creatures from around the world with designer Aiden Guinnip’s cryptozoology infographic.
Explore the strange creatures of the world with designer Aiden Guinnip’s cryptozoology primer, an informational poster and interactive website.
Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience involving the search for animals whose existence has not been proven. Cryptozoology is not a recognized branch of zoology or a discipline of science. It is an example of pseudoscience because it relies heavily upon anecdotal evidence, stories, and alleged sightings.
Cryptozoology comes from the Greek word kryptos meaning “hidden” and the word zoology which means the “study of animals.” Cryptozoology includes looking for living examples of animals that are considered extinct, such as dinosaurs. It also includes animals whose existence lacks physical evidence but which appear in myths, legends, or reported sightings, such as Bigfoot. Cryptozoology is also the study of wild animals dramatically outside their normal geographic ranges, such as phantom cats (also known as Alien Big Cats). The animals cryptozoologists study are often referred to as cryptids.
Check out the interactive cryptozoology infographic here.
Documentary to Explore the Mad Mind of Carl Von Cosel
Proposed documentary will explore the morbid obsession of Carl Von Cosel with the dead girl he stole from the grave.
View the Kickstarter campaign right here.
Sure, it’s hard to pass up a film that promises puppetry and necrophilia, but there are other reasons to head over to Kickstarter and back this new documentary project from Morbid Anatomy Museum filmmaker in residence Ronni Thomas, creator of Fragments of Faith, Ghosts and Gadgets, The Art of Ryan Matthew Cohn and other fascinating short films. I can’t think of anyone I would rather see take on the bizarre legend of the doctor who carried on a seven year relationship with a dead girl he exhumed from the grave.
German immigrant Karl Tanzler, otherwise known as Count Carl Von Cosel, was working as a radiologic technologist at a hospital in Key West, Florida in 1930 when he met Elena Hoyos. Her mother brought her in for an examination, which eventually concluded she had tuberculosis. Cosel, who believed he had earlier vision of the Cuban-American beauty, befriended the family and attempted to treat Elena with his own self-professed medical knowledge to no avail. She died the following year, and was interred in the Key West Cemetery in a tomb Cosel commissioned himself.
Cosel visited the tomb often, claiming her spirit would visit him and tell him to take her away. So, nearly two years after her death, Cosel broke into the tomb and stole Elena’s corpse. For the next seven years he would keep her in his bed, replacing rotting skin with wax, silk, and plaster of paris, until Elena’s sister discovered her body in Cosel’s home in 1940.
But, as Ronni Thomas puts it, the most interesting thing about this story is the fact that those disturbing details are the least interesting thing about this story. Von Cosel spent years experimenting with science, alchemy, and ancient mysticism in hopes of resurrecting his beloved.
No Place for the Living
From the press release:
NO PLACE FOR THE LIVING will feature experts including Key West historians, authorities on the occult, artists and psychologists to provide insight into Von Cosel’s story as it connects to the age old conflict between science and spirituality that has absorbed mankind to this very day. Taking inspiration from the poetic dreamscapes of filmmakers like Tim Burton and David Lynch, Thomas will tell the Ed Wood-Like story of Carl Von Cosel and his sensational tale of macabre matrimony with the help of artfully made puppets used to reenact key moments of his life, as described in detail in Von Cosel’s own published journal.
“Puppetry is the art of animating the inanimate, making it the perfect approach for a story like this,” said Thomas. “Von Cosel not only pulled the strings on a physical corpse he was trying to reanimate, but metaphorically he pulled everyone’s strings, manipulating Hoyos’ family, the justice system, even public opinion.”
Working alongside Thomas to bring this story to life are puppeteer Robin Frohardt, special FX designer Shane Morton and his Silver Scream FX lab, and composer Stephen Coates (lead singer, The Real Tuesday Weld). Among our list of specialists who have jumped to the occasion to discuss this captivating window into the wayward are true crime author Harold Schechter, occult expert Mitch Horowitz, TV’s ODDITIES co-star Evan Michaelson, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead frontman Conrad Keely, and author of Von Cosel’s biography, Tom Swicegood. The film will feature narration from Von Cosel’s journal read by celebrated indie filmmaker Richard Stanley (HARDWARE, DUST DEVIL).
If you are as excited to see this project become a reality as I am, you can support the Kickstarter campaign right here.
LA Murder Mansion is on the Market for the First Time in 50 Years
A Los Angeles mansion with a sinister reputation is for sale for the first time since the murder and suicide happened 50 years ago.
Los Feliz murder mansion
LA’s wealthy hillside neighborhood of Los Feliz is home to many amazing, historic homes, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House and Hollyhock House, as well as his son’s masterpiece, the Sowden House, where some people believe the Black Dahlia murder took place.
But there is another property nearby, a Spanish Revival mansion at 2475 Glendower Place with a grim past that’s been haunting the area for over fifty years. And it can be yours for $2.75 million.
First time on the market in over 50 years! Perched on a hill up a long drive way with sweeping views sits this 4 bedroom 3 bath Spanish Revival home on a large lot. Features include grand entrance with a step down living room with serene views, formal dining room, library/study, large kitchen, and a ballroom with bar on the third floor. Three car garage at street level and two car garage at the end of the driveway. Waiting for that special person looking for a wonderful opportunity to remodel or develop. This is a probate sale, subject to court confirmation.
It sounds like a great place, but apparently no one wants to live in it.
In 1959, cardiologist Harold Perelson was living there with his wife and their three children. Though described as mild-mannered, Perelson was troubled by growing financial problems, and had attempted suicide on several occasions.
In the early morning of December 6th, for reasons still not fully understood, Perelson bludgeoned his wife to death with a ball-peen hammer while she slept. He then went to his oldest daughter’s room and struck her, as well. She screamed and ran, escaping to a neighbor’s house where they called the police.
Awakened by the screams, Perelson told the other two children “Go back to bed. This is a nightmare.” He then overdosed on Nembutal and other pills, and went to lie down bedside his wife’s bed. He was dead by the time the police arrived.
The house was bought in a probate auction the following year by Emily and Julian Enriquez. They never lived in the house, but did briefly attempt to rent it out. According to rumor, the family that rented it fled on the anniversary of the murder, leaving behind their Christmas tree and gifts.
Rudy Enriquez inherited the property when his parents died in 1994, but never moved in. He died last year with no one to leave it to.
