52 Innocent-Looking Photos that have Dark Backstories
Some photos from the past look completely ordinary at first glance, but behind them is a story that’s anything but simple.
These pictures capture moments just before life changed in unexpected ways, making them fascinating and a little unsettling in hindsight.
Mike Tyson handshaking Dale Hausner, a Phoenix man who took 8 lives. A couple of days after Mike Tyson met up with Hausner, who pretended to be a sports writer, police showed up at the gym and informed Mike about Hausner’s true identity.
21-year-old Nicole Carol Miller, boarding Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. She wouldn’t be alive just a few hours later.
In 2019, newlyweds Harley Morgan, 19, and Rhiannon Boudreaux, 20, lost their lives in a car collision just after leaving the courthouse in Orange, Texas. Moments after their wedding, their car collided with a pickup truck towing a trailer.
One of the very last images of Harry R. Truman, posing in front of the volcano that would eventually claim his life. On May 18th, 1980, Mount St. Helens finally erupted and Truman lost his life after a pyroclastic flow that overtook his lodge.
Jan Davis jumping off “El Capitan” in Yosemite on October 23rd 1999. Her parachute failed to open. She didn’t survive.
Jean Harlow, Minutes before she collapsed and fell into a coma. She passed aged 26.
Professional wrestler Owen Hart heading into an Arena in Kansas City on May 23rd 1999 he passed later that night after tumbling 78 feet from the ceiling in a stunt gone wrong.
The last photo taken of George Mallory (left) and Sandy Irvine (right) before they both disappeared while attempting to become the first people to summit Everest in 1924.
Mongolian man with cangue on his neck which stops him for eating, 24 of July 1913. Clear colors by autochrome.
The last image of 3 year-old Madeleine McCann at the Ocean Kids Club, taken on the morning of May 3, 2007, in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Madeleine was on vacation with her family when she disappeared without a trace.
16-year-old John DeReggi lost his life just minutes after this photo was taken after an Amtrak train collided with him.
Image featuring five Cantor Fitzgerald employees taken a few weeks before Sep 11. Among them, Lauren and Christina Giorgiantonio, seated in the middle, were the sole survivors. Jennifer Mazzotta (in blue attire), Lynne Morris (behind Christina), and Laura Angilletta (far right) all tragically passed away.
A pregnant Sharon Tate looking at baby clothes, just three days before being she fell victim to the Manson family.
In 2005, Dave Shaw tried to retrieve the remains of Deon Dryers from the Bushman’s hole. Unfortunately he lost his life trying shortly after this photo.
In 2015, a 4-year-old girl from Colorado called Naomi was at the park with her family. She wandered off and walked over a frozen pond and fell through. This image shows her footsteps as she walked towards the lake.