gnostek‹›1 / 2John Allen Muhammad000%Most significant murders in Virginia since 1900John Allen Muhammad recruited 15-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo and engineered the DC sniper campaign as cover for a planned single murder — his ex-wife — so a custody case would disappear. Ten strangers died for that calculation.+ See More01Muhammad's actual target was his ex-wife Mildred; the 10 random killings were designed as camouflage.02He had trained Malvo, then a teenager, for months before the 2002 attacks began.03Muhammad was executed at Greensville Correctional Center, Virginia, on November 10, 2009.
gnostek+16‹›1 / 23The Anatomical Zodiac ManTrès Riches Heures du Duc de Berry100%Most famous medieval artPainted between 1412 and 1416 for the Duke of Berry, the February calendar page of the Très Riches Heures shows a peasant warming bare legs by a fire — the oldest surviving painted snow scene, accurate enough that meteorologists have studied it.+ See More01The Très Riches Heures was commissioned by Jean, Duke of Berry, and painted by the Limbourg brothers between 1412 and 1416.02The February page is the earliest known Western painting to depict snow with meteorological accuracy, including drifted drifts and bare trees.03The Limbourg brothers — all three — died in 1416, likely of plague, leaving the manuscript unfinished for sixty years.
gnostek‹›1 / 2Paul Tudor Jones800%greatest investors of all timePaul Tudor Jones filmed himself predicting the 1987 crash with eerie precision — charts, dates, the exact word 'collapse.' He then spent years suppressing the documentary, reportedly buying up every copy to prevent distribution.+ See More01Jones's documentary 'Trader' filmed him forecasting a 1987 market crash before Black Monday wiped 22% off the Dow.02He reportedly tripled his money during Black Monday by holding massive short positions entering October 1987.03The film was effectively withdrawn from circulation; Jones has never publicly explained why it must not be seen.
gnostek‹›1 / 3Andres Serrano1000%Critically acclaimed modern artSerrano sank a plastic crucifix in a tank of his own urine, photographed it glowing amber, and received a $15,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant. Congress spent months trying to defund the NEA.+ See More01The photograph is called 'Piss Christ' and was printed at 60 × 40 inches.02U.S. senators read the title aloud on the Senate floor in 1989 as evidence of federal depravity.03A print was physically attacked with hammers by protesters in Avignon, France, in 2011.
gnostek‹›1 / 2WannaCry ransomware attack1910%Malware programsNSA's stolen EternalBlue exploit encrypted 80,000 NHS devices in May 2017, forcing British hospitals to turn away ambulances. The kill switch was found by a 22-year-old researcher who registered a $10.69 domain.+ See More01WannaCry used EternalBlue, an NSA-developed exploit leaked by the Shadow Brokers hacker group.0280,000 NHS devices were hit; surgeries were cancelled and ambulances diverted across England.03A 22-year-old named Marcus Hutchins halted the attack by registering a $10.69 domain name.
gnostek‹›1 / 6Vincent Gigante200%Real events that inspired the Sopranos, Goodfellas, and GodfatherVincent 'The Chin' Gigante shuffled through Greenwich Village in a bathrobe and slippers for thirty years, muttering to himself — a performance so convincing it kept him out of federal court until 1997.+ See More01Gigante was acquitted of mob charges in 1969 partly on psychiatric grounds; he kept the bathrobe act running for another 28 years.02The FBI recorded him conducting precise, lucid mob business in whispered conversations seconds before resuming the shambling routine.03He finally admitted the insanity was feigned in 2003, two years before his death, voiding decades of psychiatric testimony.
gnostek+3‹›1 / 10Chevalière d'Éon000%Notable transgender figures prior to 2000The Chevalier d'Éon served Louis XV as a spy, a soldier, and a diplomat — then lived thirty-three years as a woman after a royal decree settled a wager about her birth sex, dying in London in 1810 with the question still unresolved.+ See More01D'Éon negotiated secretly with Empress Elizabeth of Russia on behalf of Louis XV, disguised as a woman at the Russian court.02In 1777, Louis XVI issued a formal royal order requiring d'Éon to live permanently as a woman.03London gamblers wagered £120,000 on d'Éon's birth sex — a legal dispute that outlasted her diplomatic career.
gnostek‹›1 / 3Predjama CastlePredjama Castle200%The Most Bizarre Places in EuropeBuilt directly into the mouth of a vertical cave high on a cliff face in Slovenia, Predjama Castle housed a rebel knight named Erasmus of Lueg who held off a siege for over a year by receiving supplies through a secret tunnel.+ See More01Predjama Castle sits 123 metres up a sheer cliff, with the cave forming its rear wall and natural roof.02Knight Erasmus of Lueg withstood a year-long siege in 1484 by using a hidden cave passage to receive food from the forest above.03The castle's current form dates to 1570 and remains one of the largest cave castles in the world.
gnostek+16‹›1 / 23Dalton Gang400%Violence in the Wild WestThe Dalton gang attempted to rob two Coffeyville, Kansas, banks simultaneously on October 5, 1892. In the ensuing gunfight, four Daltons died in the street along with four townspeople — in roughly twelve minutes.+ See More01Bob Dalton was identified by a fake beard he wore as a disguise; a livery owner recognized his horse instead.02Citizens retrieved rifles from a hardware store and caught the gang in a crossfire in an alley called Death Alley.03Emmett Dalton survived twenty-three bullet wounds, was pardoned in 1907, and lived until 1937 selling real estate.