› added 7 years ago

707

TIL The world’s deadliest serial killer, Luis Garavito, admitted to killing 140 people, and was sentenced to 835 years in prison. He was convicted on the deaths of 189 people over 7 years, and is suspected to have murdered many more.

Read more britannica.com

via ift.tt

Wk6wA TIL It is estimated that trillions of oysters once surrounded New York City, filtering bacteria and acting as a natural buffer against storm surges.
6EVe7 TIL that the length of a music single was determined by the weight-driven pulley system on a 1920's recording machine called the Scully Lathe. The pulley allowed approximately three and a half minutes to record before a 100lb weight hit the floor, thus determining the length of a single to this day.
pOQQ TIL Peine forte et dure was a method of torture formerly used in the common law legal system, in which a defendant who refused to plead guilt or innocence would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon their chest until a plea was entered, or they died.
d8xMB TIL that, barred from working by the Nazis as a Jewish actor, Leon Reuss tricked them into celebrating him as an Aryan idol by adjusting his dialect to that of mountain farmers, growing his beard, bleaching his hair by bathing every 10 days in diluted hydrogen peroxide, & claiming to be a peasant.
0dJj TIL A man in Mexico hung thousands of dolls and doll parts from trees to please the spirit of a girl he found dead on an island known as the “Island of the Dolls”