14 People's Lives That Will Make Yours Seem Normal As Fuck

Humans are interesting.

1. This man who lived with a corpse for seven years.

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In the early 1930s, bacteriologist Carl Tanzler developed an obsession for Elena "Helen" Milagro de Hoyos, a Cuban-American tuberculosis patient. Two years after Hoyos succumbed to the disease and died, Tanzler dug up her corpse and lived with her remains for seven years. In order to "upkeep" the corpse, he used wires and coat hangers to keep the bones attached, put glass eyes on her face, replaced her decomposing skin with silk cloth soaked in wax and plaster, stuffed her with rags to keep her shape, and made a wig out of her own hair.

He was eventually arrested by authorities in 1940. While he was mentally competent to stand trial, the case was dismissed due to the expiration of the crime's statute of limitations, and he was released.

2. This singer who was castrated at a young age to preserve his singing voice.

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Alessandro Moreschi was a castrato, a classical male singer whose voice is produced by castration before puberty, preserving its child-like quality. This practice eventually died out in the late 18th century before being made illegal in Italy in 1870.

Moreschi was the only castrato to make solo recordings, giving us a rare sample of the harrowing sounds of yesteryear.

3. This Australian woman who was sentenced to life imprisonment for cooking her husband and serving him for dinner.

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In February 2000, John Price took out a restraining order on his partner Katherine Knight. In return, Knight murdered Price by stabbing him 37 times. She skinned him, cooked his head and several other body parts with some vegetables, and neatly served them on plates next to placecards bearing Price's children's names.

4. This dude who nearly finished a nuclear reactor in his backyard shed at the age of 17.

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David Hahn was just another teenager with a knack for chemistry, who had earned a merit badge in atomic energy from the Boy Scouts of America. He took things to the next level by building a makeshift nuclear reactor in his backyard, using radioactive material from everyday household items. And while the reactor was never completed, it still emitted radiation that was over 1,000 times the normal background radiation, prompting action from the EPA, the FBI, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Hahn became depressed after the scandal and died of alcohol poisoning at 39.

5. This man who lived in an airport for nearly 18 years.

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Mehran Karimi Nasseri was an Iranian refugee who lived in a French airport from 1988 to 2006. After being expelled from Iran in 1977, he settled in Belgium as a refugee. He attempted to move to London via France but lost his passport and documents en route. When he landed in London, he was immediately sent back to France. With no country of origin to go back to, and no documentation that allowed him to fly or exit the airport, he was confined to Terminal One of the Charles de Gaulle airport. He lived there for 18 years before being hospitalized.

6. This dude whose name is ABBREVIATED to Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, Senior.

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Hubert was a German-born Philadelphian with a given name that contained 26 names and roughly 666 characters. Hubert claimed his great-grandfather came up with the name in the 19th century when German Jews were forced to take a second name.

This is his full name (here we go): Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe­schlegel­stein­hausen­berger­dorff­welche­vor­altern­waren­gewissen­haft­schafers­wessen­schafe­waren­wohl­gepflege­und­sorg­faltig­keit­be­schutzen­vor­an­greifen­durch­ihr­raub­gierig­feinde­welche­vor­altern­zwolf­hundert­tausend­jah­res­voran­die­er­scheinen­von­der­erste­erde­mensch­der­raum­schiff­genacht­mit­tung­stein­und­sieben­iridium­elek­trisch­motors­ge­brauch­licht­als­sein­ur­sprung­von­kraft­ge­start­sein­lange­fahrt­hin­zwischen­stern­artig­raum­auf­der­suchen­nach­bar­schaft­der­stern­welche­ge­habt­be­wohn­bar­planeten­kreise­drehen­sich­und­wo­hin­der­neue­rasse­von­ver­stand­ig­mensch­lich­keit­konnte­fort­pflanzen­und­sicher­freuen­an­lebens­lang­lich­freude­und­ru­he­mit­nicht­ein­furcht­vor­an­greifen­vor­anderer­intelligent­ge­schopfs­von­hin­zwischen­stern­art­ig­raum, Senior.

7. This MLB pitcher who traded wives, children, and dogs with a fellow teammate.

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In March 1973 at spring training, Yankees pitcher Fritz Peterson and teammate Mike Kekich made the democratic decision to announce that they were switching wives and families. While the relationship between Kekich and Peterson's wife, Marilyn, didn't last very long, Peterson and Kekich's wife, Susane, went on to marry and live a fruitful life. "It's a love story. It wasn't anything dirty," Peterson said of the relationship.

8. The first female mayor who was put on the ballot by a group of men as a joke and won.

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Susanna M. Salter was the first woman to be elected mayor and the first woman to hold any public office in the United States. In 1887, in the town of Argonia, Kansas, Salter was placed as a candidate as a prank by a group of men who wanted to discourage women from entering politics. She was surprised her name had been entered, but agreed to accept office if she was elected. And so she did.

9. The first man to ever die due to space travel.

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Vladimir Komarov was a Soviet test pilot assigned to command the Soyuz 1, the first manned flight to space. Komarov and other engineers raised serious concerns over design and safety issues with the Soyuz 1. But with political pressure to accomplish manned spaceflight by the anniversary of Lenin's birthday, those concerns were mostly overlooked. In order to protect the life of his friend and backup pilot Yuri Gagarin, Komarov chose to move forward with the Soyuz 1 flight instead of opting out. Soyuz 1 crashed upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere when the parachutes failed to deploy.

Komarov had wished for an open-casket funeral so "Soviet leadership could see what they had done."

10. This man who was both a dwarf and a giant in one lifetime.

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In 1917, at the age of 18, Austria-Hungarian Adam Rainer measured 4 foot .25 inches. Due to a tumor in his pituitary gland, he had a growth spurt that put him at 7 foot 2 inches by the age of 32. By the time he died in 1950, at the age of 51, he was 7 foot 8 inches. He is considered the only person in recorded history to be both a dwarf and giant.

11. These twins who spoke only to each other.

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June and Jennifer Gibbons were Barbadian twin sisters who moved to Wales at a young age. Since they were the only black girls at school, they were bullied and ostracized by others, which led to their traumatization. The two disconnected from others, and refused to talk to them, eventually developing a language only they could understand. After committing a number of crimes, they were admitted into a high-security psychiatric hospital.

The girls entered into an agreement that if one died, the other must begin to speak and lead a normal life. Jennifer died in 1993 at the age of 29. June spoke about her sister's death, "I'm free at last, liberated, and at last Jennifer has given up her life for me." June lives quietly in West Wales near her parents.

12. This man who solicited a willing participant to be cannibalized, and actually got a response.

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In March 2001, Armin Meiwes posted an advertisement on the cannibal-friendly website "The Cannibal Cafe" looking for a willing participant to be eaten. And he found one. They tried eating the participant's severed penis together just before he died. Afterwards, Meiwes killed the participant and ate several parts of his flesh.

Meiwes is currently serving life imprisonment and is now a vegetarian.

13. This man who cheated his way to a million on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

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In 2001, Charles Ingram, along with the help of his wife Diana and fellow contestant Tecwen Whittock, cheated his way to a million pounds on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with the help of coughs. Ingram would verbally go over the four answers to each question, and Whittock would cough to signal the right answer.

The Ingrams and Whittock were given suspended prison sentences, and the Ingrams had to pay a total of £115,000 in fines and legal fees.

14. And finally, this soldier who believed World War II was still on 29 years after it officially ended.

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On December 1944, Japanese army intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines to join a group of soldiers. When the Allied forces overtook the island months later, they decimated the Japanese soldiers except for Onoda and three others, who retreated into the hills. Although they were informed of the war's end, they refused to believe it. One of the soldiers turned himself into Philippine authorities in 1950, while the other two were killed in 1972 during guerrilla activities. Onoda was relieved of duty in 1974 after a former commanding officer was informed of his whereabouts.

The four soldiers killed around 30 Filipinos in various attacks.

May. 15, 2017, at 17:13 PM

UPDATE: An item has been removed from this post to reflect BuzzFeed's editorial standards.