People Are Sharing Disturbing Photos That Look Normal Until You Find Out What’s Really Going On

Seemingly innocent photos might be far more disturbing than you realize. And it goes to show just how important context is and that we should never judge a book (well, in this case, a photo) by its cover. There are secrets hidden behind sweet smiles and plenty of skeletons in happy-looking people’s closets. And don’t forget that even villains laugh and have fun.

Redditor KermitTheFraud92 started up a fascinating thread on r/AskReddit about the hidden sides of ‘normal’ photos. They asked people to share images that have incredibly disturbing backstories, and these are so vividly dark, they might keep you up at night.

Before you start scrolling down and upvoting the stories that drew you in the most, a small note of warning: make sure there’s plenty of light and people around you. We wouldn’t want to spook you too much, I had a chat with the author of the thread, redditor KermitTheFraud92 from Australia. Be sure to read on for Pictolic's full interview with them below.

A small note of warning: some of these stories might be too much for some of you. Read at your own risk.

10 PHOTOS

#1 This Photo May Not Look Like Much At First

Now, have a look at the guy in the background, top left. Have a look at what's in the background, top right.

That's the Tank Man from the Tiananmen Square massacre. Thought to be student Wang Weilin, this photo was snapped minutes before the famous one was taken.

Nobody knows what happened to Weilin. He may have been executed, he may still be in prison, or he may have fled to another country.

#2 Camp Staff Taking A Day Off

These photos of Auschwitz staff enjoying pleasant days off always stick with me. They look like camp counselors, but their job is killing people in horrible ways, and they enjoy it. Most probably took lives not shortly before or after the photos were taken.

#3 Jewish Children Holding Hands As They Unknowingly Walk To Their Deaths In The Gas Chambers At Auschwitz

Redditor KermitTheFraud92 was very open that they "can't take credit" for the question that they posted on r/AskReddit. They were inspired by other similar questions, asked by other site users before. "I have seen similar questions posted on the sub in the past and they have always gained good results. It’s always interesting to ask it again every couple of years because you may get different results and even new ones," they told Bored Panda.

In the Redditor's opinion, the thread appealed to people because of how interesting the topic was. "I'm pretty overwhelmed by the responses and am still yet to get through them all myself," they said that they got lots of feedback from other redditors.

#4 This Is A Pic Of The 1970's-Era Gameshow, The Dating Game

The circled man is serial killer Rodney Alcala. By the time of that appearance on the show, he had raped several women and murdered at least one.

He won the game, but the woman never went on the date with him. You can imagine how relieved she is.

#5 This Photo Always Gets To Me Somehow

Just a couple of astronauts posing in zero gravity happy to have such an incredible opportunity, like astronauts often do. Meanwhile, they have no idea that their space shuttle is irreparably damaged, and in fact, will be dead in a few days during reentry (which was considered “safe” until then).

It’s the crew for Columbia for those who don’t know, whose tiles were damaged during the launch of the shuttle into space by foam. No one knew how bad the damage was until it disintegrated.

#6 Father And Daughter In Omagh, Northern Ireland

This happy photo of the father and daughter was taken moments before the Omagh car bombing in 1998.

The bomb placed by a group known as the Real IRA was in this red car and killed 29 people, including the photographer who took this photo. Both the father and daughter survived.

In KermitTheFraud92's opinion, we "definitely" can't determine what a person is truly like, based on their photos alone. A photo "may give you hints and whatnot, but you can never truly tell what a person is like just from a photo." The Redditor pointed out that the truth can be incredibly disturbing when you learn it: "Some of those photos show people smiling at the camera when they just murdered a loved one a few minutes ago."

Redditor Kermit’s thread went viral almost immediately. The question got more than 57.2k upvotes and got so many awards, that it was declared to be a ‘Top Awarded’ post. The thread had nearly 17k comments at the time of writing. And it’s no surprise because the topic is fascinating. It draws you in and doesn’t want to let you go. Just like the abyss.

#7 This Photo Creeps Me Out

John Lennon signed an autograph for his killer, Mark Chapman, just a few hours before the murder and then asked him "Is that all?". Chapman even had a gun on him at the time.

#8 The Hartley Violin

This is the Hartley Violin, owned by Wallace Hartley, the bandmaster and lead violinist on the Titanic. It was the one he carried with him and played on the night the ship sank. Survivors reported seeing Hartley and his band on the deck of the ship during the sinking, playing to calm passengers as they boarded the insufficient lifeboats. Hartley and every member of the band died in the sinking. We have his violin because, at some unknown point before his death, Hartley tucked the violin back into its monogrammed case for safekeeping. That's how it was found, floating in the debris field, by one of the ships sent to recover bodies from the wreck. They were able to identify it as Hartley's because of an engraved brass plate, and it was returned to his fiancé, who kept it until her death. Her family authenticated it and sold it for $1.6M to an organization that collects Titanic artifacts."

#9 Genie Standing For A Photo

Genie was a 'feral' child. She was tied to a chair in a room her whole childhood and punished when she made noise.

She was found, and rescued, and they tried to teach her to speak, and she managed to learn to communicate a bit. By all we know now, she was curious, intelligent, and eager to learn. Her brain had just literally missed the window to learn language.

As far as we know, she's been in an assisted living facility somewhere.

Kermit’s thread touches upon the dark side of humanity and proves that we wouldn’t always be able to recognize complete monsters. Because they look and act just like us. Because they seem completely normal. And it’s only after you learn that you’re looking at photos of killers and kidnappers that you begin to search for any indication that beneath those innocent exteriors and friendly facades lie hearts and souls filled with malice and pure evil.

Even though some psychopaths blend into society like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, there are some subtle signs that you should keep an eye for. Keep in mind though that not everyone who’s evil is a psychopath and not every psychopath is necessarily evil. However, psychopaths do veer towards manipulating and hurting others, lacking empathy for their fellow human beings.

#10 American Physicist Harold Agnew

This is physicist Harold Agnew holding the nuclear core of the Fat Man atomic bomb, which was dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.

The bomb ended up killing about 80,000 people, many of whom died from the long-term effects the bomb caused, like radiation illness and leukemia.