Top 10 Normal Looking Videos with Disturbing Backstories

Top 10 Normal Videos with Disturbing Backstories

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 normal videos with disturbing backstories.

For this list, we’ll be looking at seemingly normal videos that have an otherwise disturbing undercurrent.

Which of these videos do you find the eeriest? Let us know in the comments below!

#10: Jimmy Savile

During his lifetime, DJ and TV personality Jimmy Savile was a British icon. And while his career was marked by numerous misconduct allegations, they were largely ignored or dismissed as rumors until his death in 2011. After his passing, however, investigations revealed that Savile was one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders, having assaulted hundreds of people, including minors, over many decades. During this otherwise normal segment on BBC’s “Top of the Pops”, Savile can be seen groping an 18 year old woman named Sylvia Edwards. Edwards looks to be jumping from Savile’s grasp and desperately attempts to squirm away from the presenter as he addresses the camera.

#9: Carmen Miranda Drops to a Knee

Known as The Brazilian Bombshell, Carmen Miranda gained incredible fame in the 1930s as a samba dancer and actor. On August 4, 1955, Miranda showed up to “The Jimmy Durante Show” to film a performance with the host of the NBC variety show. The staff and cast members likely thought it was just any old work day. But Miranda was dying. After a strenuous dance, Miranda dropped to a knee and told Durante she was out of breath while holding her chest. She played it off like a pro, laughing with Durante and continuing on with the show. But Miranda died of a heart attack between 3 and 10 a.m. the following morning. As such, the episode actually only aired over 2 months after filming. Unfortunately, as revealed by the morning after’s events, the famous dancer had clearly been in ill health, having been a heavy smoker, drinker and regular user of amphetamines.

#8: Stranded on the Road

In 1986, NBC 7 San Diego ran a segment explaining what to do should viewers find themselves stranded on the highway. It was overseen by NBC’s Rory Devine, who was on a ride-along with California Highway Patrol officer Craig Allen Peyer. In the clip, Peyer warns about predators scouring the highways. Just two days earlier, Peyer himself had pulled over Cara Knott, murdered her, and tossed her body off a bridge. Scratches inflicted by Knott can be seen on Peyer’s nose in the NBC footage. Following the segment, dozens of women called in and reported that the officer in the video had pulled them over and attempted to seduce them. Peyer was found guilty of Knott’s murder and sentenced to life in prison.

#7: Happy Birthday Sweet Marisa

This video depicts an old man singing Happy Birthday to a woman named Marisa. Cute, right? Well, maybe not so much. This man is Edarem, or Edward Muscare, and he was a YouTube sensation in the mid 2000s. Edarem was also a registered sex offender, having been arrested for sexual battery back in 1986. In the video’s description, Edarem eerily describes Marisa as “the one that got away”. An old fling... or something far more sinister? It’s unknown, but there’s no denying that it’s creepy. Edarem’s YouTube career came to an end in 2009 after his computer was confiscated by the authorities. Edarem had failed to notify them about being a sex offender and was placed on probation - which he subsequently violated and was sentenced to prison for.

#6: The Dating Game Killer

Serial killer Rodney Alcala is one of the most depraved murderers in American history. He maliciously “toyed” with his victims, sexually assaulted and even killed some of them. There were at least eight victims of his crimes —although some estimates place the toll as high as 130. In 1978, Alcala appeared on the game show “The Dating Game” and won a date with bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw. However, she ultimately declined to go on it and referred to Alcala as “creepy”. Another contestant called him a “very strange guy”. At this point, Alcala had already murdered numerous people and would go on to kill again. He is currently serving life in California State Prison, Corcoran.

#5: The Boston Marathon Bomber Buys Milk

Security footage inside a Boston-area Whole Foods shows a man dressed in black entering, buying a carton of milk, and leaving without incident. Nothing at all out of the ordinary here. He was even buying the milk for his two-year-old niece. How sweet. Except this man was an extremist, and his previous actions of placing pressure cooker bombs close to the finish line of the Boston Marathon had had just killed three people and horrifically injured another 264. In fact, the time between detonation and milk buying was less than half an hour. Perpetrator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became the target of a massive manhunt - during which his fellow perpetuator and brother Tamerlan died - and was found four days after the bombing. He is currently incarcerated at supermax prison ADX Florence.

#4: The Midlothian Church Murder Suspect

This security footage from Creekside Church in Midlothian, Texas shows a person in tactical gear patrolling the halls and opening various doors. Without knowing the story, this 2016 footage comes across as relatively harmless. It’s a little weird seeing a lone person in full tactical gear inside an empty church, but the police search and examine buildings all the time. This person was not examining, however. They were hunting. Inside the church was fitness instructor Missy Bevers, and she was murdered - with the evidence pointing to the person in the video. Unfortunately, nothing else is known about the crime. The suspect, and their motivation for killing Bevers, remain a mystery.

#3: Jeffrey Dahmer Home Video

When it comes to American serial killers, it doesn’t get much worse, or more notorious, than Jeffrey Dahmer. His very name is synonymous with serial killers, having killed and dismembered 17 people from 1978 to 1991. In this home video from the early ‘90s, Dahmer - who had already murdered multiple people by this point- can be seen speaking to his father and nonchalantly flipping through a magazine. They talk about Dahmer’s weight and eating out at McDonald’s, and Dahmer explains that he needs to start eating at home more often. He just looks like a typical Midwestern male, not the most notorious serial killer in American history. The “eating at home” comment is also made creepier by the fact that Dahmer cannibalized many of his later victims.

#2: Chris Watts

By now, everyone knows Chris Watts as the subject of Netflix’s “American Murder: The Family Next Door”. But those watching Denver7 news on August 14, 2018 would have had no idea that he was a killer. Denver7 interviewed Watts about the disappearance of his pregnant wife and two young children. Aside from Watts’s curious lack of emotion, this seems like a typical news segment about a missing person. The very next day, Watts was arrested after failing a polygraph and admitting to killing his wife, Shannan. Watts initially claimed that Shannan had ended the lives of their children and that he killed her in retaliation, but he later admitted to committing their murders as well. The following November, Watts received five life sentences.

#1: The Stephen Mark McDaniel Interview

In this video, viewers can pinpoint the exact moment that murderer Stephen McDaniel realized that he was going to be caught. It’s incredible, and incredibly creepy. McDaniel lived next door to fellow law school student Lauren Giddings. Giddings had gone missing, and a few days after her disappearance, her dismembered torso was found covered in plastic in a trash bin outside the building where they both lived. McDaniel was not aware of this. While interviewing McDaniel about Giddings’s disappearance, the reporter mentions the recent discovery of her body. The criminal completely shuts down. His eyes glaze over, he loses his words, and it looks like he’s about to faint. He eventually goes to sit down, and while unknowing viewers may think he’s in shock, the truth is far more malicious.