Novelist Henry James once wrote that he was “haunted by the conviction that the divine William is the biggest and most successful fraud ever practiced on a patient world.” Here are 10 of the most interesting theories on who the true author may have been. 10 Francis Bacon Those who suggest that Francis Bacon was the Bard have aptly been dubbed “Baconians.” As Bacon was a philosopher, author, scientist, and historian of his time, Baconians have put forward that he was part of a wider group that sought to undermine and criticize the monarch....

The Byrdes are neck-deep in the money laundering business with the Ozarks serving as the backdrop. They are also involved with a Mexican drug cartel, casino entrepreneurs, and murder. Here are 10 similarities between the real world and the Ozark series. Spoiler Alert: A lot of information about seasons one and two of Ozark are revealed in the list. 10 Casino Cap The series doesn’t stray too far from reality when it relays the number of legal gambling establishments in the state of Missouri....

10 Corncobs There simply isn’t much someone can do with dried-up corncobs that don’t have kernels. They are probably one of the most useless pieces of garbage. Even animals won’t eat them. This struck 11-year-old Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai of India as being a terrible waste. That’s when she decided to perform an experiment with the dried-up cobs. Srisai got a bowl of dirty water and dropped some dry cobs in it....

10 The Headless Pirate The Victual Brothers were a group of European privateers who roamed the Baltic Sea. In the 1390s, the mercenaries were hired to do battle against Denmark, but in the following years, they turned to piracy. One of the leaders of the group was Klaus Stortebeker. Very little is known of this character, including his real name—Stortebeker was a nom de guerre meaning “empty the mug with one gulp,” evidence of some serious chugging ability....

Now, we are not condoning “leisure crimes”—you should really check yourself before you wreck yourself. But, lucky you, because people can’t control themselves, we have a top 10 list dedicated to strange crimes that happened for no reason. Let’s get started. 10 Deck the Halls In 2011, a Dayton, Ohio, man broke into a home and put up Christmas decorations. Forty-four-year-old Terry Trent was high on bath salts at the time....

It’s the dirty little secret behind glamour: No matter how fantastic someone looks, it never comes naturally. Behind every great beauty in history, there’s a dirty secret about all the work that went into looking that good. 10 Empress Elisabeth: A Face Mask Lined With Raw Veal The most beautiful woman on earth, in the 19th century, was Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She was famous across Europe for her impeccable skin and the thick, chestnut hair that fell all the way down to her feet....

Yet, their lives or deaths may have taken rather bizarre turns. Although these are not the accomplishments for which these people are ultimately remembered, here are 10 strange facts about historical figures. 10 Albert Einstein’s Cubed Brain Albert Einstein, a theoretical physicist, took his last breath at 1:15 AM on April 18, 1955. Unfortunately, his final words were lost forever as the nurse at Princeton Hospital did not speak German....

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Real Superpowers You Can Learn The superpowers you’ve always dreamed of having don’t always make life incredible. As the real people who have them know all too well, superhuman powers come with some absolutely horrible downsides—and they can make life a living hell. 10 The Little Girl Who Doesn’t Feel Pain Olivia Farnsworth never feels pain.[1] She was born with a condition called chromosome 6 deletion, which has left her with no sense of pain and no sense of danger whatsoever....

10Ancient Civilizations Were More Connected Than We Think Romans in China, Greeks in India, Africans in England—through a number of mechanisms, people of the ancient world got around more than we give them credit for. Other than a vague notion of the Silk Road, many have no idea how wide-ranging and enterprising some ancient civilizations were. There were, of course, the Phoenician explorers who likely circumnavigated Africa two millenia before Vasco de Gama....

10 Anabolic Steroids In 1889, 72-year-old physiology professor Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard injected himself with extracts from the testicles of dogs and guinea pigs. He noted an increase in physical strength and health. During World War II, the Nazis began to test anabolic steroids on concentration camp prisoners and soon moved on to German troops, hoping to increase their aggressive tendencies. By the end of the war, chemist Leo Ruzicka perfected a way to isolate the testosterone molecule from cholesterol....

Let’s take a look at some of the fascinating and odd things that people used to do to be considered more attractive by their society’s standards. 10 The Greek Unibrow While early ’90s pop stars championed the “barely there” over-plucked brow, the ancient Greeks went crazy for the unibrow. A woman wasn’t considered attractive or of high status unless her shapely brows met in the middle of her forehead. Regarded as a symbol of purity and intelligence, the unibrow was the must-have look of the time....

10 Gidim In ancient Mesopotamia, the living and the dead were closely connected. It was believed that mortality was one of the defining characteristics of humans. Anyone who died young had been cursed by the gods. Those who were healthy were watched over by beneficial spirits, and when that protection faded, so did life. Once a person died, they became a gidim, or “death spirit.” The spirit was a shadowy creature, sometimes appearing to friends, family, and loved ones and always recognizable as the person that they had been in life....

Although most sleepwalkers will just wander aimlessly around the house, embarrassing their families before finally slipping back into bed, some people do some very strange things indeed. 10 Have Sex Sexsomnia is a condition which causes people to engage in sex acts in their sleep. Without being aware of it, sufferers can engage in sex alone or with a partner and never remember it when they wake up. Both men and women experience the condition, though it is more common in men....

Believe it or not, this is true. You’ve probably already heard some overblown stories about the Nazis dabbling in the occult and making secret zombie-demon armies—but it isn’t all just make-believe myths. The Nazis really did have a program to use psychic powers and astrology to influence the war, and they really thought that they were going to win it with magic. 10 Hitler Hired A Jewish Clairvoyant To Tell Him The Future In January 1933, just before he became chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler visited a clairvoyant named Erik Jan Hanussen (pictured in the center above) and asked him to tell him his future....

But what happens when love goes too far? For the victims of these Valentine’s Day killers, the answer was murder. 10 John Hamilton On Valentine’s Day of 2001, highly respected OB-GYN John Hamilton discovered his wife dead on their home’s bathroom floor, strangled and beaten. At first, authorities thought the murder was tied to the anti-abortion hate group “The Army of God.” However, as time passed, suspicion of John Hamilton only grew, mostly when prosecutors learned that Hamilton’s wife, Susan, had threatened divorce....

We tend to think of trolls as sad people who enjoy hurting others. They usually don’t personally know their prey and seem to delight in the damage that they cause. Others troll for political or commercial reasons, but a troll’s hallmark is self-centered arrogance. A troll is someone who doesn’t know the meaning of empathy and is unwilling or unable to keep their views to themself. Unfortunately, we will never be able to completely shut trolls down because there is often a very fine line between abusive content and the right to free speech....

Yeah: you. See, unlike most big sites, Listverse doesn’t require you to have a degree or previous experience or anything like that. When I submitted my first article, I’d never written ANYTHING before. All I had was a cool idea, which the editors liked enough to publish. That article led to more and more work, until eventually I was earning enough to become a full-time writer. How great is that?...

Psychologists have long established the link between sexual deviancy and voyeurism. Indeed, most definitions of the word “voyeurism” or “voyeur” will highlight the fact that practitioners receive a sexual thrill from their activities. A more disturbing association links voyeurism with sexual assault and even murder. According to Ann Rule in her popular true crime book The Stranger Beside Me, Ted Bundy liked to peer through the windows of potential victims for hours at a time....

10 Child Labor In Cambodia, the legal working age is 15 years old, but without diligent enforcement of this law, many clothing factories employ girls as young as 12. These children drop out of school to get a job because their families live in poverty. Abandoning their education, the girls become part of a system that forces them into a cycle that is impossible to escape. Regardless of the worker’s age, the average pay equates to roughly 50 cents per day....

10 Dying Nuclear Scientists In India And Iran Over the past decade, a string of dead nuclear scientists has concerned many in India. While authorities have ignored the deaths or labeled them as either “unexplained” or “suicides,” many locals are raising questions about the long list of their best and brightest who have died under questionable circumstances. Two high-ranking engineers on India’s first nuclear-powered sub were found dead on a train line....