Palmyra Atoll killing people. The mysterious island of Palmyra From the history of Palmyra Island

29.12.2020

A thousand miles south of Hawaii is Palmyra atoll island. At first glance this is most beautiful place, practically earthly paradise. But in this paradise there is a direct road leading to hell.

There are a lot of strange things on Palmyra, it's quite unusual place. The beauty of the island is captivating. There are some great ones here too sandy beaches, and lush vegetation, and beautiful reefs and lagoons.

But if you look closely, the island is alarming. There are many sharks near the atoll; the fish are poisonous due to the content of substances released by the algae growing here.

The island itself is home to many unpleasant creatures: from mosquitoes to poisonous lizards. And the joy from the wonderful climate can quickly disappear due to lightning-fast weather changes.

Starting almost from the very discovery of the island, everyone who visited this place is haunted by an unknown force. And happiness to those who managed to escape alive. After all, the atoll even got its name in honor of the ship that itself destroyed.

In 1798, near an island not indicated on the map at that time, the ship Betsy, heading from America to Asia, was wrecked. The ship crashed on the reefs, people tried to escape by swimming, but only ten people reached the shore - the rest either drowned or were eaten by sharks.

However, only three of them survived. When they were rescued by another ship two months later, the survivors said that their comrades were killed by the island itself - in fact, it was a huge monster that destroys people!

The island was put on the map, and in 1802 it received the name Palmyra - that’s what it was called lost ship, wrecked near the atoll in the same 1802.

In 1870, the American ship Angel disappeared off the coast of Palmyra. Dead bodies crew members were found on the island. They all died a violent death, but the killer remained unknown.

In 1940, the island came under US jurisdiction. During World War II there was a military garrison there. One of the soldiers, Joe Brow, said that he and his comrades, while on Palmyra, constantly experienced unreasonable fear. Some said that they were afraid of sharks swimming in the water, others hysterically demanded to leave the island, assuring that otherwise something terrible would happen.

Indeed, several people committed suicide, and unmotivated outbursts of aggression were observed among the soldiers, which led to quarrels, fights and even murders.

Hal Horton, former naval an officer who was on Palmyra from 1942 to 1944 said the following:

“One day one of our patrol planes crashed near the island. We searched long and hard for it, but didn’t even find a bolt or piece of metal. It was strange and amazing. On another occasion, the plane left the runway, climbed about 60 meters and turned in the wrong direction. The plane was supposed to fly north, but instead it flew south. The day was clear. We couldn't understand anything. There were two people on board whom we never saw again. We had very bad luck on this island. Experienced sailors called him damned. One day we heard the sound of a plane above us, looking for us, but it crashed into the water before it found the runway. We didn't get to the guy in time. The sharks discovered him first.”

After the war, people left the island. The government no longer tried to use it - too bad a reputation surrounded this place.

But in 1974, two people were killed while sailing on a yacht in Palmyra. According to testimony at the ensuing trial, Malcolm "Mac" Graham and Eleanor "Muff" Graham of San Diego were killed, possibly because of their expensive sailing ship, the Sea Wind, and its food supplies by an ex-convict. who settled on the island.

In 1980, Muff Graham's remains were discovered by another yachting couple, Sharon and Robert Jordan. Walking along the beach, Sharon Jordan found a skull and bones that had apparently fallen from a World War II-era metal box that had washed ashore. It's amazing that Sharon ended up in this particular place and in given time: The next low tide would carry the bone back out to sea forever.

The evidence suggests that Muff was either shot or bludgeoned, burned with an acetylene torch, dismembered and her remains placed in a small metal container taken from an old military rescue boat on the island, which was then sunk in the lagoon . (Mack Graham's body was not found and is believed to have been hidden in a second container somewhere on or near the island.)

John Bryden, a witness at the murder trial, was an adventurer who spent 14 months on Palmyra trying unsuccessfully to start a coconut plantation. Bryden seemed a man who would not be intimidated, but he testified at the trial that "at times Palmyra seemed to foreshadow disaster."

Tom Wolfe, a yachtsman who was on Palmyra just before the murders, testified at four different trials related to the crime. A month before the trial, Wulf felt something that once again confirms the influence of a strange force on those who had contact with Palmyra. One morning after a severe storm, Wolfe, whose home is in Washington's Puget Sound, went for a walk to see what the storm might have washed ashore.

Just 12 meters from his house, he noticed a cylindrical object carried by the waves onto the rocks. Having opened it, he was surprised that the tube contained a navigation map of the island of Palmyra! While recounting the story in detail to one of the defense lawyers at the trial, Wolfe could only marvel at the strange forces that delivered the map of Palmyra literally to his front porch on the eve of his scheduled testimony at critical stage process.

He noted that "the discovery of this damned map caused a fear of something unknown. I am not superstitious, but I admit that it really shocked me. It seemed that Palmyra reached out and touched me from a distance of three thousand miles."

The famous biologist Marchant Marin hypothesized that the island is actually a living creature that has a very powerful negative aura and is capable of trapping people!

However, there are other versions. For example, that a secret magical order has been using Palmyra for their rituals for centuries, or that there is an entrance to another dimension there.

There are still a huge number of places on our planet that hold many mysteries. Literally every piece of Earth or part of water keeps its anomalous secrets. Among the mystical zones, there is no competition, of course, Bermuda Triangle. But few people know that...

Palmyra Island

About a thousand nautical miles south of Hawaiian Islands Palmyra Atoll is a medium-sized atoll (a representative of the ring-shaped coral group of islands). It must be said that in terms of the degree of anomalousness and mysticism of the events that took place there, it is not much inferior to its famous brothers - the islands of the Bermuda Triangle.

This atoll (Palmyra Atoll) has long belonged to the Line Islands group, and received its name relatively recently, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, after the American ship Palmyra perished off its shores on November 7, 1802.

The mystery of Palmyra Island

The appearance of the island is beautiful: its coast is covered with delicate sand, and the atoll itself is literally shrouded in amazing tropical plants. It consists of two serene, at first glance, Western and Eastern lagoons. They are separated from each other by a sand spit: however, it is visible only at low tide. In appearance this is real paradise unusual beauty, but these are only apparent impressions. In fact, this is rather not paradise, but its complete opposite: after all, Palmyra Atoll has received the notoriety of the killer island.

Palmyra Atoll and its victims

The first victims the then unnamed atoll became the crew of the American sailing ship "Betsy", sailing to Asia and castaway not far from the island at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (this was back in 1798). Only ten sailors were able to reach the shore; the rest of the crew either drowned or were torn to pieces by sharks.

Of the ten people who swam to the island, only three were able to survive to their real salvation - when they were picked up by a passing ship. When they were rescued, everyone, as one, repeated that the rest of the sailors were killed by the cursed island and they all passed away to another world in a strange, mysterious and terrible way: someone ripped open their stomachs...

In 1816, another victim of the island of Palmyra became the Spanish ship Esperanta, which crashed on the reefs near the atoll. The strange thing was that the storm came completely suddenly, and after the ship crashed, the storm immediately subsided.

The sailors from the Spanish ship were luckier than the crew of the Betsy, as they were immediately picked up by a Brazilian sailing ship. The mysticism was that when a year later the ship that saved the sailors from the Esperanta again passed near Palmyra, the reefs on which the Esperanta crashed were no longer in sight.

However, the island required new victims, and this time it was the American brig Angel. After some time, the corpses of his sailors were found on the island and they all showed signs of violent death. It is still not known for certain what or who caused their death.

Stories of Palmyra

From 1943 to 1946 , during World War II, a small contingent of American troops was stationed on the island. At first, the soldiers were delighted with what they saw and were glad that fate had given them the opportunity to serve in such a wonderful place. But this was only at first, as the euphoria soon gave way to an irresistible desire to leave the island.

Thus, one of the soldiers said that during their stay on the island, absolutely all the military personnel experienced fear and causeless anxiety. The soldiers felt as if someone was watching them. Perhaps for this reason, quarrels, fights and even murders arose between soldiers. The obsessive desire to quickly leave the island did not leave the military for a minute.

According to former military personnel of the garrison located on the island in those years, almost all of them saw how a Japanese plane once fell on the atoll. However, the search for him led nowhere: the pilot and aircraft as if they had fallen through the ground. After the end of the war, due to strange events on the island, the base was closed, and the people were transferred to a new duty station.

No less mysterious and mystical cases occur in modern history Palmyra Islands. So, in 1974 The spouses Hughes, Thomas and Melanie arrived on the island on a yacht.

For several days there was constant communication with them and they reported by radio that everything was fine with them. But already on the third day, the Hughes couple stopped communicating. Rescuers who arrived a few days later found the bodies of the spouses buried in different places, dismembered, and, characteristically, both, like many of the island’s previous victims, also had their stomachs ripped open.

In 1990, a group of researchers arrived in Palmyra under the direction of famous traveler and explorer Norman Sanders, a four-person team eager to unravel the mystery of the mysterious island. The brave souls landed on the atoll at night and planned to stay on the island for at least a couple of months. But already on the third day of their stay here, they began to quarrel among themselves, and one of the group members even attempted suicide.

The researchers had no choice but to leave this ominous place. It was also strange that after returning home it turned out that people were lost in time for a whole day! They believed that they returned on the 24th, although in fact it was already the 25th. It is, of course, possible to mix up the numbers if you stay away from civilization for a very long time, but in three days, and with four men at once, this is hardly possible.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century a group of scientists visited the island, which, in turn, also became convinced of the deceptiveness of this tropical paradise. The coastal waters here are teeming with sharks, the fish here are inedible, since the algae near its shores release substances that poison the water; and the weather on the island changes in the blink of an eye. But how to explain the murders and dismemberment of people?..

Some researchers believe that on the atoll there is a certain mystical bloodthirsty creature that is capable of turning this paradise in a haven of horror and nightmare, and the random travelers who appear here become uncontrollable zombies and, ultimately, their victims.

This atoll is located a thousand nautical miles from the Hawaiian Islands, so beloved by tourists. At first glance, the island looks like a piece of paradise, which seems to have everything for a happy and carefree life and relaxation: wonderful climate, magnificent nature, wonderful beaches, azure sea...

But soon people realized that Palmyra is some kind of mystical predator, which itself has the consciousness of a killer, and also keeps its henchmen in the form of terrible sharks, poisonous lizards, numerous mosquitoes, and so on, only so as not to leave it to humans. If you find yourself on an island, you don't have a chance to survive.

From the history of the killer island

It all started when, back in 1798, the American ship Betsy landed on the reefs near this “paradise island.” People caught in the water were immediately attacked bloodthirsty sharks, as if they were waiting for this feast. Later, the survivors recalled that sea predators began to circle around the ship even before it crashed.

Ten lucky ones still managed to swim to the shore. And although a rescue ship soon sailed to the island, it picked up only three surviving members of the Betsy crew, who told such horrors about this atoll that many did not even believe in their horror stories.

Mysterious island put on the map and began to be called Palmyra since 1802, when an American ship with that name sank near it. For a long time the navigators could not understand why ships crashed near this, in general, quiet place with a coastal bottom favorable for navigation. However, the Spanish caravel Esperanta, which crashed near Palmyra in 1816, clarified something. As the captain of the caravel described the wreck, a storm suddenly began not far from the island, which carried their ship onto the reefs. The crew of the Esperanta was picked up by a passing Brazilian ship, but the Spanish captain tried to put the coordinates of the reef on the map so that in the future no one would crash on them. Imagine his surprise when, a year later, sailing in this place, he did not find any reefs.

In 1870, the American ship Angel was wrecked near Palmyra. True, no one knows exactly what happened to him. The ship simply disappeared, and later the corpses of its crew were found on the island. Who or what killed the people remained unknown, since no one had ever lived on the atoll.

Our time has not cleared up the mystery of the island

Palmyra Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the island of Palmyra officially becomes a possession of the United States. When did the second one start? World War, the Americans stationed a military garrison here. As one of the soldiers of this unit, Joe Brow, wrote in his memoirs, at first they thought that they were very lucky - not a place, but just paradise. But the joy was premature. Within a few days, all the soldiers were seized with causeless fear. I wanted, wrote Bry, to leave this as quickly as possible. creepy place, otherwise something irreparable will happen to you. Everyone became nervous and angry, and fights broke out between the soldiers every now and then, which often ended in death. And suicides began to occur with terrifying frequency.

One day, Joe recalls, they shot down an enemy plane, which crashed onto an island very close to them. But the soldiers could not find him, although they searched the entire atoll. After the war, the garrison left the mystical island, and it again became deserted.

And in 1974, the married couple Melanie and Trem Hughes decided to visit it, who went here on their expensive yacht. For three days they radioed to dispatchers that they lived on Palmyra and everything was fine with them. Then the connection stopped. Rescuers who arrived here just a couple of days later found the very carefully dismembered bodies of the Hughes couple, and their remains were buried at different ends of the atoll. At the same time, things and all jewelry remained untouched.

The last foray onto the mystical island in order to study this mysterious place was undertaken by the traveler and researcher Norman Sanders, who in 1990, together with three other daredevils, landed on the atoll, and this happened at night. According to Norman, they immediately felt fear and impending disaster. The researchers lasted only a week on Palmyra, although they planned to stay for two months. Within a couple of days they almost began to fight with each other, and one of them even attempted suicide. At the same time, for some unknown reason, their on-board instruments began to malfunction, their computers began to fail... In general, the guys fled from this damn place on April 24, but when they arrived home, it turned out that they had somehow mysteriously lost an entire day. Well at least they remained intact...

At the end of the last century, American authorities began to place desert island radioactive waste, so those wishing to visit this terrible corner of the planet today can be counted on one hand. And the military themselves, who bring deadly waste here, sometimes tell terrible things about the island, for example, about hordes of bloodthirsty rats that have bred on the atoll. True, the military mostly keep silent, since speaking too loudly in their business can result in dismissal from service, or even worse...

Attempts to explain the mysteries mystical island

Palmyra Atoll is very similar to a living monster, so many researchers tend to consider it as such, that is, an island with its own strong and destructive aura that lures and kills travelers.

But researcher Mershan Marin believes that there is some mysterious, very evil creature on the island that can control not only the weather, reefs and even sharks, poisonous reptiles, as well as other aggressive living creatures, but also influences the consciousness of people, making their uncontrollable zombies. Another version is a portal to another, very scary world for us. It is from there that all the evil spirits break through here, which can somehow change our reality and kill people.

There are still many places in the world that attract people with their mysteries, such as the famous Bermuda Triangle. But researchers don’t always have the opportunity to simply survive what they see, let alone solve the mystery.

A thousand miles south of Hawaii lies the atoll island of Palmyra. At first glance, this is a beautiful place, almost an earthly paradise. But in this paradise there is a direct road leading to hell. There are a lot of oddities on Palmyra, it's quite an unusual place. The beauty of the island is captivating. There are wonderful sandy beaches, lush vegetation, and beautiful reefs and lagoons. But if you look closely, the island is alarming. There are many sharks near the atoll; the fish are poisonous due to the content of substances released by the algae growing here. The island itself is home to many unpleasant creatures: from mosquitoes to poisonous lizards. And the joy from the wonderful climate can quickly disappear due to lightning-fast weather changes.

Chronicle of incidents on the island of Palmyra

1798 The first victim of the killer island was the ship Betsy. The American ship ended up on the reefs near Palmyra. Only ten people swam from it to land (those who did not drown were awaited by sharks off the shore). Of those who survived, only three survived; they were picked up by an approaching ship. The rest were driven to the grave by the island - that’s what the survivors themselves later said. And they also swore that they would never set foot in this terrible place.

The next vessel to be hit was the Angel, also flying an American flag. Death awaited his crew, and a violent one at that. This fact became known after the bodies of the ship's crew were found on the island.

The time has come for the soldiers of the American garrison during the Second World War to experience the curse. mysterious island. According to the recollections of garrison employee Joe Brow, the atoll greeted them with its splendor. But after that, all the soldiers had a causeless fear. Some wanted to leave the island immediately, otherwise, in their opinion, something terrible could happen. Others were afraid to even go near the water because they believed they would be immediately eaten by sharks. Panic gripped the garrison. Screams and night delirium, quarrels between best friends, extreme anger and irritability, fights, suicides and murders - people on the island had to endure all this. One day, soldiers shot down an enemy plane. It seemed that he fell very close to the garrison, but large-scale searches yielded no results. The plane disappeared without a trace, the fate of the pilot also remained unknown. After the war, American troops left the island, and it again became uninhabited.

Another incident happened to the Hughes couple, Trell and Melanie, in 1974, when, having left their yacht, they stepped onto the shore of a mysterious island. After three quiet days they stopped responding to radio requests. Then rescuers arrived at Palmyra and found their corpses. Someone or something dismembered the bodies and then buried them in different parts of the island. Moreover, the belongings of the deceased remained intact.

In 1990, Norman Sanders decided to solve the mystery of Palmyra. The traveler organized an expedition, which included himself and three of his friends. The expedition arrived at the island at night. As Norman recalled, he immediately felt an incomprehensible horror; the air literally smelled of anticipation of disaster. On Palmyra, quarrels arose between comrades, and there was even a suicide attempt. Out of a planned minimum of 2 months, the researchers only stayed on the island for a week, unable to withstand the nervous atmosphere of the island due to constant incessant fear. In addition, their devices did not work well, or even failed altogether. But the result of this journey was still the discovery new secret Palmyra. Norman and his comrades returned from the island on April 25. But all on-board instruments showed only the 24th. Where did one day disappear? The answer to this question remains open.

Some speculate about the existence of a sect on the island. Mershan Marin believes that there is some unknown creature hostile to humans on the atoll. Many support the scientist’s idea and try to prove that the island itself is alive. Luring him into a trap with his beauty, he kills his unwary guests. And there are also exotic versions, for example, that there is a gate to another dimension on the atoll.

Be that as it may, there are few people who would like to visit Palmyra, especially after 1986, when an American radioactive waste dump appeared on the island.

There are many on Earth mysterious places. Although the most famous among anomalous zones The land is rightfully considered the Bermuda Triangle; the small Pacific island of Palmyra (Palmyra Atoll) can give it serious competition.

Palmyra Atoll is a small coral group of islands in the central part Pacific Ocean, located approximately 1,200 kilometers south of the Hawaiian Islands as part of the Line Archipelago. The relief of all the islands of the atoll is low and flat. Low sand dunes on the islands do not exceed a height of 1-2 meters above sea level. The coast of the islands is replete with both surface and underwater reefs.

The islands of the atoll are covered with fairly dense shrub and grass vegetation, coconut palms and small groves of balsa wood (up to 30 meters high), the wood of which is characterized by extremely low density, very small weight and, at the same time, quite high strength.

The atoll has two internal lagoons– Western and Eastern, which are separated from each other by a spit that rises above the surface of the ocean only during low tides. The seemingly serene lagoons are teeming with aggressive sharks and carnivorous fish of various sizes. A lot of seabirds and green sea turtles that occupy the shores and reefs and sandbars that rise from the water during low tides.

Why is this island called mysterious? A whole chain of tragic events occurred in the history of Palmyra.

In 1798, the American ship Betsy, heading from America to Asia, struck reefs near the island. Most of the people who tried to swim to the island drowned or were eaten by sharks. The survivors said that they would never agree to return to this damned land again. During the two months that they were there, only three out of ten people survived. The survivors claimed that the island had killed everyone else.

A sunken ship near Palmyra Atoll (photo from loveopium.ru)

On November 7, 1802, the frigate of the American fleet USS Palmyra, under the command of Captain Sawle, was shipwrecked after colliding with the atoll reef. The surviving part of the brig's crew, having reached land, named the atoll after their ship.

In 1816, the Spanish caravel Esperanta ran into the reefs of Palmyra. Her captain later assured that the storm that spun the ship began suddenly, against the backdrop of an absolutely clear sky and complete calm. And the wind died down exactly at the moment when the caravel received a hole. Fortunately, a Brazilian merchant ship passed by and saved the crew of the Esperanta. The Spanish captain carefully mapped the location of the reefs and the fairway, along which even a large ship could be navigated into the western lagoon of the atoll. But a year later, when he sailed in the same places, there was no longer a single underwater obstacle at the old coordinates. It is not surprising that the sailors soon called Palmyra a cursed place and tried to avoid it.

In 1870, the American brig Angel did not return from an expedition to the island. After some time, the remains of a shipwreck and the corpses of crew members were discovered on the shores of Palmyra. All of them reportedly died violent deaths, but who killed them is unknown. Sailors still claim that this island is a cursed place.

In 1940, the island was taken under US control. During World War II, the American government used it to attack Japan. Joe Brow, a soldier of the garrison located on the island, said that when he arrived there, he considered himself lucky, since the place looked like a real paradise. But soon his opinion changed dramatically. “Everyone on the island was scared,” Brau recalls. - “Some were afraid to approach the water, because it seemed to them that they would certainly be swallowed by sharks. Others claimed, hysterically, they demanded to leave the island, assuring that otherwise something terrible would happen. Several people committed suicide, and unmotivated outbursts of aggression were observed among the soldiers, which led to quarrels, fights and even murders.

An American plane from World War II in the bushes of Cooper Island (photo from airfields-freeman.com)

Hal Horton, a former naval officer who was stationed on Palmyra from 1942 to 1944, said the following: “One day one of our patrol planes crashed near the island. We searched long and hard for it, but didn’t even find a bolt or piece of metal. It was strange and amazing. On another occasion, the plane left the runway, climbed about 60 meters and turned in the wrong direction. The plane was supposed to fly north, but instead it flew south. The day was clear. We couldn't understand anything. There were two people on board whom we never saw again. We had very bad luck on this island. Experienced sailors called him damned. One day we heard the sound of a plane above us, looking for us, but it crashed into the water before it found the runway. We didn't get to the guy in time. The sharks discovered him first.”

After the war, the mysterious island again became uninhabited, but continued to attract sailors.

In 1974, two people were killed while sailing on a yacht in Palmyra. According to testimony at the ensuing trial, Malcolm Graham and Eleanor Graham of San Diego were killed, possibly because of their expensive sailing ship, the Sea Wind, and its food supplies by ex-convicts who had settled on the island. The motives for this wild crime and who committed it remained unknown.

In 1980, the remains of Eleanor Graham were discovered by another yachting couple, Sharon and Robert Jordan. Walking along the beach, Sharon found a skull and bones that had apparently fallen from a World War II metal box that had washed ashore. It is amazing that Sharon was in this particular place and at this time, since the next low tide would have carried the bones back to the sea forever. It is believed that Eleanor Graham was either shot or bludgeoned, burned with an acetylene torch, dismembered and her remains placed in a small metal container taken from an old military rescue boat on the island, which was then sunk in the lagoon. Malcolm Graham's body was never found.

In early 1990, Norman Sanders and his team visited the mysterious island. He later recalled: “I did not believe the rumors about what was happening on the island. However, I had to make sure own experience is that Palmyra is one of the most mysterious places on earth. We approached the island at night. Although I was not on deck, I immediately felt that we were close. A strange melancholy and loneliness overwhelmed me. It was a magnificent day - blue ocean, blue sky and gentle sun. However, according to some members of the team, the mood was such that they wanted to throw themselves overboard.”

People stayed on the island for about a month, although at first they expected to spend much more time there. According to Sanders, during their stay on the island, people turned from friends into bitter enemies. Devices on the mysterious island often failed or did not work at all. Returning from the voyage, all crew members discovered that they were behind the times. In reality, they returned on April 24, although according to their calculations it was the 25th. The expedition members' watches were running absolutely normally and did not stop. Where the whole day went remains a mystery.

Palmyra Atoll. Photo by Ethan Roth

Currently, all the islands of Palmyra Atoll are uninhabited. On Cooper Island alone, between 5 and 25 people are permanently stationed among employees of various US government agencies, researchers, representatives of the Nature Conservation Organization and the military. They typically live for a short period on a rotational basis in an erected semi-temporary barracks that is located near a World War II airstrip. The entire infrastructure of Cooper Island built during the war years - runway strip, roads, temporary berths in the Western Lagoon, monitoring posts nuclear tests, are currently abandoned and have fallen into complete disrepair.