Of the heaps of mysterious coincidences, very rarely are there ones so scary and disturbing to the mind that they can be compared with the ominous story of the painting “The Crying Boy,” which was never off the pages of the news throughout England in the summer and fall of 1985.
The essence of what is happening is simple: following a string of strange causeless fires, it was discovered that the same picture - a penny canvas, on which there was an image of a crying boy - was found everywhere where mysterious fires occurred. No one would have paid attention to such stupidity if the paintings had somehow inconceivably failed to survive absolutely all the fires. Considering that everything except the Crying Boy was completely burned, this was more than surprising.
The mystical incidents became public knowledge in mid-1985, when a member of the fire brigade, P. Hall, told a journalist from a major print publication that firefighters from all over the country had come across countless copies of the painting "The Crying Boy", preserved from diabolical fires, the causes of which were also remain unclear.
Hall spilled the beans about this story after his brother Roy, who flatly refused to believe or listen to his warnings, deliberately purchased the painting "The Crying Boy" in order to prove that the curse did not exist. Of course, after some time, the home of the poor man who challenged his fate burned down for unknown reasons. Seeing that the ill-fated picture rests on a mountain of smoking ashes, safe and sound. Roy hit it hard with his shoe.
After the article appeared in the newspapers, one English daily received a flurry of messages from owners of the “Crying Boy” who had experienced the same grief. D. Brand from Mitcham watched as her home was engulfed in flames a month and a half after the painting appeared in it, and although there were many paintings in the house, this was the only one that survived the fire.
S. Craske, from Kilburn, said that her, her sister, mother and friend's houses were burned down and that each owned a copy of the painting. Other stories were heard from Leeds, Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight.
On October 21, Perillo Pizza Palace in Norfolk fell victim to an all-consuming fire. And again, "Crying Boy" didn't even get charred. A couple of days later, a new tragedy occurred. This time the Godber family from Herrinthorpe lost a roof over their heads; after the fire, the painting in the living room turned out to be unharmed, while its relatives turned into ashes.
Then in Heswaple, several paintings located in the house of the Ames family were saved from a gas explosion (the building itself was literally blown to pieces). And on the same day, another news appeared about the pranks of the “Crying Boy” - now from the home of F. Trauer, who had previously worked in the fire brigade. Then some newspaper suggested the complete destruction of all copies of this painting by its owners.
Most of the residents of England were sure that the mysterious story of the “Crying Boy” was a protracted hoax, while others were in a less optimistic mood. Very soon, some former owners of the painting “The Crying Boy” suffered a nervous breakdown - it seemed to them that the ghost of the destroyed painting had returned and would definitely pay for everything.
So, a girl from Leeds was convinced that this very picture claimed the lives of her husband and children. Another, Mrs. Woodward, was worried that the unexpected deaths of her close relatives, which happened as a result of unrelated, but related to the fire, tragic accidents, were connected with the “Crying Boy”. As soon as they tried to get an opinion from some fire departments regarding the tense situation due to the picture, they waved it off, showing their reluctance to talk about this topic. And, despite the fact that copies of the painting “The Crying Boy” continued to be destroyed at the stake throughout England, accidents did not stop.
On November 12, Malcolm Vaughan in Gloucestershire helped his neighbor get rid of another “Crying Boy.” When he came home, he saw tongues licking his living room, as if fire had come out of nowhere...
A couple of weeks later, a mysterious fire occurred in a house in Avon County, killing the owner, 67-year-old W. Armetage. The incident was written about in the newspapers, because the painting, untouched by fire, lay right next to the burnt corpse. A firefighter who went to the scene with a brigade later said: “I never thought that curses could exist. However, if you come across an intact painting in a completely burnt-out house, and this painting is the only thing that escaped the flames, it immediately occurs to you that this has crossed all limits.”
To the words written above, many would probably want to add: “And all this is quite scary.”
