How we verify our content
This page sets out the criteria applied before publishing and what you can expect from each entry. It is published so that you can judge the work, not to decorate the site.
Non-negotiable rules
- Only what has been read is cited. An invented citation, or one quoted from memory, destroys the credibility of everything else.
- If a fact cannot be verified it does not go in — however widely it appears. A real example: the Eastern State Penitentiary entry leaves out Al Capone's cell and the 1945 escape because the sources consulted did not confirm them.
- Paranormal accounts are attributed, never asserted: "the locksmith Gary Johnson said that…", not "a force gripped him".
- Spanish is not machine-translated from English. Each language is written in its own right.
What an expanded entry is
Part of the archive is researched in depth. Those entries meet an objective standard rather than an impression: at least 600 words of original prose in each language, a minimum of three dated and attributed facts, at least three sources cited with author and year — one of which must be primary: archive, newspaper record, book, report, interview or academic publication, never a general website — and, obligatorily, a section giving the rational explanation of the case.
Why there is always a sceptical section
Because without it the entry is not honest. We document what people have reported, we do not assert that it is true, and where a natural explanation or a demonstrated hoax exists it is given in the same detail as the legend. In many cases — the Bell of Huesca, Waverly Hills, the Jersey Devil — the documented explanation turns out to be the better story.
Source hierarchy
Preference runs, in this order: primary sources and archives, academic publications, newspaper records contemporary with the events, official institutional information (museums, public bodies, parks) and, last, general popular writing. Every expanded entry lists its sources at the foot, with link and type.
Errors and corrections
This archive is written by one person and it contains errors. If you spot one, or know a source that contradicts what is published, write to me: it gets corrected and the entry's review date is updated. Contact.
Updating
Expanded entries show who reviewed them and when. The rest of the archive shows its last modified date.