--- title: Scary Stories and Morbid News: 13 Weird Vintage Reports from TIME description: What were they thinking? canonical: https://time.com/3681044/morbid-vintage-news/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-28T16:00:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:03.783Z article:section: History og:title: Scary Stories and Morbid News: 13 Weird Vintage Reports from TIME og:description: What were they thinking? og:url: https://time.com/3681044/morbid-vintage-news/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9380705927c30778/69877bab35ba6f0621c06b24/determined.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: determined og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scary Stories and Morbid News: 13 Weird Vintage Reports from TIME twitter:description: What were they thinking? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9380705927c30778/69877bab35ba6f0621c06b24/determined.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 13 Weirdly Morbid Vintage News Stories > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 28, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  From the Dec. 7, 1931, issue of TIME From the Dec. 7, 1931, issue of TIME TIME  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 28, 2015 4:00 PM UTC In the earlier days of TIME, the magazine ran a weekly round-up of local news items of note — and, as we[ pointed out earlier this month](http://time.com/3658871/ridiculous-old-news/), it’s proof positive that funny flubs and weird happenings have always had the ability to go viral, albeit at a slightly slower pace than they do today. But that “Miscellany” column, in the 1920s and ’30s, wasn’t just a repository of the benignly strange. On a regular basis, it also featured deaths and killings (and, as seen above, freak accidents that result in mere permanent blindness) that we can only hope weren’t meant to be funny. Here are a few of the strangest, most macabre items we could find.  From the May 25, 1925, issue of TIME TIME  Also from the May 25, 1925, issue of TIME TIME  Again from the May 25, 1925, issue of TIME. It must have been a rough week. TIME  From the Dec. 10, 1928, issue of TIME TIME  From the Dec. 9, 1929, issue of TIME TIME  From the Feb. 3, 1930, issue of TIME TIME  From the June 9, 1930, issue of TIME TIME  From the Nov. 3, 1930, issue of TIME TIME  From the Dec. 1, 1930, issue of TIME TIME  From the Aug. 10, 1931, issue of TIME TIME  From the Aug. 10, 1931, issue of TIME TIME  From the Dec. 7, 1931, issue of TIME TIME  From the Nov. 5, 1934, issue of TIME TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3681044/morbid-vintage-news/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3681044/morbid-vintage-news/"},"headline":"13 Weirdly Morbid Vintage News Stories","datePublished":"2015-01-28T16:00:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:03.783Z","description":"What were they thinking?","url":"https://time.com/3681044/morbid-vintage-news/","keywords":["Bizarre","Death","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9380705927c30778/69877bab35ba6f0621c06b24/determined.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9380705927c30778/69877bab35ba6f0621c06b24/determined.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"determined","caption":"From the Dec. 7, 1931, issue of TIME","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/bizarre/","name":"Bizarre"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3681044/morbid-vintage-news/","name":"13 Weirdly Morbid Vintage News Stories"}}]}] ```