7 Mythologies Centered Around The Glory Of Beer

7The Kalevela

The Kalevela is an epic of Finnish mythology published in its entirety in 1849 by Elias Lonnrot. A collection of earlier works ranging from 1000 B.C. through the 17th century, The Kalevela tells the story of the creation of Earth and humanity, but more importantly, the creation of beer. One of the most intriguing aspects of the epic is the number of lines dedicated to beer—approximately 400—while the creation of the Earth is summed up in a measly200. The Kalevela also illustrates the mythological history behind beer’s first fermentation, revealing what scholars believe to be the origins of using hops in the brewing process.

According to the mythology of The Kalevala, a female brewer wished to make beer for a wedding celebration, but to her distress, the beer wouldn’t ferment. She sent a white squirrel into the forest to gather cones from a fir tree, but the beer remained flat. She then sent a marten to collect foam from the mouths of irritated bears, but still, the beer would not bubble. Once more, the brewer sent a honeybee to travel to a desert island and harvest pollen from blooming flowers. Elated, the brewer observed the beer froth up and overflow into the streams of the mythical city of Pohjola, thus creating the first batch of hoppy beer.

6The Hymn To Ninkasi

Since boiled water was used in its brewing, beer was actually healthier than the available canal water in Mesopotamia in 2500 B.C. Additionally, beer contained nutrients all other beverages lacked, making the brew a prominent aspect of the Mesopotamian diet. It’s no surprise, then, that the earliest instruction manual for the brewing process of beer was recorded in Mesopotamia.

The Hymn to Ninkasi—which was also a chorale of praise to the Sumerian goddess of beer, as the title implies—was recorded around 1800 B.C. However, it is believed to be much older, as the brewing of beer in Mesopotamia dates back to 3500–3100 B.C. The hymn instructs readers and listeners to handle the dough with a shovel; mix with sweet aromatics, honey, and grains; soak the malt in a jar; and filter it in the vat. The end result was not just any beer—it was a beer comparable to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, bringing life and enlightenment to all those who partook of it.

5The Hospitable God Of The Sea

While feared by sailors due to the immense amusement capsizing ships brought him, Aegir, the Norse god of the sea, is regarded in the deity realm as one of mythology’s most hospitable gods. The Norse god of thunder, Thor, gifted Aegir with a mile-deep cauldron brimming with ale for use during annual banquets for the gods. With a cauldron of that substantial size, many honorable gods in Norse mythology would gather at Aegir’s golden sanctuary at the bottom of the sea during the winter months and partake in his neverending supply of perfectly crafted ale.

Because of these lavish celebrations, Aegir is known for not only his hospitality but putting any host to shame by providing a literal “bottomless keg” that instantly replenishes mugs upon draining. In fact, so much beer is enjoyed by his guests that the white froth seen atop waves is attributed to Aegir’s massive parties.

4Witch’s Brew

Cerridwen, the Welsh witch-like goddess of barley, resides in the underworld and keeps guard over the Cauldron of Wisdom, which is believed to hold a beer concoction known as the “Brew of Inspiration and Knowledge.” According to Welsh mythology, Cerridwen birthed two children, a beautiful daughter and a hideous son. Taking pity on the boy, she decided to grant him more wisdom than any other in existence, but in order to do so, she has to stir her brew for a year and a day. Soon tiring, she handed the task over to a young boy named Gwion, warning him to avoid tasting or letting his skin come in contact with the brew.

At the end of the year, when Gwion had faithfully completed his duty, three drops splashed out of the cauldron, burning his hand. After sucking on his finger to relieve the pain, he instantly became the wisest to have ever lived. Furious at the enlightened Gwion for unintentionally defying her, she chased after the boy, who met his end when the witch ate him after he shape-shifted into a single grain of wheat in an attempt to conceal himself.

3The Flemish King Of Beer

Photo credit: EPei

According to the Flemish myth, a lowly apprentice glassmaker named Gambrinus was rejected by a beautiful maiden he had fallen in love with named Flandrine. Heartbroken and distraught, he fled from his home in Fresne to a nearby forest to hang himself. While there, however, he was confronted by the devil, who proposed a deal. If he could not win Flandrine’s love, the devil would grant Gambrinus the ability to forget the maiden forever, at the cost of his soul in 30 years.

Even with the devil’s luck, Flandrine remained unimpressed with Gambrinus and rejected him yet again. He stormed back to the forest, vexed by his unrequited love as well as his inability to forget the maiden, but to his surprise, a field full of green, aromatic plants appeared before him. The devil explained that the plants were hops and would make a drink called “beer” that was strong enough to make Gambrinus forget about Flandrine once and for all. In addition, he was granted chimes, which he played for the townspeople of Fresne when they complained of the brew’s bitterness.

Unable to resist Gambrinus’s tunes, the townsfolk began dancing uncontrollably and soon became thirsty, acquiring an appreciation for the beer. Gambrinus began playing chimes all around the world to introduce beer to humanity, landing him the title “King of Beer.” In response to his newfound fame, Flandrine returned to Gambrinus to profess her love for him, but as he was too wasted to recognize her, he simply offered her another beer and carried on with his life.

When the devil returned after 30 years, Gambrinus played the chimes until the devil was too tired of dancing and agreed to break off the deal. When Gambrinus died, his body disappeared and was replaced by a barrel of beer, having lived a happy and drunk life.

2Mythology’s Party Animals

Dionysus, the Greek god of pleasure and festivity, seemed to live an enviable life, even for a mythological deity—eternally tipsy, surrounded by a flock of devoted nymphs, and able to cause a ruckus anywhere he goes because “Oh, it’s just Dionysus. He’s probably drunk again.”

But one isn’t born mythology’s most notorious party animal—he had to be taught. His teacher was the sozzled, big-bellied Greek god of beer named Silenus. As a foster father and drinking buddy to Dionysus, Silenus is usually depicted as a jovial man, often having to be carried on the back of a donkey due to his immense enjoyment of all things intoxicating or cavorting all night to a dance he named “The Silenus.”

Unlike most drunkards, who believe beer grants them some sort of philosophical enlightenment, Silenus actually acquired prophetic powersupon a heavy night of drinking, which made him one of Greek mythology’s wisest deities. In fact, he was so respected and renowned that he was once taken hostage for five days by King Midas, who sought his drunken prescient knowledge. Dionysus, concerned for the whereabouts of his tutor, finally discovered Silenus and was so elated by his well-being that he granted King Midas the ability to turn everything he touched into gold.

1The Beer Of Life

Also known by his Welsh name of Govannon, Goibniu is a respected Celtic god and master goldsmith. In addition to constructing the most valuable and sustainable weapons in Ireland, he is also known for his skill and craft in brewing the most vital of beers.

According to legend, his brew was crafted with fruit from trees of the Otherworld, a realm of Celtic deities, and rendered the drinker indestructible in battle. Even those with a simple illness could take advantage of Goibniu’s fantastic ale, as it could cure any sickness. If thought worthy enough, a soldier killed in battle could be placed in Goibniu’s cauldron and brought back to life, fully intact.

The primary purpose of his beer, however, was to bestow immortality and invincibility upon Celtic deities. Served at the sacred Manann’s Feast of Age, all those sipping the heady elixir were granted immortality as well as eternal youth.

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7 More Strange Mysteries Involving Unidentified People

7The San Pedro Mountains Mummy

Cecil Mayne and Frank Carr were prospecting in Wyoming’s San Pedro Mountains in October 1932. Hoping to find gold, they blasted through some rocks. Instead, they found a small hidden room containing a mummy. In fact, it was one of the strangest mummies ever discovered.

Seated in a cross-legged position, it was only 18 centimeters (7 in) high, and it would have measured no more than 36 centimeters (14 in) in a standing position. The mummy only weighed one-third of a kilogram (0.75 lb) and had an oddly shaped head. It didn’t look much like a himan, but an X-ray eventually determined that the mummy had human bones and was likely a miniature human being.

There was much debate about how old this unidentified human could have been when he was mummified. Some experts believed that he was an infant who suffered from anencephaly and looked like an adult because of his facial deformities. However, because he appeared to have adult vertebrae and teeth, others believed the mummified individual might have been up to 65 years old when he died. This stirred speculation that the mummy originated from the Nimeragir. According to folklore, the Nimeragir were a race of “little people” who lived in Wyoming many centuries ago, but their existence has never been verified. The mummy passed through various hands over the years but seemed to disappear after its last owner died during the 1980s.

6The Babes In The Woods

Every year, the remains of numerous unidentified people are found, and when no one can determine who these victims are, they are classified as John or Jane Doe. These circumstances are particularly tragic when the unidentified victims are children.

On January 14, 1953, the skeletal remains of two children were discovered under some brush in Stanley Park near Vancouver, British Columbia. The remains were covered by a woman’s rain cape. Other items found at the scene included a woman’s shoe, a fur coat, a lunch box, and a hatchet, which was likely used as the murder weapon.

Investigators determined that the victims had been dead for approximately five or six years. The two children were believed to have been between 6 and 10 years old and initially thought to be a boy and a girl. They became known as “The Babes in the Woods,” and their remains eventually wound up in a display case at the Vancouver Police Museum. In 1998, the remains were removed from the museum for DNA testing before they were finally laid to rest. The DNA tests yielded a surprising result: The two victims were actually brothers.

Years before the remains were found, two witnesses reported seeing a man and a woman walking through Stanley Park with two boys, one of whom was carrying a hatchet. Later that day, the witnesses recalled seeing the same man and woman walking alone, but the woman was now wearing only one blood-covered shoe. Unfortunately, since police initially believed that one of the victims was a girl, this lead was not properly pursued at the time. After more than 60 years, the Babes in the Woods remain unidentified.

5Scott McKinley/Paul Fronczak

On July 2, 1965, a male toddler was found abandoned in a stroller outside a Newark, New Jersey store. An investigation to uncover the boy’s identity and find his parents proved unsuccessful, but after being placed with a foster family, he was given the name Scott McKinley. However, a connection was eventually made between “Scott” and an unsolved child abduction which took place in Chicago one year earlier. On April 26, 1964, Paul Fronczak was born at Michael Reese Hospital. The day after his birth, a hospital nurse took him to the nursery, and soon after, both disappeared. It was determined that the nurse was an impostor who abducted Paul from the hospital.

Investigators explored the possibility that Scott McKinley was the missing Paul Fronczak. A blood test was performed, but the results were inconclusive. Nevertheless, Paul’s parents believed that the boy was their son, so they legally adopted him and raised him as Paul Fronczak. However, as Paul entered adulthood, he became suspicious of the fact that he did not seem to resemble the rest of his family. Since DNA testing was not available when he was a child, Paul decided to find out the truth when he took a home DNA test in 2012. The results revealed that he had no biological connectionto the Fronczak family. The investigation of Paul’s abduction has since been reopened, while the man who was once known as Scott McKinley continues to seek his true identity.

4The Visalia Ransacker

During the mid-1970s, the city of Visalia, California was plagued by a bizarre series of crimes committed by an unidentified individual known as “The Visalia Ransacker.” In April 1974, the Ransacker started breaking into houses, often stealing items and vandalizing the place at the same time. However, he would usually leave valuables behind and only steal smaller, more personal items, such as family photographs.

Over the course of a year and a half, it is believed that the Ransacker invaded at least 85 Visalia homes. No one was actually harmed until September 11, 1975, when the Ransacker broke into the home of a man named Claude Snelling. After hearing noises, Snelling awoke to find a masked intruder attempting to kidnap his daughter. When Snelling tried to intervene, the intruder shot him dead before fleeing.

Police stakeouts were soon set up in neighborhoods the Ransacker was known to frequent. On December 10, a police officer spotted a masked suspect approaching a home, but the suspect opened fire and escaped. After this incident, the Ransacker’s crime spree came to an end, but this justhappened to coincide with the beginning of another unsolved crime spree.

Over the course of the next three years, an unidentified assailant known as “The East Area Rapist” broke into several homes in nearby Sacramento County, sexually assaulting at least 50 women. In 2002, DNA testing confirmed that the East Area Rapist was also an unidentified serial killer called “The Original Night Stalker,” who is believed to be responsible for over a dozen home invasion murders between 1979 and 1986. It’s entirely possible that the Visalia Ransacker gradually transitioned from burglary to rape to murder and that three of California’s most infamous unidentified criminals are all the exact same person.

3The Unknown Sailor On Christmas Island

In 1942, employees from the Christmas Island Phosphate Company were conducting a mining operation on the Australian island. On February 6, they were surprised to discover a Carley float drifting in the water near Flying Fish Cove containing the partially decomposed body of an unidentified man. His tattered clothing seemed to indicate that he was a sailor.

The man was buried in an unmarked grave with military honors, but because of the threat of an imminent invasion, there was no time to perform a proper inquest into his death. All employees would soon evacuate Christmas Island, which was captured by Japanese forces shortly thereafter. The unidentified body was left behind, and it would be several decades before anyone could conduct a proper investigation.

Finally, in September 2006, a naval team returned to Christmas Island and found the sailor’s unmarked grave. When his body was exhumed, tests on clothing fragments confirmed that he had served in the Royal Australian Navy. A metal fragment was also found embedded in his skull. The most likely theory behind the sailor’s death was that he had served on the HMASSydney, a naval cruiser which went down in the Indian Ocean in November 1941. After the Sydney was sunk by a German ship, all 645 crew members on board were lost.

If the unidentified sailor did serve on the Sydney, the circumstances under which he wound up in the Carley float remain unclear. DNA testing has been conducted on the remains of the sailor in order to determine his identity. To date, all but 50 of the Sydney’s crew members have been ruled out as a possible match.

2The Whitehall Victim

In 1888, the Whitechapel district of London was the site of a series of brutal murders committed by a serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, whose identity is perhaps the most famous unsolved mystery of all time. However, that same year, London was also the site of another brutal unsolved murder which likely wasn’t committed by the Ripper.

On the Victoria Embankment near Whitehall, construction was being performed on a police headquarters building which would eventually become known as New Scotland Yard. On October 2, one of the workers went inside the location’s freshly constructed basement vault and discovered a large parcel. When the parcel was opened, the partially decomposed remains of a female torso were found inside.

This would not be the only location where this particular victim’s body parts turned up. Weeks earlier, an unidentified right arm was found in the River Thames and eventually matched up with the torso. Two weeks after the torso’s discovery, a cadaver dog would find the same victim’s left leg buried near the construction site. The unidentified woman’s uterus had been removed from her torso. Her head, along with the rest of her body, was never found. The cause of her death could not be determined, but it seemed likely that she died approximately six weeks before the torso was found.

In spite of speculation that she was another one of Jack the Ripper’s victims, authorities could not find any connection between the crimes and concluded that someone else was responsible for her death. However, with so much attention devoted to the Ripper case, the investigation failed to turn up any suspects in the Whitehall murder, and the female victim was never identified.

1George Brody

On January 16, 1973, a five-year old girl named Anna Waters disappeared from the backyard of her rural home in San Mateo County, California. A search of the area turned up no trace of Anna, and she was never found. However, the most bizarre aspect of Anna’s story involves a mysterious figure named George Brody.

Around the time Anna was born, her father, George Waters, became close friends with a man calling himself by that name. This relationship causes serious strain on Waters’s marriage, as Brody was a manipulative, cult-like figure who seemed to have total control over Waters’s life. Things got even worse when Waters was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and he eventually divorced his wife. Anna remained with her mother while her father and Brody moved into a cheap San Francisco hotel together.

Shortly before Anna went missing, a witness saw two unidentified mendriving a white truck down the road near Anna’s home. This led to suspicion that Waters and Brody might have abducted Anna. While no evidence was ever found to implicate them, the story got even weirder when Brody died of cancer in 1981. Two weeks later, Waters ended his own life by taking cyanide, but before his suicide, he went to great lengths to destroy nearly all documentation related to Brody and himself. However, Waters did leave behind one potentially suspicious note tying him to his daughter’s disappearance, containing the words “Plan” and “Jan. 1973.”

No Social Security number or any sort of paper trail could be found for George Brody, which was likely not his real name. After more than 40 years, no one has ever determined Brody’s true identity or if he played a role in the disappearance of Anna Waters.

7 Bizarre Traditions That Prove Europe Secretly Hates Animals

7The Deadliest Horse Race
Italy

Twice a year, the residents of Siena, Italy gather together for a little event known as the “Palio.” And while that may sound innocuous enough, a more accurate name might be “the deadliest horse race in history.”

A 90-second sprint around a tiny, tiny track jam-packed with cheering tourists, the Palio is infamous for its mortality rate. According to Italy’s animal protection association, the twice-yearly course has killed 49 horsessince 1970—which works out to about one horse killed for every two and a half minutes of racing. Although this in itself is mind-boggling, it’s got nothing on some of the behavior surrounding the race. Right up until 2009, it was totally legal for the jockeys to ride their horse as drunk as a skunk, which probably didn’t help with that whole “mortality rate” thing we mentioned earlier.

However, things have improved. In 2011, the Italian government declined to include the race on its list of official cultural heritage events, specifically to acknowledge the furor all these horse deaths were causing—not that this has stopped the race from going ahead or further fatalities from happening.

6Goose Decapitation
Spain

Along with horses, quail, and bulls, it turns out there’s another animal the Spanish really hate: geese. At least, that’s the case in Lekeitio. For 350 years, residents of this tiny Basque town have celebrated their patron saint’s festival by stringing a goose up over the harbor and having people pull at its neck until its head comes off.

Bizarrely, no one really knows who started this tradition or why. All we know is that, at some point in the past, the residents of the Basque region decided to kill a goose every year in the most horrific way possible. Or at least, that used to be the case. Luckily for animal lovers, changes to the law mean the bird is now killed before it’s decapitated; this may be undignified, but at least it doesn’t sound like the setup to an Eli Roth movie. As a bizarre postscript, the townsfolk now also cover the dead goose in grease before hanging it up—meaning the whole decapitation thing now takes roughly forever.

5Stuffing Ferrets Down Your Pants
England

What’s the most revolting thing you can imagine happening to you? Unless you’ve been spending too long on gore sites, you’d be hard pressed to imagine a fate worse than that awaiting the participants of “ferret legging.” A “sport” that originated in England’s rough and tough Yorkshire, it involves a very hungry live ferret being stuffed down a man’s pants and kept trapped there for up to five and a half hours.

According to the Telegraph, the tradition started as a way for manly coal miners to show how manly they were “by doing something that no sane person would dream of doing.” At some point it evolved into a popular pastime, until the UK’s 2006 Animal Welfare Act put it on dicey legal ground. That hasn’t deterred some from keeping the old ways alive, although judging by articles like this one, it’s hard to tell who suffers most: the ferret, or the lunatic who put him down there.

4Throwing A Goat Off A Building
Spain

Look, we honestly don’t intend to single out any one country, but the mere existence of Spain kind of makes it hard to do otherwise. Not content with routinely killing more animals than Ernest Hemingway in a steroid rage, the citizens of Iberia’s biggest nation love to traumatize them, too. Hence the existence of the San Vicente de Martir festival: a celebration where, for many years, the villagers of Manganeses de la Polvorosa gathered to throw a goatout of a tower.

Unlike some of the other examples here, goat throwing never had much legitimacy as a tradition. Although locals claim it dates back over 200 years, a report by the BBC suggested it could have started as recently as 1978—although “why” is another issue altogether. On the plus side, it’s no longer around. In 2002, the Spanish courts decided this particular tradition was even more illegal than the country’s other blood sports and banned it outright. Today, die-hard fans have to content themselves with throwing a stuffed toy.

3Hitting Cats With Sticks
Germany

Ever hear the expression “madder than a sackful of cats”? Well, in certain parts of Germany it’s more than just a figure of speech: It’s part of an ancient tradition.

Known as “tomcat poking,” this particular “sport” used to be popular in swathes of the rural East, although it’d be hard to find anyone playing it now. And with good reason: Tomcat poking involves nothing more than sticking a cat in a sack, then sticking the sack in a box, then hitting the box with sticksuntil the cat starts screaming.

According to Der Spiegel, the custom originated way back in the Middle Ages as a kind of party game for lunatics, because even animal cruelty can be fun when the alternative is sitting around waiting to die of the plague. Although it was made super illegal a while back, and even ardent traditionalists aren’t exactly lining up to defend it, there are still isolated cases. In 2004, residents of the tiny town of Wiednitz were cautioned for playing the game at a local bachelor party, of all places.

2Donkey Stoning
Spain

The origins of Pero Palo in Spain are almost as dark as the festival itself. Some years ago, a rapist who had been terrifying the community of Villanueva de la Vera was captured, tied to a donkey, and paraded round the streets, then led outside the village and executed. Today, villagers reenact this unknown rapist’s last ride every year, with one major difference. Nowadays, it’s the donkey who suffers.

In a sort of mass orgy of violence, residents drag a specially selected donkey through the streets, jeering at it, slapping it, hitting it with rocks, and even exploding firecrackers between its legs. When the donkey falls over, they drag it to its feet and start the process all over again, until the poor thing winds up in a lot of pain, very dead, or both. And, unlike the last couple of traditions on our list, the Pero Palo festival is both very legal and still going. In 2014, there were even reports of festivalgoers firing shotguns at the animal.

1Setting A Bull’s Face On Fire
Spain

Caution: The video contains scenes of violence and animal cruelty.

We all know that the Spanish have a strange relationship with bulls; one that frequently involves killing them while dressed in ridiculous outfits. But the residents of the tiny village of Medinaceli take things further than simple bullfighting or even bull lancing. Instead, every year, they lather a bull up with tar and proceed to set fire to its face.

Yes: its actual, honest-to-God face. Known as the “Toro Jubilo,” the event involves setting the bull alight, then releasing it to charge freely around the town square, crashing into walls and terrifying anyone with a phobia of either bulls, fire, or ungodly combinations of the two. According to animal rights groups like PETA (admittedly not the most unbiased source), this can go on for hours and usually leaves the bull disfigured and blinded. On the other hand, supporters of the practice claim it’s all superficial and the bull rarely suffers lasting damage. Whatever the truth, it’s not something we’d personally be willing to try out anytime soon.

7 Shocking Cases Of Female Sexual Predators

7Gemma Barker

Under three separate assumed identities, 19-year-old Gemma Barker engaged in a campaign of deception and fraud that ruined the lives of those she claimed to love. In 2009, she befriended two girls while posing as a man on Facebook and convinced each to meet her in person, where she disguised herself as one of her male alter egos, before initiating a sexual relationship.

Neither of the girls suspected that their “boyfriend” was really a woman. Even after the relationships became physical, Gemma’s surreptitious use of sex toys maintained the deception. Eventually, one of the girls recognized Gemma online using another assumed identity, who appeared to be in a relationship with another woman the girl knew. After the two went to the police and Gemma was arrested, the entire deception was revealed.

Gemma showed no remorse as she was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for sexual assault and was described by the judge as “deceptive and deceitful” in her behavior. Both of her victims sought rape counseling after being emotionally scarred by the ordeal.

6Ashley Jessup

One of the most disgusting and frightening examples of female sexual predation is the case of Ashley Jessup. In August 2011, Jessup’s boyfriend, with whom she enjoyed exchanging sexually explicit images and videos via email, asked her to perform sexual acts on her 10-month-old son and film it for him. She willingly complied, performing oral sex on the baby and fondling his genitals.

When her boyfriend’s former girlfriend found the video on his computer, she contacted the police, who seized Jessup’s computer. The boyfriend was convicted of sexually abusive computer activity and sentenced to 3–20 years in prison, while Jessup was convicted of two counts of rape of a child under 13 years old, one count of endangering children, and one count of pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. The child was placed in the care of his grandmother.

5Sarah Hopkins

Sarah Hopkins gave a horrifying twist to the term “cougar,” as the 35-year-old was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy.The boy was the child of her neighbor and close friend. Hopkins and the boy would often go on long walks together or spend time at her apartment, where she showed him pornographic films and initiated sexual relations.

Her secret was revealed when the boy confessed the details of the eight-month ordeal to his mother, after which Hopkins was promptly arrested andcharged with various sexual crimes, eventually pleading guilty to three counts of rape and two of sodomy and being sentenced to 12 years in prison. Police investigating the case believed that the Hopkins could have assaulted other young victims, but this was never proven.

4Theresa Goddard

Theresa Goddard was a shockingly shameless predator with a desire for what she called an “incest family.” She went so far as to post an online advertisement stating explicitly what she sought: a man who had children with whom they could have sex. All appeared to be going well for her when a 51-year-old father of two children, aged 9 and 10, responded to the ad. The two began to chat via email and Skype to discuss a possible arrangement. After various emails and video chats, Goddard expressed interest in quitting her job and moving to Virginia to become his children’s “pervstepmom.”

She got exactly what she should have expected and certainly deserved, however, when the man turned out to be an undercover officer with the Department of Homeland Security. When she arrived at the airport to meet her new “boyfriend,” she was promptly arrested and soon convicted of attempting to coerce and entice two children into engaging in illegal sexual activity. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

3Jennifer Rice

Jennifer Rice was a teacher at McKinley Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington when she became fixated on an 11-year-old student. Her obsession led to an inappropriate relationship between the two involving illicit email exchanges, movie dates, and eventually, sexual assault. The boy’s father soon became suspicious of the teacher’s motives and forbade his son from having any further contact with her, which drove the increasingly unhinged Rice to kidnapping. She planned to take the boy out of state, and by her own admission, she raped the boy at a rest-stop during the trip.

After she was arrested, it was discovered that Rice had also assaulted the boy’s 15-year-old brother. In 2009, she was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for her many depraved acts. Though she showed genuine remorse for her actions, it was ruled that she must serve her entire sentence and may not be eligible for parole.

2Leah Shipman

In another case of a teacher taking advantage of one of her own students, Leah Shipman initiated a predatory sexual relationship with 15-year-old Johnny Ray Ison while she was employed at Wilmington High School in North Carolina. She was eventually arrested on charges of statutory rape and taking indecent liberties with a child but avoided prosecution by exploiting a legal loophole. Two years after her arrest, she actually married the young man.

The wedding took place just six days after Shipman left her husband of 19 years. Disgustingly, she was given consent to marry the still-underage boy by his own mother. The tactic allowed her to invoke her Sixth Amendment rights, which prevent a defendant’s spouse from being forced to testify against them. Without Ison’s testimy, she could only be charged with interfering with the investigation by calling the boy and sending him text messages during the proceedings. She received only a suspended sentence of 20–30 days in prison, a year of probation, and $345 in restitution. The only real justice is that she has been forbidden to teach ever again.

1Hendrika Shaskey

When Aaron Gilmore was 11 years old and Hendrika Shaskey was 35, he was a student of hers at a school in New Zealand. At the time, he wasn’t close to his own mother, and taking advantage of this, Shaskey befriended him and often invited him to her home to socialize with her own children. He quickly grew fond of the attention and began to think of his teacher as a “second mother.” Unbeknownst to him, her motives went far beyond a simple concern for his welfare. Just under a year after they began their friendship, Shaskey drove him to a secluded parking lot and molested him.

Although he was shocked, Gilmore initially confused the abuse with motherly affection. It continued for five years, during which time Gilmore often stayed overnight at Shaskey’s home. Eventually, she took the young boy with her on vacation. While away from prying eyes, she convinced him to share a bed at their hotel and raped him. After this episode, the older woman got divorced and the parents of the young boy, who clearly knew nothing about the abuse, let him move in with her, since her home was closer to both his school and his dance academy. He only left her clutches at the age of 18, after taking a job as a dancer in Australia.

Gilmore came forward about the abuse in the early 2000s. Though his claims were initially met with doubt and ridicule, Shaskey was ultimately arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Having ended the shame and humiliation of this chapter in his life, Gilmore later went on to star in Australia’s Dancing with the Stars.