Curse of the "Crying Boy"

(Above: Who would want that creepy kid in her house anyway?)

In 1985, an English couple's house caught on fire. Everything on the ground floor was destroyed--with one strange exception. A cheap painting of a crying child had survived the flames unscathed. It was odd, yes. But then a local firefighter stepped forward, and the story became truly disturbing.

The firefighter claimed that the tacky painting was well known among his blaze-battling colleagues. It was often discovered--in perfect condition--among the burnt remains of fire-ravaged homes. The "Crying Boy" had been present at dozens of fires, investigators later determined, some dating all the way back to 1973.

One of Britain's tabloid papers immediately picked up on the story, and the "Crying Boy" became a phenomenon. Was the painting cursed? Was poor taste in home decor putting people's lives at risk? When the paper offered to destroy people's paintings for free, frightened Brits sent in so many copies that the stack eventually reached over twelve feet high.

Rather than go away, the story has grown into a full-fledged urban legend in the past twenty-three years. Some sources even claim to have tracked down the artist and identified the boy in the painting as a Spanish orphan whose parents died in a fire. (A priest reportedly told the artist that fires followed the child wherever he went.)

Of course most "rational" people have long dismissed the curse of the "Crying Boy." The source of each and every fire at which the painting was present has been identified by firefighters--electric heaters left next to beds or stoves left burning unattended.

But what no one has ever been able to adequately explain is why the painting itself is never destroyed. (Oooh. I just shivered.)

Read the full story at forteantimes.com.

(Via Boing Boing)