Transcription
Today, I'm going to tell you three stories. And at the end of each of them, I'm going to show you the haunting photo or photos that are famously associated with them. But before we get into those stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place, because that's all we do, and we upload once a week. So, if that's of interest to you, the next time you're at the Like Buttons house, please secretly sneak into their fridge and replace all of their vanilla ice cream with mashed potatoes. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories. [Music]
At 10 p.m. on January 31st, 2012, a 23-year-old man named Chen Rang Yu walked into an internet cafe in New Taipei City, Taiwan. The cafe had a front counter where a cashier would check you in and sell you snacks and drinks. And then from where he was looking, behind the cashier were all these tables, these long rows of tables with different computer stations at them. And there were at least about 30 people already sitting behind each of these terminals, fully engrossed in whatever game or whatever they were doing on the internet. And not one of these people even looked up when Chen walked inside. I mean, nobody was interested in Chen. But for Chen, that was sort of part of the allure of this cafe. He got to, you know, sit down and play his game and be totally left alone.
And so Chen walked up to the counter and paid for some time. He also bought a soda, and then he walked around back. He found an empty computer, sat down, and immediately fired up his favorite game, League of Legends. League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game that's extremely popular all over the world, and Chen took this game very seriously. He routinely would spend 8-hour long marathon sessions at this internet cafe just playing League of Legends to try to level up and move up in the ranking system. And so today, that's what Chen was going to do. And so after the game was booted up, he immediately locked in, and he was in his first battle. And then before long, hours had gone by, and he hadn't even gotten up. And then eventually, you know, a couple of times he got up to get a soda refill and to get a snack. But I mean, he basically just all-night gamed just non-stop, periodically stopping to literally put his head down on the table and take a 15-minute power nap, only to get right back up and get back into the game. And so, all night he's just on this game.
By a little afternoon on February 1st, Chen had been gaming nearly non-stop for 14 hours, which was long even by his standards, but he couldn't stop now. He was exhausted, but he was doing great. This is like one of the best sessions he had ever had. And right at that moment, he was in the middle of this really intense match where his team was about to get knocked out by this really good opponent. And if Chen could just lock in, they could pull out a win. And so Chen was super focused, leaned forward, hands flying across his keyboard mouse, and he managed to dodge an attack. And then he geared up for the big strike. And right as he did, something went wrong.
About 9 hours later, around 9:00 p.m., the cashier at this internet cafe had just finished giving another soda to one of the customers. And then they looked out, and she noticed there was nobody else in line. Now, the job of this cashier was not just to check people in and give them snacks and drinks. It was also to keep the cafe clean and also critically to periodically make rounds and kick people out once their time had expired, because oftentimes a lot of these gamers would get sucked into their games, lose track of time, and basically end up playing for longer than they had actually paid for. So, the cashier grabbed her clipboard with all the information about each of the customers and how long they had paid for, and then she began making her rounds in the back. And part of it was she needed to speak basically to all the people that were there and kind of confirm that they were supposed to be here still. But as she walked into the back, per usual, nobody looked up at her. I mean, all these people at all their terminals were heads down, fully focused on their game. I mean, completely immersed. And so, she began going, you know, one person to the next, being like, "Hey, you know, are you good? Did you pay for your time? You going to be here any bit longer?" And a lot of these guys, they, you know, they'd finally look up and be totally shocked she's even standing next to them, cuz they weren't paying attention at all. But, you know, one by one, she checked each of the monitors. And eventually, she got to Chen. And when she got to Chen, Chen was focused on this game entirely to the point where when she said, "Hey, you know, your time is up. You've been here for 24 hours. You paid for, you know, eight or nine or whatever it was," Chen didn't even look up at her. I mean, nothing she could do could get Chen to even acknowledge her. He was so focused on the game. And so eventually the cashier, out of frustration, was like, "Hey." And she kind of tapped his shoulder, and Chen leaned back. And when he did and the cashier got a good look at him, she screamed.
It would turn out until this very moment, Chen had gotten his wish. He had come to this cafe 24 hours earlier and been totally left alone. He got to exclusively just play his game in his own world. In fact, the whole time he was here, no one had even looked at him, because if they had, they would have seen something was horribly wrong. It was the cashier who walked over to him and tapped on his shoulder who noticed what was wrong. Here's what the cashier saw. This is a picture of Chen. And Chen is in full rigor mortis. Because 9 hours earlier, when he was in the middle of that really intense fight with that opponent who was about to beat Chen and his team, Chen, you know, he got really excited, and he was about to land that big strike that potentially could have been the blow that would have won the match. Well, he was so amped up that Chen had a heart attack and died. And for the 9 hours after he died, when he was still in the same position he was in playing the game, nobody noticed. He just sat there appearing to be fully alive, locked into the game like everybody else, but he was actually dead. And so it wasn't until the cashier tapped Chen on the shoulder and he rocked backwards, still in his gaming position, but because he's in rigor mortis, his hands kind of jutted out in front of him up into the air that she realized he was actually dead. Chen's family would later say that he had pre-existing heart issues that very likely contributed to his fatal heart attack.
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Okay, back to the [Music] stories.
On the afternoon of October 11th, 2023, a 48-year-old man named Samuel Gomez stood in the lobby of the Moxy Hotel in Portland, Oregon, talking to the concierge. Samuel had flown in from Phoenix earlier that morning because he was speaking at a conference in Portland later that week. But for now, he was just going to go out and enjoy the sights. And so he had asked the concierge to give him some local recommendations. The concierge named a few cool local places. Samuel thanked him, and then he headed out the front door onto the road. And as soon as Samuel was outside, he immediately heard this loud commotion happening right down the street. And he turned and looked in the direction and he saw this kind of gaggle of people and cars sort of standing in what looked like a big circle around whatever was happening over there. Samuel couldn't tell what it was, but people were honking, and people had their phones out filming sort of whatever was in the middle of the circle. And from the looks of it, it appeared there was at least one police officer in his car sort of beginning to marshal the scene and block traffic. But, you know, there was just this chaotic scene happening. And Samuel really had no idea what it was. But naturally, being a human, he was interested. He wanted to see what was going on. And so, Samuel began walking down the road. And as he did, he pulled out his phone, opened up his camera, and began filming and taking pictures. And as he got closer to whatever was going on here, the cacophony of horns and people yelling and all the chaos just got louder and louder. And it still wasn't clear at all to Samuel what the heck this even was. And so he just continued to take photos and just kind of be an onlooker. And at some point when Samuel got right up close and actually was standing right near that police officer blocking traffic, he happened to turn his phone and aim his camera at the police officer. And when he did, he took a photo. Here is the photo he took.
As you can see, the police officer is aiming his gun directly at Samuel. And that's because this is not a police officer. Samuel just thought he was a police officer when he looked down the road at this crazy scene. He saw this guy in a car who sort of appeared to be, you know, maybe an undercover cop sort of, you know, in the right place at the right time taking charge and handling whatever this was. When in reality, this man who's in this photo is a guy named Jeffrey Hammond who had just been involved in a road rage incident and he shot and killed a 47-year-old man named Ryan Martin. That was the scene that Samuel had walked out to. Jeffrey Hammond shooting and killing Ryan Martin. That's what everybody was reacting to. And so as Samuel walked down the road not knowing that, he inadvertently stood right in front of the shooter who was still sort of crazed, aimed his camera at him, right as Jeffrey Hammond swung his gun around and shot Samuel. So like literally seconds after this photo was taken, Samuel got shot. Luckily though, Samuel would survive the shooting. As for Jeffrey Hammond, he was arrested and charged with murder. And as far as we know, he is currently in jail awaiting [Music] trial.
On April 5th, 2018, a young man named Luis Hernandez sat inside of a small stone shack with a metal roof on a rural property in northern Venezuela. Luis was a painter, and for the last year or so, this shack had doubled as both his home and his art studio, and it was basically always a mess. There were dirty dishes and food everywhere, and all his paint supplies were scattered all over the ground. But the walls were all adorned with all of his beautiful and most prized possessions, his artwork. He mainly painted really dramatic-looking portraits in very bold colors. In fact, when he was actually doing his painting, when he was in the middle of the floor, right in the center of a shack, on one wall, there was this face of a man he had done, all in red. And then on the left, on the other wall, was this woman's face, all in blue, but with bright red lips. And these paintings were both so intense that at times as he was doing his work, it sort of felt like they were both looking at him. But on this particular day, as Luis sat in the middle of a shack working on his latest project, he put that weird thought out of his mind that, you know, his paintings were watching him and just focused instead on getting this done. You know, he had one more beautiful portrait he was working on, and he took his paintbrush and he dipped it in the black ink and he put the finishing touches on it. And when this portrait was done, Luis kind of sat back and took it all in. And he couldn't help but feel a bit emotional because this project, you know, it was different than any other he had ever done. He wasn't doing it for fun. He wasn't doing it for pay. He was doing it as a way to cope with a big crisis in his life.
So this shack where Luis worked and lived and also the rural property that it sat on belonged to Luis's boyfriend, Lisandro Rosales Garcia. Lisandro and Luis had met about a year earlier when Luis was really down on his luck and was actually homeless, living out on the streets. But Lisandro had seen Luis and offered to let him come live in the shack on his property, which was out in the middle of nowhere. And Luis, who's got no other options, is like, "Awesome. Yes, I'd love to do that." And so he moves out into the shack. And pretty quickly after moving in, Luis and Lisandro, they formed a more romantic relationship. And Luis was so happy. He felt like Lisandro was the one person who really understood him and truly supported his art. But then about two months ago, Lisandro had just gone missing. The police were looking into it, but so far Luis had not gotten any updates. And so Luis was handling this huge gap in his life now, you know, the only way he knew how to, which was with his art. And so this latest project he had just finished was sort of like a tribute to his missing boyfriend. But as Luis put his brush down and stood up to admire his work, he suddenly heard voices from outside. Now, this was highly unusual because this property really was very remote. I mean, the only time Luis or Lisandro would see people here was if they invited them, and Luis had not invited anyone. But before Luis could even react to, you know, these strangers on his property, those people outside began pounding on Luis's front door. And so Luis, he opened up the door, and standing there were all these police officers. And Luis's first reaction was, "Oh, they must be here to give me some updates about Lisandro's disappearance." But these police officers, they didn't give an update. Instead, they just pushed past Luis into the art studio and began scooping up all his paints and paint brushes. And then at some point, one of the officers actually looked down and saw the final project that Luis had been working on, his tribute to his missing boyfriend. And when the officer saw that painting, he turned around, ran outside, and vomited. Here is a picture of that tribute.
Now, at first glance, this piece of art is totally unremarkable. You know, it appears to be some sort of stained glass with green leaves and some blue and red flowers. But when you consider the types of supplies that Luis used to make this particular piece of art, you'll realize how horrifying this image actually is, and it's what caused that officer to vomit. It would turn out Luis was not just a painter. He was also a serial killer. And what he would do is after he killed his victims, he would use their blood, their ashes, and their other body parts to paint all of his paintings. Now, at first, Luis and Lisandro were actually a happy couple. However, at some point in February of 2018, they got into some kind of fight, and Luis killed Lisandro and quickly began using his body parts to create this tribute to his boyfriend. If you look again at the tribute painting, all the red that is used is Lisandro's blood, and all the black that's used is Lisandro's ashes. All told, police would find the remains of at least six people on that property. They also found evidence that Luis was not just using their body parts to make art. He was also cannibalizing his victims. Luis was arrested and made a full confession. As far as we know, he is currently incarcerated in Venezuela.
In case you haven't heard yet, our newest graphic novel, Mr. Ballin Presents Where Nightmares Live, is available for pre-order right now. It contains another nine heart-stopping, strange, dark, and mysterious stories, all based on real events. This was a passion project. It took a lot of time, a lot of people involved from the artwork to the storytelling. I mean, this is a beautiful piece to add to your collection, so you got to check it out. The book comes out on September 30th, but again, you can pre-order your copy at book.bballstudios.com or you can click the link in the description below. There are a limited number of hand-signed copies available, but those are going to sell out very quickly. So, please pre-order today because remember, your nightmares are waiting. Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now. But if you're looking for a recommendation from me of that one video that's worth your time, well, it's this one right here. So, give it a watch. All right, until next time. See you.