Beyond Bizarre - Museum of Death | Museum of Funerary History
Documentary television hosted by Jay Robinson focused on exploring great mysteries around the world, from ghost sightings, alien encounters and everything else in between.
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00:00No one really knows what awaits us after death, however we do know something about the process
00:08of death, macabre stories of killers and victims of this bloody history in America.
00:18This bizarre information can be found in two of the most fascinating and ghoulish museums
00:25ever constructed.
00:27Join me now, please, as we visit these strange museums, if you can stand it.
00:37The Museum of Death is one of the most popular tourist attractions in San Diego, California.
00:45Owned and operated by Kathy Schultz and associate James Healy, the present day Museum of Death
00:52grew out of an earlier and very bizarre concept.
00:56We established the museum in 1995 and we established it, well it actually evolved out
01:02of a lot of things.
01:03We had a gallery, we showed artwork by serial killers every year in the exhibits and it
01:09was the most popular exhibit and we actually made money during those shows by admissions.
01:15We also moved into this building because it was a mortuary and we knew we had to use those
01:19two together and it evolved into the Museum of Death.
01:22The Museum of Death's exhibit about execution includes an operational guillotine, a pendulum
01:29and an electric chair.
01:31A popular exhibit is clothing worn by a man executed in the electric chair, showing purge
01:38marks where blood and body fluids were forced through the skin and body openings.
01:44The Museum of Death also offers exhibits from all over the world, including this highly
01:51decorated cannibal skull.
01:54The skull is just part of the museum's bone collection.
01:58The museum's mascot is an actual stuffed dog.
02:05Perhaps the museum's most interesting and bizarre exhibits are the raw and uncensored
02:11police and coroner photographs.
02:13These often horrifying pictures include famous murder stories like the Black Dahlia case
02:19of Elizabeth Short.
02:20They also include stomach-churning pictures of auto accidents, terrifying animal encounters,
02:27tragic combat deaths and airline flights that turned into firing disasters.
02:34Although its visitors come from around the world, they each share one similar thought.
02:40They're all dying to know about death.
02:43We get all kinds of people at the museum.
02:46You would think that they would all be really strange and just fascinated by death, but
02:51it's such a common thread.
02:52We're all born and we all die, so people just want to know who could think of the Museum
02:59of Death.
03:00So it really is a cross-section of all people.
03:02We have young children all the way to senior citizens.
03:06Some visitors have quite an unusual reaction.
03:09The most bizarre response I've ever seen or heard here at the Museum of Death was last
03:14week when a young man came running up the stairs with his hand over his mouth.
03:18I think he was vomiting, but I wasn't sure.
03:20So what I did was go downstairs to see what might have caused him to go off.
03:25And when I got down there, the smell at that time was very overpowering.
03:29This building, since it was built so long ago, has a way of retaining all the old smells
03:33of the old mortuary.
03:35And what happens is during the day, as it heats up, the smell becomes stronger and stronger
03:40and stronger.
03:41So I think when he went downstairs and saw this sight of a very disturbing graphic scene
03:46going on, and the smell hit him at the same time, that's what caused him to go off.
03:51The Museum's current display of all-star serial killer artists include Richard Ramirez, also
03:58known as the Night Stalker.
04:01His current work being shown includes this pen and ink drawing of a demon goat.
04:08When held to the light, the light allows one to see the watermark of Satan on the goat's
04:14forehead.
04:15The picture you're viewing now is Jeffrey Dahmer's refrigerator, drawn by Jeffrey Dahmer.
04:25Lawrence Bittigan has been on California's death row for 14 years.
04:30His pop-up greeting cards show he hasn't lost his sense of humor.
04:37The signed artistic cross reveals a serious sign with SQDR, meaning San Quentin Death
04:46Row.
04:47John Wayne Gacy wasn't clouding around when he murdered 33 young men and buried them under
04:54and around his home, but he too was an artist who specialized in drawing clowns.
05:02Some like this are self-portraits, as Gacy was indeed a clown at children's birthday
05:09parties.
05:10And what art gallery of an all-star serial killer lineup would be complete without the
05:17MVP of murderous modern art, Charlie Manson himself?
05:26How does this bizarre museum affect its visitors?
05:33A day above the ground is a good day, and I really believe that when you face fear and
05:37you can go on the next day and wake up feeling fresh, that you're going to have a great life
05:42ahead of you.
05:43I don't think that people should dwell on the fact that one day they're going to die,
05:46because it's just like lunch, it's coming.
05:48Once death has occurred, it's followed by burial or internment.
05:54In Houston, Texas, there is a National Museum of Funerary History.
06:01It was founded by a funeral director who felt that a lot of the history of funeral rituals
06:07was disappearing.
06:08So with the help of funeral directors and suppliers throughout the country, this bizarre
06:14museum was founded in 1992 and has been able to accumulate the nation's largest funeral
06:22memorabilia collection.
06:25In charge of the museum is President Bob Boetticher.
06:30Well, our museum is very unique.
06:33We house one of the world's largest funeral memorabilia collection.
06:38We have 31 funeral vehicles, many of them hand-carved out of wood.
06:43You'll never, ever see them again.
06:46This one-of-a-kind 1916 Packard bus could accommodate not only the coffin, but the mourners
06:54and pallbearers as well.
06:581921 Rockfell hearse is hand-carved with solid maple and features many luxurious accessories.
07:08This 1916 Buick features funeral draperies which have been carved from solid oak.
07:18The unusual 1972 Pagoda hearse was imported from Japan and features solid brass carvings.
07:28This fully restored horse-drawn hearse is believed to be one of the oldest in the United
07:34States.
07:35The number of plumes adorning the hearse denoted the deceased occupant's status in life.
07:43This unusual 5-8 scale hearse is a particularly melancholic example of the funeral industry's
07:51necessary creativity.
07:53It was built exclusively to carry children.
07:56Because of its small stature, the strange contrivance was pulled by two men rather than
08:03by horses.
08:04The funeral museum also features several unusual one-of-a-kind coffins.
08:12In 1930, a man and his wife had a small child who was dying of a terminal disease.
08:18So the father said that when his son passed away, he and his wife would commit suicide
08:23and they wanted to be buried with their son.
08:25So the father had this casket built for three people.
08:28And if you notice on the inside, there are two large pillows, one to each side and a
08:32smaller pillow in the middle.
08:34When the boy did pass away, the parents did not go through with what they had said.
08:38And the casket has been sitting in the basement of a funeral home since the 1930s.
08:43The Museum of Death and the National Museum of Funerary History are reached like a looking
08:50glass, where we can experience for a moment or two the reality of the other side, remembering
08:58of course the other side is strictly for visiting until for each of us, a soft voice
09:06lets us know that visiting hours are over and it is time now for a permanent stay.
09:16Of all the great unexplained mysteries in our beautifully bizarre world, there is none
09:22so magnificent or so divinely spiritual as a strange formation known as Stonehenge.
09:31To this day, there is no explanation as to who built it or why, but there is another
09:39Stonehenge, an American Stonehenge, whose mysteries are equally bizarre and may, as
09:49you'll soon see, be even beyond bizarre.