The real Candyman stories behind the legend may not be supernatural, but they are just as chilling as anything the movie could ever depict.

For six years, Fritz Haarmann used his position as a police informant to hide in plain sight while he carried out at least 24 grisly murders as the "Vampire of Hanover."

Days after learning his family had been shipped off to a refugee camp beside 12,000 other Jews, 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan bought a gun and snuck into the German embassy in Paris.

In 1898, French soldiers Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine were sent to unify colonies in Africa. But they brutalized them instead.

With Europe in turmoil after World War I, German architect Herman Sörgel became convinced his Atlantropa project was the only way to prevent another conflict.

In 1928, Henry Ford broke ground on Fordlândia, a rubber-producing town in Brazil that he hoped would supply his car factories and serve as a model industrial society. Instead, it devolved into a dystopia.

Johnny Stompanato was a bodyguard for Mickey Cohen when he was killed at the hands of teenaged Cheryl Crane.

Rather than accept defeat, up to 20,000 die-hard Confederates moved to the slaveholding Empire of Brazil to establish colonies of Confederados. Their descendents still honor them today.

In the 1970s, Bantu Steve Biko fought against South Africa's racist regime until his brutal death.

Lope de Aguirre called himself the "Wrath of God, Prince of Freedom, King of Tierra Firme." But his fellow explorers just called him a madman.

Even though 77 hopeful fugitives were caught just two days after trying to escape aboard The Pearl, their daring attempt would inspire abolitionists nationwide.