Any time there’s mention of the word “curse,” it’s a cue for skeptics to scoff. But sometimes, there’s so much to a story that it might make even the biggest skeptic reconsider.

That’s the case with Palmyra, an island in the Pacific that’s had way more death and tragedy than it should. It wasn’t until 1802 that a ship called the Palmyra was wrecked on the atoll’s rocky reef, and it got a name and a map entry. Things were quiet for around 70 years, until another ship — the Angel — also wrecked on the reef. A few months later, another ship sailed by… and kept right on sailing when they saw the brutally murdered bodies of the Angel’s crew. Later, a pirate ship crew met an even more mysterious fate, and simply disappeared — and disappearances continued to happen up into World War II. 

Then, in the early 1940s, Culture Trip says Malcolm and Eleanor Graham set sail on their boat Sea Wind. They headed to Palmyra, and it wasn’t until 1946 that another couple found the burned skull and bones of Eleanor Graham, sealed inside a metal container. Her husband’s remains were never recovered, although the Sea Wind did come sailing into Hawaii with another couple at the helm. Duane Walker was ultimately convicted of murder — but claimed it was self-defense — and when he died in 2010, the secret of what really happened to Eleanor and Malcolm Graham may have died with him.

A Canadian clerk for Wells Fargo, Edward Arthur Wilson decided to quit his job, become a merchant marine during World War I, then reinvent himself as Brother 12, one of a “zodiac” of leaders of a group he called the Chela. It was their mission to follow The Three Truths and prepare for the end of the world — in a “fortress for the future” he claimed he had seen in a vision.

The Aquarian Foundation was created in 1927, and the charismatic Brother 12 convinced around 8,000 “adherents” to help contribute to his fortress, built along a series of islands starting with Vancouver Island. (Macleans says this was about the same time he convinced Myrtle Baumgartner he was the incarnation of Osiris, she was his Isis, and they were going to give birth to Horus the redeemer.)

What happened on the island and inside the cult is unclear, but according to BIV, some followers became disillusioned with his leadership. Stories were equally wild and disturbing: One claimed a young woman was murdered for being “unfaithful” to the so-called Brother 12. It’s not known if that’s true, but almost as disturbing is the amount of money Wilson took from his adherents. According to Global News, his Aquarian Foundation relieved members of their gold: By the time he disappeared, he had somewhere around 40 cases of quart jars, all filled with gold coins. None have been recovered.

For a long time, the only inhabitants of the Scottish island of Eilean Mor (pictured) were the lighthouse keepers, tasked with keeping the beacon blazing and passing ships safe from the rocky coastline. In 1900 — on the day after Christmas — a ship carrying a replacement lighthouse keeper approached the island, only to get no response from the keepers. According to Historic UK, the replacement keeper, Joseph Moore, went ashore to see what the heck was going on. He found an open door to the lighthouse, a stopped clock, two missing coats (and one still hanging in its place), dinner on the table, and no keepers.

Three men had vanished without a trace, and further investigation turned up some disturbing details in the keepers’ logs. December 12 and brought severe winds, they wrote, which had driven one man — a seasoned veteran of the shores — to tears. The storm continued, and they prayed for it to stop. On the 15th, someone had written, “Storm ended, sea calm. God is over all.”

As if that wasn’t eerie enough, nowhere else in the area had experienced any storms whatsoever. No one has ever been able to explain what happened to the three men or what their final entry in the logbook meant, but lighthouse keepers who took the post after their disappearance claimed — for decades afterwards — that on windy, stormy night, they could hear the names of the missing men being called on the wind.

The legendary Apache warrior Geronimo died at Fort Sill in 1909, and according to the legend, his bones were disturbed nine years later when a group of men stationed at the fort dug up his grave and stole his skull, a few other bones, and some associated relics. The men were reportedly members of Yale University’s mysterious Skull and Bones society, and saw the remains moved to a secret location associated with the society.

NPR says that story was given credence in 2009. That’s when Marc Wortman was researching a book about Yale students who fought in WWI and uncovered a letter reading (in part): “The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible is exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club … and … is now safe inside the Tomb.” 

Skull and Bones members aren’t talking, Yale says the university “does not possess Geronimo’s remains,” and stresses that they don’t own Skull and Bones properties… which include an island in the St. Lawrence River. According to Thousand Islands Life, the society owns Deer Island, which is still regularly visited by society members. It’s said to figure into new member rituals — including the kissing of a skull — and they further suggest that this might be the location of the elusive skull. Is there any truth to that? It’s unlikely to be revealed: They add that activities on the island “are protected by a special act of the Connecticut Legislature.”

Pitcairn Island had the most fictional-sounding start in history: After sailors on the HMS Bounty mutinied, they settled down on Pitcairn with their brand new Tahitian wives and created a whole new civilization. It sounds great, but according toVanity Fair, in 2004, a third of the island’s male population were convicted of a total of 33 different offenses that stemmed from a long-held practice of “breaking in” pre-teen girls.

The first sexual assault that had been considered for part in the trial had happened in 1964, but investigations suggest that the island’s “secret sex culture” and “child abuse on a grand scale” had been a part of life on Pitcairn from the very earliest days — starting with mutineer Fletcher Christian and his offspring. It was a Christian that kicked off the whole thing in 1996, in fact, when 20-year-old Shawn Christian was accused of the sexual assault of a pre-teen girl.

That case was dropped, but the spotlight was on Pitcairn. Convictions were ultimately handed down, but how many young girls suffered in silence for more than a century remains a mystery that can be summed up by this comment from one Pitcairn man talking about offering to prep an 11-year-old for her boyfriend: “It seems the way it’s been going down through the times. That was back then. I see times are changing now… and obviously what we did then is not normal.”

The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was built on an island in Lake Texcoco, says LiveScience, and Science says that after the city was razed and massive structures like the Templo Mayor were demolished, the Spanish built the beginning of Mexico City on the ruins. But the island of Tenochtitlan is still buried there.

Most of what historians know about the Aztecs came from the Europeans who witnessed the city in its heyday — and there’s a lot of talk about human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. Included in those writings were descriptions of the Templo Mayor — where the sacrifices were held — and the tzompantli, which was essentially a giant rack built to hold the skulls of the victims. Estimates suggest it was big enough to hold 130,000 skulls, but that’s long been written off as an exaggeration of a group of conquerors trying to imply that wiping out a whole civilization wasn’t that bad.

There were serious doubts about whether it had even existed, but in 2015, archaeologists found it. Researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History have confirmed that yes, the rack existed, and yes, it held thousands of skulls. It remains unclear just who the sacrifices were, what their days before their final, really bad day was like, and just what the purpose of large-scale sacrifices were. The island that once supported one of the largest cities in North America might not be an island anymore, but it — and the artifacts — are still there, and still might surrender some pretty dark secrets.