Real History in Diabolical Tales

Real-world history and legends both play a major part in the Diabolical Tales Series.

Here is a list of events, people and places mentioned in the Diabolical Tales Series that is linked to history or myth.

1952 Washington D.C. UFO Sightings
On the night of July 19 and into the early morning of July 20, air traffic controllers at Washington National Airport (now Reagan National) as well as nearby Andrews Air Force Base detected multiple objects on radar moving in the vicinity of restricted Washington D.C. airspace. Many of these objects moved in formations above the White House and the U.S. Capitol Building. Flight crews and passengers of several planes saw strange bright objects passing by their plane silently. And hundreds of civilian witnesses in the area reported spotting silent, multi-colored lights in the night skies.

Almost a week later, the UFOs apparently returned with a repeated series of sightings that followed. Widespread news reports about the events threatened to trigger mass hysteria over alien invasion fears.

On July 29, the largest press conference since World War II was held at the Pentagon to respond to these events. Despite rumors of an official Presidential order being given to shoot down the UFOs, the United States Air Force and Project GRUDGE had come to the conclusion that what was actually seen by so many witnesses were either created by temperature inversions or "misidentified aerial phenomenon" such as birds, stars, meteors and the planets Jupiter and/or Venus.

The Washington D.C. events are popularly known as the Washington National Sightings.

The Diabolical Tales Connection

While on a stakeout with FBI Agent Cooper in November 1952, Operative-132 revealed that he had previously worked on several Top-Secret military projects, specifically mentioning Project SIGN and Project GRUDGE. Because of his work on these projects, he was taken all over the country to conduct interviews and do research. Places he listed included Fargo North Dakota, New Mexico, and Lubbock Texas, specifically mentioning "even those Washington Nationals back in July", referring directly to this event.

Despite revealing this information to Agent Cooper, when pressed for a story on the alleged 1947 Roswell UFO crash, O-132 laughed it off as swamp gas, temperature inversions, and/or a meteor shower.

Appearance
 * Diabolical Tales: Part I - Genesis of the Men From Within The Earth (mentioned only)

1952 Hydrogen Bomb Test
On November 1, 1952 at 7:15AM local time, the United States secretly test-detonated the world’s first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak Island in the Pacific Ocean.

Co-designed by Dr. Edward Teller and producing a yield more than 450 times the size of the 1945 Nagasaki A-bomb, it was codenamed "Ivy Mike" as part of Operation Ivy.

The Diabolical Tales Connection

The H-bomb test is seen as stock footage of the actual Ivy Mike. This event completely devastated Enewetak Island, leaving a 175-foot deep, 1 mile-wide crater where land had once been.

According to Zong,

Appearance
 * Diabolical Tales: Part I - Genesis of the Men From Within The Earth
 * Diabolical Tales: Part III - Betrayal of the Men From Within The Earth (mentioned only)

Dr. Ernst Schafer
Dr. Schafer was a famous German hunter and zoologist. In 1938-39, Schafer led a Nazi team funded by Heinrich Himmler's SS Ahnenerbe Society (“Ancestral Heritage Society”) to the Himalayan Mountains of Tibet.

In Diabolical Tales: Part I, Dr. Schafer's effort is to search of evidence of an ancient civilization of "Aryan supermen” who had later gone underground: Agartha.

Schafer died in 1992, aged 82.

Frank Sinatra
Under Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI had many files on Frank Sinatra, mostly concerning his reputed business associations and friendships with Mob bosses. The top Mafia boss in the US in the 1950s was Sam Giancana of Chicago, and his friendship with Sinatra was apparently an open secret among their social circles. Sinatra alleged that the FBI trailed him from the late 1940s through the late 1960s – essentially the entire reign of J. Edgar Hoover – looking for something to pin him on.

Also, Frank Sinatra had a long-term, on-off affair throughout the 1950s with actress Ava Gardner while both were involved with other partners, married (in Sinatra’s case) or otherwise committed (in Gardner’s case).

Prior to his involvement with Project AGARTHA, Agent Cooper reputedly told J. Edgar Hoover that he saw Frank Sinatra with Sam Giancana. As a result, Agent Cooper and his partner Agent Thompson are assigned to trail Sinatra. It is on this assignment when they encounter Zong, who kills Agent Thompson and stuns Agent Cooper in Diabolical Tales: Part I.

J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover was head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 19XX to 19XX.

Agent Cooper's boss was FBI Assistant Director Smith, but his boss was FBI Head J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover is mentioned a number of times in Diabolical Tales: Part I.

Dr. Edward Teller
Dr. Edward Teller was a famous nuclear physicist who helped co-develop the hydrogen bomb.

Along with being the co-developer of the H-bomb, the first test-detonation of which was seen in Diabolical Tales: Part I, Dr. Teller is mentioned in Diabolical Tales: Part II being the intended recipient of the Sapphire of Agartha that Operative-132 and Agent Cooper have to deliver (which they fail to do).

Agartha
Agartha is the name of a legendary underworld kingdom, first reports of which go back to at least the 1800s. The idea of Agartha was embraced by the many Hollow Earth theories that followed, all of which that have been scientifically discredited in the years since.

(see full article: Agartha)

Atlantis
Atlantis was a hypothetical lost continent that was located in the Atlantic Ocean. Although largely discredited by history as a myth and first mentioned as ancient history by Plato in the 3rdCentury BCE, this legendary continent and civilization, at its height, was apparently more technologically advanced than Europe or the rest of the world at that time. For some unexplained reason, the legends claim it suffered a great flood that destroyed and submerged the entire continent under the Atlantic Ocean.

In Diabolical Tales: Part II, Operative-132 reveals to Agent Cooper that he believes the Agarthans are the survivors of Atlantis who went underground due to some catastrophe. He says "They had the Sapphire of Agartha then, and they used it to bore holes in the rock and granite beneath."

In Diabolical Tales: Part III, Zerrath confirms that the subterranean Agarthan race actually originated in Atlantis. Over 10,000 years ago their race ruled the Earth from their Atlantis continent. Because of the experimentation with the Sapphire of Agartha (then known as the Sapphire of Power) by their ancient ruler Zalanubar, the entire Atlantis continent was destroyed and the survivors of the catastrophe went underground to found Agartha.