Stories with Colleen

Stories with Colleen History’s secrets, true crime & the deals that built empires. Follow for fascinating stories daily. Hi, my name is Colleen. I am a T7 paraplegic.

I was shot and left paralyzed at 25 years old after being car jacked. I didn't come from a silver spoon background it was more like a plastic fork. I aged out of the foster care system at 18. Today I am the owner/operator of two indecent living facilities that help house the homeless. I have built a real estate portfolio from my wheelchair. I am a creative investor, tax sale specialist. real estate wholesaler and a teacher for the biggest course and community in the country that helps everyday hard-working people learn about flipping contracts and solving sellers' problems through wholesaling. I am passionate about helping others. My most important job is being a mom to my 13-year-old son Hunter, and my fur babies. I love creating content that educates. If you are interested in real estate content, follow me on ig . Thank you for being here :)

Think today’s billionaires are rich? 💰Imagine having so much wealth that historians struggle to even translate it into m...
09/22/2026

Think today’s billionaires are rich? 💰

Imagine having so much wealth that historians struggle to even translate it into modern money.

These four men didn’t just accumulate fortunes. At different points in history, their wealth was connected to gold, land, banking, oil, taxation and entire empires.

👑 Mansa Musa ruled the Mali Empire during the 1300s, when it controlled major gold-producing regions and trans-Saharan trade. During his legendary pilgrimage to Mecca, he distributed so much gold that historical accounts describe its value being disrupted in Cairo afterward.

🏛️ Augustus Caesar ruled an enormous Roman Empire with access to taxation, land and resources on a scale that’s almost impossible to compare directly with personal wealth today.

💰 Jakob Fugger, nicknamed “Fugger the Rich,” built an extraordinary banking and mining fortune. His money financed some of Europe’s most powerful rulers and even played a role in imperial politics.

🛢️ John D. Rockefeller built Standard Oil into an industrial powerhouse. At its height, Standard Oil controlled roughly 90% of U.S. oil refining, and Rockefeller became America’s first billionaire.

But here’s something most “richest people ever” lists don’t tell you…

There is no scientifically precise way to say an emperor from 2,000 years ago was worth “$4 trillion” or a medieval ruler was worth “$400 billion.”

They didn’t own portfolios like modern billionaires.

Some controlled territories, natural resources, taxation systems and trade routes.

So instead of asking who had the biggest bank account…

Ask who controlled the greatest share of the wealth and resources of their entire world.

And THAT conversation gets crazy. 👀

Who should I do next—the 4 richest WOMEN in history? 👑

Elon Musk is rich.Rockefeller was rich.But some men in history had the kind of wealth that could influence entire empire...
09/22/2026

Elon Musk is rich.

Rockefeller was rich.

But some men in history had the kind of wealth that could influence entire empires. 💰👑

And the craziest part? We may never know exactly how rich some of them actually were.

Take Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in the 1300s.

His empire controlled enormously valuable gold-producing regions and major trans-Saharan trade routes.

During his famous pilgrimage to Mecca, accounts say Musa distributed and spent so much gold in Cairo that the local value of gold was affected for YEARS.

Then you have Augustus Caesar, ruling an empire controlling enormous amounts of land, taxation and resources.

Jakob Fugger built a banking and mining fortune so powerful that European rulers—including emperors—depended on his financing.

John D. Rockefeller eventually controlled roughly 90% of America’s oil-refining industry through Standard Oil and became America’s first billionaire.

Andrew Carnegie built a steel empire, sold it for an extraordinary fortune…and then spent his later years giving huge portions of his money away.

And here’s where internet lists get a little misleading:

You will see claims that ancient rulers were worth “$400 billion,” “$1 trillion,” or even “$5 trillion” in today’s money.

Those numbers are estimates—not bank balances.

Comparing a medieval emperor who controlled territory, mines, taxes and trade routes to a modern billionaire who owns stocks and companies isn’t an exact science.

But THAT might actually make this more fascinating.

Some of these men didn’t simply have money.

They controlled the resources that entire civilizations depended on.

So here’s the question:

If you could have the fortune of ONE person in history—but you had to live during THEIR time period—who are you choosing? 👀💰

They said she murdered 650 girls and bathed in their blood to stay young.But what if the most horrifying part of Elizabe...
09/22/2026

They said she murdered 650 girls and bathed in their blood to stay young.

But what if the most horrifying part of Elizabeth Báthory’s story… is figuring out which parts were actually true? 🩸👑

Born into Hungarian nobility in 1560, Elizabeth Báthory became one of the most infamous women in European history.

After accusations began spreading about disappearances and horrific treatment of young women at her estates, an investigation was launched.

Witnesses described beatings, starvation, exposure to freezing temperatures and other brutal punishments.

Dozens of deaths were alleged.

Then came the number that turned Báthory into a legend:

650 victims.

That figure reportedly came from testimony about a supposed record of victims—but historians have never found such a list, and the true number remains unknown.

And that famous story about Báthory bathing in the blood of virgins to preserve her beauty?

That’s where history gets even stranger.

The blood-bathing story does not appear in the contemporary evidence against her. It became popular generations after her death and is widely regarded as a later legend.

There is another controversy too.

Some historians have questioned whether Báthory’s prosecution was influenced by politics, enormous debts owed to her family, and attempts by powerful men to seize her property.

Others argue that the volume of testimony makes it difficult to dismiss the accusations entirely.

She was never given a conventional public trial.

Instead, Báthory was confined at Čachtice Castle, where she remained until her death in 1614.

So was Elizabeth Báthory one of history’s most prolific killers?

A powerful noblewoman whose genuine crimes grew into an even darker legend?

Or was her reputation deliberately exaggerated by enemies who wanted her wealth and influence?

More than 400 years later, historians are STILL arguing about it.

And that might be the creepiest part of the entire story.

How much of “The Blood Countess” was woman… and how much was legend? 👀

Imagine stepping outside and seeing people dancing in the street…Then realizing they couldn’t stop.No celebration. No fe...
09/22/2026

Imagine stepping outside and seeing people dancing in the street…

Then realizing they couldn’t stop.

No celebration. No festival. No TikTok challenge.

In the summer of 1518, a woman in Strasbourg—then part of the Holy Roman Empire—reportedly began dancing in the street.

She kept going.

Then others joined her.

Within weeks, contemporary accounts describe a full-blown dancing epidemic involving large numbers of people. Authorities apparently made one of the strangest decisions imaginable:

They encouraged it.

Believing the dancers needed to get the dancing “out of their system,” officials reportedly provided spaces for them to dance and even brought in musicians.

It didn’t work.

Accounts describe exhausted dancers collapsing, and later chronicles claimed some died—although historians still debate the exact number of participants and whether deaths can actually be confirmed.

And more than 500 years later, we STILL don’t know exactly what caused it.

One theory blamed ergot poisoning from contaminated rye—but many historians consider that explanation unlikely.

Another possibility is mass psychogenic illness: extreme stress spreading into very real physical symptoms throughout a community already suffering from hunger, disease and hardship.

People at the time had a much darker explanation.

They believed they were cursed.

Eventually authorities changed tactics, stopped the music and took some of the afflicted to a religious shrine.

Then, as mysteriously as it began…

the dancing stopped.

One correction to the image: this was NOT the Black Death. The famous Black Death devastated Europe in the 1300s. This was the separate Dancing Plague of 1518.

Honestly, that almost makes it creepier.

Because something caused ordinary people to dance uncontrollably more than 500 years ago…

and we still can’t say for certain what it was.

Mass hysteria, illness… or something history still hasn’t explained? 👀

09/22/2026

The scariest part of The Amityville Horror isn’t the movie.

It’s the part we KNOW actually happened. 😳🏠

On November 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family inside their home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York.

His parents and four siblings were found dead.

DeFeo was convicted.

That part isn’t folklore. It isn’t Hollywood. Six people really lost their lives inside that house.

Then came the story that made the address famous.

About a year later, George and Kathy Lutz bought the home at a heavily reduced price and moved in with their children.

They lasted just 28 days.

The Lutz family claimed they experienced terrifying things inside—strange odors, unexplained noises, cold spots, doors and windows behaving strangely, and other alleged paranormal activity.

Their story eventually became the 1977 bestselling book The Amityville Horror and then a massive movie franchise.

But here’s where this gets REALLY interesting…

Over the years, investigators, journalists and people connected to the case challenged parts of the Lutz family’s account. William Weber, one of Ronald DeFeo’s attorneys, even claimed that he and the Lutzes had helped develop the haunting story over bottles of wine.

The Lutzes denied that their story was a hoax and continued to maintain that they experienced something terrifying inside that house.

So was Amityville actually haunted?

There is no reliable scientific evidence establishing that it was. Some famous details have been contradicted or disputed, and the paranormal story remains unverified.

But the murders?

Those were horrifyingly real.

And maybe that’s what makes Amityville so disturbing.

A real family tragedy happened first…

Then a supernatural story became so enormous that nearly 50 years later, people are STILL arguing over where the truth ends and the legend begins.

HAUNTED HOUSE… or one of the greatest hoaxes in American history? 👀

What do YOU believe?

09/22/2026

In the 1950s discipline started at home. Today, gentle parenting rules, the roost what is your opinion on it?

09/22/2026

Before satellites. Before cell phones. Before GPS…

Wars sometimes depended on a BIRD making it home. 🐦

And one carrier pigeon became a legend.

During World War I, American soldiers trapped behind enemy lines desperately needed to tell headquarters where they were.

Even worse—their own side was reportedly firing artillery into their position.

They sent messenger pigeons carrying notes.

The first birds didn’t make it.

Then they released Cher Ami.

Attached to the pigeon was a desperate message explaining their location and asking the artillery fire to stop.

Cher Ami flew through intense enemy fire and eventually reached the American loft carrying the message.

The pigeon had been badly wounded—but the message made it.

The trapped unit was eventually rescued, and Cher Ami became one of the most famous animals of World War I.

And this wasn’t some weird one-time experiment.

Military forces used hundreds of thousands of pigeons during the World Wars because they could carry messages when telephone wires were destroyed, radio communication wasn’t available, or troops were cut off.

Some were even awarded medals for their service.

Think about that…

Today we can send a message across the planet in seconds.

A little over 100 years ago, men surrounded on a battlefield might’ve looked into the sky and prayed that ONE PIGEON knew how to get home.

History is absolutely insane when you really start looking into it.

Did you know pigeons played this big of a role in warfare? 👀

09/22/2026

Do you know your Viking history?

Imagine your marriage getting so bad that you don’t file for divorce… you come back with an ARMY. 👑⚔️This sounds like so...
09/22/2026

Imagine your marriage getting so bad that you don’t file for divorce… you come back with an ARMY. 👑⚔️

This sounds like something written for HBO, but it happened in England almost 700 years ago.

Queen Isabella of France was married to King Edward II of England, and by the 1320s their marriage—and his kingdom—were falling apart.

Isabella left England for France and eventually refused to return. While there, she joined forces with Roger Mortimer, an English nobleman who had escaped imprisonment.

And then came the royal scandal…

Isabella and Mortimer became lovers.

But they weren’t planning a quiet new life together.

They were planning to take England.

In 1326, Isabella returned with an invading force. Support for Edward collapsed, his enemies rallied behind her, and eventually the KING himself was forced from the throne.

Her teenage son became King Edward III.

Edward II later died while imprisoned at Berkeley Castle under circumstances that historians still debate. Some of the gruesome stories told about his death appeared later and may be legend rather than fact.

But Isabella’s story wasn’t finished.

For the next few years, she and Mortimer became the real power behind her young son’s throne.

Until her own son decided he’d had enough.

At just 17 years old, Edward III seized control.

Mortimer was arrested and executed.

And Isabella—the queen who helped overthrow her own husband—lived for nearly three more decades.

A Queen.
A King.
A secret lover.
An invasion.
And a son who eventually turned against the people ruling in his name.

And we think TODAY’S relationships are messy. 😭

Be honest… have you ever heard this story before?

09/21/2026

🇮🇪 Ireland didn’t simply “become” a country. It took centuries of rebellion, bloodshed, politics… and a divided island.

For hundreds of years, Ireland was increasingly controlled by England and later the United Kingdom. But Irish resistance never completely disappeared.

Then came Easter 1916.

A group of Irish republicans seized key buildings in Dublin and declared an independent Irish Republic. The uprising was crushed within days, and its leaders were executed.

But those executions changed everything.

Public sympathy shifted. Sinn Féin swept much of Ireland in the 1918 election, and in 1919 Irish representatives formed their own parliament — the Dáil Éireann — and declared independence.

Then came the Irish War of Independence.

From 1919–1921, the IRA fought British forces in a brutal guerrilla conflict. Eventually, negotiations produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

In 1922, the Irish Free State was created.

But there was a catch that still shapes Ireland today:

Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom.

And the treaty itself divided Irish nationalists so deeply that former allies turned their guns on each other in the Irish Civil War.

Ireland gradually removed its remaining constitutional ties to Britain, adopted a new constitution in 1937, and in 1949 officially became a republic and left the British Commonwealth.

So the Ireland we know today wasn’t born in one revolution or on one Independence Day.

It was shaped through centuries of resistance, a rebellion, executions, an election, guerrilla warfare, a controversial treaty, partition and a civil war.

And that border created in the early 20th century?

It’s still there today. 🇮🇪

History gets a LOT more complicated when you hear the parts that don’t fit into one paragraph.

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