How the curse of the crying boy evolved...

The Spanish artist J Bragolin (who also went by aliases Franchot Seville and Bruno Amadio)was said to have painted a deaf and dumb Spanish street urchin by the name of Don Bonillo, who would have been between three and five years old at the time.

It is thought that Bragolin found the child wondering around the streets of Madrid.

The orphan boy had run away after seeing his parents die in a blaze and never spoke again. And because wherever he settled, fires would mysteriously break out, he became known to the locals as Diablo or devil.

Warned by a Catholic priest that the boy was jinxed, Bragolin nevertheless insisted on painting the boy and is rumoured to have tried beating the curse out of him.

When the artist's studio burnt down in a blaze he blamed the orphan boy, and Bragolin's career was likewise jinxed for evermore. For nobody would buy his paintings again after this.

It is thought that 19-year-old Don Bonillo later died in a car accident when the car he was in exploded into flames. Nobody came forward to claim his body.

These crying boy paintings were later mass reproduced in the 1980's and were readily available in places like Woolworths and Boots.

The curse of the crying boy began in Yorkshire, September 1985 when over 50 mysterious house fires were thought to have been caused by the paranormal painting. In most cases the houses were completely destroyed and only the painting remained untouched. There are a lot of myths surrounding the curse but what we do know for sure is the crying boy was a mass produced painting thought to be popular with the kind of people who left chip pans on and who discarded lit cigarette ends. It is thought that the paintings didn't burn becasue they were printed on compressed hardboard and hard to ignite. Even so, there is not a firefighter in Yorkshire who will allow one in his/her home.