Pombero Legend
Pombero is a
mythological creature well known for being a small goblin, capable of causing great disasters to the life of man, as well as it is capable of bringing good things, everything you need to know here.
Who is Pombero?
This creature is a goblin as there are also indications that it may be a spirit, it belongs to the Guaraní mythology, the belief of this creature extends through the heritage of the culture of Paraguay, and in turn extends to the region of the Argentine Littoral . This creature is known under the name of Pombero, also under the name of Pomberito, Pyrague, Karaí Pyhar, Kuarahy Jára, Cho Pombé, Chopombe. The Guaranís believed that this creature could also be part of an aboriginal called Guaycurú, which existed a long time ago.
He is known for being a very stocky little man, who emitted a constant continuous hiss that lasts about 40 seconds, is dark in complexion, has large feet, this creature has a lot of hair on various parts of its body and has very short arms. Many times you will be wearing a large straw hat, with many hearts. The look of the Pombero is very tattered.
He carries a large bag on his shoulders, according to many stories about this creature, it is said that its footsteps are not felt, for this reason this creature can appear anywhere without being perceived, causing deep terror to those who see it. Other stories say that the Pombero is capable of turning his feet, in a way that confuses those who dare to pursue him. It is known that this attribute belongs to a group of aborigines from the Paraguayan Chaco is called Pyta Jovai, which translates as double heels step.
This is because they wear sneakers that have a rectangular template, which is impossible for them to discover in which direction their steps point, other versions about this creature speak about its large mouth and elongated white teeth, it has flat eyes, like those of a toad. Deep gaze typical of owls, their eyebrows are long. Its size has varied for a long time and in the different regions where it appears.
Many attribute that he is tall, skinny and full of many hairs, while others say that he is short, very fat and wears a straw hat. This creature can become a great friend of man, as well as a formidable enemy, it all depends on the state of mind he has at the time. It is said that the man who wants to have Pombero as an ally, must make multiple offerings to him during the night.
These offerings are tobacco or tobacco leaves, honey, sugarcane and brandy, this can change Pombero's behavior, in most cases, people from the countryside ask him for multiple favors such as: making the crops grow abundantly; to take care of all the animals, such as those of the cattle or the domestic ones, that are in that place.
For this, people must make the offering for 30 days in a row, without being able to breach the promise, since this was to awaken their fury, causing it to cause multiple and innumerable disasters in the home. Pombero's name should never be spoken aloud, badmouthing him, or whistling during the night, as this causes him to unleash his fierce anger. This means that he can go out at night to take revenge on whoever has made him annoy, showing himself in a terrifying form or beating the person to death.
It is said that the little rose of this creature, with some person; it may cause the person to become very stupid, dumb, blind, or may experience tremors for the rest of their life. It is also said in people's stories that trying to imitate the whistle of the Pombero can make him answer in a crazy way. For this reason and to prevent him from being offended, believers prefer to call him with a low voice, and at night they avoid uttering his name altogether.
Many people who live in the countryside affirm that even today, it has been possible to visualize this creature, it can also annoy its enemies, throwing stones at them or turning invisible, and then move the different branches of the trees. It has the ability to imitate different voices of all wild animals or appear as an ass, without a head among other things it can do.
This manifests itself only to move the doors or windows with profound violence, it uses its high-pitched whistle during silent nights, it is capable of imitating the voice of birds when the sun goes down, only to stun people, being another of the ways to be able to recognize that this creature is nearby. The Pombero likes to hang around pregnant women, since he is considered to be the father, or he manifests himself to women who have small, unbaptized babies.
His lascivious way of being, makes him always keep on the lookout for women, especially those who have not been baptized, in order to possess them. It is known that the Pombero is capable of raping those women who publicly put their husband's Virility on trial. Many are the researchers who have managed to collect information where it is possible that the Pombero can make women pregnant, just by putting his finger on her belly.
This only occurs alone and when the woman lives alone and has not been baptized, where the Pombero visits her at night, until her son is born, in this way the Guaranicita culture has explained the different Extramarital births between social groups, being this activity very repudiated by the same people of a society.
This creature is known for being a Guaraní duende, who does not have any kind of Christian idea, about whether or not it is a demon. It is known for being a complete scarer, very characteristic of the Guaranitic area, being the main place where this creature was born, which later spread throughout Argentina; leading by his hand the constant migration of native people from these places.
Which were in charge of taking the belief of this creature through the different Paraguayan currents, thus expanding through other countries such as Brazil and Chile. Taking the image of the Pombero as a robust, hairy dwarf with large long arms that lives dragging along the ground, his hands much larger than his head and short legs, which has huge feet that are oriented in the opposite way habitual.
This creature does not have any type of joints, such as: joints in the elbows or in its knees. This makes many of his movements, very clumsy, violent and very grotesque, he is seen wearing a straw hat and does not have any type of clothing, while his long beard is able to cover his virile member, since it reaches the ground.
This creature is denoted a great character, which is very aggressive, from which the possible form that this was a demon was taken. Since when he is upset, he shows himself with a very different body from what is normally seen, his eyes turn with a dark glow, and his large, drooling teeth can be seen through the darkness. When a hunter ties up some prey to later consume it.
The Pombero is shown, transforming into an animal or plant, and with multiple tricks, he is able to take the man deep into the forest where he loses it and in the worst case he eats it, leaving only his clothes. This also happens with those men who decide to dedicate themselves to fishing, or those who drill the trees, without some efficient purpose. This makes the pombero show up.
The main function of the Pombero is to take care of nature and all wild animals. Using its different powers, to achieve this, many Christian people have repudiated this creature, for the way in which it carries out all its activities, attributing it as something created with evil and dangerous ends. His presence cannot be felt, because his high capacity to transform himself makes the Pombero constantly monitor the behavior of men.
Legends
The legends of the Pombero are found, wrapped in a deep mystery and terror, ensuring that this creature is only shown to men who are dedicated to sullying or damaging nature. The appearance of this creature has been a topic that is known very often among different cultures that maintain evidence of the existence of this being.
There is a story which speaks, as on a certain occasion, a man was very selfish since he was always dedicated to cutting down the trees, just to take them to his sawmill, this made many animals homeless and without shade where they could rest. This caused many of the village elders to warn them that this could only arouse the anger of the Pombero.
In view of this the man laughed out loud, mocking the goblin and his supposed form that would cause him terror. To which he told the elders of the forest, that if any such creature were to approach in the forest, it would kill him with his ax, assuring him in an arrogant and very tormenting way.
One night the woodcutter went out to the forest to cut down a forest just to show the elders that this creature did not exist and if it appeared before his eyes, it would kill him without hesitation, when he got to the forest he heard a long hiss, which came from from the depths of the mountain, this made all the people take refuge in their homes, closing the doors and windows. The man did not heed the warning and continued to cut down the tree.
That was the last night they got to see and hear anything about the man. After many months, a group of people were in the forest looking for fruits to eat, when they saw the woodcutter on a mound of bushes and boils. They found his body already lifeless and his face was kept with a very terrifying expression, as if he had died of fear.
All his bones were broken, his body was twisted at many angles, as if his body had been taken and twisted as if it were a toothpick; With this they managed to recognize that the cause of this violent and disgusting act had been the fault of the Pombero, who was furious at what he had done to the forest and having made fun of him.br />
Not far from the place where these terrifying catastrophes had occurred, the rumor spread that a beautiful woman had been kidnapped, while she was sleeping outside her house, since it was very hot inside, which made her decide to sleep in the hammock at the back of her house. The woman's mother had warned the young woman not to do that at night.
This made all the men abruptly leave the young woman, entering the depths of the forest, the search took for many days. When they were about to lose all hope, they found the young woman under a tree, shaking with all her hair tousled, very dirty and barefoot. She was so scared that it was impossible for her to speak or approach someone.
The men managed to take her back to her house and eventually discovered that she was pregnant with the pombero, something that reached the ears of the whole town, bringing fear and terror to everyone. During a stormy night, the girl gave birth to a horrible creature which was very ugly and full of hair, it died in the arms of the midwife (the person in charge of taking the child from the mother's womb, during childbirth). Since that time the woman never dared to leave her house again; for fear that she would be kidnapped again by the Pombero.
Similar creatures
Before knowing the stories that embody characters very similar to the Pombero, you must first know the origin of this. The origin of Pombero comes from the south of Brazil, where it is called Pombeiro which means the one who spies. And in the same way, many aborigines called him after the one who walks in the lines in which he moves. He is also known as the one who recognizes all his land before and during time.
The aptitude of the Pombero which is of a completely stalking creature comes from its possible origin which is Guaraní where it is known by the name of Pomberu, which means fly anus, capable of allude to the same silence, becoming a completely creature unnoticeable at night.
Among the people of Mpauche and the different inhabitants of Chiloé, you can find a creature very similar to the Pombero, which is called as Trauco, this creature is dedicated to persecuting women, in the same way it has a very low and secular size that It can only live in the forested regions of Chile.
This creature has many similarities to San Antonio and the black Pastoreo belonging to the Brazilian Folklore, for being protectors of all animals and the environment. The Pombero is also known for being a creature that is dedicated to searching and returning different lost objects. Like other goblins of different creatures, this one fulfills requests made by men only on the condition that they honor him for many days.
Because if they breach a deal made with the Pombero, he will be shown in an aggressive and violent way, wreaking havoc on the person's house and multiple mischiefs, which make families lose each other, bringing misfortune in their lives both for them as well as for their surroundings.
Way that works
One of the qualities that Pombero possesses is taking care of the mountains and wild animals, this creature has been seen many times selling incense and multiple jewels to people who do not know him. This has a very violent and fierce character that is manifested only when someone tries to cross the limits of this creature. This one gets angry very often with all those hunters who try to kill the animes and then consume them.
If this happens, Pombero is capable of transforming into any animal or plant, where it is capable of driving the person crazy, or often assaulting them and in worst cases it is capable of murdering them and leaving their body in the forest. . The presence of this creature, always goes unnoticed, since it has the ability to transform or become invisible, confusing the senses of man.
Many stories say that the Pombero is capable of creating multiple optical illusions, confusing the person or even traumatizing him for life, so he is able to show men, his size also serves to be able to blur and create that terrifying creature that It is capable of causing terror even by the same animals, which flee in terror when it gets angry.
When El pombero possesses an enemy, he is exposed to multiple and innumerable dangers deep within the forest. Since the person is under constant deceptions that will lead him to lose him in the forest or suffer from some type of accident. This creature is able to move through the forest, like water is able to flow in the river. He is the best knowing his terrain.
With this he is able to lead people to end up in different abandoned ranches, or large deep caves. When Pombero enters the house of a person to disturb him, he is capable of causing multiple damages, he moves things around, mysteriously misplaces kitchen utensils, footsteps can be heard at night inside the house, loud noises can be heard or multiple voices, screaming, crying, laughing, dancing.
On the other hand, when the Pombero is friendly with people, he is able to enjoy many advantages, which are that he is able to guide the hunter to where the largest and fattest prey are found, so that he hunts them, it is also able to help fishermen to get the best places where the biggest and fattest fish live. It also helps to get wild fruits as juicy and showy, all depending on the treatment that has been achieved with this creature and its conditions.
Film
Over the years the concept of this mythological creature has materialized, and the different representations on the big screen where he has been taken as a pombero, as a creature capable of hunting and punishing all those who decide to make fun of him or to cause any damage, to nature or even to themselves. One of the films to embody this essence was: Bewitched, a 70-minute film that came out in 1969.
It was made, performed and written in Argentina by Armando Bó and Egídio Eccio. This film had many great artists of the medium at that time such as: Isabel Sarli, Victor Bó, Daniel de Alvarado This story is based on the life of the Ansisé Woman, who has a great desire, which is to become a mother.
The idea of motherhood completely absorbs her and becomes an obsession for her, causing her to go into a state of insanity. She believes and remains completely convinced that she married a powerless man, where she desperately seeks to get pregnant by him. In search of the means so that this woman can fulfill her objectives, she decides to get into a prostitute job.
The real problem is when the Pombero appears, which is a mystical and monstrous goblin, who is responsible for taking the woman and raping her, and then leaving her lost in the forest, where she desperately seeks help to escape death, her. which chases him everywhere she is.
Pombero for children
Within the world and planet earth, there are multiple stories which speak of different creatures that are capable of living together with men and with all beings that inhabit the earth. These can be good as well as bad and destructive. In each country you can find different mythologies about these monsters and what they do. In this case, you can find Al pombero, who is a goblin or evil spirit that lives in the forest and has the mission of taking care of all the beings that inhabit there, the wild animals and the mountains.
Many urban legends, who come from Latin America, especially countries such as Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, are dedicated to talking about the Pombero, which is a mysterious creature that roams the forests, seeking to care for and protect plants, many people say that he is a goblin, his appearance is very ugly and terrifying, he is described as a very short man at other times very tall who has a lot of hair all over his body.
It has very short arms and legs, its body is completely robust, and it always wears a hat made of straw, it has a very large beard, which is capable of reaching its waist, although it can be considered a good entity. , since it is completely dedicated to caring for and protecting nature. He also possesses evil and dark intentions.
He is capable of killing men who dare to cut down trees, without any specific purpose, trampling or damaging any plant, or those who hunt animals without having a real purpose to do so, he has a taste for punishing all children who They are badly behaved, and often abuse women who are alone hanging around the bush.
The only way for Pombero to be noticed is at night, where he is capable of emitting a very long and chilling whistle, it is said that if someone tries to imitate the sound of this, the Pombero or kills without any kind of contemplation, in addition to having the power to make himself invisible or handle hypnosis, which makes him a very dangerous enemy for all those who dare to challenge him and make him angry.
This creature also has a weakness for pregnant women, those who are waiting for a girl inside their womb, since far from doing any kind of physical damage, it is dedicated to protecting and caring for them when they go out for a walk alone at night, to do not scare them, pretend to be other animals imitating their sounds.
Top 100 Horror Story
1. "Humans can lick too"
Farmersburg, Indiana, 1987: Lisa is often alone in her large, isolated house in the heart of the cornfields. Her parents come home late every night and have therefore decided to buy her a dog, to reassure her. One night, she is awakened by the sound of dripping water. She gets up and goes to turn off the bathroom faucet. While lying down she slips her hand under her bed and her dog licks it. This reassures her. The noise continues and she decides to turn on the tap in the bathroom. She lies down again and slips her hand under her bed again, and her dog licks it again. But the noise continues and Lisa can't sleep. She makes a final tour of the house without finding anything, and therefore lies down again, sliding her hand under the bed. The dog licks her again. The noise is still there and Lisa decides to locate its origin: the sound comes from her closet. Opening it she discovers her slaughtered dog, suspended by the hind legs, slowly emptying his blood. On the door of the cupboard a message written in letter of blood: "HUMANS TOO CAN LICK"
2. "The killer in the back seat"
Lyon, France, 1994: Nathalie finishes her nursing service, it is 5am. She gets into her car and walks through the still deserted streets. Very quickly, she notices that a car is following her closely. When passing her, the car falls back violently behind Nathalie and begins to flash the headlights at her. The young nurse accelerates, anxious, while trying to see the driver of the vehicle in his rearview mirror. The calls of the headlights continue, frantic. She turns right, then left: the car follows her. Nathalie starts to panic, what does this person want from her? She arrives in the alley leading to her house. Her only hope is to do it all and run and lock herself in her house to call the police. As she gets out of the car, she hears her pursuer get out and yell "LOCK UP AND CALL THE POLICE QUICKLY!" " Not daring to turn around, she locks herself in her home and calls the gendarmes. She peeks out the window to see a tall figure armed with a butcher's knife, savagely attacking the man behind her. Terrified, Nathalie takes refuge in her bathroom, praying for help to arrive as soon as possible. It is only later that she will understand what really happened that day: the man in the car was trying to save her. He had seen a man slip into Nathalie's car and was trying to warn her. He paid for it with his life.
3. "The babysitter and the upstairs killer"
Windermere, UK, 1982: Helen is 16 and attends a babysitting service. Tonight she has to look after the 3 children of a young couple, absent for the evening. When she arrives, they inform her that the children are already in bed and that they will not be home late. Helen sits down on the sofa in the large house and opens a book. The phone rings, but when she picks up, no one is speaking on the other end of the line. A few minutes later, the phone rings again, and this time a chilling voice answers: "Did you go to see the children?" " then nothing. Thinking that it was the father calling her to find out if everything was going well, she told herself that he had been cut and that he would call back. Indeed, a few minutes later the telephone rang: "Did you go to see the children?" The voice repeats. "Mr. Stuart? She asks, worried, but no one answers. She decides to call the restaurant where her employers dine but is informed that they have been gone for 10 minutes. She then contacted the police, but they told her that they could do nothing against the telephone hoaxes. No sooner has she hung up than the stranger calls her again: "Why didn't you go see the children?" " Frightened, she contacts the police again, assuring them that this stranger is there, nearby, that she can feel him. The agent on the other end of the line decides to take her number and reassures her: "The next time he calls you, we'll trace the origin of the call, okay Helen?" Above all, stay calm. "
Helen turns off the living room and locks herself in the kitchen, the phone beside her. He rings and this time she picks up right away - "What do you want with me in the end?" "-" Why did you turn off the lights? "- " Who are you ? What do you want from me? "-" I see you you know. "-" Ok, very well, you scared me, it was successful. Are you happy is what you wanted? "- " No. What I want is to bathe in your blood. " Helen hangs up abruptly, terrified, but the bell rings again. "LEAVE ME" she yells into the receiver. - "Helen, it's me, we've traced the call, you need to get out right away." The call comes from one of the rooms in the house. Get out immediately! " She rushes to the door, and begins to unlock it, trembling. She panics, drops the key, picks it up, then gets up. She hears a noise behind her back and then sees a door open at the top of the stairs. A halo of light comes out of the children's room and she clearly distinguishes the silhouette of a man standing, turned towards her. She finally manages to open the door and throws herself outside, coming face to face with several policemen on the landing, weapon in hand. Immediately taken care of by the emergency services, she just has time to turn around and see the mad killer , handcuffed by the police. The man is covered in blood. That of the 3 children of the Stuart family.
4. "Bloody Mary"
This story happened to the sister of a friend of one of the Topito editors who preferred to remain anonymous. We are in 1997, the 9 year old girl, whom we will name Anna, organizes a "pajama" party with some friends. One of them then tells them the story of a certain Mary Worth, a beautiful young girl who would have lived many, many years ago. Following a very serious accident, Mary found herself horribly disfigured. Knowing how mad it would drive her to see her beautiful damaged face, her parents forbade her to see her reflection. They threw away all the mirrors in the house except one, the one in their personal bathroom. One night, Mary sneaked discreetly into the room. As soon as she bared his face, she collapsed. After hearing this story, Anna and her friends think it would be a good idea to give it a try, and see. They then lock themselves in the bathroom and repeat in front of a mirror: "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary". Suddenly, one of Anna's friends starts screaming, so loud that the mother bursts into the bathroom. She turns on the light and discovers a horrible scene: all the girls are sitting on the floor, panicked. Only one remains standing, clinging to the sink, frozen with terror. Deep, bloody gashes run down her cheek, long nail marks left by the ghost of Mary Worth. Anna has never forgotten this evening.
5. "The hook"
Amherst, Massachussetts, 1973: Tonight, Thomas D. has a date, and he knows exactly where to lead Melany: behind the woods on the outskirts of town is a secluded glade perfect for a little galling session. So he picks up his sweetheart in the car and parks quietly in the clearing, leaving the car radio running. Suddenly, the music stops and an urgent press release is broadcast on the radio: a murderer has escaped from the asylum located a few miles from Amherst. The presenter gives a somewhat vague description of it, but nevertheless specifies that this very dangerous man has a hook on his right arm. Frightened, Melany asks Thomas to take her home. Out of the question for the teenager who intends to show that he is not afraid of anything. As he leans in to kiss her, a cracking branch makes them jump. Melany immediately makes her "date" understand that this time it's time to go home. Reluctantly, he reverses and sets off quickly towards the city center. Arrived in front of Melany's house, the latter gets out of the car and starts screaming uncontrollably. Thomas rushes towards her and discovers what puts her in this state: hanging on the handle of the car, a bloody hook swings gently.
6. "The neighbor"
Paris region, 2015: after long months looking for an apartment, Lucien has just moved into his building. Freshly installed, Lucien takes his ease in his new home. One night, someone knocks on his door. He gets up and goes to open it. A woman stands there and asks her if she can spend the night at his place because her partner hits her. Lucien is somewhat surprised and dubious. The woman reassures him by telling him that she has called her family and that they will come and pick her up early in the morning. The young man gives her a blanket and offers to spend the night on the sofa. When she wakes up, the blanket is folded on the couch and the young woman is gone. He gets ready and goes to work. The following evening, we knock again on his door. The same woman is at her door, but this time she is punched in the face. She asks him for hospitality a second time. Unable to accept, Lucien offers to sleep in the same place as the day before. In the morning, she is no longer there. The same merry-go-round is repeated throughout the week. Worried, the young man goes to the police station to explain the situation. The agent shows him a photo in which he recognizes the woman. The police tell her that this woman was beaten to death in her apartment building by her husband and died of her injuries several months ago.
7. Goodbye
I found this story from the diary of a deceased old neighbor who has lived alone for years: “I rushed off to pick up my son from school. The traffic was rather fluid that day, nothing on my road except a few red lights. It had been quite a while since I was waiting at a red light when I noticed a woman. I had no idea how long she had been standing there staring at me, but once I couldn't look away. She looked at me like crazy and waved her hand towards me, stroking the hair of a little boy's head. Her little boy, her son I imagine, wore loose brown clothes and a black goat mask. Was it a weird costume and especially who wears a costume the day after Halloween? He too was waving his hand in my direction and staring at me through that disturbing mask, but his movement seemed uncomfortable and forced. The woman's eyes could see right through me and I could almost physically feel her gaze catching on me. She wasn't even blinking. I felt naked and very tense. And the boy's eyes, my god, the boy's eyes were pleading and begging for help. The woman started to get impatient, waving her hand harder every second. I looked away.
For some reason I was terrified. I needed to run away. Once the light went green, which had seemed like an eternity, I drove off. I didn't even bother to look behind. I thought nothing would be more terrifying than this moment. Then I got to school and they told me my son was not there. They told me that my wife had already collected it. I don't have a wife. They handed me a note, telling me that she had asked for them to give it to me. There are no words to describe how I felt reading it. "Don't say I didn't give you a chance to say goodbye to him. "
8. The white lady
We start with one of the
most famous urban legends. This one is great because it comes in 50 different versions and in lots of different places. In short, we can meet the white lady all over the place. According to the version we find most often, the white lady is a young woman dressed in white who hitchhikes on the side of the road. If you take her in your car, she will remain silent but will start to panic and finally disappear when approaching a bend (the one where she would have lost her life.) If you decide to ignore her and not take her in. stop, then it is death assured in this turn. Morality, take a taxi, or avoid the small country roads.
9. Bloody Mary
Legend has it that Mary was a young mother who committed suicide in her bathroom after losing her baby. Persuaded that someone is at the origin of the death of her child, she haunts the mirrors of the bathrooms today to kill the culprit. Anyone who would say “Bloody Mary” three times in front of their mirror and spin three times would then see Bloody Mary standing behind them. If the person adds "I killed your baby" , then they die when attacked by the ghost. Everyone who tried was found with their throat slit in front of their mirror. Well, that's what they say.
10. The old lady and her dog
An old lady who lived alone had decided to adopt a dog to keep her company. Every night at bedtime, after turning off the lights, she stretched out her arm to her dog lying under the bed to lick her hand and reassure her. Only one night, the old lady wakes up hearing the sound of drops of water in the bathroom. She gets up in the dark to turn off the tap properly and goes back to bed, not forgetting to extend her hand to the dog who is licking it, as usual. But the sound of drops persisting, the old lady must get up again to turn off the tap more firmly. Then she lies down and stretches her hand under the bed to receive the usual lick. On the third awakening because of the sound of drops, the old lady goes to the bathroom and turns on the light. The sound of drops came from his dog, his throat cut above the bathtub, which was emptying his blood. So who was lying under the bed? We do not have the answer and we do not want to have it, especially since it seems this story happened to the neighbor of our friend's cousin from college.
11. Kuchisake-Onna
This story is one of the most
urban legends in Japan. A very beautiful and conceited young woman was married to an older samurai, and she was unfaithful to him. The day her husband found out, he slit her mouth open to her ears so that no one would ever find her beautiful again. Today, you can cross her when walking alone in a dark street. She walks up, the lower part of her face covered, and asks "do you find me beautiful?" " If the person in front answers yes, she discovers her slit mouth and asks the same question: " and now, do you find me beautiful? "If the answer is no, Kuchisake-Onna kills his victim on the spot. If the answer is yes, she follows her victim home to stab her in the back on her doorstep, or offers a blood red ruby to the lucky ones. In general, it is better to avoid crossing it.
12. The Russian sleep experiment
In 1940, Russian scientists locked five political prisoners in a wiretapped room to perform an experiment: the five men will be kept awake by gas and will no longer be able to sleep. During the first five days, the prisoners tell each other about their lives in great detail, but nothing special happens. Only, from the sixth day, it is total silence, apart from a few murmurs from time to time, which indicated that the subjects were still alive. After ten days, the scientists wanted to see what was going on and opened the door. There, they came across a horrific sight: the prisoners had self-mutilated and fed on their own flesh. Soldiers were called in to transport the men to the hospital, but the prisoners went into a mad rage and even killed several soldiers with superhuman force. Two of them were shot and the others taken to hospital begging for the gas that kept them awake. There, a Russian doctor, not knowing what he was dealing with, asked one of the prisoners who he was. And the man, with a gaunt smile, replied:“We are you. We are the madness that dwells in you and that you silence when you join the slumber where we cannot follow you. "
13. The neighbor
A man had just moved into a residence. On the first evening, he heard a knock on his door. It was a neighbor who asked him if he could put her up for a night because her husband had hit her and she was afraid. As he could not refuse, he offered to sleep on the sofa. The next morning, when she woke up, the neighbor had already left. The second evening, she knocked again on his door. She asked him the same thing as the day before, and since she had new bruises on her face, the man agreed. The next morning she was already gone when he woke up. And this scenario was repeated three more times. The man then wanted to go to the police station to denounce his neighbor's husband. There, a policeman, who didn't look surprised, showed him a photo of the young woman whom the man recognized as being his neighbor. The policeman then told her that she had been killed a year earlier by beatings by her husband.
14. Lavanville's music
In the first cartridges of the Pokémon game in Japan, the music of Lavanville, where pokemon ghosts reside, would have driven hundreds of children to suicide. Others would have behaved strangely or complained of headaches. It is also said that in the very first version, we could face a mysterious ghost named "731" in a fight where subliminal images of corpses were broadcast. Fortunately, we don't have that in our European versions, so we can continue to play quietly.
15. The Grifter
Likewise, this video is very well known on the internet for one simple reason: those who watched it complained of having nightmares and going crazy, and others even committed suicide. None wanted to tell what was in the video because its content had traumatized them. Versions have been posted on Youtube, but they are different from the real version which makes you crazy, hard to find on the web. If you still want to give it a try, search for “the grifter” online, but we'll have warned you.
16. The babysitter and the man at the top of the stairs
A young American student arrived at a family's home one evening to do some babysitting. The parents, before leaving, told him that the two children were already sleeping up there and that there was no need to wake them up. Shortly after they left, the phone rang. The student picked up the phone and heard a deep voice say, "Did you go to see if the kids are okay?" "Thinking it was a joke, the girl hung up, without going to check. An hour later the phone rang again and the girl heard the same. She asked who was on the phone, but the person hung up. Worried, she called the police, who told her it must have been a joke. But an hour later, the man called again to ask if she had been to see if the children were okay. She called the police again, who this time took her seriously and asked her to stay on the phone longer next time to locate the call. When the man called back, the young girl did not answer, to make the communication last. He then ends up hanging up. The phone rang again. It was the police who ordered him to leave immediately: the call came from inside the house. Once outside, the police arrived to stop the intruder. He was covered in blood. That of the children.
17. The doll
It is the story of a mother who takes her daughter to the flea market. While walking in the aisles, the girl notices a pretty porcelain doll, in good condition, and claims it from her mother. The mother asks the seller for the price and buys the little doll for her daughter. Back home, the girl begins to play with her new doll, a pretty doll in a pink dress, with blue eyes and blond hair. In one hand she holds a pretty parasol, and the other has two raised fingers. The mother, who has other errands to do, leaves her daughter alone at home for about an hour, while she goes to the local supermarket. The little one then remains alone in her room, playing with her doll. Suddenly, she hears the phone ringing and goes down to the dining room to answer. "Don't play with your doll after midnight!" »A voice orders him before hanging up. Frightened, the little girl returns to her room and puts her doll away at the bottom of her toy box. Her mother comes home a little later, and the little girl does not tell her about the phone call or about her doll. A week goes by without any problem, until the following Saturday. Indeed, the mother is invited to a party, and, as she has not found a babysitter, she decides to leave her little one alone at home. So she leaves by car, and spends the night at this famous evening. When she comes home at one in the morning, she decides to go and see her daughter's room to see if she is asleep. A week goes by without any problem, until the following Saturday. Indeed, the mother is invited to a party, and, as she has not found a babysitter, she decides to leave her little one alone at home. So she leaves by car, and spends the night at this famous evening. When she comes home at one in the morning, she decides to go and see her daughter's room to see if she is asleep. A week goes by without any problem, until the following Saturday. Indeed, the mother is invited to a party, and, as she has not found a babysitter, she decides to leave her little one alone at home. So she leaves by car, and spends the night at this famous evening. When she comes home at one in the morning, she decides to go and see her daughter's room to see if she is asleep. She opens the door and screams. Her daughter is lying on the ground, with her throat cut. The toy box is open, and next to it is the porcelain doll. Despite an investigation, the police did not find any traces of the break-in or the murderer. The mother, mad with pain, decided to sell her little girl's doll, which now had three fingers raised.
18. Corpses in mattresses
Come on, we end with a more fun one, because it's partly true. A man, after spending a night in his hotel room, goes to reception to complain: the room smells bad. The employees then assure him that they will do everything to rid the room of this smell. There, they start cleaning every corner, but the stench persists. It was only when one of them turned the heavy mattress over that they understood: a corpse was hidden in it. The man had slept all night with a dead man below him. In fact it has happened before, and on several occasions.
19. The cursed ring
The
horror story of a woman who tries to prick a ring belonging to the corpse of an old woman. Problem: impossible to take it without cutting off your finger ... This story was a bit like our introduction to the concept of staging. Indeed, the secret to causing a good scare is to take advantage of the darkness to stroke someone's index finger when chanting "Give me back my ring! Give me back my ring!"
20. The Bloodstained Dress
The story of a woman who is injured while cooking and who gets blood all over her clothes. Already, it's not cool. But the worst part is that a voice at the end of the phone tells her that she has until midnight to remove the stain, otherwise ... Buy Mir express. There's no denying it, they know a thing or two about com 'at Unilever.
21. The Ghosts Of The Ancient Ram Inn
Remember how the hotel owners in The Shining built their holiday paradise over an ancient Indian burial ground, then acted surprised when it turned out haunted? Well, the owners of the Ancient Ram Inn in Gloucestershire went one step further. This hotel was built on a site allegedly once used for child sacrifice.As a result, the hotel is said to be one of the most haunted in England. Strange glowing lights appear in the corridors. A ghostly presence creeps up and down the staircase. People even say they’ve encountered a succubus while staying the night. But none of this has anything on the Bishop’s Room.A low-ceiling bedroom at the back of the inn, the room is said to infect anyone who steps inside with a sense of oppressive dread. Priests have been known to refuse to enter the room. Eight people who slept there have needed exorcisms, according to the current owner.
22. The dog
"It's not just dogs that can lick". The announcement of this simple fall is enough to awaken the memories of the history of our most chilling childhood, casually. Here, no ghost or supernatural, but just a psychopath dressed in dog skin. The little narration bonus: don't hesitate to say that it happened in the Yonne, you will gain credibility there.
23. The killer doll
In the 90s, we were treated to Chucky and ... Chucky 2, 3, 4. The dolls are a bit like the steak and chips of the freak. It is certainly not the top of the refinement, but it remains a sure value. A little girl receives for Christmas a doll which makes the sign of victory with her right hand, a toy with which she is not allowed to play after midnight. If you've read the title, it's easy to guess what's going to happen next. At the end of the story, the doll is back at the store, but this time with three fingers raised.
24. The ghost with the twisted cock
The standard bearer of the pee-poo period! Paragon of total humor, there are almost all the humorous springs of 4-7 year olds. A French, a Belgian and an American, the word "quéquette" and a more than slight fall. And yet, no need to lie, it made you smile just thinking about it.
25. When a kid takes a picture of the ghost of a WWI soldier
Mitch Glover, a 14 year old teenager, was taken by his school in France and on this occasion visited the cemeteries of Scottish soldiers who died during the First World War. He was probably messing around with his cool buddies while taking photos with his iPhone just to show his parents how he cultivated himself. And then in one of those photos, there was something weird, very, very weird even, very much like a ghost of a Scottish soldier in a kilt. Suffice to say that he freaked out.
26. Ah and if not how would you like to see Jim Morrison again?
Brett Meisner is a fairly famous rock historian. In 1997, he went to Père Lachaise to say hello to Jim Morrison, ex-singer of the Doors very, very dead and for a while. He has his picture taken in front of the grave, like everyone else. And then he has the clichés developed. And then there he has a surprise. Because in his picture, we simply see Jim Morrison swaying his hips. To date, we have not been able to prove the photomontage.
27. Another ghost story
Less known, this time around, and older. In 1946, a very good Australian woman goes to visit her daughter's grave (yes, she's dead, it's not that the mother is ultra far-sighted). Then she takes a souvenir photo, probably because it must have been heartwarming in Australia in the 1940s to watch the photo of her daughter's grave. The mother, Mrs. Andrews, was alone in front of the grave. However, in the photo, we can see a little girl very very clearly. Very very very clearly.
28. When a guy kills at Père Lachaise
On May 7, 2014, at Père Lachaise, Eric takes a walk. Eric did not have an easy life, beaten and raped by his father and the DDASS did not help him recover . But then, on May 7, 2014, he decided without ANY reason to beat to death a history buff who served as a volunteer guide for tourists. Finally, for no reason: the guide in question regularly went to a gay meeting place in the cemetery, as did Eric who did not accept his homosexuality but had a repulsive attraction for his repressed sexual orientation.
29. Kill in short circuit
In November 2011, passers-by found the body of a 23-year-old young woman slumped on a grave in the Val d'Oise. This grave is that of a friend of his, murdered with baseball bats two years earlier. The young woman also suffered enormous violence and her murder obviously took place in the cemetery.
30. When cemetery wardens discover a murder
A Reddit user says he worked in the 1970s alongside a friend of his in a cemetery to pay for his education. Among other voodoo statues, disturbing burnt dolls, stuffed animals and other strange things found near graves, he once discovered the naked corpse of a woman strangled near a grave and installed, arms folded, as if she was already standing there. in a coffin. The woman had been sexually abused and disfigured with fists. Her clothes were never found, nor her murderer. Suffice to say that the student quickly quit the job.
31. When you find the corpse of a seated woman
In the early hours of the morning, on his way to the cemetery where he worked, another Reddit user claims to have seen a car improperly parked in front of the main entrance. After going through the door, he saw the silhouette of a woman sitting against a tree: quickly, he realizes that this woman is wearing a scarf that has strangled him and that she is surrounded by blood; above all, his corpse is really perfectly seated, as if it had been placed in this position. After investigation, the police found a suicide note in the car: the woman had just lost her daughter. The position of his body cannot be explained.
32. The woman who dies at her friend's funeral
One day a woman dies. We organize ourselves. Among the organizers of the ceremony are two friends of the deceased, two very close sisters who have lived their whole lives together as in a good old Lucky Luke. Once the ceremony is over, the funeral director is surprised that the two sisters remain seated against each other even when everyone has returned to their car. He inquires about the situation: one of the sisters tells him that the other died during the ceremony and that she did not say anything so as not to ruin her friend's funeral.
33. Eternal flowers
One of the cemetery keeper's jobs is to reopen the vaults to allow the new dead to join their elders. In general, before the entrance is sealed, the vaults are garnished by relatives with flowers or personal items. However, recently, a Reddit user recounts having opened the crypt housing a couple who died in the 90s to make room for their children: however, flowers that had been placed there on this occasion were perfectly fresh. Not at all faded, not at all withered. And after examination, it turned out that they were indeed real flowers.
34. The Perron family claimed that the reality was much more frightening than the movie
The real business of the Perron family began in 1971, when Roger and Carolyn decided to move into a former farmhouse they had just purchased in the state of Rhode Island. They arrive in their new home with their five daughters: Andrea, Nancy, Christine, Cindy and Avril. More than 40 years later, the movie Conjuring hits theaters, and Andrea Perron told reporters that no family member was scared watching the movie because the reality was so much
scary horror story. Carolyn Perron, the mother, also said that the hide-and-seek scene was well done in the movie but far more terrifying in real life. She also refused to come on the film set (while her husband and her daughters went there), fearing that the spirits would attack her again.
35. The neighbors tried to warn the family of the danger
While no strange event had yet occurred, Carolyn Perron received strange advice from her neighbors. In particular, he was advised to leave the lights on at night and even to flee this place with his family. Soon after, objects began to move for no good reason.
36. At first the spirits seemed harmless
According to their testimony, the children of the Perron family quickly felt a presence in the house but the girls were not frightened because this presence did not seem threatening. Apparently these ghosts spoke to them and kissed them on the forehead before they fell asleep. Frankly, I would have been terrified for much less than that.
37. Other spirits, less sympathetic, arrived later
As time went by, new spirits came to replace the gentle ghosts. According to the Perron children, that's when they started to get really scared. The spirits told them of the bodies of soldiers who would be walled up in the house. Some nights, always at the same time, a smell of burning flesh was felt in the house, waking the whole family. What seems to have traumatized the five little girls the most is the mind of a malicious man. They never wanted to give more details about what this presence did to them.
38. One of the children ended up locked in a trunk
One day, while the five girls are playing hide and seek, one of them decides to hide in a trunk that had no lock or particular closure (a simple trunk with the lid lifted). As no one finds her, the little girl decides to go out, but she realizes that it is impossible: the cover no longer lifts and the child is stuck inside the trunk. It was not until 20 minutes later that, alerted by the screams, one of the sisters arrived to rescue the little girl by simply lifting the lid. No one has ever solved this mystery.
39. The family stayed in the house for 9 years without being able to leave
In the movie Conjuring, the Warrens explain to the Perron family that it is useless to leave the house because the spirits have chosen to persecute them. In reality, the reason that forced the family to stay so long was simply financial. In the 1970s in the United States, between the government of Nixon and that of Carter, the economic crisis affected many families. In addition, the value of the Perron house is devalued every day because of the strange events that take place there. Result: nobody wants to buy this house and the Perrons do not have the means to live elsewhere with their five children. It was not until 1980 that they finally left this cursed place to go and live in Georgia.
40. Carolyn Perron actually saw a woman yelling at her in the middle of the night
One day, as she was going to bed, Carolyn saw a woman in a gray dress appear near her bed. The woman reportedly shouted at him "Go away or I will scare you away with death and darkness" (rough translation). After much research on the former inhabitants of the house, the Warrens and Perrons concluded that it was probably the ghost of a certain Bathsheba Thayer but it is obviously impossible to prove it.
41. Bathsheba Thayer was not a witch at all
In the movie Conjuring, the woman who appears in the house and ends up owning Carolyn Perron is portrayed as a witch who allegedly sacrificed her child to the devil before committing suicide. Actually, Bathsheba Thayer did exist but she never practiced witchcraft or anything close to it. She was a normal woman who lived in the 19th century with her husband. Three of her four children died very young but there is no mention of murder or suicide in the archives. Bathsheba Thayer died in 1885 of a heart attack.
42. Friends of the family contacted the Warrens
The Perrons never contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren, it was the Warrens who came to them. Friends of the Perron family actually attended a conference hosted by the Warrens in Connecticut and got to chat with the couple. They then talked about the strange events that had occurred in their friends' house and the Warrens replied: "We absolutely have to go and see."
43. The Warrens may have made it worse
Strangely, the Perron family's version of the facts and that of the Warren couple do not always coincide. Parts of the story are sometimes incomplete or slightly different. The movie Conjuring was primarily written based on the Warrens' version of events, the one where the couple manages to get rid of spirits. Unfortunately, that may not be the truth. According to the Perrons, the Warrens never really got rid of spirits, and the spirits remained in haunting them for years after they left home.
44. The real corpse in the fake haunted house
We all had this thought at 10 years old: “Can you imagine if the model, there, and well in fact, and well it would in fact be a real death? And bah in 1976, an American TV crew filming an episode in a haunted house in an amusement park in California had the answer. During the filming, a hanged man's mannequin lost an arm in which human bones were found. In reality, the body was that of a criminal, Elem McCurdy, murdered in 1911 after a train attack by a bounty hunter. The local undertaker had then embalmed it and kept it as a demonstration product because it was so well done. Until one day McCurdy's pseudo-brother came to claim the body. The pseudo-brother was actually a showman who had made the body a major part of his haunted house show.
45. The guy buried alive
"Can you imagine, in fact, you're not dead, but the doctor and well the doctor are wrong, and you find yourself buried alive?" Oh the seum! " It has happened many times. A guy called William Tebb recorded more than 200 such cases in recent history at the end of the 19th century. Recent history at the time, that is to say at the end of the 19th century. Afterwards, we sometimes found traces of scratches inside the coffins, which is never a good sign on the last moments offered to the world to the dead. A fashion developed in the early twentieth century: secure coffins, including some kind of horn or a powerful bell to signal that one was not dead (just in case).
46. The girl is stabbed in a discretionary library and nobody sees anything
You see it, eh, the American library with its green lamps, its endless passageways, its secluded places, its silence: a perfect place to fuck or to die stabbed by a maniac unleashed on campus. And bah in 1969, the student Betsy Aardsma was stabbed while she was consulting a book in one of the bays. Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything. The killer was never discovered.
47. The killer who lived in hiding for several days in the house before killing the whole family
The house could well be haunted. We hear footsteps, we see things that disappear, we end up murdered by a maniac. In 1922, farmer Andreas Gruber and his family experienced exactly that. There were steps in the attic. Weird, did you say weird? Okay. The Grubers did not pick up. Then, on March 31, they were all killed with an ax: mother, father, children, grandchildren. But not the animals. We never found the murderer.
48. The manic surgeon
Under the guise of his long studies of medicine, the surgeon is in fact a maniac who operates on his victims with the sole and sole objective of collecting their organs. Yes it's possible. For example, that pretty much describes the surgeon Glen Tucker, who in the 1970s amused himself amputating arms for fun or doing square breast implants. One day a patient woke up in the middle of her nose job, which was broken, to see dear Doctor Tucker doing sadistic things with his nose in a deserted operating room. She complained and Tucker started following her down the street. Then Tucker had the good taste to die in a boating accident in 1982, or rather to pretend, since he was found in Florida a few years later. Rather than being tried, he committed suicide in 2011. After killing his wife and her cat.
49. Your ex cooks you a dog
"It would be horrible for a sadistic cook to make me eat Cookie Stew" (Cookie is the Gloden Retriever who shares your life). Yes. And bah Ryan Watenpaugh, after having freaked out his ex-girlfriend by forcing the door to his apartment, did something like that. When the girl in question escaped, he was left alone with the dog and later pretended that he had escaped. Then Cookie's mistress was stupid enough to accept an invitation to dinner and Wantenpaugh made her a nice little meal. Then he sent sadistic texts to the girl explaining that she had just eaten her dog. And also a plastic bag with the remains to prove that it was true.
50. Telephone. Midnight. "I see you"
We take the beginning of Scream . We transpose it into real life. A little English teenager from Chester in 2014 began to receive texts that she was being watched very closely by someone "in her house". The girl was not too careful, telling herself that she was dealing with a dingo, then lay down (anyway) in her mother's bed. Then she returned to her room in the middle of the night and, seeing that some stuff had been moved, looked under the bed. Where she found her stalker, an 18 year old kid. Fortunately, nothing happened to this poor little teenager.
51. The Legend of Charlie No-Face
It's a local story, but worth the detour. Charlie No Face was a character in popular culture around Pittsburgh, a sort of White Lady aimed at terrifying children. Except that in reality, Charlie existed. His real name was Raymond Robinson and he was disfigured by a maxi-shock in 1919 while playing near an electric conveyor. Then, Raymond Robinson lived a small life of patachon all alone by remaining cloistered in his home for fear of being judged. He would not allow himself to go out until nightfall. You kinda see how the guy became an
urban legend.
52. Waking up with one missing kidney
1: take a load; 2: agree to get into a stranger's car; 3: wake up far from home, naked, with one kidney less and an extra scar. And bah know that it is a little possible: between 2000 and 2008, 500 Indians were the victims of illegal kidney trafficking. They were spotted in the street, not because they were drunk, but because they were looking for work and offered to them for bogus. Then chloroform, boom and more kidney.
53. The collector of human bodies
The super weird neighbor collects corpses, it is well known. Why else would he have so many papier mache dolls? Well done, Edvige. For example, the Moscow historian Anatoly Moskvin, who freaked out all the children in the neighborhood, was indeed responsible for the dead bodies in the Nizhny Novgorod cemetery. So Moskvin would collect the corpses, put on them girls' dresses and wigs, and arrange them in the apartment. There were 29 of them. With masks. And all. And all.
54. The murder of the Lawson family
We are in 1929, a time when, contrary to popular belief, people did not live in black and white. On Christmas Eve, Charlie Lawson, 43, a farmer from North Carolina, takes his family to town to take a picture and shop for clothes. The kind of activity that is quite unusual for a large family of farmers without a circle. There was his wife and their seven children there. The next day, December 25, Charlie waits for his two daughters to come out of the house to shoot them before hitting them badly. He then returns home and shoots another of his daughters who was on the steps. Then he walks into the house and kills everyone: his wife, his two boys and his little baby. He then heads for the woods and shoots himself in the head. The only survivor of the killing is the 16-year-old eldest, One of the theories that can explain the massacre is that the father allegedly got his daughter pregnant and found no other way out. Atmosphere atmosphere and Merry Christmas.
55. The Covina massacre
In 2008, the divorce between Bruce and Sylvia Pardo was confirmed. But as often during separations by mutual agreement, someone agrees more than the other: in this case, Bruce is not very satisfied with the situation. So he decides to hurt his ex-wife and his whole family. He takes the car and arrives at Sylvia's parents in Covina, California on Christmas Day. He rings the bell, disguised as Santa Claus, and Sylvia's niece lets him in. Especially since he has gifts in his hands! Except that the packaging actually contains a flamethrower and guns. Pardo begins by shooting everyone until the whole family is forced to hide. It was then that he poured gasoline all over the ground before using the flamethrower. He kills nine people including his ex-wife.
56. The corpse at the foot of the tree
In 2011, Michelle O'Dowd showed a beautiful Christmas spirit by offering her nephew's ex-girlfriend, Patty White, to come and live with her in exchange for a little cleaning. Except that a few days before Christmas, Michelle O'Dowd does not come to work without warning. Her twin brother is worried and goes to her house. His car is there, the house seems inhabited, but no trace of his sister. Ah yes in fact: his foot protrudes from the gifts piled up at the foot of the Christmas tree. Her protégé, Patty, hit and strangled her before leaving the body in place and fleeing the state. She was eventually arrested.
57. Christmas must go on
Justin Lee Klopp and his wife had the good idea of arguing on Christmas Day. Apparently, Klopp wasn't a guy it felt good to disagree with, compared to the fact that, to settle the brawl, he grabbed an ax and just smashed his wife, Stephanie. Before slitting his throat to be sure he had succeeded. Then he put the body in a plastic bag that he threw in the trash, before waking up his two children to go and celebrate Christmas with his parents. It was during the meal, which we imagine SUPER FRIENDLY, that Klopp decided to call the cops to confess his crime. Klopp hanged himself in prison.
58. The Ashland Tragedy
On December 23, 1881, three teenagers aged 14 to 17 were sleeping lazily, impatiently awaiting the next day's party. At that time, three people entered the Gibbon house to murder them using an ax and an iron bar. After the children died, the three people in question decided that the best thing was to burn the house to ashes. Neighbors were alarmed to see a fire and called the fire department. We found the kids, their heads shattered, among the debris. Ah, and among the teenagers there were two girls who were also raped. The three attackers were found, tried, and hanged.
59. The nice Christmas present
Alexis Valdez was living with his aunt in 2011 when he argued with her aunt's guy, Silvestre (who was called himself after Grosminet, let us note), who reproached him for not contributing to the rent. Alexis did not take reproaches. Suddenly, he took a hammer and smashed Silvestre's head, before turning on the music to be able to cuddle and in disorder: the enucleate, cut off his head and a few other things like the nose or the ears. Then he wrapped the head and left it on his aunt's pillow as a Christmas present. The police found him covered in blood. Valdez explained that, if his aunt had been present, she would have suffered the same fate.
60. The massacre of the Yazdanpanah family
Also in 2011, in Texas this time, we celebrated Christmas at the Yazdanpanah. It was time for the great unpacking of gifts. Suddenly, there is a knock on the door: it's the father, Aziz, disguised as Santa Claus. Of course, that annoys everyone; besides, her niece, Sahra, sends a text to her boyfriend: "There you go, he's trying to play the ideal father when he's never there." Error buzzer, Sahra, wrong answer. Aziz pulls out a gun and kills everyone: his ex-wife, Fatemeh, as well as his son and daughter, Fatehemeh's sister, her husband and therefore Sahra, their 22-year-old daughter. Then he kills himself. 7 dead, found among the gifts a few hours later.
61. The disappearance of JonBenet Ramsey
6-year-old Little Miss Sunshine, JonBenet Ramsay disappears at the end of December 1996 in Colorado. The mother of the little one indicates that a demand for ransom has been sent to the family. Except that, during the beatings, the father of the little one ends up discovering his corpse in the basement of the house. JonBenet was strangled and hit on the head. It is December 25th. The family was suspected for a time, then cleared of all suspicion. It is not known who committed the crime. Merry Christmas to everyone.
62. The Good Samaritan and the Good Samaritan
Young actress Tricia McCauley was supposed to spend Christmas 2016 with her pals. On the road, she meets a hitchhiker and stops. After all, it is the spirit of Christmas to help each other. Imagine Tricia as some kind of perfect, talented, vegan girl and all, eh, that's important for the future. Because Tricia never makes it to Christmas dinner. On the other hand, she uses her credit card a lot of times to make large withdrawals. On December 27, we find his body rolled up in a ball in his car. Tricia was raped, beaten and strangled. The hitchhiker, Duane Johnson, is found shortly after. And there, he explains that in reality he just helped Tricia kill herself because she really wanted to. And that he didn't rape her since she agreed. In short, a simple Christmas present, a service rendered in turn to a good Samaritan woman.
63. The date gone wrong
December 2015. Katie Locke, a 23-year-old teacher, has a date with Carld Langdell, a lawyer she knew on a dating site. The evening is going well. So much so that they decide to go together to a very nice hotel in London, the Theobalds Park Hotel. Except that Langdell strangles Katie in the bedroom, before raping her post mortem. Then he wraps his corpse in a quilt which he throws in the thickets. Katie's corpse is found on Christmas Day. Ah, Langdell had had a short stay in a mental hospital, during which he explained to a nurse that he fantasized about slitting a girl's throat. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
64. The haunted stone
This
Inca legend tells the story of Túpac Yupanqui, son of the sun, who liked to party after winning a battle. One day when he was putting down a rebellion, he had a pretty little captive handed over to her to rape her in a cool way. Except that the prisoner already had a lover and did not have a mad desire to be raped. At night, she runs away with the guy she's in love with and the two get caught up. Tupac set them on fire. Since then, a stone has been found there, the shape of which is exactly similar to the girl's body. You should not go there at night, for fear of being tormented by the spirit of the haunted stone.
65. The mourner
The legend dates back to the 16th century. In Tenochtilan, Mexico, locals roamed their homes at night, so as not to be tormented by the spirit of a woman wandering the streets in tears. The mourning woman wandered around the city, before stopping in the central square to pray. Every night, the woman disappeared around Lake Texcoco. Those who dared to approach him disappeared in troubled circumstances. The legend has variations throughout the entire South American territory.
66. El chupacabra
Literally the goat sucker. A strange being from Puerto Rico who eats animals, or rather the blood of animals, vampire style. Apparently, there is evidence of a kind of biped that would attack at night and never leave a trail. The animal was supposedly seen all over South America: legend has it that it was of extraterrestrial origin or that it was the result of failed scientific experimentation.
67. La Tunda
This legend of the Colombian Pacific coast evokes a mysterious, semi-monstrous woman who would lure the locals into the jungle to keep them prisoners and kill them. She disguises herself as a loved one of her victim before making him swallow poisonous langoustines which force him to remain eternally in a state of trance. It mainly attacks children.
68. El Imbunche
A small Chilean child entrusted to wizards and become monstrous. His face is fixed to the back of his head, his fingers and ears are hooked. El Imbuche imitates animal sounds and practices black magic. It feeds on fresh meat.
69. The penitent
A little old woman who takes taxis in Mexico to get to church. She asks the taxi to wait for her, goes to the church, comes back and asks to go to another church. From church to church, the taxi driver finally brings the old woman home: as payment, she gives the driver a ring, asking him to come back the next day to get his money. The next day, when the driver returns, he is told that the old woman in question has been dead for several years.
70. La Cegua
A supernatural being who pursues and punishes unfaithful and / or picolos men. It would be the spirit of a young Costa Rican condemned to wander on deserted roads and seduce men: she gets caught hitchhiking, lets herself be flirted a little, then trades her pretty face for a dead horse's head with rotting skin hanging down all over the place. There, generally, the men shout.
71. The whistler
You have to be careful in the Venezuelan jungle at night. We might well come across the whistler, a 6-meter tall giant that moves as discreetly as an ant and chooses its victims from among the stray walkers. To find out he's around, it's simple: he whistles non-stop and his huge bag contains the clashing bones of his victims. He sucks the blood of drunkards and flirtatious people who return home after a good night's sleep.
72. El Pombero
This Paraguayan legend relates to a little elf, Pomberito, who is rather nice with the peasants to whom he agrees to render services by, in return, receiving offerings every night for 30 days. But if a peasant forgets to make the offering, he runs the risk of not very cool reprimands, such as death, for example.
73. The ramp house
In Mexico, an abandoned and half-built house borders the feet of a mountain. The house has ramps and is said to have been built for a little girl in a wheelchair. This little girl would have died falling from the second floor, paving the way for a long series of accidents and deaths of all kinds: two workers died during the construction of the house. At night, you would hear screams in the house and see silhouettes.
74. The family scammed for over twenty years
An American knew that her parents had been victims of identity theft twenty years before realizing she too. She figured out that the person who had done that at the time had probably recovered her identity at the same time, and either way she was right. After the death of her mother, she discovers with her father that in reality it was the late mother from the beginning. Indeed this one had made a credit card in the name of his daughter. Together they went back over twenty years of frauds and realized that she had also scammed the grandfather for $ 1,500. We obviously do not take everything to the grave.
75. The Lille student registered at the Banque de France
It all starts the day Maya, a 20-year-old student, has her wallet stolen in the metro. Some time later she realizes that three loans have been taken in her name and that a loss of 59,600 € means that she will become stuck in the Bank of France and banned from banking. The discovery of unpaid train fines as well as other debts in her name follows, which plunges her into a hell of administrative procedures to prove her innocence. And it's still very loaf to have to proclaim your innocence all the time because of a nice scam.
76. The woman who begins to suspect her husband of leading a double life
In 2008, a Franco-Turkish couple living in Orléans began to receive mortgage payments for purchases and loans they had not made. The wife even goes so far as to imagine a double life for her husband on the move. It is precisely the wife who will conduct an investigation which "would make the private detectives pale" as the representative of the public prosecutor pointed out during the hearing. She will trace all the information and find that her husband's identity has been sold on a network and bought by a Turkish national living quietly in the city of Caen. She now calls herself Sherlock Holmes. No that's wrong, but she could.
77. The man whose identity has been stolen for 17 years
In 2004, Loïc received a phone call from a bank branch in Toulouse (a city he did not live in) which informed him that his accounts had been transferred. Not being at the origin of the action, an investigation is opened and we find a total of five people who pretended to be him. For 17 years, he constantly dealt with bailiffs, administrations and banks. In total, 17 bank accounts, problems with CAF and social security, ten telephone lines, various consumer credits were reported. Today he has a psychiatric follow-up and is under medication. At the time, he was forced to stop studying law and political science.
78. The Australian woman who got involved in a murder
We arrive on the heavy. An Australian woman living in Israel who is 6 months pregnant learns over the radio that she is wanted for the murder of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh. She realizes that three Australians (including her) had their identities usurped in this affair and that false passports (including one in her name) have been found. So she freaked out but in the end we quickly understand the scam and she is not worried.
79. The mother who had only guaranteed the rental of her son
When she sends the file for the rental of her son's apartment, this woman is far from suspecting the various scams that will follow. She first receives a file for the purchase of automobile insurance. She contacts the mentioned mechanic and realizes that someone has bought a used vehicle in her name. A few days later a credit organization tries to withdraw € 300 from his account. History repeats itself three times, three vehicles purchased, three different credit organizations. It's just the horror for the poor lady whose case is still pending.
80. The student who has been declared a child
Then 25 years old, a student of Congolese origin holding a master's degree learns that it is forbidden to issue checks following an incident on a new account. He goes to the agency and learns that a client has usurped his identity. He files three complaints without anything moving forward. A judge finally gives an order dismissing his complaints. He later learns that his usurper has been convicted of forgery and forgery in the Congo and returns to the police station where he is offered to "negotiate with his usurper" (nice). One day, he discovers that a little girl is declared dependent on him, even though he has no children. Finally confused with the con artist, he was even taken into custody before the court understood his mistake.
81. The employee of the fraud department who messed around a bit
An American IRS (Internal Revenue Service) has spent years helping people who are victims of fraud. In reality, she was stealing their identities in order to defraud herself. For over three years she used IRS computers to retrieve people's data (names / dates of birth / social security numbers) in order to defraud reimbursement services. In all, she raised nearly $ 400,000 before being arrested and sentenced to nine years in prison.
82. My parents' note that I forged not to go to class
I was in 4th and I'm not very proud of this anecdote. I had forged my father's signature so as not to go to sports class on a Friday afternoon. Everyone saw nothing but an old-fashioned old cop who didn't get it and checked every apology. He worked for years on the “4th D apology affair” in order to corner me and he finally got there over twelve years later. Today I write this top from my cell, consumed by remorse. DON'T FRAUD.
83. Lost, or prisoner
This feeling, in a dream, refers directly to the perception that we have of reality in relation to the path to take, in any field whatsoever. The feeling of being out of options or having too many options can create a stress that must be identified in order to get rid of these nightmares. Without a suitable response, this nightmare is often the first step before moving on to the next ones.
84. In free fall, or drowned
This sensation usually occurs in a context of overwork. The stress is then “internalized” and accumulated to take the form of this nightmare. It is precisely the reactions you will have during this fall that will translate your way of seeing the problems in reality.
85. A machine or a phone that does not work
Unless you have experienced these worries too often with technology, this type of nightmare can turn out to be symptomatic of a feeling of loss: the estrangement of a loved one, physical or emotional, or the feeling of having without the wanting to erect a barrier with his entourage. If this nightmare is recurring, ask yourself about the relationship you have with your "friends" and if you haven't let it all rot a bit.
86. Naked in a public place
Getting naked by accident is a fairly clear representation of secrets that we do not want to reveal. The difficulty of "getting naked" literally shows itself in nightmares, and the awkward feeling you experience in your dreams must be a little like the one you fear if more is learned about you. You may need to assume a little more who you are and to relativize the judgment of others, you will live the better.
87. Natural or man-made disaster
This type of nightmare is often fraught with meaning: a disaster dream would refer to an imminent "disaster" in reality. It is therefore important to identify what, in our dream, makes us helpless and to try to determine which event of our reality plunges us into this state and constitutes a source of stress sometimes unconscious.
88. A failed exam
The first relationship we have with a possible failure haunts us long after the end of our schooling. This fear of being evaluated illustrates the feeling of deserving or not what one has. If we did an objective review of what you have achieved in your life, would you be satisfied? If you dreamed of a copy of immaculate whiteness, it might not be.
89. The loss or destruction of his house
A house illustrates the dichotomy between the desire to preserve what we have inside and the image and solidity that we show on the outside. Your home is you. If your nightmare shows destruction or theft inside this house, in the privacy of your walls, this should be understood as a feeling of betrayal, or a fear of being manipulated.
90. Car breakdown
As with the house, the vehicle you are in symbolizes your own body. The car shows an impeccable exterior appearance when the mechanics stop, you have to understand this image as the difference in perception that we have on the outside and inside. Heading straight for a crash betrays a feeling of weakness or lack of control over one's own life.
91. Injury, illness or death
Beyond this belief which wants that "if one dies in a dream, one dies in reality", it is necessary to relativize the gravity of this kind of vision: certainly, this morbid appearance in dreams can be compared to the report that we have death, when it concerns a loved one for example. But sometimes it is lighter, and this death can illustrate a change in his own life, which implies a new era. New job, stop smoking, buy a hybrid car, you kill the old "you" to be reborn in a Prius.
92. Prosecuted or attacked
If it is universally shared, it is because this dream appeals to an instinct to flee from what, it seems, is stronger than us. According to Freud, this dream manifests the anxiety of the individual, whatever the seriousness of this concern. We think we can deal with these little worries, your nightmares show you not, and that you have to face them. Little more: if the pursuer has a knife or a long object, it is certainly a sexual representation, which you flee or to which you want to give in with guilt.
93. The Banshee
When we see a messenger from the other world disembark, we don't expect her to tell us a Belgian joke, in general, it is to announce an imminent death. It's a bit like the White Lady of the corner. Afterwards, depending on the region, she acts as a mourner, a crier or she washes the dead. Anyway, she doesn't have a very funky job.
94. The Merrow
Merrow is the Gaelic equivalent of a mermaid. There are female Merrows but also males. The former are beautiful, like the classic mermaids. The second on the other hand are simply disgusting (pointed teeth, green hair, and very ugly, in short the lookalikes of the singer of the Pogues ). Besides their beauty, the female Merrows are no less beautiful whores who hate humans and do not hesitate to do dirty things to them. Usually seeing one was not considered a good sign. In fact most of the time that meant that we were either going to clamor pretty quickly, or suffer a good little family curse.
95. The Puck
As if "The Puck" weren't ugly enough, this creature is also adorned with nicknames as ridiculous as the nickname itself: "Jack with the lantern", "Will with the twist", or "Robin Good friend ". The Puck is a leprechaun who has the power to transform into an animal and who likes to play pranks. One of his favorite valves, for example, is pushing old ladies, and it's true that it's really fun, you should give it a try. Most of the time he uses his ability to transform into a black horse with fiery yellow eyes, an appearance he uses to freak out the villagers. We're not sure that's how he'll be able to make friends, but that doesn't seem to bother him too much.
96. Fir Darrig
It looks like a Leprechaun, with one little more characteristic: it becomes encrusted. He arrives at your house, takes the best seat by the fire and starts to dry his filthy clothes in your living room. If you don't comply, he'll piss you off. A kind of Michel Blanc in "Come home, I live with a friend" , but super nasty.
97. The Dullahan
These headless horsemen are a curious bunch. Capable of beheading themselves to mess around and to play bowls with their skulls, the Dullahan fear gold more than anything. So keep a coin on you (next to the garlic for vampires) to keep them away. Because know it, you shouldn't piss them off too much: they have a human spine as a whip and when they stop their horse, they cry out a name, and the person passes the weapon to the left immediately.
98. The Grogoch
Yes, "The", because this human-looking creature wouldn't have a female. So they live between guys in tiny and precarious huts, a cave or a hole doing the trick, they are a little dirty, but apparently very nice. A bit like our computer science students. The Grogoch will not hesitate, from time to time, to give a little help, in return for a pot of cream as remuneration. Last tip: he is very afraid of priests and he can, if necessary, make himself invisible. It is a superpower like any other.
99. inn Mac Cumaill
Finn is a warrior with universal knowledge. Already said like that, it imposes it. On the other hand, the way he got it is pretty lame. To be honest, he spent 7 years trying to catch a salmon with universal knowledge, and once he got there, he cooked it to peck it, so far so good. Except that during this cooking the juice of the salmon sprinkled his thumb. So every time he sucks his thumb he has access to universal knowledge (it's really practical in interrogation ...). And yes, this legend is one of the most nazi in the history of legends. According to this same legend Finn is not dead, he is just sleeping and will wake up to protect Ireland when needed. For now the English and Thierry Henry sleep soundly, but you never know.
100. Les Cluricaunes
An umpteenth derivative of Leprechaun but in a drunken version. If you behave well they will protect your wine cellar, but if you mess around they will empty your barrels and let your wine rot. Most of the time they are old and overall they are known to be fat lazy. Their favorite hobby: riding sheep ... In short, they look pretty cool.
Top 100 Urban Legends
1. Footprints In The Snow
This urban legend involves a teenage girl who was home with her little sister while their parents were out on the town. After watching some television together, she sent her little sister to bed and then went back downstairs to watch more TV. Eventually, she got bored with what she was watching and turned it off, then curled up in a blanket on the couch and watched the snow fall through the large sliding-glass window in the living room. She had only been watching for a few minutes when she saw a man walking toward the sliding glass doors with deadly purpose. He started to pull something shiny out of his coat and she dove under her blanket in terror.After a while, she pulled down the blanket and found that the man was gone. She called the police, who immediately rushed over to the scene to investigate. Upon examining the premises, one of the first things they noticed was that there were no footprints in the snow. And with the rate of snowfall, there was no way they could have been covered that quickly. Puzzled, the officers inspected the residence and noticed wet footprints on the carpet leading straight up to the couch where the girl had been sitting. The madman had been behind her the whole time and what she had seen had been his reflection in the window.
2. The Chilling Discovery
There are multiple versions of this story, and most of them start with a young college girl who was studying late, and thus was spending a lot of time in the library instead of her dorm room. During a late night of studying, she realized that she had forgotten something in her dorm room, so she decided to make a trip back to go get it. When she opened the door she found the room dark, but figured that her roommate was either asleep or out studying like her. Not wanting to disturb her in case she was asleep, she left the light off, grabbed what she needed, and went back to the library.Upon returning to her room, she found her roommate lying on the floor with a slit throat. But the worst part was the message written in lipstick on the bathroom mirror that read simply, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?”In another version of the tale, there is a woman who lives alone in an apartment with her puppy. She was fast asleep one night when she was awoken by a strange noise. To reassure herself, she reached down to where the pup slept beside the bed and felt it lick her hand. Satisfied, she drifted peacefully back to sleep. The next morning she discovered that the dog had been hanged in the shower. On the floor beside her bed was a note that said, “Humans can lick too.”
3. The Unfortunate Coat Incident
This urban legend begins on a cold winter day with a young couple who were having a christening party in their home for their new baby. The guests started to arrive out of the cold, and as they were welcomed by their hosts, they tossed their coats onto a bed that was near the main living room. It just started with a coat or two, but once someone saw one coat, everyone began adding to the pile.Before long, all the guests had arrived and everything was in full swing. The parents decided that it was time to show off their new baby to the guests—after all, he was the guest of honor. So the mother walked over to the bed where she had left the baby—only to scream in horror when she found that her little bundle of joy had been accidentally smothered under the towering pile of coats.
4. The Gas Station Attendant
It was late and a young woman was driving through an unfamiliar area deep in the country. Her car was old and ureliable, and soon she realized that she’d have to stop for gas soon if she didn’t want to start walking. As luck would have it, she came across an old gas station a little farther down the road. It was an old-fashioned station, the kind with an attendant who comes out to pump the gas, and something about it set the alarm bells ringing in her head. But she knew that she couldn’t get much farther without refueling, so she reluctantly pulled into the gas station and asked the attendant to fill up the tank.The attendant seemed nervous as he filled up her gas tank, but eventually he finished the job and came over to the driver’s side to get the payment. She gave him a $20 bill and he examined it carefully, then told her that it was counterfeit. At this point the alarm bells weren’t ringing any more—they were rioting. The attendant explained that he would have to take her back to his office and call his manager, because the counterfeit would have to be reported to the bank. Once he had convinced her to come with him, he explained that the bill wasn’t actually counterfeit—he’d gotten her out of the car because there was a man with a hatchet hiding in the backseat.
5. The Wily Home Invader
While the specific stories of this urban legend are just myths, there is a chilling undertone of truth to it, since home invaders have been documented using tactics similar to this to get into people’s homes. According to the stories that have circulated, someone is home alone late at night with very few lights on—just enough to indicate that someone is home and awake, but that there aren’t many people around. Someone comes up and, in the dead of night, just starts banging on the door and yelling to be let in. When the homeowner gets close to the door and calls out, the calls become even more insistent, yelling that someone is trying to hurt them.In one story, a woman was at home by herself when she heard a woman banging on her door and shouting to be let inside the house. When she asked who it was, the woman outside began yelling that she was being attacked by a man and needed to get somewhere safe. When the homeowner listened closely, she indeed heard a male voice, but he was talking normally as if he was simply having a conversation with the woman. The woman outside was covering the peephole, so the homeowner peeked out the window beside the door. She could see a woman dressed in black, and from somewhere nearby, the man’s voice continued to talk softly to the woman. Eventually they both left, but it left the storyteller chilled to the bone. It’s hard to imagine what would have happened if she had let them in, but it probably wouldn’t have been pleasant.
6. The Lost Child
A young woman was walking down her street on a normal spring day when she saw a small child sitting beside the road and crying. She stopped to ask the little girl if she was okay, and the girl told her that she was lost. Sniffling, the girl then asked her if she could help her find her way home. Overwhelmed with pity for the little girl, the young woman readily agreed. Luckily, the little girl knew her address and had a general idea of where her home was. Before long the two had made it to her house. The front door was locked, and since the girl was too small to reach the doorbell, she asked the young woman to press it for her.The woman pressed the doorbell without a second thought, and immediately felt a powerful shock course through her body. It knocked her out cold, and she woke up several hours later completely naked and surrounded by used condoms. The house she was in was empty, her rapists were long gone, and the child was nowhere to be seen.
7. The Hitchhiking Old Woman
This story tells of a young woman who was walking out of a shopping mall late at night to go back to her car. As she neared the car, she was startled to see an old lady standing right next to her passenger-side window. An instant later, she noticed that the passenger-side window had been completely shattered. The old lady explained that she had seen her broken window and had been watching it for her to make sure nobody tried to steal something.The young woman was very appreciative of the old lady’s help and, since the old lady had missed her bus, she agreed to drive her back home. However, as they stood there talking, she noticed that the old woman seemed to have very hairy, manlike arms. Thinking quickly, she jumped in front of a slow-moving car, forcing it to a stop. The “old lady” quickly bolted. When the police searched her car they found that the kind old lady had stowed a knife and a coil of rope on the backseat.
8. The Fat Vampires
Stories of fat vampires are not new. These creatures were called pishtacos and are a classic Peruvian legend. They are known to stalk the night on deserted roads and use their magic to rob travelers of their fat. Recently, the legend has resurfaced due to actual arrests of gang members in Peru who are purported to have been bonking unruly travelers on the head, then taking them to a safe house and rendering them into fat to sell on the black market. Some estimates say that as many as 60 people fell prey to these gangsters before they were caught.Of course, some question the official story, partly because most of the attributed murders have not been proven, but mostly because they have trouble believing that there’s any kind of market for human fat. It was also considered strange that these men had no interest in selling any of the other, more valuable body parts. Perhaps the answer lies in the legend itself. The pishtacos would not have any interest in other organs, and selling the rendered human fat would be a good cover for their true operation—feeding on the fat of the living so they can sustain their undead immortal
existence.
9. Don’t Open The Door
A woman was up late at night, just minding her own business and browsing the Internet in her living room, when she heard the sound of a baby crying outside her doorstep. She got up and went to investigate the noise, but could see nothing through the keyhole. Understandably, she found it odd that a baby would be crying outside her suburban home, especially so late at night. Not sure what to do, she decided to just call the police. She told them that she was considering opening the door to check on the baby because she had heard the crying near her window and was afraid that the baby might crawl into the street.Practically shouting, the dispatcher told her that under absolutely no circumstances should she open the door, and that they already had police on their way to her house. When they got there, the police found no baby or any evidence that a child had been nearby at all. The policemen informed the worried homeowner that they had received multiple calls like this lately, and that they believed it to be the work of people who were trying to trick women into opening their homes using a recording of a crying child.
10. The Scream Nobody Heard
At some college campuses, it’s apparently a tradition for students who live in dorms to all let loose with a scream at a designated time. According to the stories, it helps the students release stress, especially during finals week. On finals week at UCLA, the tradition was for everybody to scream at midnight to let out all that pent-up frustration. So, just as expected, everyone did their screaming ritual and the campus rang with the caffeine-fueled howls of a horde of exhausted youths.The ritual complete, the campus quieted down and everyone eventually went to bed, only to discover the next morning that one of the screams had been real. A young woman had been raped at precisely midnight, her assault timed to coincide with the noisiest moment of the year. Nobody heard it, because what’s one scream among hundreds? Legend has it that since then, the screaming tradition has been banned from the UCLA campus, and anyone who breaks the rule is punished with expulsion.
11. The Choking Doberman
This urban legend comes from Sydney, Australia, and features a bizarre story regarding a choking Doberman dog. One night, a couple who had been out for a few too many drinks came home to find their dog choking in the living room. The man panicked and fainted, but the woman decided to call her old friend, a vet, and arranged to drop the dog off at the vet clinic.After dropping off the dog, she decides to go home and get her husband into bed. It takes her a while to do this, and in the meantime, the phone rings. The vet screams hysterically that they need to get out of the house immediately. So without any clue as to what’s going on, the couple leave the house as quickly as possible. As they come down the stairs, several policemen run up to meet them. When the woman ask what the problem is, a policeman gently tells her that the dog was choking on a man’s finger. A burglar must still be present in their home. Soon enough, the former owner of the finger is found unconscious in the bedroom.
12. The Suicidal Boyfriend
This story, also known as “The Boyfriend’s Death” has many different variations and has been interpreted as a more generalized warning not to stray too far from the safety of home. Our version takes us to Paris in the 1960s. A girl and her boyfriend—both of them college students—are making out in his car. They have parked near the Forest of Rambouillet so that they won’t be seen by anyone. When they’re finished, the boy gets out to take some fresh air and smoke a cigarette, and the girl waits for him in the safety of the car.After waiting for five minutes, the girl gets out of the car to look for her boyfriend. Suddenly, she sees a man in the shadows. Frightened, she gets back into the car to drive away—but as she does this, she hears a very faint squeak, followed by more squeaks.This continues for a few seconds, until the girl decides that she has no choice but to drive off. She hits the gas as hard as possible, but can’t go anywhere; someone has tied a rope from the bumper of the car to a nearby tree.Finally, the girl slams on the gas again and then hears a loud scream. She gets out of the car and realizes that her boyfriend is hanging from the tree. It turns out that the squeaky noises were made by his shoes, scraping across the top of the car.
13. The Slit-Mouthed Woman
There is a legend in Japan and China about a girl called Kuchisake-Onna, also known as the slit-mouthed woman. Some say that she was a samurai’s wife. One day, she cheated on her husband with a younger and better-looking man. When the husband returned, he discovered her betrayal; enraged and furious, he took his sword and slit her mouth ear-to-ear.Some say that the woman was cursed to never die, and still wanders the world so that people can see the horrible scar on her face and pity her. Some people claim that others have actually seen a very beautiful young lady, who asked them: “Am I pretty?” And once they replied positively, she ripped off the surgical mask, and showed them her horrible wound. She then asked the same question—and anyone who no longer found her pretty was met by tragic death from her hands.There are two morals to this story: a compliment won’t cost you a thing, and honesty isn’t necessarily the best policy.
14. Crybaby Bridge
According to this legend, a couple was driving home from church with their baby, arguing about something. The rain was falling in torrents, and they soon found themselves having to drive over a flooded bridge. As they started across, the water was deeper than they first thought, so they got stuck and decided to get out of the car to find help. The woman stayed behind, but left the car for reasons we can only guess at.While her back was turned to the car, she heard her baby crying out loudly. She returned to the vehicle, only to find that her baby had been carried away by the water. According to the same legend, if you go to that same bridge you can still hear the baby crying (the bridge’s location is conveniently unknown).
15. Zanfretta’s Alien Abduction
Fortunato Zanfretta’s abduction story has become one of the
most famous urban legends in Italy over the last few decades.According to his own accounts (originally made while under hypnosis), Zanfretta was abducted by aliens called Dragos from the planet Teetonia, and experienced repeated abductions by the same group over a period of several years (1978-1981). As frightening or creepy as this case might sound, it seems like we can paint a more optimistic picture of the intentions of these visitors when we consider the words of Zanfretta during one hypnosis section:“I know you are trying to come more frequently . . . no, you can’t come to Earth, people get scared if they look at you. You can’t make friendship. Please go.”Zanfretta has probably given more details about his alien abduction than any other person in history; his detailed accounts may cause even the most vehement skeptic to pause for thought. To this day, the Zanfretta case remains one of the most curious and fascinating ‘x-files’ around the world.
16. The White Death
This is a story about a little girl in Scotland who hated life so much that she wanted to destroy every last trace of herself. She finally decided to commit suicide, and shortly afterwards her family found out what she’d done.In a horrible twist, every member of her family died only a few days later too, their limbs torn apart. The legend says that when you learn about the White Death, the girl’s ghost might come and find you, and knock repeatedly on your door. Each knock gets louder, till you open the door and she kills you for fear that you’ll tell someone else of her existence; her main goal is to prevent anyone from knowing about her.Like
most urban legends, the story is probably nothing more than the wild imagination of a modern Aesop—but all the same, it’s always good practice to find out who’s standing behind the door.
A black Volga automobile was supposedly spotted frequently in the streets of Warsaw back in the 1960s—packed with kidnappers who were bent on snatching children. According to the legend (and helped along by Western propaganda, no doubt) high-ranking Soviet officials drove the black volga in Moscow during the mid 1930s, kidnapping young, pretty girls for the sexual pleasure of the highest ranking Soviet comrades. Another version of this legend tells us that vampires, mysterious priests, Satanists, body venders—and even Satan himself—drove the black volga car.According to different versions, children were kidnapped with the intention of using their blood as a cure for rich leukemia sufferers around the world. Of course, none of these versions were ever found to be true.
18. The Greek Soldier
This lesser-known legend tells us of a Greek soldier who, after WWII, was returning home to marry his fiancee. Unfortunately for him, he was captured by fellow Greeks who had hostile political beliefs, tortured for five weeks, and finally eventually murdered. In the early 1950s—mainly in North and Central Greece—there were stories about a very attractive Greek soldier in uniform, who appeared and disappeared overnight, seducing beautiful widows and virgin girls with the sole purpose of impregnating them.Five weeks after the babies were born, the man would disappear for good—leaving a letter on the table explaining that he had returned from the dead merely to spread his seed, so that his sons might avenge his murder.
19. Elisa Day
In medieval Europe, there apparently lived a young woman named Elisa Day, whose beauty was like that of the wild roses that grew down the river, all bloody and red. One day, a young man came into town and instantly fell in love with Elisa. They dated for three days. On the first day, he visited her at her house. On the second, he brought her a single red rose and asked her to meet him where the wild roses grow. On the third day, he took her down to the river—where he killed her.
The horrible man supposedly waited till her back was turned, then took a rock in his fist, whispering, “All beauty must die”—and with one swift blow, he killed her instantly. He placed a rose between her teeth, and slid her body into the river. Some people claim to have seen her ghost wandering the riverside, blood running down the side of her head, a single rose in her hand.
20. The Well to Hell
Sometime in 1989, Russian scientists in Siberia drilled a borehole some 14.5 kilometers deep into the Earth’s crust. The drill broke through into a cavity, and the scientists lowered some equipment to see what was down there. The temperature was more than one thousand degrees celsius—but the real shocker was the sound recorded by their instruments.They only captured about seventeen horrifying seconds of audio before the microphone melted. Convinced that they’d heard the screams of the damned in Hell, many of the scientists quit the job immediately—or so at least the story goes. Those who stayed were in for an even bigger shock later that night. A plume of luminous gas burst out of the borehole, the shape of a gigantic winged demon unfolded, and the words “I have conquered” in Russian were seared into the flames. Even though today it is considered to be a hoax, there are many who believe that this incident really happened; the “Well to Hell” urban legend remains alive to this day.
21. Flashing Headlight Initiation
You’ve all probably heard this one before. It’s late at night, and a driver notices a car approaching from the opposite direction without its headlights on, so he flashes his lights to alert the other car. As he passes, the dark car makes a U-turn and begins following the Good Samaritan, and as soon as he stops, gang members exit and gun the driver down as a part of some twisted initiation.This story has found its way not only across the Internet but into the local news as well, being issued as a warning from various news outlets and sheriff’s departments. So where did this account find its roots? Although not gang-related, someone did die after a car was signaled to put its lights on. In 1992 in Stockton, California, a school district employee by the name of Kelly Freed was shot after the driver of the car in which she was traveling, Will Fitts, gestured to a car next to them that did not have its lights on.The occupants of the second car, 16-year-old Adrian Gutierrez and 15-year-old Carlos Ojeda, took the gesture as an insult, so Gutierrez shot at Fitts’s car. They chased Fitts and his passengers into the parking lot of a department store. Gutierrez then fired off another shot from the window of his car. As it happened, that shot hit Freed, piercing her lung and heart. Some say this is where the story originated, while others say the tale was around long before that, but either way, the incident became a catalyst for the fire, and over the years, the urban legend has grown in both detail and scope.
22. Death By Wedgie
How many times have we heard this? “I heard about this guy who gave a dude an atomic wedgie so severe that it killed the kid!” According to legend, the underwear was pulled up so high and tight that it caused severe trauma to the rectum, which somehow lead to death. The true story, however, is a bit more interesting and makes a little more sense.In 2013, Oklahoman Brad Lee Davis got into an argument with his stepfather, Denver St. Clair. As the argument grew more heated, Davis decided to handle things the old-fashioned way, by yanking his stepdad’s underwear up and then pulling it over his head. This move was the mythical atomic wedgie, not to be confused with a standard wedgie. As it happened, the elastic band of the underwear wrapped around Denver’s throat, cutting off his airway, and he suffocated. In 2015, Davis pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the incident.
23. Tainted Halloween Candy
Halloween is a special night. It’s a night that allows our children a certain amount of freedom as we send them out the door, dressed in their scariest best, to torment the neighbors and gather goodies. Over the years, tales of tainted candy have emerged. Among the most famous is that of a child-hating miser who decides he’s had enough of the irritating little brats, so he pulls out a pack of straight razors and, one by one, inserts them into a group of apples. When the children knock on his door later that evening, he delivers them the tainted fruit. Later that night, as the kids bite into their spoils, they are stunned to find the surprise center. Some get off easy and simply chip a tooth, but others aren’t so fortunate, and the razors render them speechless, literally.There are multiple stories circulating of objects embedded in Halloween treats, most of which turn out to be little more than pranks played by the children themselves, but the one thought to have started the tainted candy craze took place in Texas back in 1974, when a man named Ronald O’Bryan handed out Pixy Stix laced with cyanide to five children, one of whom was his own eight-year-old son. His motive? It would seem that O’Bryan had just taken out a life insurance policy on his kids.Luckily, the poison was discovered before most of the children were harmed, but unfortunately, O’Bryan’s son died from ingesting it. O’Bryan was sentenced to death (it was Texas after all) and was executed by lethal injection. The effects of his actions, however, were felt across the United States, planting thoughts into the minds of parents everywhere.
24. Cooked To Death In The Tanning Bed
No woman wants to look bad for a wedding, but sometimes, time slips past us. So, what is a woman to do when she needs to get tanned in a matter of three days, but the tanning salons have limits on how long she can stay in the bed? She goes around to as many salons as she can find, of course. In this story, a young lady facing a pasty complexion at a formal event hits up every tanning salon in town within a 36-hour period so that she can look her best on the big day, and it works! She attends the wedding browned and beautiful.The next day, she wakes up not feeling so great, and she notices an odd, almost burned smell, so she decides to go see her doctor. After running a few tests, the doctor drops a bomb on her. All those visits to the tanning bed in such a short amount of time have cooked her internal organs. The girl now has less than a week before her body will shut down, and she will die.The first thing we need to point out is that tanning beds don’t work this way. Tanning beds use UV light, and the story is more akin to microwaves, but that doesn’t mean tanning beds can’t be lethal. Tanning beds deliver two to 12 times the amount of UV radiation that one would get standing in the midday sun.On May 24, 1989, Indiana native Patsy Campbell passed away due to burns inflicted after spending 25 minutes in a tanning bed 11 days earlier. It was, more or less, an accident, as Campbell was taking a drug to help treat psoriasis that made her more sensitive to light. Two days after her tanning session, she began to break out in blisters. The UV rays, combined with the medication, caused her to suffer burns on over 70 percent of her body. It was the first documented case of a fatality due to a tanning booth.Others have suffered as well. In 2007, a woman in Australia, Clare Oliver, succumbed to the effects of melanoma, which she claimed was a direct result of over-tanning.
25. They Stole My Kidney
A man is away on a business trip. His meeting has gone well, and he has headed back to his hotel, where he decides to unwind with a few drinks down at the bar. While he is there, he meets a mysterious woman. They get to talking end eventually head back to the man’s room for a different kind of a nightcap. Things seem to be going great until the man blacks out. The next thing he knows, he is waking up in a bathtub filled with ice. He then notices a sharp pain in his back. He reaches around and feels a long scar. Finally, he manages to pull himself out and call 911. Paramedics arrive and discover someone has removed the man’s kidney.It’s a sensational story of organ harvesting and the black market sales of body parts, but it isn’t completely without merit. The story itself has been circulating since the early 1990s, and many people attribute part of its origins to a Turkish man named Ahmet Koc, who, in 1989, claimed he had traveled to London for a job. Once there, he said he went for a medical check and was given what he believed to be an injection for a blood test but turned out to be a sedative. He woke up the next morning with a kidney missing. He was told not to worry and that he would be compensated for the missing organ.As it turns out, Ahmet’s story was a little misleading. The truth was that he had agreed to sell the kidney but felt he was paid unfairly, so he concocted the “stolen organ” tale to get back at the doctors who had performed the surgery. At least three doctors were found guilty of medical misconduct, and Koc was left feeling a bit empty in more ways than one.
26. Humans Can Lick Too
An absolutely unforgettable creepy campfire story is that of a dog that would lie at the side of the bed, and every time the girl sleeping there would hear a noise, she would reach her hand over to the canine. The dog would lick it, and, reassured that she was safe, the girl would drift back to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, she found the dog dead. Written on her mirror were the words, “Humans can lick, too.”The true version of this story doesn’t involve a dog, but there is still an eerie similarity. In July 2014, a teenager in Ellesmere Port, England, began receiving texts from a young man, who said he was watching her. The texts began to grow more intense, and the man, who was eventually identified as Kyle Ravenscroft, even went so far as to tell her that he was in her house and that he was going to hang himself in the tree outside her window so that when she woke up the following morning, she would see his body swinging there.Understandably shaken, the teen slept in her mother’s room that night. When they entered her room the next morning, they did not find a body in the tree. They did, however, find Ravenscroft hiding beneath the bed, where he had apparently slept all night. He was chased out of the house and eventually caught by local authorities.
27. Someone Is Living In The Attic
How about the story of a family who comes home from a trip to find that things in their home seem to be out of place. They write it off, but over the next few weeks, they start to notice other weird things—odd noises in the night, food that seems to go missing, and doors or windows left open. Then, one day, one of them goes into the attic to get something, and they discover a makeshift bed, a pile of rotting leftovers, and the remnants of a squatter. They call the authorities, but the unwanted guest is never found.In 1922, in the small farming community of Hinterkaifeck, Germany, the Gruber family found themselves in this exact situation. It started when Andreas Gruber told a group of friends about a set of suspicious footprints in the snow. He said they came out of the forest and led up to the farmhouse, but there were no footprints leading away. Over the next few days, he noticed little things, odd objects around that he didn’t recognize, strange sounds in the attic at night, and even a set of keys that went missing.Andreas never reported the suspicious activities to the police, which turned out to be a mistake. On March 31, Andreas, his wife Cazilia, their daughter Viktoria, and Viktoria’s daughter were lured into the barn one by one and murdered. The killer then made his way into the house and killed Viktoria’s son and the family maid. When the family was eventually reported missing, and authorities went to investigate, they found that the killer had continued living in the house for days before fleeing. He was never captured.
28. He’s In Your Back Seat
A woman pulls into a gas station and fills her tank up. She goes in and pays for her purchase and then walks back out, climbs into her car, and drives off. She hasn’t gone far when she sees another car quickly approaching from behind, its lights flashing frantically and the horn blasting. At first, she’s frightened, but as the car gets closer, it becomes apparent that the driver seems concerned, so she pulls over. The driver of the second car rushes over to her window and tells her he was trying to get her attention because he noticed something was wrong with her rear wheel. She gets out to look, and as they reach the back of the car, he tells her the faulty rear wheel was just a ruse and that the truth is that he saw someone climb into the back seat of her car while she was inside the gas station. Sure enough, there is a man ducked down in the floorboards. His intention was to kidnap or even kill the driver.The true story is almost as frightening. On February 28, 2017, a woman from Kansas City, Missouri, called the police, saying she’d just escaped from a man who had kidnapped her. According to the report, the woman had been sitting in her own home when a strange girl burst through the front door, said the word “Megan,” and then turned around and left. The woman was shaken and completely confused. She went to the front office of the community where she lived and reported the odd occurrence. She then left with the intention of stopping by a nearby gas station, but almost immediately, she realized there was someone hiding in the back seat of her car. It was a man dressed in all black and wearing a ski mask.She said the man claimed to have a gun, and, pressing something against the back of her head, he told her to drive and began giving her directions, eventually leading her to a remote location. While she drove, he wrapped cable around her hands. Once they arrived in front of a gate, he wrapped more cable around her neck and began assaulting her, beating the back of her head and cutting her arms and hands. Eventually, the man climbed out of the back seat and started toward her door. She threw the car into drive and took off, making it to a gas station, where she called the police. The man was never caught.
29. Body In The Bed
In this tale, a couple driving across the country decides to stop for the night in a small roadside motel. When they enter their room, they notice a rotten, musty smell. They investigate but find nothing. Trying to pass it off, they climb into bed, but the smell just seems to be getting stronger. Finally, they get up and push back the mattress of the bed. To their horror, they discover a corpse decaying in the bed frame.You can’t get more on the nose than this one. In 2010, a woman by the name of Sony Millbrook was reported missing after relatives noticed she hadn’t picked up her kids from school. Millbrook, her children, and her boyfriend had been renting a room at the Budget Lodge in Memphis, Tennessee.After several days without any word, staff members at the motel entered her room, boxed up her belongings, and claimed to clean the room. Police questioned the motel employees but didn’t take the investigation any further.A couple of days later, the room was rented out. Over the next few weeks, it would be rented out three times. Occupants noticed an odd smell. A few even tried burning incense, and the staff attempted to cover the smell with fabric softener sheets shoved in ceiling tiles, but no one ever managed to put two and two together.The body was finally discovered on March 15 under the mattress and box springs. Millbrook’s boyfriend, LaKeith Moody, who had also been missing, was eventually found driving Millbrook’s car. He was arrested, and the Memphis Police Department launched an internal investigation to see if any mistakes were made in handling of the case.It makes one wonder if any of the families who stayed in the room were given a voucher for a free night.
30. Santa’s Stuck In The Chimney
The Christmas season is in full bloom, and a man decides he wants to surprise his family. He goes into town and rents a Santa costume. Then, on Christmas Eve night, he climbs up on the roof, makes his way to the chimney, and begins his decent. He wants to make a grand entrance, bursting through the opened fireplace and belting out “Ho Ho Ho,” but halfway down, he slips and becomes lodged. Stuck, and without anyone knowing his plan, the man remains there, his muffled cries going unheard. Days pass. The family reports their father missing, but little can be done. Then, one cold night, the mother goes to start a fire. She notices an odd odor, and the flue seems to be stuck. Upon further investigation, she finds her husband’s body still trapped inside.This story was so popular it even managed to make its way into the 1984 movie Gremlins, and while there aren’t any known reports of a Santa stuck in a chimney, it doesn’t mean this one is completely without merit.In 1986, a burglar got trapped while trying to enter a home down the chimney. Neighbors reported hearing someone yelling for help, but no one could figure out where it was coming from. Days passed, and workers in the area began to hear a tapping sound, but much like the yelling two days prior, they were unable to track down the origin of the sound. It wasn’t until the homeowner noticed a rotten smell four days later that the body was discovered.Then, in 2015, a similar case was reported after a burglar in California managed to get himself stuck in a chimney while attempting to break into a home. Unaware of the would-be intruder, the homeowner started a fire. The thief began to scream, and the house filled with smoke. The homeowner called 911, and when the authorities arrived, the intruder appeared to still be alive. However, by the time they finally dismantled the chimney enough to remove him, he had succumbed to smoke inhalation. These are just a few examples of the true stories behind some of our favorite urban legends, but there are plenty more out there. So the next time you’re sitting around with a group of friends, and someone begins telling a creepy story, just remember, there is a seed of truth in every myth.
31. El Silbon
As told in Venezuela and Colombia, El Silbon is a tale about a creature that has been damned to roam the Earth carrying a bag of bones.The creature was once a little boy who lived with his parents in Venezuela. Being an only child, he was spoiled to no end by his parents. Unfortunately, this turned him into a picky and demanding brat.After insisting on deer meat for dinner one night and becoming extremely angry when his father failed to produce it, the boy stabbed his father in the stomach, pulled out his intestines, and took them to his mother to cook. Although the mother cooked the entrails, she eventually became suspicious at the look of the meat. Realizing what the boy had done, the mother was overcome with grief and let the boy’s grandfather deal with the evil child. The grandfather whipped the boy within an inch of his life and then rubbed chilies and lemon juice in his wounds. Then the grandfather handed the boy a bag full of his father’s bones and set a pack of dogs loose on him as the boy ran away. Just before the dogs killed the boy, the grandfather cursed him. And that was the origin of the creature known as El Silbon.It is said that El Silbon still roams around, whistling and entering homes without anyone noticing. He puts the bag of bones on the floor and counts them inside the home. If he goes unnoticed, a member of the family in that house will die. However, if the family does notice him, the boy turns their bad fortune into good luck.
32. Japanese Suicide Drawing
The most disturbing
Japanese urban legends often originate in Asia, with some turned into even creepier horror movies. In one such legend, a teenage Japanese girl drew a beautiful color picture of a young girl who seemingly stares directly at you. The teen posted the picture online and, for some unknown reason, committed suicide shortly afterward. Soon, people started commenting online that they could see sadness and even anger in the eyes of the drawn girl. Others said that her lips would start curling into a smirk the longer you looked at her and a ring would form around her. Some people took it even further, saying that there were unfortunate souls who stared at the picture for more than five minutes and ended up taking their own lives.
33. Nykur
As depicted in pictures and movies throughout the years, horses are beautiful creatures. However, if you visit Iceland and spot a gray horse standing next to a massive body of water such as the sea or even a lake, do yourself a favor and look at the horse’s hooves. If they face backward, you have a little problem.It is said that this horse, named Nykur, is a water-dwelling beast that sometimes surfaces to lure unsuspecting humans to a watery death. His skin is sticky. So if a person is enchanted by the horse and mounts it, he will not be able to get off again. Instead, he will be dragged along to Nykur’s underwater home and drowned.Yelling its name at the horse is said to scare it into running back into the water alone.
34. The Baby In The High Chair
This urban legend is told all over the world but seems to have some of its roots in Norway. For many years, a Norwegian couple didn’t go on a proper holiday. Finally, when everything fell into place one year, they found a trustworthy nanny for their baby boy and planned a long holiday.When the day came for them to depart, the nanny was late. She eventually called to tell them that her car was giving her trouble. However, she said that she could call a mechanic and then walk to their home as she was only about 15 minutes away.Reassured by this, the couple strapped their baby to his high chair, kissed him goodbye, and then left for their holiday as they were already late for the airport. They left the back door open for the nanny.One version of the tale has it that the nanny arrived to find the door locked (blown shut by the wind), so she assumed the couple had the baby with them. She then left.Another version says that the nanny was killed after being hit by a truck on her way to the house. Yet another says that the nanny was an elderly relative of the couple and she died of a heart attack before she could get to their home.In every version, the couple returned home to find their son dead and bloated, still strapped to his high chair.
35. The Studley Girl
The
scariest urban legends are the ones that hit close to home. Three years ago, a reddit user recounted the tale that scared him throughout his childhood and teenage years. He lives in the town of Mechanicsville, Virginia, which has a winding road called Studley Road.Years ago, a little girl lived in a small house on this road with her mother and alcoholic father. Flying into a rage one night, the man beat his wife and child to death and then shot himself.With her broken jaw hanging from her face, the little girl didn’t die immediately. Instead, she made her way down Studley Road looking for help before eventually collapsing, blood staining the front of her pajamas. Now, when you take one of Studley Road’s winding turns that lead into the woods, you can see the specter of the little girl slowly moving down the road with her back turned to you.Unsuspecting drivers who don’t know about the legend have pulled over to help her, only for her to turn around and let out an unearthly scream from her loose-hanging jaw. Sometimes, she also gurgles through the blood still streaming from her mouth.
36. Ghost Wagon
South Africa has its fair share of urban legends, which include the hitchhiker of Uniondale and The Flying Dutchman. However, a creepier one goes all the way back to 1887. Major Alfred Ellis contributed this tale, which is still told today, to South African Sketches.Four men—Lutterodt, Seururier, Anthony de Heer, and an unnamed visitor from Cape Town—undertook a journey from Ceres to Beaufort West by wagon. This area was known as the spokeveld (“ghost region”) and was even indicated as such on old South Africa maps.During their trip, one of the wagon wheels suddenly gave out and it took them until 3:00 AM to get it fixed. They were hardly on the road again when their horses became agitated and eventually froze in place, unwilling to move any farther.From out of nowhere, the men heard the sound of a wagon coming toward them at high speed. When they finally caught sight of it, they witnessed a driver cracking a whip at 14 horses as the wagon headed directly for them. The unnamed visitor, Seururier, and Lutterodt jumped from the wagon, but de Heer grabbed the reins and successfully moved his wagon out of the path of the other speeding wagon.Annoyed, de Heer yelled after the other driver: “Where do you think you are going?” To which the other driver replied, “To hell.” Then he and his wagon disappeared into thin air.Later, Lutterodt said that they only realized afterward that anyone who dared to challenge the spooky driver of the disappearing wagon would be doomed. A week after the incident, they found de Heer’s body at the bottom of a cliff. The remains of his wagon and the carcasses of his dead horses surrounded him.
37. Baby Blue
In the same vein as Bloody Mary, Baby Blue is a legend that originated from a tale in which a psychotic mother killed her baby boy with a shard of mirror glass. Naturally, there are those who would like to conjure up the spirit of Baby Blue (which is what the unnamed baby was dubbed).The ritual to do this includes going into a bathroom at night, fogging up the mirror, and writing “Baby Blue” on it. Then the light must be turned off, and the person who wrote the name on the mirror should hold out his arms as if a baby were in them. The spirit of the baby will then appear in his open arms. If the person drops the baby, the mirror will shatter and the person will die.Another version of the tale says that if you go into a dark bathroom and chant “Baby Blue” 13 times while rocking your arms back and forth, the baby will appear and scratch you. However, dropping the baby and running away is the best idea this time as his psychotic mother will appear in the mirror and kill you otherwise.
38. Poinciana Woman
One of the most unsettling
urban myths to come out of Australia tells the story of a young woman who was raped by Japanese fishermen at Darwin’s East Point. When she realized she was pregnant, she was horrified and hanged herself from a poinciana tree.Her restless spirit started stalking men in East Point, appearing to them as a beautiful vision in white. However, as soon as the men are entranced by her, she turns into a fearful hag with long claws, eviscerates them, and eats their intestines.For those who are brave, the poinciana woman can be summoned by spinning around three times on a dark, moonless night and calling out her name. Her distinctive scream will let you know that she has been successfully summoned.
39. The Devil’s Toy Box
The Hellraiser movies are said to have inspired a terrifying legend making the rounds in America. It is alleged that there is a one-room cabin called the Devil’s Toy Box in Louisiana that contains a bunch of mirrors from the floor to the roof. According to the tale, if a person goes into the cabin and stays too long, the Devil will appear and take that person’s soul.During their investigations, paranormal researchers found that the mirrors make up the six sides of the cabin but they face inward. It is said that no one can stay in there longer than five minutes.One man stayed over four minutes, came out mute, and never spoke again. A woman allegedly suffered cardiac arrest while inside the cabin, and a teenage boy had to be forcibly removed while kicking and screaming. He killed himself two weeks later.
40. Teke Teke
According to an especially
frightening legend from Japan, a female office worker was raped and beaten by American military men in Hokkaido a few years after World War II. The young woman jumped off a bridge that evening and was hit by a train on the railroad tracks below.Her body was severed in half at the waist. As the extremely cold weather prevented her from bleeding out immediately, she managed to drag her upper half to a train station where a shocked attendant threw a plastic tarp over her. She eventually died in extreme agony. Urban legend now has it that three days after you hear or read about this tale, the ghost of the young woman will appear to you, making a teke teke sound as she crawls toward you on her arms. You cannot outrun her as she can reach speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour (93 mph).Her mission is to catch as many people as she can. Then she will cut off and steal the lower halves of their bodies. The only way to escape certain death is to answer her questions. If she asks whether you need your legs, you must reply that you need them right now. And if she asks who told you her story, you must answer, “Kashima Reiko.”
41. Dead Mouse In Soda
This legend has many different variations, likely due to the incredible amount of people who have actually tried to sue soft drink companies over allegedly finding all or most of a mouse or rat in their soda. The most recent one was a man who bought a can of Mountain Dew from a vending machine at work. After taking a hearty swig, he realized there something was horribly, horribly wrong about the taste. He spit it out and found a dead mouse curled up inside his previously sealed can of soda.He sued PepsiCo after the alleged incident, citing trauma and stress caused by getting a mouthful of dead mouse. However, PepsiCo’s defense is possibly the most disturbing part of this tale. The company supplied an expert witness who explained that the man’s claims were quite literally impossible. According to this expert, the mouse’s body would have been completely dissolved and impossible to distinguish as anything but jelly after spending so long in an acidic soda like Mountain Dew.
42. The Beehive Hairdo
This legend very likely predates the Internet, as the beehive hairstyle hasn’t been popular since the 1960s. The story goes that a teenager was preparing for an upcoming dance and really wanted to make her hair stand out, so she used sugar water in her hair in an effort to keep it really stiff. She then wrapped it up tightly overnight in a coiling beehive shape. The next day, her hair looked just as good as she had hoped, and she continued with life as usual.As the weeks went on, she started to become a little obsessed with her ‘do. She did whatever it took to keep it looking nice, including not shampooing the sugar water out of her hair. She started to get headaches and just feel physically terrible in general. She didn’t understand what was going on, but she failed to see a doctor. Eventually, she collapsed as rivers of blood ran from under her hair. Upon examination, it turned out that she had a colony of bugs living under her hair and literally eating her alive.
43. Licking Envelope Leads To Parasites
Our story goes that a woman had licked an envelope and received a painful paper cut. For a while, she didn’t think anything of it because it was just a small cut, but it continued to be painful for a long time. It even started to swell. It eventually got so bad that she knew she needed to go to the hospital. The doctor who examined her saw the swelling on her tongue and decided to operate right then and there, either to remove the lump or drain pus. (It varies depending on the version of the tale.) As the woman sat wide awake and the doctor prepared to make an incision, a live cockroach crawled its monstrous way out of her mouth in one of the most horrifying birth cycles imaginable.
44. Snake Measures Its Owner
This story involves a couple who had a very large pet python but didn’t bother keeping it locked up. They kept the snake properly fed, they reasoned, so there wasn’t much to worry about. Eventually, the snake stopped eating for a while, and they wondered if he was sick. Even stranger, they started finding their pet lying out lengthwise next to them. They decided to take the snake to the vet to find out the cause of this disturbing behavior. Alarmingly, the vet told them that they needed to get rid of the snake right away. When they asked why, he explained that the snake had been measuring them and starving himself in preparation to gorge himself on some fresh, delicious human owner.
45. Termites Spread Through Mulch
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina,
an urban legend was going around that had a lot of homeowners running scared. According to an email forward, many of the trees that had fallen in the hurricane were being turned into cheap mulch that was coming soon to a store near you. Unfortunately, this mulch likely contained large numbers of Formosan termites.This legend has a grain of truth to it, as termites could potentially spread through mulch. However, the particular story is unlikely. New Orleans has carefully quarantined any wood that might be infested with termites.
46. Child’s Brain Gets Infested With Ants
Our tale begins with a small boy who was tired from playing and decided to lie down for a nap. He fell asleep with some candy scattered around near him, and this attracted some ants that were nearby. The little boy woke up unaware that anything was amiss until he started to feel itchy. As time went on, the itchiness got worse, and he started to get headaches. When the headaches got worse and nothing would make the itchiness go away, the little guy’s mother took him to the hospital.At first, the doctor was utterly baffled by the problem. After taking an X-ray of the child’s head, he discovered that ants had crawled into the child’s brain and formed an entire colony. Because the insects were crawling all around his brain, the colony was inoperable, and the little fella did not survive. Of course, leaving candy lying around actually results in little more than some inconvenience and a can of Raid, so this tall tale was no doubt invented by some very cruel and lazy mothers.
47. The Unexpected Computer Failure
The story goes that an older woman, the type who’s not likely to be very computer-savvy, called tech support with a serious problem. The night before, she had started hearing rather strange hissing sounds coming from her computer. She explained that when the noises began, she decided to shut down the machine for the night and see if it just needed a rest. When she tried to restart the computer the next morning, it emitted more of the same strange hissing sounds and began to smoke. The support tech quickly realized they were out of their depth over the phone and sent someone to the old woman’s house to deal with the problem. When the technician opened the case, they found a snake curled up inside: It had been attracted to the power source.Pictures of the so-called snake in the computer have been going around for a while and are actually apparently legit. However, the details of the true story are quite different from the legend. It actually took place in an office in Australia, not an elderly woman’s home. While the snake was a venomous red-bellied black snake, it didn’t prove to be very dangerous, because it turns out that snakes can’t survive large amounts of electricity coursing through their slithery, slimy bodies.
48. Restaurant Closed For Serving Mice And Rats
The story starts in Atlanta, Georgia, and surrounds a small chain of Chinese restaurants. Imagine you’ve just eaten at your local Asian-American food joint. After you go home, you check the news and see them mentioned. Your stomach starts to turn as you learn that one franchise of the chain restaurant you just visited was shut down for having some very strange secret ingredients in their food.The police had received a tip about some suspicious imports the restaurant had been receiving and decided to investigate. Upon searching the restaurant, the police found evidence that the owners of the establishment had secretly been serving mice and rats to their customers. They also found puppies and kittens ready to be cooked and served as food. The legends often include pictures of some of the packaged, frozen rodents, but there is no evidence of such a closure occurring.
49. Snake Sewn Into Lining Of Coat
According to legend, a woman visited a local discount clothing outlet to try on new winter coats. While wearing one of them, she felt a strange prick on her skin. Instead of inspecting the coat further, she simply put it back and went about her day. Before long, she fell ill and eventually ended up in a coma. Though the coma lasts several weeks in the tale, she is somehow able to ascertain what happened. The winter coat she had been trying on was imported from another country and had a deadly viper sewn into the lining.The story is a bit over-the-top, as it seems impossible for a snake to survive a trip overseas alive while trapped inside a coat. Strangely, though, this tale is widely believed, with outlets like Burlington Coat Factory receiving calls on a regular basis to ask questions about the story.
50. The Deadly Stick
A woman in Texas was supposedly out walking her dog when it started sniffing around a twig near their garage. The dog recoiled in pain, and the woman realized the “twig” was actually an insect known as a walking stick. At first, she didn’t think much of it, but then her dog’s eye started swelling up badly. When she took him to the vet, she found out that the poor dog had a chemical burn on his eye that was caused by the poison that the insect had secreted. The woman sent pictures of the insect to entomologists, who identified the specimen as a foreign walking stick that had made its way to our shores and was much more poisonous than the ones we are used to.While no evidence exists of any such foreign species, the story is plausible. There is a species of walking stick insect native to the United States that is capable of excreting a toxin that could be very painful and cause burns on sensitive areas like the eyes. Perhaps next time you are near a twig, you should keep your retinas shielded. Don’t take any walks in the woods.
51. The Grossest Cookie Ever
One legend that’s been passed around the Internet for a long time occurs in an unspecified foreign country, where a young woman purchased a package of Oreo cookies with chocolate cream. Excited to eat the delicious cookies, she opened the package and saw something very strange. Where she would normally expect pure chocolate goodness, there were small white spots all over and inside the cream. She examined the packaging but found nothing to suggest that the white dots should be there. To her horror, she realized that the entire cookie was full of maggot eggs. She returned the cookies, although some of the eggs had horrifyingly dissolved into the cream. She got her money back, but presumably her taste for Oreos was never to return.
52. The Grifter
The Grifter is an urban legend that began to circulate on the Internet in 2009. The video is said to show horrifying images of people being tortured and killed. Viewers of the movie can experience nausea, trauma, night terrors, clinical depression, and even commit suicide. The content shows the human sacrifice of small babies and images of satanic ritual abuse. In some cases, people have attempted to make a copy of the film, but have failed.It has been said that the video was recorded in the 1930s and portrays a collection of strange pictures and sounds. In one part of the movie, the words “Your race is the one that is dying” appears while a picture of a plant rotting is seen. The footage displays close up shots of corpses and people who have been possessed by demons. It has been described as the most disturbing video available on the Internet. However, many feel the tape is a hoax and nothing more than an urban legend. The story of The Grifter has spawned an Internet meme in which threads that discuss hoax videos are considered to be trolling for information on bizarre clips.
53. The Drowned Boy Of Hawaii
A small village on the Big Island of Hawaii is the center of paradise living as well as a tragedy that haunts its residents to this day. It is said that a group of children were playing alongside a pond in the village in 1947 when one boy lost his footing and fell into the water. His friends ran to get help immediately, and rescue divers were on the scene within minutes. When the divers located the boy at the bottom of the pond, they were shocked to see his lifeless body propped up on a rock. It was as though the boy was sitting calmly while waiting to be rescued. His eyes and mouth were wide open, and his body swayed along with the movement of the water. The divers shook off the chills creeping down their spines and brought the body back to the surface.While the villagers tried to forget about the tragedy and move on with their lives, it seemed that the drowned boy refused to let them. Reports soon surfaced of unseen fingers tugging at the pants of those who walked alongside the pond. People became convinced that the spirit of the dead boy had remained in the water. They believed that he wanted to drag the living into the pond to join him in his watery grave. Years passed without further incident. Then, one day, a young boy was strolling along the shore of the pond when something dragged him in. His father, who was walking ahead of the boy, turned to see his son disappearing into the water. When divers found the youngster, he was also perched on a rock with his eyes and mouth open. Fortunately, the boy was resuscitated once the divers brought him back to the surface.After this incident, villagers started hearing a plaintive cry from the pond in the darkness of night. It is rumored that the crying will continue until the boy finds a substitute to replace his spirit in the depths of the pond.
54. Beware Of Long Ear
Somalia is famous for crime, piracy, kidnapping, and terrorist attacks. The country is one of the least developed in the world, and over 70 percent of its citizens live in poverty.Mothers who raise children there go to extremes to keep their kids safe from the threats surrounding them. Hence, these ladies sometimes use the legend of Long Ear to dissuade children and teenagers from exploring the forests in Somalia, especially if they live nearby.Long Ear (aka Dhegdheer) is a cannibalistic woman who is said to prefer lost children. She hangs around forests, keeping her one long ear on the ground to hear the sound of youngsters who can’t find their way out. Should she happen upon a lost young soul, she will eat that child alive in a matter of minutes. To make the story even more terrifying for Somali kids who are thinking of disobeying their parents’ warnings, it is said that Long Ear has a special penchant for eating children who have no manners and do not listen to their parents.
55. The Rolling Calves Of Jamaica
Jamaica is an island in the Caribbean well known for its lush rain forests, fantastic beaches, pungent rum, and world-class coffee. People come from all over the world to experience all Jamaica has to offer, whether it is the breathtaking views or activities such as water sports and hikes in the beautiful greenery.However, if you find yourself yearning for a nighttime stroll while in Jamaica, keep an eye out for rolling calves. They are said to be the spirits of people who were evil in life (for some reason, butchers in particular).A rolling calf is exactly what it sounds like—a creature that resembles a calf and rolls along the road. One of its eyes is red and can spew fire. You’ll know a rolling calf is behind you when you hear the rattling of its chains. According to other versions of the legend, both eyes are red and fire spews from the creature’s nostrils. Sometimes, its hind legs are those of a goat while one foreleg is human and the other is that of a horse.Rolling calves block the way of walking travelers. Once a traveler starts running away, the creature will chase the person down with the intent to torture him.If you come face-to-face with a rolling calf, you can distract it by throwing objects on the ground for it to count. Or you can start running to the nearest crossroads and get there ahead of it.Alternatively, you can find a tarred whip and keep it handy on those nighttime walks. Beating a rolling calf with a tarred whip held in your left hand will send it running (or rolling) for the hills.
56. ‘The Price Is Three Sacks’
According to legend, a long time ago in an unnamed village in Scotland, a witch appeared from the surrounding forest to warn the villagers to stop cutting down the trees to make way for more farmland. She threatened to make all their land—as well as all the women in the village—infertile if they ignored her warning.A deal was struck between the villagers and the witch that only a small part of the forest could be cleared. In return, the villagers had to leave one sack of produce at the edge of the forest after each harvest. Things remained peaceful for centuries. Then, one day, a new generation of villagers tore down almost the entire forest to build a mill.The witch returned to promise suffering because of the broken treaty. The villagers grabbed the witch and hanged her. With her last breath, she exclaimed that the price was now three sacks of produce.The owner of the mill was terrified of the witch even after her death and dutifully placed three sacks of produce at the edge of the forest after each harvest. His crops grew abundantly, and in time, he became a father to three beautiful daughters.Eventually, however, the mill owner grew complacent and greedy. He stopped paying his due. The very next morning after he failed to pay the three sacks of produce for his harvest, his youngest daughter went missing.While the village rallied to look for the girl, the mill started running. Suddenly, the workers cried out in alarm. Between the millstones ran rivulets of blood. The mill owner’s daughter was discovered caught and crushed between them.By the 1960s, an old crumbling silo stood in place of the mill. A young boy was dared to stay in the silo overnight to determine if it was haunted by the witch or the young girl who had died in the mill.When his friends found him the next morning, they were shocked to see that the boy had broken both his ankles when he jumped from the silo loft. Asked why he had done that, he said that several empty grain bags inside the mill had “come to life” and were dragging themselves toward him to overpower him.
57. Eight Feet Tall
Japan is the center of many creepy legends. Who can forget the Slit-Mouthed Woman or Teke Teke, the ghost of a young woman who fell onto a railway line and had her body cut in half by a train?She drags the upper half of her body around on her elbows, all the while making a teke teke sound. She chases unwitting victims, and when she catches them, cuts them in half to make them suffer in the same way she did.Children are seemingly not safe in Japan, either, especially since a demon named Eight Feet Tall uses a masculine voice to call out “Po . . . Po . . . Po” in an attempt to lure kids between the ages of 9 and 11. Eight Feet Tall (aka Hachishakusama) often takes the form of a 244-centimeter-tall (8’0”) woman with long black hair. She wears all white and no shoes.Much like Slender Man, she stalks children for several days or even months. When she spots a gap, she grabs the child to torture and kill him. Sometimes, Eight Feet Tall takes the form of a trusted family member to lure a child away faster.
58. Seven Sisters Road
In the early 1900s, a young man became enraged during a massive argument with his parents inside the house he shared with them and seven sisters. He stormed out without resolving the issue and paced the woods close to home.A plan formed in his mind, and he waited until his parents left the house. He went back inside and led his sisters out one at a time, hanging each one by the neck from separate trees that stood in a perfect row.Many years later, the seven trees had to be cut down to make way for a road just a few miles south of Nebraska City. This road became known as the Seven Sisters Road after reports emerged of screams echoing through the night and car headlights dimming on their own as motorists traveled along.Some drivers claim to have heard bells ringing in the darkness. Others say they have seen red eyes staring at them from the shadows. Another version of the legend says that the father is the one who hanged his seven daughters from the trees to get back at his wife for allegedly cheating on him.
59. Check Behind You
It seems like something straight out of a horror movie. Apparently, a legend from Sydney tries to teach drivers to check their rearview mirrors to see if any unwanted passengers have slipped into their back seats without the motorists knowing.Along Wakehurst Parkway, which connects Seaforth to Narrabeen, lies Deep Creek Reserve. The reserve is known for unexplained murders and paranormal activity.Several motorists who travel this road have reported their car radios suddenly malfunctioning or car doors locking for no apparent reason. One of the unexplained tales tells the story of Kelly, a girl who was attacked and murdered along Wakehurst Parkway in the 1970s. Kelly appears in the back seat of an unsuspecting driver’s vehicle and runs the car off the road if the driver does not notice her. If he does see her, he should yell “Get out, Kelly” to avoid becoming another road accident statistic.During the filming of the movie The Parkway Hauntings, the cast and crew were left terrified after an encounter with Kelly. A deep glow appeared behind the actor portraying Kelly and remained even after all camera lights were switched off.The actor started feeling extremely cold and said afterward that she felt frozen to the spot. Producer Bianca Biasi found the experience so disturbing that she vowed never to return to Deep Creek Reserve or drive along Wakehurst Parkway again.
60. The Vanishing Hotel Room
In 1889, a mother and daughter were traveling through Europe when the mother suddenly fell ill. After arriving in Paris, the duo booked a room in a luxury hotel and the mother went to bed immediately.Her daughter was concerned and sent for the resident doctor. The physician gave the mother a prescription, and the daughter set off on a frustrating journey. She walked around the city, struggling to find an apothecary or anyone who spoke English as she did not speak French.After finally returning to the hotel with the medicine, the daughter was astonished to find that the hotel room was empty and her mother was gone. What’s more, the room looked completely different.The curtains, carpet, and wallpaper all sported different patterns. The daughter looked around for their luggage to confirm that she was in the right room. But it was nowhere to be found.Finding a cleaning lady outside the room, the daughter asked if the woman had seen her mother. The cleaning lady simply stared at her and then turned around and walked away. Approaching other hotel staff elicited the same response. All the staff as well as the hotel manager denied ever having seen the mother and daughter before.The daughter ran off to the embassy. She hoped that someone would be able to help her, but the officials there decided she was insane and sent her to a mental institution. Being trapped in the asylum with no one who would listen to her story, the daughter went insane for real and died a few years later.
61. The Man Who Flew Away on a Balloon Lawn Chair
The classic trope in cartoons where a man is lifted into the air by balloons tied to a chair does have a real-life story behind it. In San Pedro, California, Larry Walters was the first man to become airborne using nothing but a lawn chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. Walters hoped to fly across the mountain range to reach the Mojave Desert.A friend filmed the attempt, which you can watch online. The flight was only semi-successful. Walters managed to reach 16,000 feet and flew for 45 minutes before getting entangled in power lines. Fortunately, Walters managed to climb down to safety unharmed, but law enforcement arrested him immediately for violating U.S Federal Aviation Regulations. He gained worldwide recognition for the outlandish stunt.Since the pioneering flight in 1982, a surprising number of people have attempted to recreate the homemade aircraft. It also inspired the 2003 film Danny Deckchair and the extreme sport of cluster ballooning.
62. Rat Kings
A very weird myth indeed. People have been reporting rat kings since the mid-16th century, and we’re not talking about crowned rodents. The name rat king refers to the supposed phenomenon where rats’ tails become tangled together. It was believed to be mythical, yet there is evidence of this really happening. The greatest rat king found and preserved in 1828 had as many as 32 rats bound together in this way. We used to think that people only fabricated these kinds of specimens—zoologists were skeptical that it could occur naturally. As recently as 2005, An Estonian farmer discovered a rat king consisting of 16 rats. The tails were tangled together by frozen sand, with nine of the rats still alive. It is preserved at the Natural History Museum at the University of Tartu.It seems nature can be this creepy—the phenomenon was deemed possible but rare.
63. A Dress to Die For
Folklore worldwide recounts the tale of the poisoned dress. In the ancient Greek story of Medea, Medea enacts revenge on her ex-lover’s new younger wife with death-by-dress. Medea removes the dress from a corpse and sends it to Glauce, who wears it to a ball (other times, it’s her own wedding). She succumbs to the embalming fluid that has seeped into the garment. The myth of the embalming fluid, or formaldehyde, being a cause of death has persisted, although it’s been disproven. It turns out formaldehyde smells so bad that it would be impossible not to notice it.There is an unfortunate period in history, though, where manufacturers used arsenic-laced dyes in many clothing items during the 19th century. The exuberantly green dresses that were all the rage in high society ended up causing all those who came in contact with the fabric to endure painful blisters and, worse still, horribly painful deaths.
64. Alligators in the Sewers of New York
The urban legend of giant, often albino, alligators living in the sewer system of New York has been passed down the generations, permeated pop culture, and is even commemorated with an unofficial holiday (February 9th is Alligators in the Sewers Day).Legend has it that rich families in the 1930s began keeping alligators as pets, but once they grew bored of them or found the grown gators too difficult to manage, they flushed them down the toilet. It’s believed that a large colony of sewer alligators has been terrorizing the sewers ever since.The truth is alligators were once sold as pets and have been found in storm drains and surrounding rivers. The multiple tales of sightings and captures have been fanning the flame of this legend over the years. As for the reptiles living and thriving in the sewers? It turns out it’s not possible. The environment is too cold and toxic for alligators to survive very long.
65. Cropsey Killer
Cropsey is a boogeyman legend that circulated Staten Island towards the end of the 20th century. The story goes that an escaped mental patient living in the abandoned Willowbrook Mental Institution’s old tunnels kidnapped and murdered children. The legendary figure would sometimes have a hook for a hand, other times a butcher’s knife, but the story of a murderous maniac struck fear in the kids who grew up there. The true story is just as haunting.After a spate of child disappearances, Andre Rand, who had previously worked at the Willowbrook Institution and was then living on the abandoned grounds, was arrested and charged with Holly Ann Hughes’s kidnapping. This led many Staten Island residents to believe that Rand was the crazed killer responsible for several other disappeared children. Although there has been no physical evidence linking Rand to the crimes, newspapers and Staten Islanders drew parallels between Rand and Cropsey. A documentary called Cropsey investigates the myth and the man supposed to be the real-life Cropsey. One thing’s for sure—it’s difficult to tell the difference between the facts and the folklore.
66. A Giant Sea Creature That Terrorizes Sailors
Norse sailors would often recount tales of a giant tentacled creature that rose from the depths of the ocean and attacked their ships. The reports stated that this ferocious sea monster would rock the ship and even knock men overboard with a tentacle. They believed the creature was hunting them and feasting on their crew one by one.
The Kraken myth has been an old seafaring legend for centuries, but is there any truth to this myth? Well, yes. These harrowing ordeals’ culprit is the colossal squid, the largest of the squid species (even bigger than the giant squid). Sure the sailors’ stories were exaggerations, but who doesn’t exaggerate adventures at sea. In 2003, researchers discovered a complete specimen in Antarctic waters. These rare deep ocean lurkers grow up to 14 meters long and weigh at least 500kg. They also have rotating hooks on the tentacles’ club-shaped ends, which make them even more terrifying.
67. Real-Life Beauty and the Beast
Many tales describe mythical hybrids from centaurs to mermaids. But less glamorous are the stories about beasts that resemble a human man in some ways, like the beast from Beauty and the Beast. There are many more accounts of a wild ape-like man from bigfoot to werewolves.In the 1500s, a man named Petrus Gonsalves, a native of the Canary Islands, was born with a rare condition that we now know as hypertrichosis (or werewolf syndrome). The condition produces excessive hair growth all over the body, including the face. Hair completely covered Petrus and people treated him like an animal. They even kept him in a cage and fed him raw meat.At ten years old, he was presented as a gift to the new King of France, Henri II. The King wanted to tame the ‘savage’ and decided to give the boy a proper education. Seeing that Petrus was intelligent, he became very fond of the boy and stopped treating him like an animal, making him a noble.Petrus married a beautiful woman at the court, and they had children together, some of whom shared the genetic condition. Could this remarkable tale be the real-life inspiration for beauty and the beast?
68. Premature Burial
You may have heard of a few cases where people, being mistaken for dead, were accidentally buried alive. Stories of supposed corpses heard screaming from underground and excavations that revealed scratch marks on the inside of coffins had haunted us for centuries. The terror of being buried alive was so strong in Victorian times that bells were set up and attached to dead bodies in case they ever awoke.Some historians even believe the phrase ‘saved by the bell’ comes from this practice. Yet, despite the popularity of these ‘safety coffins,’ there are no records of anyone actually being saved this way.This doesn’t mean the myth of being buried alive is untrue, but it’s definitely not as common as we once believed. Even scarier is that people have reported similar instances in modern times. The most recent case of a mistaken death happened in 2020.Peter Kigen, a 32-year-old Kenyan man who was declared dead, woke up in a morgue to staff preparing to embalm and drain the blood from his body. Kigen regained consciousness and began screaming after someone had sliced his leg open. Hospital negligence is assumed to be responsible for this shocking incident.
69. A Real Corpse as a Halloween Decoration
A very dark urban legend, used repeatedly as the plot for murder mysteries in film and television, is the dead body in a Halloween display that ends up being a genuine corpse. People walk by commenting on how realistic it looks, and nobody knows something horrendous has occurred.This one may be hard to believe. After all, no amount of makeup and special effects could convince that many people a decomposing body is fake, right?Unfortunately, this isn’t just a dramatic scene played out in Hollywood. It really did happen. In 2015, a woman in Ohio was left for dead on a fence by a roadside after being attacked. She was initially mistaken for a Halloween decoration by several people who noticed the woman’s body hanging off the chain-link fence. No one thought to report it since they believed it to be a prank. Only when a construction worker, who also thought it was a decoration, went to remove it realized it was a real body.
70. A Haunted Doll
If you watch enough horror movies, you would have come across a couple of spooky dolls like Chucky or Annabelle. The creepy legend of a beloved toy becoming possessed is enough to give you nightmares. This next story is definitely too weird to be true, and yet here it is. In 1918, in Hokkaido, Japan, a young boy bought a doll for his little sister, Okiku. Both the doll and the Okiku looked similar, having an okappa haircut, a bowl cut with straight hair down to the chin. The doll went everywhere, the little girl went, and so, when Okiku tragically died a couple of months later, her family kept the doll as a shrine. They named the doll after her and prayed to it every day.Then something bizarre happened. The family noticed that the doll’s hair was getting longer. It was growing just as an ordinary person’s hair might grow. Knowing something was very wrong, they gave the doll to Mannen-Ji Temple in Iwamizawa City. Scientists have analyzed the doll’s hair and concluded that it is, in fact, real human hair, human hair belonging to a child. You can still visit this freaky paranormal phenomenon as the doll is on display in the same temple.
71. Governor Van Noodt And The Lady In Grey
Spooky castles aren’t only found in Europe. In Cape Town, South Africa, stands the infamous Castle of Good Hope, the oldest existing colonial building in the country. The castle has a dark history of slavery and torture, making it the inevitable setting for urban legends of all kinds. One of these tales includes the fate of Governor Pieter Gysbert van Noodt. The governor was a cruel man, and among other atrocities, he decided to sentence a group of soldiers to death by hanging in the 1720s. Van Noodt didn’t deem it necessary to show his face at the execution of these soldiers, and during his absence, he was cursed by the last soldier just before the man died. When the governor’s officers went to inform him that the soldiers had been hanged, they found van Noodt dead in his chair. There was a look of horror on his face. The story goes further to say that the governor roams the corridors of the castle to this day, unable to shake the curse.Furthermore, there was also a crying female ghost, dubbed the Lady in Grey, that haunted the castle. However, since the skeleton of a female was discovered during excavation, sightings of the Lady have dramatically decreased.
72. Stick Indians
Native Americans have a slew of creepy legends. One of the more disturbing ones is the story of the Tsiatko, more commonly known as the Stick Indians. These creatures are said to be tall and slim and have the ability to run very fast. They also have ventriloquist abilities to the extent where they whistle to communicate, striking fear into the hearts of humans who hear the sound. Some believe they are a sort of “Bigfoot” creature. Stick Indians wander through the woods at night, seeking out victims to throw their special powder at. This powder is made from the remains of the dead and is said to cause people to go into a deep sleep. While they sleep, the Stick Indians play pranks and even steal children and teenagers from villages to force them to become slaves. Brave men who think they can defeat the Tsiatko should rather stay away, as these creatures will start hating them and hunt them down with a bow and arrow.
73. La Mala Hora
La Mala Hora is an evil spirit that wanders along quiet roads waiting to pounce on unsuspecting travelers. La Mala Hora takes pleasure in driving humans insane. As if that wasn’t enough, this dark spirit also hypnotizes and paralyzes people and then attacks them while they are in that weakened state. After suffocating them, La Mala Hora leaves them next to the road. Citizens of New Mexico refuse to talk about it, simply referring to it as an evil thing. They believe that if you encounter the spirit in female human form, it is an omen of death. If you happen to see her at a crossroads, it is very likely that you or someone close to you will be dead soon.In an apparent run-in with La Mala Hora, a woman was driving down a deserted highway just after midnight when a black shadow appeared at the crossroads ahead. When she hit the brakes, the shadow disappeared, and in its place was an old lady with red eyes and sharp teeth. The old lady proceeded to try and claw her way into the car. The woman sped off down the highway, only to find the freaky old lady was keeping up with her, running next to the car. She eventually outran the specter and saw in the rearview mirror that the evil old lady had grown to the size of a large tree. The woman returned to her house the next morning and found police officers waiting for her. Turns out her husband had been murdered just after midnight the night before.
74. Dead Body Train
A London urban legend has it that a train full of dead bodies once made the journey through a tunnel between Whitechapel Tube station and the Royal London Hospital. The train was appropriately dubbed the Dead Body Train. It is believed that the train operated in the beginning of the 1900s during a time of extreme poverty and disease in London, which almost makes the idea of a Dead Body Train something that could really have existed. Whitechapel is well-known because of Jack the Ripper, and rumors that temporary morgues were set up under the ticket hall there aren’t helping the historic reputation of the place much. There have also been reports of a now-closed tunnel, which some believe may once have led to the Royal London Hospital. These reports have ensured that many people are convinced that the Dead Body Train was a lot more than just an unnerving urban legend.
75. Red Ghost
The legend of Red Ghost dates back to the late 1800s. In 1883, during the dying moments of the Apache wars, two men left their wives at their Arizona ranch to go and make sure their farm animals were safe. As the day drew near the midway mark, one of the women walked down to a spring to collect water. The remaining woman stayed behind with the children. Suddenly, a high-pitched scream rang through the air. Looking outside through the window, the woman in the house saw what looked like a massive beast with red fur sporting a demonic-looking figure on its back. Terrified, the woman locked herself and the children inside the house and waited for the two men to return. The woman who went to collect water didn’t come back. When the men eventually came home, they investigated the woman’s claims, and shortly afterward, they found the other woman’s trampled body close to the spring. They also found large cloven hoofprints and strands of red hair or fur. So the legend of Red Ghost was born.More sightings were reported, one of them by rancher Cyrus Hamblin, who said the beast was in fact a camel with a skeleton tied to its back. Weeks after Hamblin’s report, some prospecters at the Verde River also saw the camel and started shooting at it. They missed, but as they watched it bolt away, something dropped from its back. Walking over to the object, the men were horrified to find that it was a skull with hair still attached to it. Nine years later, another rancher apparently shot the camel dead after finding it in his garden. Examining the remains of the animal, the rancher found evidence that a person was once strapped to its back.
76. Namorrodor
What is known in most countries as a meteor is described in Northern Australia as the eye of an evil spirit. Aboriginal residents here believe that this evil spirit, known as Papinjuwari, Thuwathu, or Namorrodor, reaches out with long claws as it makes its way across the dark sky, looking for souls and preying on those who are near death. Namorrodor is also referred to as a flying serpent, and the legend of it has been passed down through the years. It is said that this evil being can also take on the form of a kangaroo or even a horse and makes sounds resembling wind. In order to avoid a run-in with Namorrodor, meat should never be cooked outside at night because the smell will lead it to attack from the bushes. When it does attack, its favorite prey is unprotected babies. It rips out their hearts and then flies away with their bodies. It is therefore imperative that if babies are included in a camping group or have to sleep outside near bushes for whatever reason, they must be turned on their stomachs or on their sides so that Namorrodor cannot reach their hearts.In order to permanently get rid of Namorrodor, the services of a witch doctor must be called upon. The witch doctor will then kill the evil spirit with a special spear.
77. Janet’s Ghost
During the late 1960s, a young woman named Janet went missing from Kuching, Malaysia. She was a nurse at the time, and her disappearance, along with many others, was thought to have something to do with the construction of the Satok Bridge. The general belief was that if construction on the bridge was halted for any reason, it would anger territorial spirits. Therefore, virgin girls had to be sacrificed by means of decapitation. Their heads would then be immersed into the pillars of the bridge. Since Janet’s remains were eventually found sans her head, the consensus was that she, too, had become a virgin sacrifice. Her parents dressed her in red and had her buried.However, Janet came back for vengeance. Wearing her red burial outfit and shoes, she started appearing to unsuspecting bikers on the outer parts of Kuching. She would hitchhike until one of them offered her a lift, only to disappear at the end of the journey, leaving behind a stinking, rotten stain on the seat. Sightings of Janet were also reported from a ferry traveling across the Sarawak River. As soon as the ferry reached its destination, the red-clad figure disappeared from it, and any money on the ferry turned to leaves.The ghost of Janet strikes terror into the hearts of Kuching residents to this day, with ferry operators refusing to work after 10:00 PM and people refusing to call her by her name. The Satok Bridge collapsed in 2004.
78. Abandoned Annie
The area known as the Real Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh was devastated by the plague. Rumors abounded that those struck by the disease were left to die in the streets. In the 18th century, the area became a ghost town, its buildings and homes abandoned and closed off. The Real Mary King’s Close inevitably became the focus of ghost hunters and psychics over the years, all of whom have tried to draw out the ghosts of horrors past. In 1992, psychic Aiko Gibo visited the Close to film a documentary on supernatural incidents. Having found nothing spooky enough for her liking, Gibo was about to leave when she came to a halt at a specific room. She initially refused to set foot in it, as she felt a heavy sense of dread, but she eventually went in. Afterward, she said the only reason she did so is because the specter of a little girl asked her to enter. The girl told her her name was Annie and that she died long ago of the plague. Annie was sad because when she was alive, her family abandoned her, and she lost her doll. The little girl also tugged on Gibo’s hand.Gibo then went to buy a Barbie doll for Annie and left it in the middle of the room. Ever since, the single Barbie has grown into a pile of toys and even money left by tourists. A guide at the Close has recounted his own experiences with Annie, claiming she once threw a coin across the room as he was leaving with a group of tourists. He also stated that several people have felt an unseen little hand touching theirs. Some of them became physically ill afterward.
79. The Elevator Killer
Korea is well-known for its treasure trove of
creepy urban legends, some of which have been made into horror movies. One of these recounts the tale of a Korean teenager named Haruko who got home late one evening after doing homework at a library. Arriving at the building where she lived, she pressed the elevator button for the 14th floor, eager to get inside her apartment. Just as she got into the elevator and the doors started closing, a man ran up and stopped the doors so that he could get in beside her. He pressed the button for the 13th floor.Haruko couldn’t help staring at the very handsome stranger. When he got out on the 13th floor, he said, “See you,” to which she replied, “Yes, see you.” Just before the doors closed completely, an astonished Haruko saw the man pull a knife from his jacket and heard him yell, “Upstairs!” Then he ran toward the staircase opposite the elevator.Panicking, Haruko tried to stop the elevator from reaching her floor by pounding on the buttons. Unfortunately, she got there in no time, and the doors opened to reveal the grinning maniac standing right in front of her. Haruko’s body was later discovered in the elevator. She had been stabbed to death.
80. Single Braid
During Ghost Month in China, lots of
ghost stories and urban legends are shared between residents as per tradition. One of the creepiest ones involves a girl referred to as Single Braid. The story goes that Single Braid, called so because of her long, braided hair, tried to sneak into Hong Kong with her boyfriend. They got on a train to the city, but the girl freaked out when police officers boarded the train and randomly started checking for ID documents. Being an illegal immigrant, she decided to jump from the train while it was still in motion. Her braid got stuck in the window frame as she jumped through the window. This caused her hair to be ripped clean off her scalp, along with the skin on her face. She managed to get as far as a road (now called Single Braid Road) before she gave up and died. The next day, she was discovered lying in a pool of congealed blood. Her boyfriend never returned to find out her fate and simply continued his life as if she never existed.Sightings of a ghost girl started cropping up in the area. One male student had a particularly horrifying experience. Walking down Single Braid Road, he noticed a girl just standing there with her back to him. He noticed that her hair was done in a long braid down her back. He called out to her to find out if everything was all right, but she didn’t respond. Reaching her, he touched her shoulder to get her attention. When she turned around, the young man was shocked to find that she had no face. Then she vanished right in front of his eyes.
81. Woodstock Vampires
On October 9, 1890, The Vermont Standard ran a sensational headline: “Vampirism in Woodstock.” The article detailed an event that had transpired some 60 years earlier in 1830. That year, a local man named Corwin died of consumption (tuberculosis). He was buried in Woodstock’s Cushing Cemetery—a common resting place for the departed residents of this sleepy Vermont village.Six months after the burial, Corwin’s brother also became ill with tuberculosis. After failing to find either a cause or a cure, many prominent men in the village, including Dr. Joseph Gallup and Dr. John Powers from the Vermont Medical College, began blaming vampirism. As a result, the body of the deceased Corwin was exhumed for an autopsy.This postmortem analysis supposedly revealed that Corwin’s heart had not decayed but instead was full of blood. Following the New England custom, Corwin’s heart was removed and publicly burned on the town green.Amazingly, this was not the first time that a vampire panic had touched Woodstock. In 1817, a Dartmouth student named Daniel Ransom became sick with tuberculosis. Shortly after Ransom died on February 14, his father grew concerned that his son had become a vampire. So the father had his son’s body exhumed and the heart removed and burned to protect the health of the remaining members of the Ransom family.During the 19th century, this practice was repeated throughout New England. The most famous case occurred in Exeter, Rhode Island, in 1892 with the death of a young girl named Mercy Brown. Other instances forced artists such as Henry David Thoreau to comment on the strange superstition.
82. Wood Devils
Coos County—the largest, northernmost county in New Hampshire—is predominately rural, frequently cold, and almost entirely remote. It’s the perfect place for a Sasquatch to roam. Known as “wood devils,” these tall, skinny, gray-haired animals have reportedly been sighted throughout the county.While Bigfoot sightings in New Hampshire are not confined to Coos County alone, the fast-moving wood devils have been seen since at least the 19th century. Preferring the deeply wooded areas along the borders with Canada and Vermont, a majority of wood devil sightings occurred in the 1970s when hikers, town residents, and amateur explorers believed they saw Bigfoot-like footprints and the creatures themselves.The Appalachian Trail cuts through the White Mountains of Coos County, giving the region the culture and spirit of Appalachia. While some have linked wood devils with other creatures from Appalachian folklore, New Hampshire isn’t the hotbed of Bigfoot activity that the Pacific Northwest and upstate New York are. Still, the wood devil myth remains an intriguing addition to the overall lore.
83. The Witches Of Bristol
Long after the Salem witchcraft craze, Bristol, Connecticut, experienced witchcraft hysteria between 1800 and 1810. In one instance, a young woman named Merilla Norton claimed that her aunt had “bewitched” her during the night, bridling her like a horse and riding upon her back all the way to Albany, New York. There, Norton was supposedly forced to witness a meeting of witches that involved satanic rites. After making her confession, Norton became the subject of an exorcism.The testimonies of Norton and others helped to inspire a series of witchcraft trials in Bristol, which were some of the last in New England history. Another story from Bristol concerns Elijah Gaylord, who was so terribly harassed by a witch that he was forced to leave the town altogether.Ultimately, Bristol’s witch trials were nowhere near as bloody as previous New England panics, but they helped to form a circular history that begins with 17th-century Connecticut and ends with 19th-century Connecticut.
84. The Ruins Of Hanton City
Although Rhode Island is the smallest state in the US, its bizarre history is large with legends of vampires, ghost ships, and mysterious ocean lights. The weirdest of all may be the ruins of Hanton City, a “lost city” not far from Smithfield.Originally a small farming community, Hanton City was isolated from its neighbors, which left room for all sorts of suggestive rumors. Some said that Hanton City was populated by freed or runaway slaves, while others believed that the village was a sort of leper colony populated by disease-stricken people forced to live deep in the woods.Rumors aside, all that is left of Hanton City is a series of stone foundations, some unattached walls, a burial site, and other collapsed edifices. A set of headstones, all of which bear the last name Smith, can also be found in the ghost town. Sadly, not much else is known about this colonial-era settlement except for a few whispered stories about inexplicable noises and a generally spooky atmosphere.
85. Vermont’s Stone Chambers
Known as the “Green Mountain State,” Vermont could also be called the “Ancient Stone State” because about 200 stone chambers, or “dolmens,” dot the central and southern portions of the state. In the town of Royalton, there are six such structures in a small area. Another major site is located in South Woodstock, where cairns, standing stones, and stone chambers can be found in a naturally made bowl between two ridges.The odd nature of these structures has caused archaeological controversy for decades. Some have claimed that they represent solar calendars used by Native Americans, while a small, vocal minority has proposed that the stone chambers are artifacts from a pre-Columbian, Celtic civilization that existed in ancient New England.The supporters of this latter theory claim that the stones are covered in a form of ogham script, which is an Irish alphabet that was used in the early medieval period. Under this theory, the Celtic inhabitants of Vermont traded with Phoenician sailors who frequently visited the shores of North America.Although it’s doubtful that ancient or medieval Irish settlers built these structures, the stones remain mysterious. According to some sources, carbon dating has shown that the stone structures may be 2,000 years old.
86. Monster Of Pocomoonshine Lake
Despite its funny name, Pocomoonshine Lake is a beautiful lake in the northeastern Maine town of Princeton. A historic vacation destination, Pocomoonshine Lake became notorious in the 1880s when witnesses claimed that a large creature lived in the lake.In 1882, sawmill owner Sewell Quimby claimed to have seen evidence of a snake in the river that was 9–18 meters (30–60 ft) long. While this might have been laughable to some, the idea that a giant snake lived in Pocomoonshine Lake had a connection with Native American folklore.In particular, one story claimed that a fight between an Algonquin shaman and a Micmac chieftain turned into a supernatural battle when the pair transformed into a giant snake and a monstrous serpent, respectively. After the Algonquin shaman won, the Micmac chieftain was killed and tied to a tree near the lake.Today, that monster is affectionately known as “Poco.” Unlike other lake monsters, Poco is not just seen in the water. According to legend, Poco frequently leaves huge snake trails on the land when he journeys into the woods surrounding the lake.
87. New Hampshire’s Devil Monkey
In the tiny town of Danville, New Hampshire, a frightening creature known as the “devil monkey” was known for howling loudly during the night. A large primate with long claws, a reddish-brown coat, and a doglike snout with razor-sharp teeth, the creature occasionally entered the town.In September 2001, Danville’s fire chief claimed that he saw an unknown creature running through Danville’s streets late one night. After this sighting, the devil monkey was seen nine other times over a two-week period, causing a small panic throughout Rockingham County.After search parties failed to locate the beast by late September, eyewitness reports dried up and the devil monkey no longer haunted the residents of Danville. Most believe that a feral but non-demonic monkey was behind the devil monkey hysteria, although more superstitious voices claim that the creature moved to the secluded northern mountains of New Hampshire.
88. The Ghost Of Harry Main
As the story goes, Harry Main came to the Massachusetts seaport town of Ipswich from the Isles of Shoals—a series of islands not far from Portsmouth, New Hampshire—where an unsolved double murder from the 19th century continues to intrigue those interested in the dark underbelly of New England’s history.Before coming to Ipswich in 1671 with his friend Andrew Diamond, Main had been a successful fisherman. When both men moved to Ipswich to continue their fishing activities, Diamond’s career took off. He helped to build several wharfs in the town and co-owned a fleet of merchant ships that actively took part in New England’s profitable trade economy with Great Britain.While Diamond became a wealthy and well-respected man, Main turned to a life of crime. In particular, he worked as a “wrecker” who would steal whatever he could from the many ships that wrecked near Ipswich’s shores.Worse still, Main was a “mooncusser,” a type of pirate who purposely set bonfires on Ipswich’s beaches to steer ships toward dangerous rocks. Like the fictional General Zaroff of The Most Dangerous Game and the founders of Antonio Bay in John Carpenter’s The Fog, Main not only caused shipwrecks, he also killed off the survivors.When Main’s crimes came to light, legends say that he was tied to a stake in a sandbar and forced to perform the Sisyphean task of shoveling sand until his demise. Since then, Main’s ghost has been said to haunt his former residence on Water Street, where a secret treasure protected by magic may contain all the items that he stole from those wrecked ships.
89. Wizard’s Glen
Approximately 6 kilometers (4 mi) from the western Massachusetts town of Pittsfield, Wizard’s Glen is a haunted spot in the Berkshires where Native American shamans reportedly carried out human sacrifices on the “Devil’s Altar.” A rocky hollow that produces natural echoes, Wizard’s Glen is also said to be haunted by the spirit of the daughter of Miahcomo, a once great and powerful chief.Many of the rumors and tall tales surrounding Wizard’s Glen stem from the old Puritan fear of the wilderness and a misunderstanding of Hobomocko, a Native American entity known for making a racket. For Massachusetts’s colonists and settlers, Hobomocko took on the visage of Satan, making Wizard’s Glen an evil place full of black magic and blood rituals.In the most famous story, a hunter named John Chamberlain had to seek refuge in Wizard’s Glen because of a rainstorm. While Chamberlain struggled to sleep during the night, he was suddenly struck with a delirious vision of demons and Native American warlocks gathering in the forest. At some point, the Devil appeared in order to accept the sacrifice of a Native American girl. Using his Bible, Chamberlain scared off the demons and saved the girl’s life. Despite Chamberlain’s heroics, legend claims that the glen is still cursed today.
90. The Jewett City Vampires
Along with Vermont and Rhode Island, 19th-century Connecticut had its fair share of vampires. In the 1840s and 1850s, the Ray Family of Jewett City suffered many tragedies from consumption. The first to die was 24-year-old Lemuel B. Ray, the son of Henry and Lucy Ray, in 1845. Then in 1849, Henry also died of tuberculosis. He was followed to the grave two years later by 26-year-old Elisha.By 1854, the remaining members of the family, including the very sick Henry Nelson, began to suspect that vampires were responsible for the family’s numerous tragedies. On the night of May 8, 1854, the surviving Ray siblings and their mother, Lucy, dug up the bodies of their dead relatives, decapitated some of them, and even burned the internal organs of one corpse. With the burned ashes, the Rays made a liquid concoction that was passed between them as a way to fight the disease.In accordance with New England tradition, Elisha, who had been the last to die, had his heart removed. When the Rays found evidence of fresh blood in Elisha’s heart, they concluded that he was the chief vampire responsible for the disease. They burned his body and his coffin to expel his evil spirit. Like other vampire panics in New England, the case of the Ray family was covered widely by local and some outside media.Interestingly, Jewett City is a borough of Griswold, Connecticut, where a coffin marked “JB-55” was found to contain the exhumed bones of a man who had been a suspected vampire in the 1790s. Like some of the Jewett City corpses, who had their decapitated heads placed at their feet following exhumation, JB-55 had his two femur bones arranged in an “X” pattern beneath his decapitated head five years after his death.Both of these cases display the intricacies of New England vampire folklore as well as the widespread assumption that tuberculosis and other diseases were caused by the unclean spirits of the dead.
91. Rainbow Parties
A rainbow party is a type of sexual party, said to be popular among adolescents, in which girls wearing different shades of lipstick take turns performing oral sex on the males attending the party, leaving an array of colors on their penises which vaguely resembles a rainbow. This urban legend was publicized on several talk shows and publications, leading parents to believe that rainbow parties were not only factual, but also rampant among teenagers. However, apart from questionable testimonials, little evidence exists that rainbow parties are real, and sex researchers, as well adolescent health care professionals, believe the practice to be inexistent and nothing more than the cause of a moral panic.
92. Vodka-Soaked Tampons
The rumor that both women, and men, are inserting vodka-soaked tampons into their vagina and anus respectively, as a new way to get drunk, quickly reached the status of an urban legend through the media coverage that it received, alarming parents about the dangerous practice prevalent among teens. Getting drunk via a vodka-soaked tampon purports several benefits, such as helping fool breathalyzer tests by eliminating alcohol breath, providing a quicker way to get drunk by speeding alcohol into the bloodstream, and preventing vomiting caused by intoxication; all of which seem credible. However, all these claims, except for getting people drunk faster by only a matter of minutes, have been proven to be false, leading to the question of why would anyone want to ingest alcohol in such a manner, and dismissing the story as a false urban legend.
93. Snuff Films
Said to portray the actual death or murder of those being filmed, snuff films continue to cause a tremendous stir by playing to people’s emotions, and by relying on their plausibility. While some people sustain that various snuff films have been distributed commercially, police investigations by various law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have revealed that no snuff films have been produced, and that no market exists for such type of films, undermining the claims that snuff films are made for financial gain. While some deaths and murders have been caught on camera, such as suicides, and executions of death row inmates, none of them have been explicitly recorded for the purpose of entertainment or profit.
94. The Kidney Heist
The story goes that a well organized, well funded, crime ring, with very skilled personnel is drugging travelers and surgically removing one of their kidneys, leaving the victims to wake up submerged to their neck in a bathtub full of ice. This urban legend has been associated with numerous major U.S. cities, from Las Vegas to Houston, from Houston to the City of New Orleans, in which caused quite a commotion on the days prior to Mardi Gras, prompting the New Orleans Police Department to issue an official statement declaring the allegations of kidney theft as “completely without merit and without foundation.” The National Kidney Foundation also took part in the fight to dispel the credibility of the legend, by asking individuals who claim to have been victims of kidney theft to contact them, so far no one has.
95. Jenkem
A drug made by fermenting raw sewage that causes a euphoric high followed by strong hallucinations, when its gases are inhaled. Jenkem took the world by storm, fooling several news outlets, including the Washington Post, that reported the drug as a new popular form to get high among American teenagers, and appealed to it gross factor by calling it “the human waste drug” and “butthash.” The media frenzy was sparked by an intelligence bulletin published by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, which cited Jenkem as “a popular drug in American schools.” However, the information contained in the bulletin came from a source that later dismissed it as a hoax, and the belief that Jenkem was a new popular drug was based on nothing but gossip.
96. Wal-Mart Gang Initiations
By addressing the issue of gangs, rumors that gang initiates were required to kill children or women at a Wal-Mart, as part of the initiation process, caused widespread panic and flooded police phone lines. The rumors portrayed those most vulnerable, children and women, as being at risk, and spread quickly through text messages and media coverage. Many people avoided shopping at Wal-Mart on the days following the surge of the rumor, failing to notice that it bore some similarities to another false urban legend in which gang initiates would kill unsuspecting drivers that flashed their headlights at them. The Wal-Mart gang initiations were said to take place in stores across the U.S. and even in the province of Alberta, Canada. Police departments in several states were quickly to reassure concerned callers, and issued statements declaring the rumors as “not credible,” “hoaxes,” and as “urban legends.”
97. Pin Prick Attacks
The hypothetical attacks involved injecting blood tainted with AIDS into unsuspecting targets, at movie theaters, raves, and night clubs. The unwary victim would feel a slight prick on their arm, and later discover a note attached to their clothes carrying the message ‘Welcome to the world of AIDS.’ Variations of the urban legend quickly spread through email, and some claimed to be a warning being circulated by the Dallas Police Department, which later declared the attacks as false, and not happening. Although attacks have been carried out by using syringes as weapons, in none of the attacks were the syringes contaminated with HIV or AIDS; except for one isolated event in Australia, in which an inmate at Sydney’s Long Bay Jail managed to jab a guard with a syringe filled with HIV-positive blood and a case in New Zealand in which a man intentionally infected his wife with a syringe of his blood. Prison guard, Gary Pearce, contracted the disease and died, despite the 1 in 200 chance of infection. The motive behind this urban legend was to frighten people and to keep them from visiting leisure establishments, by playing on the public fear of AIDS.
98. Sex Bracelets
According to the legend, gel bracelets, also known as jelly bracelets, or ‘awareness bracelets,’ are being used by teenagers as a sexual code to indicate their willingness to participate in different acts, which range from hugging and kissing, to oral sex and intercourse. The acts are determined by the bracelet’s color, and if a boy snaps a girl’s bracelet off her wrist, he is awarded a ‘sexual coupon,’ which can be exchanged for the act that corresponds to the color of the bracelet. Several schools banned the bracelets as a response to the rumors of the bracelets’ hidden meaning, which in turn lead news outlets to believe that the rumors were in fact true, citing the banning of the bracelets as proof positive. Alarmed parents expressed shock and disbelief, ignoring the fact that gel bracelets served only as a fashion accessory, and that the urban legend of the bracelets being used as ‘sexual coupons’ was nothing more than wishful thinking on part of the adolescents.
99. Blue Star Tattoos
Playing on parents’ fears, and on society’s instinct to protect those who are most vulnerable, the blue star tattoos legend takes the form of a warning declaring that LSD laced rub-on tattoos are being distributed to children to get them addicted at an early age. The ‘warning’ has been attributed to several health institutions and police departments. Despite the fact that the information contained in the warning regarding the effects of LSD is inaccurate, and that LSD is not an addictive drug, the blue star tattoo legend continues to fool and alarm, parents, journalists, and school administrators. The legend resurfaces from time to time, bringing with it a familiar wave of panic and concern, regardless of the fact that no documented cases of actual LSD distribution to children exist.
100. Poisonous Candy
By far the
most popular urban legend on this list, and the most widely believed to be true. Retold each year on the days previous to Halloween, it manages to instill unease, by casting doubt on the integrity of others. Rumors that unscrupulous people are handing out poisoned candy to unsuspicious children on Halloween, have become a staple of urban legend lore, due in part to the horrifying nature of the act, and to the mass media coverage that false claims of poisoned Halloween treats received. No evidence and no documented cases exist, that tampered candy is being randomly and knowingly distributed to children while trick-or-treating with the intent to harm or possibly kill. In one case of premeditated murder, however, a cyanide-laced Pixie Stix was given to a child by his father with the intention of killing him, and collecting the insurance money. Attempts at debunking this urban legend haven’t been able to put it to a rest, and as with all other urban legends on this list, it continues to be passed off as true, causing a moral panic despite its obvious falsity and blatant sensationalism.
