We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the absolute scariest urban legends to come out of their hometowns. Here are some of the spookiest answers:
1. The Bridge:
There's a bridge between Windyville and Lebanon, Missouri, that everyone knows to never stop on at night. It's near an abandoned playground where several children died. At night, people hear children giggling and claim the cars move, even if they have the emergency brake on.
2. Tall Betsy:
In Cleveland, Tennessee, we have Tall Betsy. Basically, on Halloween night, you have to be home by 10 p.m. or Tall Betsy will kidnap you. She takes you back to her mausoleum in Fort Hill Cemetery and, if you don't escape her by sunrise, she'll have you for breakfast.
3. The White Lady's Castle:
In Rochester, we have the legend of the White Lady’s Castle. The story says that a woman and her daughter lived on the shore of Lake Ontario. Her daughter was beautiful, so she protected her from men. One night, her daughter went for a walk near the lake and disappeared. They never found her, and it's said that the mother (or the White Lady) can still be see gliding along the water edge.
4. The Crybaby Bridge:
In Columbus, Georgia, there's a place called the Crybaby Bridge. It's outside of town, surrounded by woods, and no one really goes there anymore because it's mainly farm area. Legend has it that a woman threw her baby from the bridge before jumping to her death. Supposedly, if you park your car under the bridge, you'll start to hear a baby crying. Once you hear the baby crying, if you look out to the edge of the woods, you'll see a woman dressed in all white.
5. The Boyington Oak:
In Mobile, Alabama, we have an urban legend about the Church Street Cemetery and an oak tree called the "Boyington Oak." Allegedly, a man named Boyington was hung for a crime he did not commit, and his last words were that an oak tree would grow from his grave to prove his innocence. He was buried in the cemetery and, sure enough, an oak tree grew.
6. The Bunny Man Bridge:
The Bunny Man Bridge legend in the DC area is the creepiest of all! In 1904, a bus carrying insane asylum patients crashed over the bridge, but two men escaped alive. After that, locals started finding hundreds of skinned bunnies hanging from the trees. Every year on Halloween, people STILL claim to see the ghost of a man wearing a bunny suit holding a hatchet haunting the area.
7. The Devil's Playground:
I grew up in Calgary, Canada, and the most popular urban legend was the Devil’s Playground. It was a school house that burned down and killed the children inside. One of the versions of the tale said that a nun burned it down because she made a deal with the devil. When I was young, kids would always talk about driving to the site on Halloween and whatnot, but I was always too scared to go.
8. The Resurrection Mary:
In Chicago I heard one referred to as "Resurrection Mary." In the 1930s, a woman named Mary was killed by a hit and run driver. She was buried wearing an extravagant ballroom-type dress. There have been many sightings of her. She's been known to hitch-hike and then disappear while in a moving car or at nightclubs dancing with men and then disappearing in their arms.
9. The Seven Sisters:
In Nebraska City, there was allegedly a father who murdered his seven daughters by hanging them each on one of seven hills. The road that passes through these hills is known as the "Seven Sisters." People report static on the radio, car lights dimming, or even car batteries dying if they drive through at night. I know people who have claimed to see women on the road, or have heard female voices while driving through.
10. The Oviedo Lights:
In Oviedo, Florida, there are these things known as the Oviedo Lights, which appear on a bridge over the Econlockhatchee River. Many believe they are spirits, which chase after cars. When they appear, they look like headlights, and it’s honestly terrifying driving that road at night (the bridge doesn’t have streetlights because it’s part of one of the many country roads in the area), and I know of accidents that have happened because of them.
11. The Pope Lick Monster:
We have the legend of the Pope Lick Monster in Louisville. The Pope Lick Monster is a part-man, part-goat, part-sheep creature that haunts a railroad bridge over Pope Lick Creek. The monster mimics human voices to lure its victims onto the tracks and into oncoming trains.
12. The Berry College House:
Rome, Georgia, home of Berry College. It's a small, private, liberal arts college founded by Martha Berry. The main legend is that Martha’s ghost still lives in the attic of her former on-campus house. One popular story was about a little girl who lived with her mother in the house. Her mother heard her talking to someone, but couldn't find anyone in the house. Later that night, when the girl saw a picture of Martha Berry, she told her mother that was the woman she had talked to.
13. The Mr. Hobo Forrest:
I'm from the suburbs outside Philadelphia. When I was a child in the '80s, my brother and his friends all believed in "Mr. Hobo," who lived in the woods adjacent to our suburban housing development. It was rumored that Mr. Hobo hated children, lived in a dilapidated house, and would chase (or even kill) children who disturbed him.
14. The Witch Tree:
Near my house in the suburbs of Rhode Island, there is a tree in the middle of the road that has caused many car accidents. People call it the Witch Tree and, supposedly, if you drive around it three times at midnight, then continue down the road, your car will be followed by a ghost.
15. The Rocks:
Okay, so there's a legend in Douglas,Georgia, about a small highway near town. I've heard that if you knock over the rocks on the road, they will re-stack themselves and you will be "cursed." My mom told me a story about her friends who went to test this myth, and they met their demise in horrifying ways. I always close my eyes whenever we pass by the rocks, and my phone loses signal, too.
16. The Battlefield House:
There's a Revolutionary-age house next to my old elementary school in Metuchen, New Jersey, that's a few yards away from a battleground. A few people have claimed to see shadows hanging from a tree in the house's yard, but the kids on my block were always the most terrified of the witch who allegedly lived inside. People I know say they've seen her face many times in the front window.
17. The Martha Washington School for Girls:
Martha Washington Park in Seattle, was created from the grounds of Martha Washington School for Girls, a home for delinquent girls. The school closed in 1971 and the building sat vacant. The legend states that several people were murdered on the grounds by students. Now, the park grounds are said to be haunted by the people that died at the school. It's a teenage right of passage to go there at least once, at night, and look for ghosts.
18. The Melon Heads:
I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, which has the Melon Heads legend. In the '70s, a doctor working in a local orphanage did terrible experiments on the orphans that caused them to grow enormous heads. The orphans eventually revolted and killed the doctor, running off into the woods after setting fire to their orphanage. Today they’re said to live in the nearby woods and attack passersby.
19. The Old House:
I'm from Cherry Hills Village in Colorado. It's a really wealthy town, and there is this old Spanish-style mansion (we just call it "Old House") that used to be owned by this rich oiler. The legend says that, back in the '60s, the oiler found out that his wife had a child with the gardener, so he killed her, the child, the gardener, and his own two children before he hanged himself. Allegedly, if you stand in the middle of the garden you can hear a woman sobbing.
20. The Legend of Packy Gibbs:
I went to Camp Silvercreek, located just outside of my hometown. In the '60s, a camp counselor called Packy Gibbs took a group of boys on a hike. He led them into the caves, made sure they couldn’t find their way out, and left them there. He hid for a few days, but a massive manhunt by the police found him, and he jumped into the lake, never to re-emerge. They never found his body.
21. The Watchers:
I know the story of The Watchers in Yucaipa, California. There is a family rumored to have lost a daughter back in the '70s when she was kidnapped and murdered. After that, the family became reclusive. Legend says if you get too close to the house while passing by, they will come running outside with weapons and chase you. Ironically, their extreme behavior only makes them more enticing to unwanted guests because people want to know if it’s true.
22. The Orphanage:
In my hometown we have the Gore Orphanage in Vermilion, Ohio. The orphanage burned down long ago, but ghostly apparitions, balls of lights, haunting screams of children, and visions of fire have been reported by various visitors. Many claim to have found the dusty fingerprints of children when returning to their cars.
23. The Dance Hall:
I’m from Laredo, Texas, and my parents told me about a young man who went out to a local dance hall with his friends. He noticed there was a young lady dancing by herself, so he decided to ask her to dance. At the end of the night, the young man asked the woman if she wanted a ride home and she agreed. She gave him directions to the local cemetery, got out of the car, and walked into the graveyard.
