Every town, anywhere in the world, has a long and complicated history. All the souls who have lived there and the ones there now leave an imprint on the legacy of those pieces of geography. Generations upon generations have stories, most of them twisted and and often dark. Not that home isn't a happy place, we can't deny the tortured.
Reedditor u/Noahs_25 wanted to know what dark histories they can share about their birthplaces by asking.... [Serious] Redditor's who live in secluded towns, what is the darkest thing that happened in your town but is kept secret?
Family Drama.
My grandpa's father was murdered by the wealthiest man in town a long time ago. Not 100% sure of the exact year. Money exchanged hands with law enforcement, and nothing ever came of it. Until one day my grandpa's anger about the situation boiled over, and he threatened to kill the man in retribution. Law enforcement caught wind of it, and in order to save the coverup, forced him to leave town or be arrested.
He moved from that small town bordering two southern states (hint, it's a mashup name of the two states into one), up to Ohio. He met my grandma, and now I exist. So at least I can blame a murderer for every bad thing that happens to me, since I wouldn't have existed without his crime. OmnomOrNah
There was a sheriff....
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There was a sheriff in my town in rural Louisiana and he was sheriff for about 40 years. Well our parish at the time when he was sheriff had the highest rate for meth production and weed production in the state. There was this one particular meth dealer that was never arrested but somehow someone on the other side of the parish would get raided and a bunch of people go to jail but never him as it turns out is the relative of the sheriff.
That sheriff let meth and the money it generated control our parish for decades while he slowly got rich bought a big house new cars and always got re elected. Even though all the locals new about this no one cares cause he was a "good man" or "his family has been here since all the old families founded this town" or better is "he just a good ole sheriff who keeps the drugs out of our parish".
What's really sad is some corrupt public officials will use a persons meth addict family members as voter suppression or leverage in elections. justtuna
In the Midwest....
Small Town of about 2000-2500 in the Midwest, when suddenly about 1/4th of the population just up and left. No word, no nothing. None of them had kids or extended family and none of the papers said anything about it. This was back in maybe the late 80's.
This happened when I was pretty young but I just remember one day one of my teachers wasn't there and I found out from my parents a ton of people had just left overnight. Most personal belongings were taken with them but mattresses and furniture was still in their houses.
I still have no clue what that was about and when I've asked my parents more recently they said the rumor around town was that all those people worked for the CIA or FBI and were re-assigned all of a sudden. WackyInflatableAnon
Not so Sweet Home....
My hometown had a "home of the KKK" sign on it's welcome to town sign until 2000(ish? Maybe a year or two off). Smithfield NC. Idk if that was "the" home of it, but still creepy. informallory
The Evil CEO.
The CEO of our towns electric company beats his wife regularly. He ended up getting arrested for domestic violence and his beatings were pretty horrific. Everyone knows what a crap head he is. In the end he got a good lawyer and the police let him off the hook. No jail time, no fines, nothing. Forget him. lolno-
Where to Begin....
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Coal mine country PA. Lots of stuff happens. Guy was assaulting his daughter and her friend. Went to jail for a few years. When he came back, his house mysteriously burnt to the ground with him in it. Another guy got caught selling crack to a couple of local kids (yes I'm that old). He was found in the middle of the street having been run over by a large vehicle repeatedly. A woman stole some jewelry from her elderly neighbor.
She lost her hand in an unknown accident. Guy beat his wife. He left town with 2 hands that were destroyed by a ball peen hammer. Teenage girl killed another girl's dog over a boyfriend. Now she sports a nasty scar across her face and is missing an eye. That and lots of smaller stuff. Justice is handled locally. TrapperJon
Over the summer......
Over the summer there was a guy found hanging from a tree on the sheriffs property.
The sheriff disliked this young man and treated him poorly during his incarceration at the county jail. Many witnesses said that the day he got released from jail, the sheriff invited him to his secluded property and told him he could help him get back on his feet.
2 days later, a couple of teenage boys fishing in a creek discovered the guy hanging in a tree. Authorities was notified, no investigation was done, and it was immediately ruled a suicide.
This boy was a known drug addict with no family or friends, so there was really no one to press the issue. The local news wrote a small article on "man found dead from apparent suicide" and then it was hush hush after that... It's just one of those things we will never know. xPoisonGirlx
Total Stephen King Character.
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The "doctor" who tried all these wacky treatments to save his young patient from tuberculosis and became infatuated with her. After she died he eventually robbed her grave, mummified her and lived with her body for seven years before being found out. Did not go to jail and lived his years out in town I believe. HighOnGoofballs
The Ghost Town.
Every one knows about the "fun" part of Centralia PA. The spooky mine fire. The ghost town. Etc.
What most don't know about was how divided the town became and how they ganged up on The kid who fell in, Todd. How they harassed him and accused him of lying for political gains. He was just a little kid who suffered a near death experience and his own neighbors started a smear campaign against him. Angsty_Potatos
Bombs Away...
Not so much a dark secret but my town houses a bombing range that is still in use. No one has ever met anyone who works on it, no kids at school ever parents who work there. We never see planes or anything but there is a guard at the gate.
What was truly odd is that if you ask a resident about it we all say the same thing, "oh the bombing range, there's nothing out there." allaboutthatpuc
The Chicken Plant.
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In the early 1990s, a town in my small county in the southern US had a fire in a chicken processing plant. When workers tried to escape, it became apparent that the fire exits and other exits had been locked. Dozens of people died around the exits in desperation in a town of around 2000.
Our state suppressed the investigation, due to lobbies, and families received almost none of the compensation funds.
Pretty sure there's a song about it. Irarhet
The Slumber.
My mom told me this story once that back when she was growing up in a small farming community in Ohio, there was some kind of neighborhood party attended by a bunch of families with kids all around the same age. All the kids (including herself) had this like big slumber party in the basement.
They wake up the next morning and one of the kids is found in the middle of the road, having been hit with a truck, but with his whole body zipped all the way up in his sleeping bag. None of the kids owned up to doing and it the adults could never figure it out either. After a while people just started moving on with their lives and everyone pretty much forgot about it.
Edit: I didn't mean for this get attention and I can't reply to all of you, so I'll just say: this would be in Celina, Ohio around 1972, if anyone can find sources on it, go for it. I did some Googling and couldn't really come up with anything. And some of you I think are right - my mom said she probably thinks it was a prank that went terribly wrong. classictom
The Missing.
Several young boys (age 9-11) went missing in the village and it was suspected that a group of boys from the same school were responsible. They were heard talking about it on two occasions, about how they kill whoever they don't like. However, their parents apparently attested that they never let them out of sight outside of school hours. This group of kids was known for skipping school to sniff glue and and drink alcohol btw, but their parents obviously denied it. Only one of the 6 missing kids was ever found, in a creek, with injuries like he was stoned to death. Police said he fell down the creek accidentally, though. This was about 20 years ago in Europe btw. DoodieDialogueDeputy
Allenstown.
Nothing with me but when my mom was a kid she lived near a state park in New Hampshire. It's called bear brook. In the 80s multiple dismembered body parts were found in a blue barrel. An investigation happened but the killer was never found. In the early 00s another barrel was found, dating back to the time of the first barrel. The killer was recently found. His name was Robert Evans. The park is in Allenstown if you want to look it up. taavicarbone
Family Men.
A father held his wife at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her in the head in front of their ~7 year old daughter. Went on a wild police-chase. He still lives in the town.
There also was another dad who abused his wife and their children. Still lives here as well. please_call_me_Steve
My uncle was in a standoff with the cops for something like 18 hours with a shotgun pointed at his stepson and wife. He was threatening to kill them and himself. He just stayed a night or two in jail to "cool off." thaaaaatlady
The Teacher.
When my mom was growing up, a teacher and his wife were killed by an axe murderer. Someone broke into their house and killed them in the middle of the night. They found the husband in the house and the wife in the woods behind it, indicating that she tried to escape and was chased down. Really gruesome stuff. The attack was seemingly random, and they never caught the person responsible. My elementary school was named after the teacher, which wouldn't necessarily be morbid except for the fact that there was a dedication plaque that mentioned his murder. In an elementary school. The 90's were wild. HicSunctLeones
Copland.
In the 80's and early 90's my town was run completely by dirty cops. Drugs were run by the cops and people who didn't do as they were told would go mysteriously missing and eventually, most of them, wind up dead. It took the Feds to clean the place up and install a new set of clean cops.
Edit: I've been getting a lot of questions about the Copland movie. I've never seen it, but I googled it and no, it's not there. I'm not gonna say the town name of where I'm from because it's an "everyone knows everyone" one of town, but I'm from a small town in California and still live there. This all happened before my time and I was told about it by people who lived through it. My best friend's dad being one of them. xTGI_CommanderX
Any town USA.
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It's still happening in my town.
This specific event happened directly in my gated neighborhood.
A member of a Russian gang got his house shot up before they went inside to finish the job. My wife saw them drag out the body.
Organized crime bosses live in my town and the 2 neighboring towns.
I live in NJ.
Edit: gettin' asked a lot about where exactly. Millburn, Westfield, Shorthills, Springfield.
I live in one of those towns. That's all I feel comfortable saying lol
Losing your Head.
So there is this building that used to be a hotel and one day this guy shows up and he takes multiple trips going in and out with a bunch of equipment. They found him a little while later in his room. He had assembled an entire guillotine and cut his head off. Dark_Helmet78
Super Drunk.
A family friend was super drunk, he was walking home and fell unconscious on the road at the bottom of a hill. Another family friend (small town so we all knew each other) was driving home late, he heard a thump and a crunch when he went over a hill.
He got out of the car thinking he hit a wallaby or something, he instead found his friend dead. Everyone decided to forget what he did, because it really wasn't his fault, there was no way he could have seen him asleep at the bottom on the hill in the middle of the road, it was at such an angle that the headlights didn't spot him.
It's a bit weird this has come up because I drove past a super drunk dude just a few hours ago on my way home from work, he was drunk and stumbling on the road, he fell over and lost a thong (flip flop to you Americans). I called the police and told them, they said they'd pick him up and take him home where he would be safe, didn't want a repeat of what happened back in my hometown to happen to that random drunk guy. The-Goat-Lord
Doctor Who?
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I was delivered by a serial killer doctor. I don't remember all the details but he was killing patients in Canada. mitternacht_dY
eaaah, there are actually quite a few of them. Nurses, too! Deceasedtuna