We all have to come from somewhere, but some of us are more willing to go back to visit our hometowns than others.
In all honesty, it's easier to put the past behind us than to reminisce.
Redditor drax3012 asked:
"What is your town infamous for?"
Segregated Schools
"Being one of the last cities in Texas to desegregate schools (1995). We also have a big bike race."
- Pie_Investor
101 Dalmatians Reference
"Mine has the largest working fire hydrant in Texas, but it is also a gift from the '101st Dalmation' movie being released."
- Inevitable_Cook2294
Rampant Racism
"The town I grew up in was infamous as the town the farthest north with an active KKK chapter. Secondary claims to fame: About 70% Polish immigrants and the fact that the leader of the American Nazi party was the Republican nominee for the house a few years ago."
"Those last two are kind of paradoxical if you think about the irony of Polish immigrants mainly supporting the Nazi party."
- pesky-pretzel
Trending Debt
"Being the first major metropolitan city to go into bankruptcy and receivership."
"Oh, and for a mayor who stole money from the taxpayers, cheated on his wife with strippers, and may have also killed a stripper."
"Oh, and we are also infamous for eight-mile, AKA the street that now has a bunch of weed dispensaries on it."
- BumpyDenny93
Terrible Traffic
"Infamous? It's generally thought of as racist with really bad traffic and hot weather."
"But in reality, it's not that racist, and the weather is OK, but yeah, the traffic is actually even worse than people think."
- Slimetusk
Those Fall Parties
"Oktoberfest... the Canadian version."
- HampsterGriffin
How Tragic
"A big ship that sank on her first go out."
- punkerster101
Myths Born Overnight
"Drunk hillbillies having a gunfight with aliens."
"No, seriously."
"I don't really have an inside scoop. It was 13 years before I was born, and 30 years before I lived here."
"Locally, it seems to be a humorously shameful anecdote. There is a 'festival' every year, but it serves as a showcase for small businesses/gospel singers/politicians/etc from the area."
"Personally, I'm a big fan of all things supernatural and cryptid. And I probably believe more than the average person... but this story."
"Probably horned owls and moonshine."
- darthjenkins
Random Shoes
"Well, not just the place I'm from, but random feet in sneakers washing up on shore. Has been happening for decades now."
"Thought to be a result of people who died in the ocean, their bodies eventually coming apart, and the buoyant sneakers keeping their feet afloat to wash up, but there are of course some much creepier theories."
- Youpunyhumans
Somewhere in the Midwest
"More cows than people."
- sleepyJoesBidet
An Introvert's Nightmare
"The happiest place on earth that packs you in like sardines."
- boopcorgi
An Extrovert's Nightmare
"It's so boring, even introverts are moving away."
- Omasrealaccount
About That...
"We kinda started the Civil War…"
- JDubya_Rx
A Haunting Education
"Our schools(allegedly) were modeled off of prisons in the 1960s, and a lot of ghost stories. So many that a book was made just listing all of them."
- Global_Box_7935
Dark Days
"Largest mass execution in US history."
- universeforinfinity3
Not every town has the darkest history, but it must be rough to have grown up in a town with an infamous past.
At least those who are aware of the history will be less likely to repeat it.
A small town creates good conditions for myths, legends, and long-remembered tragedies.
Lacking the hustle and bustle of big industries and people running every which way, the people in town take an interest in one another.
That could take the form of kindness or gossip, but either way, many things are known about the community's past and present.
And so, when a Reddit thread asked for users of small towns to name the wildest, most tragic, or creepiest past event, a whole trove of responses was at the ready.
gingerbread-coffin asked, "People of reddit who live in small towns, what is the main creepy event or legend that happened in said small town?"
Knew Too Much
"Rich guy has torrid affair with the wife of one of his father's employees. Rich boy also joins the local Masonic Lodge and regularly gets drunk and spills lodge secrets. Rich boy turns up dead in a ditch, beaten to death."
"Was the killer the employee whose wife cuckolded him, a bitter member of the Masonic Lodge--or somebody else?"
"Case is still open 65 years later"
-- StuShepherd
Travelling Dead Bodies
"There is an urban creature in my country called the 'Pocong' it's basically a dead body wrapped in cloth from head to toe leaving the face space open and usually shamans or witch doctors use these spirits for their own benefit."
"During 2019 one pocong went rogue and travelled to 3 different states. It became sort of like a local meme. There were even pics of the sightings going viral on Malaysian Twitter."
"Creepy yet funny when you think abt how it became a local meme lol."
Haunting Stories of War
"Small french town here"
"During the war of vendée (1793 - 1796), 209 civilian that were suspected to support the royalist got executed by the other side on a small wood close to were i use to live."
"Went there by night several time, there's a panel explaining every thing on a wall in the middle of the wood. Pretty eerie."
-- Glonk2000
"Ghost Rider"
"We have a road that if you speed on it after midnight a ghost motorcycle rider appears and chases you. Pretty sure there was even some indie movie made about the phenomenon." -- beepa217
"I feel like every city has a haunted road. The local legend here is that a school bus stalled on railroad tracks and was hit by a train. Now if you put flour on your car windows and stop your car on the same train track, the ghost kids will push it off the track and you'll see their handprint."
"... Or so I've been told. I've never gone to check and I don't know anyone who has either. Plus, there's several small towns and a couple big cities in my state that have the same exact story." -- gingerbread-coffin
The World Kept Going
"Some guy got really f***ing mad at his ex-girlfriend and decided to kill her and two elderly at her job. He then set her workplace (a care home for the elderly) on fire and drowned himself in a lake nearby."
"It's now, a few decades later, a kindergarten which I went to."
-- GaLact1c_
Snitching Limbs
"I went to college in Kirksville, Missouri, where in 2013 a man killed someone, dismembered the body, set the apartment on fire to destroy the evidence, and then proceeded to throw the arms at witnesses (which, despite his attempt to destroy the evidence, might have implied he was guilty)"
"Makes for quite the local legend among college kids."
-- nerednegnav
A Tough Day for that School
"A high school girl got pregnant and didn't tell anyone. She was successful in hiding it and finally gave birth in the school bathroom to a stillborn without anyone knowing. She panicked and hid the baby in her locker."
"It was discovered by a janitor a couple of days later because of the smell. Poor girl ended up in an institution."
-- krukson
NOT Public Art
"Don't know if this counts, but a high school kid was curb stomped and killed outside of the local 711 in the early 2000s and you can still see what basically looks like bite marks on the curb where it happened."
"Really f***ed up when tourists ask what the significance of it is thinking it's some kind of local artist having done it then seeing their face when you explain someone literally died there."
-- dman2316
Story Gets Worse and Worse
"A guy and his son froze to death in the back of their van (I believe they ran out of gas?) and the dad was holding a handgun when he died."
"They weren't discovered for awhile, and the couple that discovered them cut off some of the dad's frozen fingers to steal the gun and then they went on a cross-country crime spree."
-- Katy-L-Wood
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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, some of them twisted and and often dark.
Not that home isn't a happy place, but we can't deny the bad.
Redditor Noahs_25 wanted to know what dark histories people can share about thei? ?, !, r h ometowns by asking:
"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....
"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."
Giphy"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....
"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."
Giphy"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.
"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
GiphyThe 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.
"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
GiphyThe 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."
"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.
"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."
GiphyLosing 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?
"I was delivered by a serial killer doctor. I don't remember all the details but he was killing patients in Canada."
mitternacht_d
"Yeaaah, there are actually quite a few of them. Nurses, too!"
Deceasedtuna
Giphy'boys being boys'
"Was in a teeny town in the middle of Nebraska and the chief of polices son beat the f**k out of my little brother with the local high school wrestling team. we tried to report it and the cops basically intimidated my mom to back off because it was 'boys being boys' instead of assault."
Literallyagoblin
"Mafia"
"Small northern English town. We have a local 'Mafia' who collude and control all the property in the town centre. They are an estate agent, a retired estate agent and a publican who buys up every small property to add to his 'empire' of tourist accommodation."
Diplodocus114
Bad Neighbor
"My childhood town was very small. About 1000 people maybe. Our neighbor had kids, and then was arrested for the discovery of a meth lab in their basement. Parents went to jail, kids went to foster care. Still don't know how they are doing to this day."
fall-fall-away
Small towns have their secrets.
Fewer people doesn't mean less drama.
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