Local urban legends stem from a variety of sources.
Many are tales devised by parents to prevent children from going out at night, doing bothersome things, or engaging in risky behaviors.
Some are the product of too many conversations, for too long, surrounding the death of a local figure. And others come from very ancient rituals and traditions that have guided people in that area for generations.
But although the causes may be different, the outcome is the same: a horrifying promise that most don't want to believe, but aren't very interested in exploring far enough to find out for sure.
Lucky for us, some Redditors gathered to share the horrifying stories from their own towns. And we get to enjoy them from the safety of our own computer.
ChrissiTea asked, "What are the creepiest urban legends from your area?"
Of course, creepy kids came up quite a lot. The death of such a young person with so much potential causes people to believe that they still have more to do--even if it is from outside of the flesh.
A Janitorial SecretÂ
"We have a chair that's been untouched since the 1960s in our schools boiler room. The janitor swears that a boy got locked down there by these other kids the day before summer break and died from the heat."
"He claims that the chair moves and that the door handle moves like he's still there trying to get out."
How the Legends FormÂ
"There's one that I'm actually connected to."
"There was this friend I had in third grade, he was cool and we had a lot of the same interests, he always sat with me at lunch and played with me during recess."
"One day he was acting weird, he said that there were 'Bugs in his brain' I asked him if he was okay but he never responded; I didn't see him at lunch or recess either. He didn't come to school for 3 days, so I asked the teacher what happened to him, and she just said 'It's not your business.'"
"I never saw him again."
"Afterwards, other kids in my class started making up bullsh** stories about how he ran into the woods and drowned in the lake, or got kidnapped by an escaped convict, and as his friend I was obviously very offended by these kids making horror stories out of this guy I really cared about."
"Now 10 years later, the kids in my town are still perpetuating these myths, I just think it's crazy that this generation of kids who were literally infants when this happened are still talking about it like it's an urban myth, none of them know the true story, and neither do I, but they sure as hell don't know that I knew this kid who they believe these legends about."
Proof, or Coincidence?
"There's an enormous wooden railroad trestle not too far from me (tracks are still in use) and the legend goes that one day in the 1940s when the area was super rural, a teenage boy decided to kill himself."
"As the road passing under the trestle was the only way to access the houses beyond it at that time, he elected to hang himself from the beam directly above the road so his parents would be forced to see him when they returned home."
"I normally don't believe in this sort of thing, but if you look closely you can still see marks in the timber above the road that looks suspicious like a rope rubbed against it."
"Draw your own conclusions...."
-- 97PG8NS
Other legends seemed to involve the road. And it's not a huge surprise.
With so many chaotic, tragic events occurring behind the wheel, there's no shortage of ghost stories kicking around out there too.
Good Ghosts
"We have 3 mysterious men in a car called The Gaurdians (yes that's what we call them) along Montana highway 464."
"People have told experiences where they have car trouble and three men in a car drive up and help them out. Other people talk about headlights that disappear in places where they shouldn't disappear."
"We also have a Native American in a jean jacket and jeans who materializes in front of cars before they can swerve out of the way. When the driver checks for a victim, no body is found."
-- ninjasoul534
The Opposite of an AmbulanceÂ
"I live in Romania and as a kid the most common legend was the 'black ambulance' that would steal kids and harvest their organs and that kids' bodies were to be found a few days later abandoned on a field with some money for the funeral."
"Also, in my town, our parents would never let us go to the cinema because there was this legend about a man who wound put AIDS-infected needles on the seats."
-- mikeynbn
Road Bear DogsÂ
"Black Shucks; big, black, ghostly/demonic dogs with glowing red eyes that are supposed to be omens of death. They generally appear on roads at night. There's apparently a few around town and some drag chains too."
"Also one is actually a bear, but I have no idea why we have a ghostly demonic bear because we don't even have normal bears in this country."
Finally, there are other legends that involve the bizarre behaviors of creatures, real and imagined.
Even a 25-foot Sturgeon is ScaryÂ
"Flathead Lake Monster"
"The Flathead Lake in western Montana is the largest body of fresh water this side of the Great Lakes. 18 miles wide, 26 miles long, 400+ feet deep. People have seen the FLM breach the surface looking like the back of a serpent type creature. My theory is there are some monstrous 25 foot long sturgeons hiding out down there, but who knows......"
Looming Chants Â
"The Huaka'ipo, also known as the Night Marchers, are the spirits of ancient Hawaiian warriors who have been cursed to march the islands for eternity. The night marchers are said to march in a single line, often carrying torches and weapons while chanting and playing drums."
"To protect yourself, you must lie on the ground face down in respect. Otherwise, the Night Marchers will kill you. Or so they say..."
-- lixtrado
Porous HumansÂ
"I'll have to roughly translate it from Arabic so bear with me."
"We call it 'the caller.' It is told that in the middle of the night it calls your name and forces you to follow its voice, until you reach a body of water, it then pulls you under forcing water into every single hole in your body no matter how small and of course then drowning you."
"I think this was made up so kids do go on a swim at night."
"( If anyone is interested its originally an Egyptian urban legend. Here's the Arabic name 'النداهه')"
Haunted HorsesÂ
"Not my current area, but one of the primary schools I went to had a few trees in the back corner of the field with a mountain of dirt. There were rumours that it was haunted with horses (of all things lol) there was one black horse that was evil. And if you sat under the trees and closed your eyes, you could hear the horses."
"It wasn't until I was older that I found out the school was built on an old racing ground and it closed down after one of the jockeys poisoned a competitors black horse."
The scary thing about it all? There are countless more stories just like these, hailing from countless towns across the world.
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People From Small Towns Divulge The Crazy Local Story Every Knows About But Doesn't Talk About
The homespun Urban Legends.
Every town, big and small has it's secrets and it's wild tales and cast of characters. All of those pieces of the puzzle combine to make legends and stories passed on through generations. Although they are only tales told in secret and never brought up in proper public. No one wants to discuss what could be when the mystery is still not resolved.
Redditor u/PMForDickGraysonPics wanted to hear stories from everyone about the kooky details in small towns out there by asking them to divulge.... People who live in small towns, what's the story everyone knows but no one likes talking about?
With Pepperoni....
GiphyIn my town we had the Mayor's daughter drive drunk through a pizza place and get out of the car and walk up to the counter and try to order. It was on the news for like 1 day and then disappeared completely. The place just opened back up. sh3nto
It Never Happened.Â
The superintendent of my hometown school district got a DUI IN A SCHOOL ZONE and used his wealth and influence in the community to not only get out of jail time, but to get the arrest completely scrubbed from his criminal record. He's sued multiple people for slander for mentioning it publicly because, as far as the official record is concerned, it "never happened." astaten0
The Dungeon.Â
There's a dungeon under the abandoned yellow house in the park that was used by the current owner's great grandfather. He admitted on his death bed that he was the cause of 13 disappearances from the 1910's to the 1930's. Issue is, we don't know who the 13 victims are since the surrounding area has had hundreds of disappearances over the decades and we have nothing to go off of except a period of nearly 30 years. Plus, no one wants to think about a relative or ancestor being locked up in there. AnneAuthor
The Spot.Â
A gazebo was removed from the town green because it became a place late at night where people were regularly caught having sex.
It was a beautiful gazebo - with comfortable benches (like church pews) where people could relax in the warm weather and enjoy the town green. But… no more. Back2Bach
Dude was DEVASTATED.
GiphyOne day I see a bunny. But like a HUGE bunny. I thought it was normal sized but as I got closer I realized I was wrong. Thing was an absolute unit. Like medium sized dog. As time went on I would occasionally see more and more of these gigantic mutated rabbits.
So turns out this guy had a couple of pet giant rabbits and then moved out to college. The official story his parents gave him was that his beloved pet rabbits got sick like a week after he moved out and had to be put down. Dude was DEVASTATED.
My guess is that the rabbits weren't put down and were instead released. Now I'm not sure if Flemish Giants can interbreed with wild bunnies, but everyone swears that even the local bunny population is composed of mega bunnies. And the parents are low key kind of hated by everyone now for being nasty to their child. MisterComrade
Under the Rug.Â
About 3 years ago a young lesbian couple came up missing. They found their car half submerged in the river but no sign of the girls. They found them a week later in the river dead with bullet wounds in their heads. It devastated the town when it happened but I feel like it got covered up quickly so it wouldn't scare off any tourists.
They made a small memorial near the river for the girls, and it's been vandalized beyond repair twice now. In the other town I lived in, the mayor's wife killed an elderly couple on Christmas Eve while driving drunk. She never did any time. Completely swept under the rug, but he didn't get reelected thankfully. ravenclawpoetry
Change of tone......
Change of tone on this one but I figured I'd share anyway! I grew up in a tiny farm town in PA. On Christmas Eve, one of the local farmers would go to all the houses with kids and climb on the roof and walk around for a minute or two to keep our belief in Santa alive and well. It's hilarious cause he never asked, just always did it every year. It obviously wasn't talked about much so that the kids never caught on, but was truly so cute. cashewcheez
The Cover-Up.Â
Young local lawyer is kidnapped in the middle of the night at gunpoint and ordered to tie up her husband. There is a man in jail for the kidnapping but she has never been found. Happened in the early 90s and the theory is she was killed to cover up corruption in the court system. She was supposedly going to the DA about some shady stuff. Lnzy1
Compacting....
Two guys robbed one of those car compacting places, where they mash up old vehicles into giant metal bricks.
They went in at night, dropped off by their gfs to go get parts and scrap to sell I guess. They'd done it before, the owner found out and waited for them one night.
Shot both in the backs of the heads, put their bodies in a car and crushed it up.
The truck didn't come to pick up the metal for a couple days so the one with their bodies sat out in the heat, the officers only found them after the gfs telling police they dropped them off there and couldn't find them again. They checked the place and found them from the smell.
I remember before the two guys were found, missing posters of them were all over the town. Zerobeastly
The Insanity.Â
There's someone who has been killing people in my town and their bodies have been found, around the same time every year in a large lake. Nobody talks about it but people are being kidnapped, beaten, tortured and murdered by this sicko! It's insane. Ardie_BlackWood
It seems like just about every town, no matter how big or small, has that one story. For a lot of people that story can be brushed off as a local urban legend - but not for the people in this article.
Reddit user PatrickBateman asked:
What's the creepiest/downright scariest thing to happen to you or someone else in your hometown/city?
What follows are some of the scariest and most horrific responses we could find and confirm. Honestly, it's stuff like this that terrifies people. Warning: The responses you're about to read through include mentions of murder, suicide, harm to children, racism, unexplained death and more. We've even got werewolves and Slenderman in here.
Proceed with caution.
Sister's Jog
"My sister found a teen who had just committed suicide when she was running once. She heard the gun and was just rounding a turn and thought someone was shooting at her. He shot himself in the head."
Minor Mysteries
"This isn't exactly the scariest thing but it's an unsolved mystery and it creeped me and my dad out then."
"We just came home to see all the lights in the house were on. The TV was on the Netflix profile select, and the glass on the fireplace was on the opposite side of the room. Nothing was taken, nothing else was out of place."
"In my room, the computer was on and logged into my password-protected account. And I turned it off before. Also, most of my printer paper was gone and the TV in there was on the Netflix select too."
"I still don't know what happened."
- MP8_YT
Werewolf Murders
Giphy"Some 22 year old guy who claimed to be an immortal werewolf, was "dating" a tween. The two of them came up with a plan to kill her whole family, and did. Both parents and her younger brother were murdered in their sleep."
A Lot Of People Assume I'm Racist
"My town is known for a hate crime that happened in 1998, I was only three years old at the time but three white supremacist chained a black man to the back of a truck and drug him down the street. It was pretty horrible stuff and got brought back into the news this year because the last guy was finally executed. A lot of people assume that I'm racist when I tell them where I am from which is pretty awkward considering I work in social services."
- liza5335
"That Guy"
"Sat next to a kid in high school who killed his mom by stabbing her over 100 times. It was a Microsoft class so we were on computers talking all day and became buddies. He would show me pictures of bombs he made from 2 liters, home-made flamethrowers from squirt bottles, etc. I never thought he was "that guy" though."
"He was sentenced to 35 years because he admitted guilt and refused to plea insanity even though the judge advised him to. In trial he didn't try to defend himself. Walked in, said "I'm guilty and deserve prison" - seriously. Judge asked why he did it and he told her that his mom was verbally and physically abusive to him and he just lost mental stability for a bit. Told the judge that despite that, she didn't deserve death and he deserved prison. I don't think he opened up too much about what type of abuse she did because he wasn't trying to defend himself saying he was in the okay."
"Please note this was many years ago before the time you'd make teachers aware of these types of things."
To Hide The Evidence
"A guy I went to school and hung out with and his precious two year old daughter where found dead in his car after it had caught on fire. I am not sure if it was ruled a homicide, but I know tons of people who believe they were murdered and then their bodies where burned to hide the evidence. I cannot imagine the pain the mother is going through. She lost her precious little girl and boyfriend."
- Aubs71993
Blame The AboriginalsÂ
"A little boy was bashed to death by his mother and stepfather in front of his younger siblings. After the little boy died in hospital, the "parents" were questioned by the police and claimed that he'd been attacked and beaten by a group of young Aboriginal boys in a nearby park."
"My brothers in law, who are Aboriginal, were about 12 & 13 at the time. They were pulled aside on the street by police and interrogated aggressively/accused of killing the little boy. There was excessive police force involved. My younger brother in law up to this point had been a very happy, trusting boy...he has never been the same since."
- Trin20k
Just Started Stabbing
"Two girls were randomly stabbed at one of the high schools here. The guy who did it didn't go there, didn't know them. Just walked in an started stabbing. A video of it ended up online... it's all our town was talking about for weeks."
"One girl lived, but the second unfortunately died in the hospital. She was my aunt's neighbor and we had gone trick or treating together as kids. Less than a year after it happened there was a publication ban put on the name of the girl who died. Her family was furious. The killer was getting all of this attention and she, the victim, was just some nameless teenager."
- Ta5hak5
Gutted
"When I was in high school a girl I knew worked at a gas station in town, which I went to everyday after school. She was murdered."
"She went missing and they found her at conservation site naked on the edge of the river. They didn't find her murderer until he tried to kill another girl I knew, luckily she survived him gutting her like a deer."
"Apparently, he and the first girl got into an argument and he proceeded to hit her with the hatchet he had. The first blow didn't kill her so he "decided to put her out of her misery" (his words) and hit her again. To cover his tracks he opted to undress her and hide her in the tall grass along the river."
"The second girl's boyfriend was "friends" with the guy. I believe he showed up when the boyfriend wasn't there or had just left (I'm not totally sure what the situation was this was probably nine years ago) but he got in an argument with the second girl and he gutted her."
"She was able to get herself to a neighbor, survived, and was able to I.D him. When they arrested him he confessed to the first girls murder. It was crazy because I knew both girls, I knew the guy and went to school with his younger sister. I also lived about a minute away from where he attempted to murder the second girl."
"I felt so bad for his sister because she continued to tell everyone what a great guy he was. She had to deal with all the people at school who hated her brother because the first girl was well loved in our small community."
Free Baby Clothes
Giphy"A pregnant Colorado woman responded to a Craigslist ad for free baby clothes. When she arrived the woman that lived there stabbed her and cut out her baby. She left her there to die but she was still some how able to call 911. They ended up finding the crazy lady at the hospital with the baby and she had told the doctors she had a miscarriage. The baby unfortunately did not make it but the woman was able to recover after surgery."
"The lady just recently was sentenced to 100 years. Apparently this has happened several times in several different places."
How'd He Get There?
"A young man went missing in the city I went to university in. He was a first year student and vanished walking back home from a night out in town. This is a long walk (about three miles from the pubs and clubs in the centre to the campus) and it was January, so very cold. General theory was that he had passed out drunk and frozen to death, but no body was found in any of the nearby areas."
"Our campus is surrounded by mountains, forests, trails, cliffs... there's a big lake in the middle of it. Lots of places for a drunk person to get into trouble, but still nothing showed up."
"Not even any clues, like some of his belongings or something. Abduction was briefly considered, but again no evidence. It kind of faded out of the forefront of everyone's minds, though the search was never called off."
"Finally the body was found. It was in a remote area of forest, and I believe it was spotted either from the air, or from someone walking at some distance and seeing bright clothing in the snow/frost. The body itself was in an area inaccessible by foot or road, far past the distance he could have walked without succumbing to hypothermia (he was only in jeans and T-shirt). Nobody knows how he managed to get up there, or survive long enough to get anywhere near it, but an autopsy showed nothing suspicious. I know there's probably a rational explanation, but it was incredibly unnerving. It was a long walk, too, and not a single person saw him while he was making it."
D And His Dad
"A kid that I went to school with started doing meth with his dad and one day, in a paranoid state, they kidnapped a woman and her daughters. They kept them in a house just a few streets up from me, had them tied up and beat them to get some kind of "revenge."
"One of the girls escaped and ran to a neighbor to call 911. The kid (we'll call D) and his dad took off, ended up in a city about 20 minutes away. They stole an older man's work truck and kidnapped the man as well. They then drove to nearby Wyoming where they stopped in a secluded wooded area, beat the old man to death and abandoned the truck."
"They were caught about a week later. D ended up receiving a life sentence and his dad killed himself in his cell before trial."
Scared Of You
"So I work as a nursing assistant. I approached a new patient introducing myself but she looked terrified and said "I don't know why but I'm scared of you". After we laughed about it."
Anyway, the next day I checked her blood pressure etc and everything was fine. She asked to go to the toilet so I helped her across. 5 minutes later I go to check on her and she's lying on the floor, no pulse, no breathing but her eyes are wide open staring at me as I begin chest compressions and I snap her ribs within the first few. Never forget the feeling of her bones moving under the skin and looking at her eyes. That's why she was scared of me. I genuinely think she had a premonition."
""Unfortunately after the crash team came and an extensive effort of resuscitation the decision was made to stop. It was about 6 years ago but I still remember her name. Autopsy said she died from a blood clot in the lung - sudden and not something I could have picked up when I checked her before walking."
The Star Athlete
"Star athlete at my high school executed his girlfriend with a single gunshot to the back of her head. His case garnered national attention for some time because he was about to join the US Olympic team, until he got locked up. He was released several years later after he was exonerated. But those of us in his class know beyond all doubt that he did it."
- AJNSD619
Creepypasta
Giphy"I live in the city in Wisconsin where the Slenderman stabbing happened. For those unfamiliar, two middle schoolers lured their friend into the woods at a sleepover, they then stabbed her multiple times and left her there to die because "Slenderman told them to." Slenderman is, essentially, a creepy meme. The girl was found the next morning by a man riding on a bike trail and she somehow survived."
"Not just multiple. 34 times. They stabbed their friend 34 times as a sacrifice to a creepypasta."
Bruce
"I used to live across the street from Bruce McArthur."
"He's a serial killer that killed at least eight LGBTQ+ men who were in Toronto. He also preyed on LGBTQ+ men who were homeless."
"He buried victims' body parts on his property and apparently in a nearby ravine that I used to play in with my friends."
They Still Don't Know
"In my village, there's a railway that goes along a forest and a road. On that railway, there's a bridge for cars to cross. One day someone found a puddle of blood with traces of dragging. Thinking it was an attempt at suicide or a boar that got hit by a train, the person that found it called the mayor and the mayor called the cops. The police also assumed it was a suicide, so they came with a forensic team to get samples, etc."
"The "creepy" part is that no one really cared. My grandmother even said "good riddance". I was like 12 at the time, I didn't understand anything."
"I asked my mom about it when I was 17 and she explained that it was a 27 year old drunk guy that played around on the bridge and tipped over it. He got badly injured, dragged himself in the forest and died there from blood loss."
"He was not really liked in the village, he was known to vandalize houses, break signs, let his dog chase teens, burn hay inside barns, shoot at cats with his paintball gun, etc. People knew because he would always brag about it, but they wouldn't complain to his parents because they were nice people."
"They found the body about one week after the accident. Everyone went to his funeral but the parents were the only one to cry. To this day they still don't know that there son was hated by everyone."
Distracted With Toys
"So I was best friends with this girl that lived with her wonderful grandma across the street. My friend's estranged mother just went up to the house one day, and, distracting my friend (who I think was about 8 or 9 at the time) with toys, she walked up to my friend's grandma and shot her twice, and when she was still alive, buried an axe in her head.
"My dad went across when he heard the gun shots and described brain matter and blood all over the china cabinets, the walls, everything.""
"The killer is in jail now. And my old friend... I don't even know. I heard she's tried to attempt suicide numerous times, but I haven't seen her in almost 10 or so years. I wish I could see them both again. It makes me tear up when I think about it."
The School Pretended It Never Happened
""The high school near mine had a student commit suicide over the summer the same year I graduated. The school made it worse my not commemorating him, banning any articles of clothing that were dedicated to his memory, and didn't even give him an empty seat during when he was supposed to graduate."
Info also later came out that the student went to the counselors before he died and asked for help, but they basically told him to eff off. It's scary how mental health is downgraded where I live."
Small towns can have huge problems.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
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Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
Urban legends rarely make a whole lot of sense. They are usually just reasonable enough to get people talking about them, though, and that's how they spread.
Reddit user u/SlothAgainstHumanity asked:
"What's a local legend/horror story in your town everyone collectively believes or tells?"
What is the weirdest urban legend you've ever heard?
People Share The Creepiest Story Based On Folklore They've Ever Heard
All rumors and grand tales spark from some form of truth, at least that is what we're led to believe, and that is the most frightening idea of all. Scary rumors, such as urban legends seep into our minds and lay dormant until the noise in the dark or that shadow lurking behind us is too close. Who hasn't found themselves playing certain moments just a little safer when you think you can avoid conjuring the dark? That's why I never played 'Bloody Mary'... just in case. Y'all should follow suit.
Redditor u/knockerball wanted everyone to huddle up and share some scary tales by asking.... What is the creepiest or scariest folklore story you have heard and what from culture/region did it originate?