Every city has its own set of secrets and stories lurking behind the touristy attractions, from places that few dare to visit after dark, to legends and myths passed down through generations...
Maybe there's a haunted bridge, a mysterious woman in white, or a headless hitchhiker that locals swear they've spotted on the highway at midnight.
Urban legends and ghost stories have a way of turning ordinary hometowns into creepy places fit for the scariest of Halloween celebrations. Someone asked, "What's a local urban legend or ghost story unique to your town?" and the answers came flying in faster than witches in the night. From the "Crucified Cat" to "Sarah's Grave," people have been letting their local skeletons out of the closet.
Bored Panda has put together a list of the spookiest "I swear it's true" stories for you to scroll through when the clock strikes 12. So sit back, dim the lights and prepare for a haunting trip around the world, and don't forget to upvote your favorites. P.S. You'll find some bonus tales between the images.
#41
Italian here, in Milan there was a legitimate beast that ate children and terrorized in the 1790s. it has no name. just called the ferocious beast, and its body was on display but went missing post ww2. no records since. it was supposedly 'wolf-like'.
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5points
#42
I lived in Honduras for a year and my cousins told me about La Siguanava (i think that's how you spell it) well apparently its a super attractive woman that appears in wooded areas. She entices you to follow her to sleep with her and only appears to teen boys and men. She then would turn to a horrid demon and eat you. Lots of men and teen boys actually would go missing in the village. I never knew if it was true or not.
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5points
#43
Bartonville, IL used to have a state-run Mental Assylum. One of the residents was deaf and mute. They didn’t have paperwork on the man, and he couldn’t communicate it to them. So, the site administrator recorded his name as “A. Bookbinder”. Everyone called him Old Book. Whenever someone at the facility died, Old Book would lean against a tree in the cemetery and weep loudly until the service was over.
In the course of time, Old Book himself died. As they lowered his body into the ground, a loud weeping noise was heard coming from the oak tree nearby. This event was witnessed by dozens of medical professionals who were on staff at the assylum. It is one of the most well-documented hauntings in the state of IL.
In the course of time, Old Book himself died. As they lowered his body into the ground, a loud weeping noise was heard coming from the oak tree nearby. This event was witnessed by dozens of medical professionals who were on staff at the assylum. It is one of the most well-documented hauntings in the state of IL.
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4points
#44
There’s supposedly a Vampire the next town over from the town I went to college in. Sometime in the early 1900s, a dude from Transylvania died and was buried in the town cemetery. People noticed that his grave says he was born in Transylvania so naturally they assumed he was a vampire. So they dug him up, put a stake through his heart, and re-buried him. But some still say late at night they see a man in a cloak roaming the streets of Lafayette, Colorado.
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4points
#45
The Tennessee wildman. Basically either a Bigfoot or in some versions a feral human that is pushing 7-8 feet tall. Legend has it that a carnival barker in the early 1900s caught him in a cage and was putting him on display until he broke out and got away.
A lot of the rumors are from East Tennessee near the smokies. I’ve also heard that, during the civil war some families decided they didn’t want to fight and retreated into the mountains far away from where the army could come find them, and over time have reverted to being feral humans (assumed in-breeding has made recessive genes very prominent, making them large and hairy).
A Josh Gates expedition on Expedition X found human hair in a cave near some small animal bones that had been torn apart, and their decision was basically just “yeah, sometimes people just decide to go live in the wilderness and go wild)”. Some park rangers in the smokies will candidly tell you they believe it too. There were a couple of sightings during the 80s, of a large hairy red eyed bipedal human like thing grabbing farm animals and running off into the woods with them, and a few years ago a couple hiking in the Appalachian’s on the North Carolina side of the smokies said they saw something similar. One of the families near where Dennis Martin went missing also said they saw a huge hairy man with a kid under his arm running straight up a near vertical cliff shortly after Dennis went missing as well.
A lot of the rumors are from East Tennessee near the smokies. I’ve also heard that, during the civil war some families decided they didn’t want to fight and retreated into the mountains far away from where the army could come find them, and over time have reverted to being feral humans (assumed in-breeding has made recessive genes very prominent, making them large and hairy).
A Josh Gates expedition on Expedition X found human hair in a cave near some small animal bones that had been torn apart, and their decision was basically just “yeah, sometimes people just decide to go live in the wilderness and go wild)”. Some park rangers in the smokies will candidly tell you they believe it too. There were a couple of sightings during the 80s, of a large hairy red eyed bipedal human like thing grabbing farm animals and running off into the woods with them, and a few years ago a couple hiking in the Appalachian’s on the North Carolina side of the smokies said they saw something similar. One of the families near where Dennis Martin went missing also said they saw a huge hairy man with a kid under his arm running straight up a near vertical cliff shortly after Dennis went missing as well.
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4points
#46
The conjuring house in Burrillville , Rhode Island
Not from RI but grew up in the next state over.
Not from RI but grew up in the next state over.
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3points
