The most famous legends. The creepiest urban legends that turned out to be true
One businessman contacted one of the local banks New York asking for a loan for three weeks in the amount of $1,000.
As collateral, he offered the bank his car, a Ferrari sports car worth a quarter of a million ($250,000).
Who is stronger?
Parable of the ancient Greek sage Aesop.
The Sun and the Wind argued who was stronger, and the Wind said: “I will prove that I am stronger. Do you see the old man in the raincoat? I bet I can get him to take off his coat faster than you can.”
The sun hid behind a cloud, and the wind began to blow stronger and stronger until it almost turned into a hurricane.
Dump it all hard work for newcomers - the policy of many companies. Somewhere this ritual is called probation, somewhere it’s called hazing.
But almost everyone practices it.
The mailing company J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was no exception.
A young manager, James Young, came to work with them. At the same time, a batch of apples arrived at the company, beaten by frost and covered with black spots. The fruits were intended for distribution to customers, but when they saw the condition they were in, JWT management was horrified.
Managers were wondering what to do with the apples. And they decided to entrust the sale of apples to a newcomer.
Once, already a millionaire, Henry Ford came to England on business. At the airport information desk, he inquired about any cheap hotel, as long as it was nearby.
The employee looked at him - his face was famous. Newspapers often wrote about Ford. And here he is standing here - in a raincoat that looks older than himself and asking about a cheap hotel. The employee asked hesitantly:
If I'm not mistaken, you are Mr. Henry Ford?
You bring shame on me in front of everyone:
I am an atheist, I am a drunkard, almost a thief!
I am ready to agree with your words.
But are you worthy to pass judgment?
(Omar Khayyam)
One person began to publicly insult Omar Khayyam:
- You are an atheist! You're a drunkard! You are incompetent!
In response to this, Khayyam only smiled and said loudly:
– I am ready to agree with your words... provided that you yourself are a worthy person.
And he turned to the people present nearby:
– Do you agree to call this person worthy?
- No! – people around said. - If it were worthy person, he wouldn't say bad things about other people.
In one city they held a competition for the best artist.
And in the end, the jury chose the two best. But the judges could not decide which artist was the best. Then they turned to the Sage for advice.
The sage addressed the finalists with a question:
– How many shortcomings do you see in your paintings?
One artist said:
– If I saw a flaw in the picture, I would correct it immediately. This picture is flawless.
A modern legend.
Mark Zuckerberg says that he has been negotiating for a long time to connect Facebook and WhatsApp. And the negotiations did not produce results.
For reference. WhatsApp appeared in 2009. It was founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton. In 2014, when WhatsApp had 400 million monthly active users, Facebook wanted to acquire WhatsApp. Both WhatsApp and Facebook were expected to benefit from this merger.
Mark Zuckerberg invited Jan Koum to his home to once again discuss the terms of the acquisition of WhatsApp.
Philosophical parable.
What kind of people live in this city?
It was a long time ago. But this story is still alive.
One gray-haired man was sitting near an oasis, at the entrance to an eastern city. A young man approached the old man and asked:
- I've never been here. Tell me, Old Man, what kind of people live in this city?
The old man answered him with a question:
-What kind of people were in that city? The one you left?
“They were selfish and evil people.” However, that’s why I happily left there!
- Well. Bad luck to you. And here you will meet exactly the same people,” the old man answered him.
“Well, I’ll go have a look at the city.”
A little later, another person approached this place and asked the same question:
The most common legend about Narcissus,
although there are other legends...
There lived a handsome young man named Narcissus.
He was the son of the river god Kephissus. The nymph Echo, captivated by his beauty, suffered cruelly from unrequited love. In the end, Echo went to the mountains and died there, leaving her voice.
It just so happened that the young man’s heart did not reciprocate anyone.
As punishment, Nemesis prophesied that Narcissus would one day experience an all-consuming feeling of unrequited love.
And soon the prophecy came true: on a hot day, the young man bent over the stream to quench his thirst and, seeing his own reflection in the mirror surface of the water, froze.
Narcissus was enchanted, madly in love.
He didn’t sleep, didn’t eat, just admired himself until he died. In the place where the soul left the body, a beautiful lonely flower with a drooping head grew.
Video The Legend of Narcissus.
/ The Legend of Narcissus / Narcissus, the legend /
A woman walked along the road, as beautiful as a fairy. Suddenly she noticed that a young man was following her. She turned around and asked:
- Tell me, why are you following me?
The guy replied:
“Oh, mistress of my heart, your charms are so irresistible that they command me to follow you.” I want to express my love to you, because you have captivated my heart.
The girl looked silently for a while at young man and then said:
There lived a wise man. Everyone loved him. But, as always, there was a young man who wanted to test his wisdom. He persuaded his friends to teach the old man a lesson.
The sage was sitting near his house and thinking about something. Suddenly, young people approached and began to tease and even insult the man, trying to piss him off.
And again about the main thing - about mutual understanding.
Someone once (whether it was John Gray with his helpful books on relationships, or someone before him) came up with the idea that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. Everyone has heard about it, but no one takes it seriously. An intricate invention - nothing more. Artifice. But like any good metaphor, it can help us better understand and see what we sometimes forget about. And it’s good when someone appears to remind you of this
🙂
Sphinx
Experts agreed on only a few facts about the Great Sphinx of Giza: it is one of the largest and most ancient statues in the world, as well as a creature with the body of a lion and the head of a man, similar to an Egyptian pharaoh. The rest comes down to speculation and beliefs.
The legend about the prince of Egypt Thutmose, the grandson of Thutmose III, a descendant of Queen Hatshepsut, is a favorite story of admirers of the Sphinx. The young man was a joy to his father, which aroused the jealousy of his relatives. Someone even plotted to kill him.
Due to family troubles, Thutmose spent more and more time away from home - in Upper Egypt and the desert. He was a strong and agile guy and enjoyed hunting and archery. One day, as usual, while away his leisure time tracking a wild beast, the prince left behind his two servants, sweltering from the heat, and went to pray at the pyramids.
He stopped in front of the Sphinx, known in those days as Harmachis - the god rising sun. The massive stone statue was covered in sand up to its shoulders. Thutmose looked at the Sphinx, praying to save him from all his problems. Suddenly the huge statue came to life, and a thunderous voice was heard from its mouth.
The Sphinx asked Thutmose to free him from the sand pulling him down. The eyes of the mythical creature burned so brightly that, looking into them, the prince fell unconscious. When he woke up, the day was approaching sunset. Thutmose slowly rose to his feet in front of the Sphinx and swore an oath to him. He promised that he would cleanse the statue of the sand covering it and immortalize the memory of this incident in stone if he became the next pharaoh. And the young man kept his word.
A fairy tale with a good ending or a true story - Thutmose actually became the next ruler of Egypt, and his problems were left far behind. The story gained popularity only 150 years ago, when archaeologists cleared the sand from the Sphinx and discovered a stone tablet between its paws describing the legend of Prince Thutmose and the oath he swore to the Great Sphinx of Giza.
The great Wall of China
Story about tragic love- just one of many legends of the Great Wall of China. But the story of Meng Jiangniu - perhaps the saddest of them all - can touch you from the very first lines. It talks about the Meng couple who lived next door to another couple with the surname Jiang. Both families were happy, but childless. So, as usual, years passed until the Maines decided to plant a pumpkin vine in their garden. The plant grew quickly and bore fruit outside the Jiangs' fence.
Being good friends, the neighbors agreed to divide the pumpkin equally. Imagine their surprise when, having cut it open, they saw a baby inside. A tiny, beautiful girl. As before, the two amazed couples decided to share the responsibilities of raising the baby, who was named Meng Jiangniu.
Their daughter has grown very much beautiful girl. She married a young man named Fan Xiliang. However, the young man was hiding from the authorities, who tried to force him to join the construction of the Great Wall. And, unfortunately, he could not hide forever: just three days after their wedding, Silyan was forced to join other workers.
For a whole year, Meng waited for her husband's return, receiving no news about his health or the progress of construction. One day Fan appeared to her in a disturbing dream, and the girl, unable to bear the silence any longer, went in search of him. She traveled a long way, crossing rivers, hills and mountains, and reached the wall, only to hear that Silyan had died of exhaustion and was resting at its foot.
Meng could not contain her grief and cried for three days in a row, causing part of the structure to collapse. The emperor, who heard about this, thought that the girl should be punished, but as soon as he saw her beautiful face, he immediately changed his anger to mercy and asked for her hand. She agreed, but on the condition that the ruler fulfill her three requests. Meng wished to declare mourning for Xiliang (including for the emperor and his servants). A young widow asked for her husband's funeral and expressed her desire to see the sea.
Meng Jiangniu never remarried. After attending Fan's burial ceremony, she committed suicide by throwing herself into the depths of the sea.
Another version of the legend says that the grieving girl cried until the wall collapsed and the remains of the dead workers emerged from the ground. Knowing that her husband lay somewhere below, Meng cut her hand and watched the blood drip onto the bones of the dead. Suddenly, she began to flock around one skeleton, and Meng realized that she had found Silyan. The widow then buried him and committed suicide by jumping into the ocean.
Forbidden City
In the past, an ordinary tourist did not have a chance to get to the Forbidden City. And if he could penetrate the walls, he would leave their heads. Literally. This ancient palace complex is the largest in the world and the only one of its kind. During the reign of the Qing dynasty, it was closed to the public; for more than 500 years, only emperors and their entourage saw the city from the inside.
At least today, guests are allowed to explore the site and listen to the legends associated with it. One of them tells that the four watchtowers of the Forbidden City appeared in a dream.
Allegedly, during the Ming Dynasty, the city was surrounded only by high walls, without a hint of towers. Emperor Yongle, ruling in the 15th century, once had a vivid dream about his residence. He dreamed of fantastic watchtowers decorating the corners of the fortress. Waking up, the ruler immediately ordered his builders to make the dream come true.
According to legend, after the failed attempts of two groups of workers (and their subsequent execution by beheading), the foreman of the third group of builders was very nervous when starting work. But by modeling the tower after the grasshopper cage he had seen, he managed to make the ruler happy.
He also tried to include the number nine, a symbol of nobility, in the design design in order to further please the emperor. It is said that the old man who sold the cricket cages that inspired the watchtowers was Lu Ban, the mythological patron of all Chinese carpenters.
Niagara Falls
The legend of the Maiden of the Mist may have provided the idea for the name for the river cruise at Niagara Falls. As with most stories, there are different versions.
The most famous one tells the story of an Indian girl named Lelavala, who was sacrificed to the gods. To appease them, she was thrown from Niagara Falls. The original version of the legend says that Lelawala was floating along the river in a canoe, and she was accidentally carried away downstream.
The girl was saved from certain death by Hinum, the god of thunder, who finally taught her how to defeat the huge snake that lived in the river. Lelavala conveyed the message to her fellow tribesmen, and they declared war on the monster. Many believe that Niagara Falls acquired its present form as a result of subsequent battles between people and the monster.
Incorrect versions of this legend have appeared in print since the 17th century, with many attributing some errors to Robert Cavelier de La Salle, a European explorer. North America. He claimed that he visited the Iroquois tribe and witnessed the sacrifice of a virgin daughter of the leader, and at the very last minute the unfortunate father fell victim to his own conscience and fell into the watery abyss after the girl. So Lelavala was named the Maiden of the Mist.
However, Robert's wife spoke out against her husband and accused him of portraying the Iroquois people as ignorant only in order to appropriate their land for himself.
Devil's Peak and Table Mountain
Devil's Peak is an infamous mountainside in South Africa. He saw a lot, could tell so many things: including a wonderful legend about how fog rises from the ocean and envelops the peak along with Table Mountain. Cape Townians and other South Africans still tell this tale to their children and grandchildren.
In the 1700s, a pirate named Jan van Hanks decided to leave his swashbuckling past behind and settled in Cape Town. He got married and built a family nest at the foot of the mountain. Jan loved to smoke a pipe, but his wife hated this habit and drove him out of the house every time he took up tobacco.
Van Hanks got into the habit of going to the mountains to smoke quietly in nature. One completely ordinary day, he climbed the slope as always, but found a stranger in his favorite place. Ian did not see the man’s face, since it was covered by the wide brim of his hat, and he was dressed all in black.
Before the former sailor could say anything, the strange man greeted him by name. Van Hanks sat down next to him and began a conversation that gradually turned to the topic of smoking. Ian often boasted about how much tobacco he could handle, and this conversation was no exception after the stranger asked the pirate for a smoke.
He told van Hanks that he could easily smoke more than him, and they immediately decided to test it - to compete.
Huge clouds of smoke surrounded the men, swallowed the mountains - suddenly the stranger began to cough. The hat fell off his head and Ian gasped. Before him was Satan himself. Angry that a mere mortal had exposed him, the devil was transported along with Van Hanks to an unknown direction, flashed by a flash of lightning.
Now, every time Devil's Peak and Table Mountain are covered in fog, people say that it is Van Hanks and the Prince of Darkness who have taken their places on the slope again and are competing in smoking.
Volcano Etna
Etna is located on the east coast of Sicily, one of the highest active volcanoes in Europe. The first recorded awakening occurred in 1500 BC. e., and since then he has spat fire at least 200 times. During the 1669 eruption, which lasted four months, lava covered 12 villages and destroyed surrounding areas.
According to Greek legend, the source of the volcanic activity is none other than a 100-headed monster (similar to a dragon) that spews pillars of flame from one of its mouths when it gets angry. Apparently, this huge monster is Typhon, the son of Gaia, the goddess of the Earth. He was a rather naughty child, and Zeus sent him to live under Mount Etna. Therefore, from time to time, Typhon's wrath takes the form of boiling magma, shooting straight into the heavens.
Another version tells about the terrible one-eyed giant Cyclops, who lived inside the mountain. One day, Odysseus arrived at its foot to fight the mighty creature. The Cyclops tried to pacify the king of Ithaca by throwing huge boulders at him from the top, but the cunning hero managed to reach the giant and defeat him by plunging a spear into his only eye. The defeated big man disappeared into the depths of the mountain. Further, the legend says that the crater of Etna is actually the wounded eye of the Cyclops, and the lava splashing from it is drops of the giant’s blood.
Avenue of the Baobabs
The island of Madagascar resonates with many people around the world, and it's not just about the lemurs. The main local attraction is the delightful Avenue of Baobabs, located on the west coast. "Mother of the Forest" - 25 huge trees lined up on both sides of the dirt road. This is exactly where the indigenous inhabitants of the island are, in all meanings, and the largest representatives of their species! Naturally, their amazing location has given rise to many legends and myths.
One of them says that the baobabs tried to run away while God was creating them, so he decided to plant the plants upside down. This might explain their root-like branches. Others tell a completely different story. Allegedly, the trees were originally unusually beautiful. But they became proud and began to boast of their superiority, for which God immediately turned them upside down so that only their roots became visible. It is said that this is the reason why baobab trees only bloom and produce leaves for a few weeks each year.
Myth or not, six varieties of these plants are found only in Madagascar. However, deforestation poses a serious threat even against the backdrop of all the activities carried out there and the efforts made to protect and restore forest areas. If more is not done to protect them, the protagonists of these legends may disappear, most likely forever.
Giant's Causeway
Unintentionally creating the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland is what can happen if you get into a fight with a giant. At least that's what the legend convinces us of. While scientists believe that the basalt pillars in the shape of regular hexagons are an accumulation of lava aged 60 million years, the legend of Benandonner, a Scottish giant, sounds a little more intriguing.
It tells the story of Irish big man Finn McCool and his long-standing feud with Scottish big man Benandonner. One fine day, two giants started another squabble across the North Channel - Finn became so angry that he grabbed a handful of earth and threw it at his hated neighbor. The lump of mud landed in the water and is now known as the Isle of Man, and the place where McCool rests is called Lough Neagh.
The war was heating up, and Finn McCool decided to build a bridge for Benandonner (the Scottish giant could not swim). In this way they could meet and fight, resolve the old dispute - who is the bigger giant. After building the pavement, tired Finn fell into a deep sleep.
While he was sleeping, his wife heard a deafening roar and realized that it was the sound of Benandonner's approaching footsteps. When he arrived at the couple’s house, Finn’s wife was horrified - her husband’s death had come, because he turned out to be much smaller than his neighbor. Being a resourceful woman, she quickly wrapped a large blanket around McCool and placed the bulkiest cap she could find on his head. Then she opened the front door.
Benandonner shouted into the house for Finn to come out, but the woman shushed him and said he would wake up her “baby.” Legend has it that when the Scotsman saw the size of the “child”, he did not wait for his father to appear. The giant immediately ran back home, destroying the passage through the strait along the way so that no one could follow him.
Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji is a huge volcano in Japan. It is not only a major attraction, but also an important part of Japanese culture - the theme of many songs, films and, of course, myths and legends. The story of the first eruption is considered the oldest legend in the country.
An elderly bamboo collector was performing his daily task when he came across something very unusual. A tiny baby, the size of a thumb, looked up at him from the trunk of the plant he had just cut. Struck by the beauty of the little one, the elder took her home to raise her with his wife as his own daughter.
Soon after the incident, Taketori (that was the name of the collector) began to make other amazing discoveries while working. Every time he cut a bamboo stalk, he found a gold nugget inside. His family became rich very quickly. The little girl grew up to be a young woman of stunning beauty. Her adoptive parents eventually learned that her name was Kaguya-hime and she was sent to Earth from the Moon to protect her from the war raging there.
Because of her beauty, the girl received several marriage proposals, including from the emperor himself, but rejected them all, as she wanted to return home to the Moon. When her people finally came for her, the ruler of Japan was so unhappy at the imminent separation that he sent his army to fight Kaguya's own family. However, the bright moonlight blinded them.
As a parting gift, Kaguya-hime (which means “moon princess”) sent the emperor a letter and an elixir of immortality, which he did not accept. In turn, he wrote her a letter and ordered his servants to climb to the highest mountain peak in Japan and burn it along with the elixir, in the hope that they would reach the moon.
However, the only thing that happened while carrying out the master's order on Fuji was a fire that started that could not be extinguished. So, according to legend, Mount Fuji became a volcano.
Yosemite
Half Dome rock national park USA Yosemite is a real challenge when we're talking about about the climb, but at the same time the place is considered a favorite among hikers and rock climbers. When Native Americans lived here, they called it Broken Mountain. At some point, as a result of repeated glaciations and thawings of the rock, most of the rock was separated from it - this is how it acquired its present appearance.
The origin of Half Dome was the subject of a wonderful legend, still passed down by word of mouth, all of which are called "The Tales of Tis-sa-ak." The legend also explains the unusual face-shaped silhouette that can be seen on one side of the mountain.
The tale tells of an elderly Indian woman and her husband traveling to the Aouani Valley. Throughout the journey, the lady carried a heavy wicker basket made of reeds, while her husband simply waved his cane. This was the custom in those days, and no one would have thought it strange that a man was in no hurry to help his wife.
By the time they reached the mountain lake, the woman named Tis-sa-ak was thirsty, tired of the heavy burden and the scorching sun. Therefore, without wasting a second, she rushed to the water to drink.
When her husband came there, he was horrified to discover that his wife had drained the entire lake. But then everything only got worse: due to the lack of water, drought struck the area, and all the greenery dried up. The man became so angry that he swung his cane at his wife.
Tis-sa-ak burst into tears and started running with the basket in her hands. At one point, she turned around to throw a basket at her husband who was pursuing her. And when they met their gaze, the Great Spirit who lived in the valley turned them both into stone.
Today the couple is known as Half Dome and Washington Column. They say that if you look closely at the mountainside, you can see the face of a woman, along which tears are silently flowing.
Incredible facts
People have been making up legends and tales ever since they discovered communication. Despite some true facts, most of the terrible legends still remain fiction. However, chilling urban legends can often turn out to be true.
Sometimes turning a tragic event into a legend helps people cope with grief, as well as protect the younger generation from realizing the reality of what is happening.
In this article we have collected for you the creepiest urban legends based on real events.
City's legends
Faceless Charlie
Legend:
Children living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania love to tell the story of Faceless Charlie, also known as the Green Man. It is believed that Charlie was a factory worker who was disfigured in a horrific accident, some say it was caused by acid, some say it was caused by a power line.
Some versions of the story claim that this incident caused his skin to turn green, but all versions have in common that Charlie's face was so disfigured that it lost all features. According to legend, he wanders in the dark through depressing places, such as the old abandoned train tunnel in South Park, also known as the Green Man's Tunnel.
Over the years, curious teenagers have visited this tunnel in search of traces of Faceless Charlie. Many claimed that they felt a slight electrical voltage and had trouble starting their car after calling No-Face. Others said they saw the slight glow of his green skin in a tunnel or along a country road at night.
Reality:
Unfortunately, in this tragic story lies the lion's share of truth. The legend of Faceless Charlie appeared due to the fact that he had quite real prototype– Raymond Robinson. In 1919, Robinson, who was 8 years old at the time, was playing with a friend near a bridge that carried high-voltage tram tracks.
Raymond suffered horrific injuries after accidentally touching a power line. As a result of the blow, he lost his nose, both eyes and an arm, but survived. He spent the rest of his long life - 74 years - withdrawn into himself, and only went out for walks at night, but he reciprocated people's friendly calls to him.
Killer in the attic
Legend:
This chilling story appeared many years ago. It tells the story of a family who are unaware that a dangerous intruder has taken up residence in their home and has been secretly living in their attic for weeks. Things are lost or moved, and suspicious objects appear in the trash. They joke sweetly about the brownie until brutal killer who lives near them does not kill them in their sleep.
The worst thing about this legend is that it would seem to be quite possible - and this is in fact so.
Reality:
This story begins in March 1922 on a German farm called Hinterkaifeck. The owner, Andreas Gruber, began to notice that things in the house periodically disappeared and were not in their right place. His family heard footsteps in the house at night, and Andreas himself, on the eve of the tragedy, noticed other people’s footprints in the snow, but after examining the house and territory, he found no one.
At the end of March, the man who left these traces came down from the attic and brutally killed six inhabitants of the farm - the owner, his wife, their daughter, her two children aged 2 and 7 and their maid with a hoe. Their bodies were discovered only 4 days later, and it turned out that at that time someone was caring for livestock. The identity of the perpetrator has not yet been established.
Legends
Night doctors
Legend:
Stories about night doctors in the past were often heard from slave owners who used them to intimidate slaves so that they would not escape. The essence of the legend is that there were certain doctors who operated at night, kidnapping black workers to use them in their terrible experiments.
Night doctors caught people on the streets and took them to their medical institutions to torture, kill, dismember and cut out their organs.
Reality:
This terrible story has a very real continuation. Throughout the 19th century, grave robbing was a major problem, and the African American population was unable to protect either their deceased relatives or themselves. Additionally, medical students actually performed surgeries on living members of the African American community.
In 1932, the Alabama State Health Service and Tuskegee University launched a program to study syphilis. No matter how terrible it may sound, 600 African-American men were taken for the experiment. 399 of them already had syphilis, and 201 did not.
They were given free food and a guarantee to protect their grave after death, but the program lost funding without telling participants anything about their terrible illness. The researchers sought to study the mechanisms of the disease and continued to monitor patients. They were told that they were being treated for a minor blood disease.
The patients did not know they had syphilis or that they needed penicillin to treat it. The scientists refused to give any information about the medications or the condition of their patients.
This story, seasoned with slave owners riding horses at night in white clothes, has long instilled fear and awe of the legend in black people.
Alice Murders
Legend:
This is a fairly young urban legend from Japan. It says that between 1999 and 2005, a series of brutal murders occurred in Japan. The bodies of the victims were mutilated, their limbs were torn off, and distinctive feature of all the murders was that next to each corpse the name “Alice” was written in the victim’s blood.
Police also found one playing card at each of the grisly crime scenes. The first victim was found in the forest, and parts of her body were strung on the branches of various trees. The second victim's vocal cords were torn out. The third victim, a teenage girl, had her skin severely burned, her mouth cut, her eyes torn out, and a crown sewn to her head. The killer's last victims were two little twins who were given lethal injections while they were sleeping.
It is alleged that in 2005, police arrested a man who was found wearing a jacket from one of the victims, but they were unable to link him to any of the murders. The man claimed that the jacket was given to him as a gift.
Reality:
In fact, such killings have never happened in Japan. However, shortly before the appearance of this legend, a maniac called the Card Killer was operating in Spain. In 2003, all the Madrid police forces were sent to catch the man responsible for 6 brutal murders and 3 attempted murders. Each time he left a playing card on the body of the murdered man. Authorities were at a loss - there was no connection between the victims or an obvious motive.
All that was known was that they were dealing with a psychopath who chose his victims at random. He would never have been caught if one day he himself had not confessed to the police. The card killer turned out to be Alfredo Galan Sotillo. During the trial, Alfredo changed his testimony several times, refusing to confess and claiming that the Nazis forced him to confess to the murders. Despite this, the killer was sentenced to 142 years in prison.
Scary urban legends
The Legend of Cropsy
Legend:
Among the residents of Staten Island, the legend of Corpsey has been circulating for several decades. It's about a crazed ax murderer who escapes from an old hospital and is hiding in the tunnels underneath the abandoned Willbrook Public School. He comes out of hiding at night and hunts children: some say that he has a hook instead of a hand, and some say that he wields an ax. The weapon does not matter to him, the result is important to him - to lure the child into the ruins old school and cut him into pieces.
Reality:
As it turned out, the crazy killer was very real. Andre Rand was directly responsible for the abduction of two children. He worked as a janitor at this very school until it closed. There are children with disabilities they were kept in terrible conditions: they were beaten, insulted, they had neither normal food nor clothing. Homeless Rand returned to the tunnels under the school to continue the atrocities that previously reigned in this school.
Children began to go missing, and the body of 12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger was found in the woods near Rand's camp. He was accused of killing Jennifer and another missing child. It has not been fully proven that these murders were his doing, but the police were able to prove that he was involved in child abductions. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The whereabouts of the other missing children have still not been revealed.
The nanny and the killer on the second floor
Legend:
The story of the nanny and the killer hiding upstairs is undoubtedly a classic urban horror story. According to this legend, a girl working as a nanny for a rich family receives a creepy call. In almost all versions of the story, the caller asks the nanny if she has checked the children. The nanny calls the police, where it turns out that they are calling from the house where she and the children are. According to most versions, all three are found brutally murdered.
Reality:
The reason for the spread of this terrible story was the very real murder of a 12-year-old girl, Janet Christman, who was looking after three-year-old Gregory Romak. In March 1950, when this brutal crime occurred, there was a terrible thunderstorm in Columbia, Missouri. Janet had just put the child to bed when an unknown person entered the house and brutally raped and killed the girl.
For a long time, the main suspect was a certain Robert Mueller, also accused of another murder. Unfortunately, the evidence against Mueller was only circumstantial, but he was still accused of Janet's murder. After some time, he filed a lawsuit for illegal detention, the charges were dropped, and he left the city forever. After his departure, such crimes stopped.
Legends based on real events
Rabbit Man
Legend:
The story about the rabbit man appeared around the 70s of the last century and, like many urban legends, has several versions. The most common one concerns the events that occurred in 1904, when the local mental institution in Clifton, Virginia, closed and it became necessary to move patients to a new building. According to the classics of the genre, a transport with patients gets into a serious accident, most of them die, and the survivors break free. They are all successfully brought back...except for one - Douglas Griffin, sent to a mental hospital for the murder of his family on Easter Sunday.
Soon after his escape, exhausted and mutilated rabbit carcasses appear on the trees in the area. Some time later, local residents discover the body of Marcus Wallster hanging from the ceiling of a railroad underpass in the same terrible state as the rabbits before. The police tried to drive the madman into a corner, but he ran away and was hit by a train. Now his restless ghost wanders around and still hangs rabbit carcasses in the trees.
Some even claim to have seen the rabbit man himself, standing in the shadow of an underground passage. Locals believe that anyone who dares to enter the passage on Halloween night will be found dead the next morning.
Reality:
Fortunately, this creepy legend is just a legend, and there really was no crazy killer. There was no Douglas Griffin or Marcus Wallster. However, in Fairfax County there lived a man who had an unhealthy obsession with rabbits and terrorized local residents in the 70s of the last century.
He rushed at passers-by and chased them with a small hatchet in his hands. Some claimed that he once threw a hatchet through the window of a passing car. One incident occurred at the home of one of the local residents. The madman took an ax with a long handle and began to chop down the porch of the unfortunate man's house. He ran away before the police arrived and no one still knows who he is or what motivated him.
Hook
Legend:
The legend of Hook is perhaps the most common of all urban horror stories. It has several versions, each more terrible than the previous one, and the most famous one tells about a couple making love in a parked car. The radio broadcast is suddenly interrupted to inform listeners of terrible news - a brutal killer wielding a hook has escaped, and now he is hiding in the very park where the lovers are.
The girl, having heard the news, asks her lover to leave there as quickly as possible. The guy is annoyed by this, but they get ready and he takes her home. When they arrive, they find a bloody hook hanging from the passenger side door handle.
Reality:
Whether the couple makes it home without incident, or the girl is horrified to hear her lover's fingers touching the roof of the car as his bloody body hangs from a tree, the story is not accidental. In the late 1940s, a small and peaceful town was rocked by a series of horrific murders. The culprit was dubbed the Moonlight Murder, but was never found.
At night he killed young people in parked cars. Frightened residents returned home long before the curfew announced by the authorities. The bloody crimes stopped as quickly as they began, and the Moon Killer disappeared into the night.
Dog boy
Legend:
In the town of Quitman, Arkansas, there has long been a legend about Dog Boy. Locals claimed that it was about an evil and very cruel little boy who loved to torture defenseless animals, and then completely turned on his parents. After the boy's death, his ghost haunted the house where he killed his parents, in the form of a half-man, half-dog, instilling horror and fear in people. People often notice his outline in the room where he kept the animals he abused.
Witnesses describe it as a large, furry creature that resembles a dog with glowing cat-like eyes. Those who pass by his house notice that he is closely watching them from the window of the house, and some even claim that an incomprehensible creature on all fours was chasing them down the street.
Reality:
Once upon a time, in an old house at 65 Mulberry Street, there lived an angry and cruel boy named Gerald Bettis. His favorite pastime was catching neighbors' animals. He had a separate room where he brought the unfortunate. There he tortured and brutally killed them. Over time, his cruelty began to manifest itself towards his elderly parents. He was huge and overweight.
They say that it was he who killed his father, but no one has been able to prove that he provoked his fall from the stairs. After his father's death, he continued to abuse his mother, keeping her locked up and starving her. Law enforcement agencies intervened and managed to save the unfortunate mother. Some time later, she testified against him for growing and using marijuana. He was sent to prison, where he died of an overdose.
Legends that turned out to be true
Black water
Legend:
This one is pretty famous story starts with what an ordinary family buys new house. Everything is fine with them until they open the tap and black, cloudy, foul-smelling water comes out. After checking the water tank, they discover a rotting body. It is unknown when this legend was born, but a similar story really took place.
Reality:
Elisa Lam's body was found in a water tank at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, California in 2013. Her death remains a mystery and her killer has not been found. By the time guests began complaining about spoiled water and her body was discovered, it had been decomposing in the tank for a week.
The most terrible legends
Bloody Mary
Legend:
According to the creepy folk belief about Bloody Mary, in order to summon her evil spirit, you need to light candles, turn off the lights and whisper her name while looking intently into the mirror. When she comes, she can do a number of harmless things and some terrible things.
Reality:
According to psychologists, if you look closely in the mirror for a long time, you can see someone else looking back at you, so most likely the legend of Bloody Mary did not appear out of nowhere. Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo calls this phenomenon the “illusion of someone else’s face.”
According to Caputo, if you stare long and hard at your reflection in a mirror, your field of vision will begin to distort and the outlines and edges will become blurred—your face will no longer look the same. The same illusion manifests itself when a person sees images and silhouettes in inanimate objects.
Who doesn't love entertaining stories? When the world is in a state of turmoil, it's good to have a little distraction fiction, cinema or video games. However, it is worth remembering that many fantasy stories were in fact a reflection of very real events.
Even some myths and legends, oddly enough, turned out to be true, and in many cases, scientifically provable reality managed to surpass fantastic stories.
In the south of France there is the ancient Chauvet Cave (Chauvet-Pont D "Arc), in which our ancestors lived 37 thousand years ago. At that time, humanity did not yet have advanced technologies and there were no highly developed civilizations. Ancient people were mainly nomads, hunters and foragers who had just lost their close relatives and neighbors - the Neanderthals.
The walls of the Chauvet Cave are a real treasure trove for archaeologists and anthropologists. The pigmented prehistoric art adorning the cave walls depicts a variety of wild animals, from giant deer and bears to lions and even furry rhinoceroses. These animals are surrounded by images Everyday life of people.
Because of the amazing rock art, Chauvet Cave is called the Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
In 1994, a rather unusual painting was discovered on one of the walls, similar to jets rising into the sky and overlapping images of animals.
For several decades, most scientists considered this to be an abstract image, which in itself is extremely unusual, because all the drawings in the cave mostly depicted quite literal things.
Explanation
Asking the question: “What if a volcanic eruption is depicted on the cave wall?”, scientists traced volcanic activity in the region during the creation of rock paintings.
It turned out that just 35 kilometers from Chauvet the remains of a powerful eruption were discovered. Surely the eruption of a large volcano, which occurred in close proximity to people’s homes, led them to the idea that such an incident was worth capturing for future generations.
Residents of the Solomon Islands willingly share the legend of an ancient chief named Roraimenu, whose wife decided to secretly elope with another man and settle with him on the island of Teonimanu.
In anger, the chief sought out the curse and set off for Teonimanu in his canoe, decorated with an image of sea waves.
He brought three taro plants to the island, planted two on the island, and kept one with him. According to the rules of the curse, once his plant begins to grow, the place where the other two were planted will disappear from the face of the earth.
The curse worked. Standing on the top of the mountain, Roraimenu watched as the neighboring island was swallowed up by huge sea waves.
In real
The island of Teonimanu actually existed in reality and actually disappeared as a result of seismic activity. The only thing that scientists cannot say for sure is when exactly a strong earthquake destroyed the underwater foot of this volcanic island and forced it to sink under water.
The strong waves that the leader observed from the top of the mountain turned out to be not so much the cause of the disappearance of the island as the result.
At that time, the peninsula was not divided into two states and was home to a developed empire with excellent science.
On that spring night in 1437, several astronomers recorded a noticeable flash in the dark sky. According to them, this outbreak did not go away for two weeks. Some considered this phenomenon a divine sign, while others considered it the birth of a new star.
Scientific explanation
In 2017, a team of researchers solved the mystery. Scientists linked this event to activity in the constellation Scorpio. It turned out that the flash did not indicate the birth of a star, but rather a deadly dance, called a nova in astronomy.
The nova is the result of the interaction between a white dwarf - the dead core of an ancient star - and a companion star. The dwarf's dense core steals its partner's hydrogen gas until it reaches critical mass. After this, the dwarf collapses under the influence of gravity. It is this explosion that can be seen on the surface of the Earth.
Indigenous tribes have a rich oral tradition that passes on the history of the peoples from generation to generation. One such story has been passed down through 230 generations of the indigenous people of Australia's Gugu Badhun tribe. This fascinating story is seven thousand years old and older than most of the world's civilizations.
An audio recording made in the 1970s captured a tribal leader talking about a huge explosion that shook the Earth and created a huge crater. Thick dust rose into the sky, and the people who went into this darkness never returned. The air was unbearably hot, and the water in the rivers and seas boiled and burned.
The research team subsequently discovered the now extinct but once powerful Kinrara volcano in northeastern Australia. About seven thousand years ago, this volcano erupted, which could well have been accompanied by the described consequences.
Initially, the Chinese dragon played the role of an antagonist in Japanese folklore. However, in the 18th century, this role went to the giant sea catfish Namaz - a mythical monster of enormous size that lived in sea waters and capable of causing strong shaking of the earth simply by slapping the bottom with its tail. Only the god Kashima could immobilize Namazu, but as soon as the god turned away, the catfish took over the old one and shook the earth.
In 1855, Edo (today Tokyo) was almost completely destroyed by a magnitude 7 earthquake, which killed ten thousand people. At that time, people blamed Soma Namazu for the disaster.
In reality, the earthquake was caused by a sudden rupture that occurred along the junction of the Eurasian and Philippine tectonic plates. According to scientists' forecasts, a similar earthquake could happen again, but now we have scientific evidence of the causes of such disasters and no one would think of blaming the sea monster for the movement of tectonic plates.
Pele is the name of the Hawaiian goddess of volcanic fire. It is said that she decided to choose Hawaii as a refuge from her older sister. She hid under each island until she found a place in the depths of the main island, forming the Kilauea volcano.
This is why legends say that Kilauea is the fiery heart of Hawaii. And this is scientifically confirmed: at least on the surface of the islands, Kilauea is the volcanic center of the archipelago.
The legend also says that Pele's tears and hair can often be found around the volcano. However, the presence of frozen “tears” and “hair” is easily explained by physics.
When lava cools quickly, especially in water or cold air, it turns into volcanic glass. When lava cools while in motion, its spray sometimes forms teardrop-shaped droplets; in other cases, the jets solidify into thin glass tubes that look like hair.
That is why people passing by an active volcano can easily find petrified tears and hair of the ancient fire goddess living in the depths of Kilauea.
Slender Man, or Slenderman
According to legend, the Slender Man is a tall, thin man dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and black tie. He has long thin arms and legs, and his face is completely featureless.
His arms can stretch, and tentacles grow from his back.
When the Slender Man appears, his victim loses memory, experiences insomnia, paranoia, a coughing fit, and blood flows from the nose.
If Slenderman is spotted in the area, it means that children will soon disappear. He lures them into the forest, deprives them of their minds and takes them away with him. Those children who were carried away by the Slender Man were never seen again.
In 1983, 14 children disappeared in Stirling City, USA. Their disappearance was linked to the Slender Man. Later, in the city library they found a photograph taken by an unknown photographer that day, and it allegedly showed a monster.
Both girls ended up in a psychiatric hospital: one for 25 years, the other for 40.
Black Dog of Meriden
The Meriden Black Dog, from the U.S. state of Connecticut, is a small ghost dog that leaves no marks and makes no sounds. According to legend, if you see the Black Dog three times, you will die. It appears silently, leaves no traces (even in the snow), and then just as suddenly disappears.
In the early 1900s, geologist Pynchon explored a Meriden mountain called West Peak. One day he saw a black dog among the trees. As Pynchon turned to head home, the dog disappeared into the trees.
The second time the scientist saw a black dog a few years later in the same place. One of his friends, with whom he was climbing the mountain that day, said that he had already seen the dog twice.
They wandered around and finally came to the top. But the enemy was waiting for them. The black dog stood in front. Pynchon only turned away for a second when he suddenly heard a terrible scream. His friend fell and hit the rocks.
In Meriden, local residents told Pynchon about the legend of the Black Dog, but he did not believe it. Several years passed, the geologist decided to visit the same mountain. He left his apartment at dawn and never returned. His dead body was later found at the bottom of a ravine.
Pisadeira
In Brazil there is a legend about a scary woman named Pisadeira. It comes to men who are afraid, or to those who have eaten a heavy dinner and lie down on their backs - in this position, Pisadeira’s victim is practically unable to escape.
Pisadeira is a bony and thin creature, she has short lower limbs and long dirty hair, a hooked nose, reddish eyes, thin lips, sharp teeth with a greenish coating. Her long fingers have wide yellow nails. But even more frightening is the laughter and mocking giggle of the monster. If a person hears characteristic laughter at night, it means that Pisadeira will soon come to him. It is the creepy laughter that precedes her appearance.
The monster tortures its victim until she suffocates from fright, but Pisadeira can also leave a person, having had enough of fear.
Phantom of Benito Juarez Park in Mexico
In the small Mexican town of Jaral del Progreso there is Benito Juarez Park. This is one of the city's attractions, but the park was laid out on the site of an old cemetery, so a bad reputation has spread about it. The city authorities landscaped the square as best they could. They installed benches and paved paths so that people could enjoy the beauty of nature. However, local residents believed that the authorities had awakened local spirits and a curse was placed on the place.
Every evening in the park someone destroyed the benches and disappeared. Authorities then hired security guards to patrol the area at night.
And then one evening the guard began duty. At first everything was calm. The riots began when the park was covered in thick fog. The security guard heard a woman scream and went to check what had happened. When he reached the place, an elderly woman dressed in a white dress stood in front of him. The watchman followed her, and she began to destroy and throw benches.
When the guard approached her, he saw that the woman had no legs, she was floating in the air. Suddenly the old woman pounced on him and began beating him furiously. The guard managed to escape, and the next morning he told about what he saw. Shortly after this incident, he fell ill with a mysterious illness and died. The city authorities forbade talking about this story in the media, but the rumor still spread throughout the city; no one else wanted to be on duty at night.
Locals called the ghost the phantom of the park.
Girl from the closet
One day, a 57-year-old Japanese man noticed that someone was rearranging things in his house, food was disappearing from the refrigerator, and strange noises woke him up at night. The man decided that he was going crazy because he lived all alone. Both the windows and doors in his house were always closed.
One day he decided to take action and installed hidden cameras in all the rooms.
The next day he looked at the footage. In the footage, an unknown woman crawled out of the Japanese man's cupboard. The man assumed that she was a robber. But police said no one broke the locks.
After a thorough search, the woman was found in a small locker. As it turned out, she lived in a Japanese man’s house for a year.
Maryland Goat Man
For many residents of the United States, Prince George's County in the American state of Maryland is associated with a bloodthirsty monster called the Goat Man.
According to legend, the monster used to be an ordinary goat breeder. One day his wife became seriously ill, and he had to work tirelessly to help his beloved. But the cruel teenagers decided to play a trick on the poor guy and poisoned all his goats. The family was left without their only source of income, and the woman died.
Grief turned the farmer into a terrible monster, he ran into the forest and began killing everyone who crossed his path.
According to another version, the goat man is a scientific experiment of the mad scientist Dr. Fletcher. Local residents believe that prohibited experiments on animals were carried out at the district's agricultural research center. Once, through an experiment, a scientist created a half-man, half-goat. The researchers decided to keep him alive for study. But the creature grew up and turned into a cruel monster. He killed several scientists and escaped from the center.
Whether this is true or a myth, strange events took place in the area in the 50s of the 20th century. In 1958, residents found a German shepherd dead: the dog had been torn to shreds, but its meat had not been eaten.
In the spring of 1961, two students were found dead in the northeastern Maryland town of Bowie. The girl and the boy went into the forest at night. In the morning, a local hunter found a car with broken windows and many deep scratches on the body. The teenagers' bodies, mutilated beyond recognition, were found in the back seat. The criminal was never found.
In 2011 he was born american film horror film "Deadly Detour", inspired by the Maryland monster.
According to Irish folklore, the banshee is a spirit from the other world. She appears in the form of an ugly woman to the relatives and friends of the one who is about to die. It is believed that if a banshee did not cry loudly enough before her death, then in the next world her screams will be several times worse.
Banshees look like scary screaming women, old women with flowing gray hair, a scary wrinkled face and skeletal thinness.
The legend of an American girl who took revenge on her lover
In the USA there is a terrible legend about a girl who took revenge on her lover for unrequited love. In the small town of Stahl, Texas, there once stood a small church surrounded by graves. Next to the church there was a cellar, which was very difficult to find, as it was overgrown with grass.
The priest's daughter fell madly in love with a neighbor boy, but he broke her heart by choosing another girl. They got married, his chosen one became pregnant. Soon after the birth of the child, the priest's daughter visited the couple. They greeted her cordially, but the girl herself looked at their child with hatred.
The priest's daughter suddenly attacked her parents and cut both their throats, then she dragged their bodies to the hill where the church stood. She left the dead in the cellar and placed the living child between them.
The priest's daughter closed the door to the cellar and soon died. The bodies in the cellar could not be found for three weeks.
Many believe that the voice of a crying child can still be heard near the church at night.
Corpse house in Mexico
In the Mexican city of Monterey there is a famous legend about an abandoned building called the "corpse house." The strange structure was built in the 1970s, but no one has ever lived in the building.
From the street, the house looks like a structure made of concrete pipes. According to legend, the house was built by a wealthy couple who had a sick, paralyzed daughter. My father wanted to build a special house that would be suitable for people with disabilities. The design of the house included ramps that led from one floor to another.
The family began construction. One day the girl wanted to look at the house. She began to ride on the ramps, her parents were distracted for just a moment, when suddenly her wheelchair flew down the ramp. The girl could not stop, as a result she flew out the window and fell to her death.
Years later, the unfinished building was put up for sale. But no one wanted to buy it for a long time. One day there were clients. They came to see the building with their little son. While the couple were examining the situation, the boy went upstairs, and a few minutes later they heard him scream. On the top floor he was fighting with a little girl. An unknown person grabbed their son and threw him out the window. The boy died, the girl could not be found.
After this story, the authorities fenced off the area.
In 1941, a certain Mary Shaw performed with her Billy doll in one of the theaters in the American city of Ravens Fair. One day one of the spectators - a little boy - called the woman a liar. He saw the woman's lips move as Billy spoke. A few weeks later, the unfortunate critic disappeared.
Residents of the city and the boy's parents blamed the ventriloquist for his disappearance. Mary Shaw was soon found dead. According to local legend, the Eshen family (the boy’s relatives) committed lynching against the woman. They burst into the dressing room, forced Shaw to scream, and then ripped out her tongue.
Before her death, the woman wished that all her dolls be buried with her, there were 101 of them.
After the ventriloquist's funeral, massacres began in Raven's Fair. And the victims of crimes were those people who raised their hands on the Show. They, like Mary, had their tongues pulled out.
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