The most terrible legends of America. Urban legends of America. Alaska: evil spirits of kushtaka

Mythology of the Americas: Central America

At the time of the Spanish conquest of America, the largest peoples of the central part of the continent were the Aztecs, Toltecs, Zapotecs, Mixtecs and Mayans.

The mythology of the Indian peoples of America is very archaic. Among the most ancient are the myths about maize, which the Indians of Central America began cultivating around 5 thousand years BC. Myths about the creation of fire and the origin of people and animals are also considered very ancient. Later, myths arose about plants, good spirits and the origin of the Universe.

Belief in the main goddess of Central America, whose name remains unknown, dates back to ancient times. Scientists call her the “goddess with braids” after the many cult figurines found by archaeologists.

The Olmec Indians widely spread the cult of the jaguar, which protected crops from herbivores.

One day, during a big holiday, the queen took a fancy to a young and handsome warrior. They fell in love with each other and did not hide their love, laughing at the king’s ignorance. Eventually the king found out about their love affairs and hastened to take them by surprise.

Ghosts on the road

This story is probably widespread in absolutely all countries where there are cars. Its essence is this: on an empty road at night, a motorist picks up a voting person who asks for a ride to some place. Arriving at the place, the driver discovers that his mysterious companion has disappeared without a trace, and the place where he was picked up is the place of his death.
Sometimes the fellow traveler is a beautiful girl, sometimes a man, and often the ghosts of children are encountered on the road. And the range of places to which ghosts ask for a ride is quite wide - from their former home or a certain place on the road, to cemeteries or burial places of bodies. The details, of course, vary, but the essence remains - it is better not to pick up night companions, unless you want to communicate with a ghost.

Candyman

This urban legend is so intertwined with modern culture that at first glance it is not clear whether it spread after Barker wrote the story “The Forbidden” or whether the story itself was based on urban folklore. In any case, Barker's treatment, and later the filming of the film, named after the bloody hero, added a unique charm to this story and complemented it with vivid details. There is no single story of Candyman - according to one version, he was an ordinary beekeeper who was robbed and abandoned in an apiary, smeared with honey. According to another, he was a talented African-American artist who, with the help of bees, was brutally killed for his love for the client’s daughter. Before leaving him in the apiary, the guy's hand was cut off and now, if you call him from a parallel dimension, he will come to the daredevil and kill him with his hook instead of a hand. You can summon him by calling him five times in complete darkness while standing in front of a mirror. Remember the hand - the hook and the challenge from the mirror - they will appear in today's selection.

Body parts in school lockers

The regional horror story is little known in Europe, but I found it so interesting that I still decided to include it in my personal top American urban legends. According to this legend, in one of the Chicago schools, a ninth-grader from the school orchestra stayed after school to practice playing the flute and was killed by one of the school employees. The killer not only killed the girl, but also dismembered her body and placed the parts in the students' lockers. So what would you think? Probably, the sounds of the flute are still heard around the school and the sad ghost of the dead girl wanders? But no! The sounds of the flute, of course, are heard in the very room where the murder supposedly took place, but the ghost does not wander, but lies completely to itself. Sometimes, students, opening their lockers, see cut off body parts, which, however, immediately disappear. Quite an original ghost, isn't it?

White eyes

Stories like this are often told by miners and diggers in all countries of the world, so here too the Americans turned out to be unoriginal. Allegedly, about a hundred years ago, a group of miners found themselves trapped in a tunnel. They waited a long time for salvation, but soon realized that no one was going to rush to their rescue. Buried in pitch darkness, they had to drink the water that seeped through the ground and feed on the bodies of their dead, and then their killed comrades. All this time they were digging a passage and, having dug it, decided not to return to those who betrayed them. Every night they went out hunting, killing and devouring people. Why is the legend called “White Eyes” you ask? Yes, because during the time spent in the darkness, the miners’ eyes changed and began to glow in the darkness with white light.

Glad you didn't turn on the light?

Probably only in America there are so many mind-blowing stories about crazy, bloody maniacs. This simple story is no exception. To many, it seems quite creepy precisely because of the lack of unnecessary art and details that distract attention. In the most common interpretation, it echoes the story “People can lick too” and sounds like this:

Two girls lived in the same dorm room in college. One of them was going on a date, and then to a student party. The girl called her neighbor with her, but she decided to stay at home and prepare for the exams. The party dragged on and the girl came at about 2 am. She decided not to wake her friend. As quietly as possible, without turning on the light and trying not to make noise, she climbed into bed and fell asleep. Waking up far from early in the morning, she was surprised that her neighbor was still sleeping and went to wake her up. She was lying under the blanket on her stomach and apparently fast asleep. The girl pulled her friend by the shoulder and suddenly saw that she was dead, she had been stabbed to death. On the wall was written in blood: “Are you glad you didn’t turn on the light?” An almost identical story exists in Japan. It is not known who stole this plot from whom, but we will agree that ideas are in the air and we will continue to move on.

Slenderman or Skinny Man

When compiling the top American urban legends, I could not ignore this real - unreal character.
The trick is that initially it was not positioned as a real thing - simply as a result of one of the threads on the forum, the legend of the Skinny Man, enclosing victims in his deadly embrace, spontaneously appeared. This happened in 2009, but now Slenderman has left the Internet and has every chance of becoming a full-fledged member of the team of terrible monsters from scary tales.

Bloody Mary

The American Bloody Mary is somewhat reminiscent of our Queen of Spades. She can also be summoned using a mirror and she also kills anyone who disturbs her peace. Summoning her is as simple as calling Candyman - just say “I believe in Bloody Mary” three (or five) times while standing at the mirror and she will immediately appear. According to one legend, Bloody Mary is the ghost of a burned witch who killed girls to preserve her youth. According to another, the ghost of a brutally murdered girl. I think if you dig further in this direction, you can find a couple more options.

Mothman

The legend of the Mothman appeared in the mid-sixties, when a strange winged monster resembling a human was allegedly first spotted. Such monsters are not exclusively American - in almost every country in the world there are legends or at least mentions of strange pale people with glowing eyes flying above the earth at night. There are many versions of the origin of the human moth, ranging from mutations of cranes to ghosts and guests from a parallel world. Only one thing is clear: meeting the Mothman does not bode well.

Hook

This urban legend, which appeared in the sixties, is indeed based on real facts - at that time in America, Caryl Chessman was operating, a maniac who lay in wait for couples secluded in a car and brutally dealt with them.

So the story is about a couple who went to the wilderness to indulge in carnal pleasures, but left because the girl became scared. Arriving at the gas station, the couple discovered a fresh scratch on the car door, apparently made by a hook.

Angel statue, clown toy and others

There are many short and simple stories about strange things that bring death in American folklore, so I decided to combine them into one group. The most popular of them are the stories about the killer clown and the angel statue. In the first case, the nanny, left alone at home with the children, calls the parents to ask permission to remove the scary clown doll. As it turns out, there was never such a doll in the house, and the parents returned home and found the nanny and children dead or disappeared.

It's the same story with the angel statue in the garden. Although such a statue was never placed there. The scheme is the same, the end is predictable. And there are a great many variations of these stories.

This infamous cemetery goes by many nicknames: the Seven Lost Gates of Hell, the Cemetery of the Damned, Satan's Boneyard, or most popularly, the Seventh Gate to Hell.

The gate to hell should be protected by a pentagram, which was made up of 5 cedars planted here, but at the moment only two of them remain.

They say about this necropolis that here the Devil himself administers judgment together with his followers.

Some argue that the cemetery does not deserve the chilling reputation it has acquired in recent years. Let's try to figure it out?

The churchyard and ruined church are located on a picturesque hill (Stull's Emmanuel Hill) near the tiny, almost forgotten village of Kansas Stull.

One of the legends about this mystical place has lived for 100 years, but first appeared in print only in 1974, when an article about several strange incidents in the cemetery church appeared in the November issue of the student newspaper at Kansas State University. Legend claimed that the cemetery was one of two places on earth where the devil himself appears twice a year: on the night of the vernal equinox and on Halloween. And the reason for his appearance was that his son was buried here. It was also said that the cemetery has long been the source of many myths and strange stories on this topic. How did the students find out about this? Did their grandparents tell them these stories or was it their own experience? One student claimed that, while visiting a cemetery, someone invisible grabbed his hand; another reported unexplained memory loss at that location.

Residents of these places said that they were hearing such stories for the first time. The article caused outrage and irritation because such things discredit the honor of the town. The pastor of the new church, located directly across the street from the old one, said that he believes these stories are made up by young people.

Whether it was true or not, the article caused a strong resonance among the population. On March 20, 1978, more than 150 people came to greet the coming of the devil. In addition, there were rumors that all those who died a violent death and were buried in this land would return from their graves. Unfortunately, the night was without exciting events.

Many stories have been told, but nothing has been documented. Just an urban legend.

But let's get acquainted with the frightening events that people retell to each other.

One story tells of two young men who arrived at Stull Cemetery at night. Suddenly a strong wind started blowing out of nowhere. They ran back to their car and discovered that the car had been moved to the other side of the road. Another eyewitness also spoke about the anomalous wind, clarifying that such a phenomenon occurs only inside the church, and not in the cemetery itself. He claimed that an ominous air current knocked him to the floor and prevented him from moving for several minutes. By the way, in this particular church, during rainstorms, there is no rain! But the destroyed building has no roof.

Legends say that the Devil began to appear here in the 1850s, and the original name of the city was "Skull" because the entire local population dabbled in black magic. But in reality the town was called "Deer Creek Community" until 1899, when the town received a new name in honor of the first postmaster, Sylvester Stull. The post office was closed in 1903, but the name stuck.

in 1980, an article in the Kansas City Times added fuel to the fire. The printed publication reported that the devil chose two places to appear on Earth: Stull City (somewhere near the church there was a staircase to hell. Whoever found it disappeared for several weeks, and then appeared with a loss of memory) and a desert plain where something in India. In these areas, the dark lord gathers all those who died violent deaths in the past years to dance at the witching hour. But why in Stall? The article states that it appears in this locality due to events that occurred in 1850, when the mayor was killed in a cemetery stone barn. Years later, the barn was converted into a church, which in turn was destroyed by fire. At midnight, the decrepit wooden crucifixes on one of the walls are sometimes turned upside down. However, the stories forget that, from a historical point of view, this settlement never had an official mayor.

Author Lisa Hefner Heitz has collected numerous legends that make the mythology of Stull Cemetery even more eerie and mysterious. Some versions say that Satan also visits this place on the last day of winter and the first evening of spring. He comes to the witch who was buried here - Wittich. An old tombstone with the same name is located quite close to the wall of the church. In addition, on the territory of the cemetery there allegedly existed an ancient tree (pine) - it had already been cut down in 1998 - a gallows for convicted witches. Rumor has it that the tree has still been preserved, and to this day, on certain nights, the devil’s servants gather around it and pay tribute to the memory of their once executed trade friends, and the ghosts of the hanged sway on the branches.

What kind of creature is called the son of the Devil? Either from Wittich, or maybe from another witch, a terribly crippled child was born, who was immediately dubbed the Child of Satan. He was so deformed that he lived only a few days. He found his refuge in this cemetery. It is rumored that his ghost still haunts the area, and a recent photograph showed the Devil's son peeking out from behind a tree.

Another strange creature is buried somewhere here - a boy of about 9-11 years old who believed that he could turn into a cat, a dog and a wolf. Werewolf or madness? He was born covered with long red hair and had two rows of teeth. They chained him in the basement and threw him scraps like he was to a wild animal. One day, when he was 10 years old, he bit off his left hand, for which he was put on a chain, and ran away, killing everyone he met. After 11 months, the series of murders was interrupted - a lonely farmer killed a creature born in the guise of a half-beast, half-man. The people saw that, in addition to everything else, he was a hermaphrodite.

On the spring and autumn equinoxes, luminous balls and lights materialize in the air. They fly over his grave, which remains unmarked.

Among the ghosts, you may encounter the spirit of a witch who promises to curse everyone who steps on her grave. “Stay away from my bones,” warns a tall lady with gray hair. They say that she really hated her last husband, who was buried with her. Even after his death, she was dissatisfied with his neighborhood.

A strange note appeared in the Times magazine (from 1993 or 1995 - the issue has not survived, and the versions give different time frames) that Pope John Paul II ordered the route of his private plane to be changed so as not to fly over an unholy place.

The number of legends grew so much that by 1989, on Halloween night, crowds of onlookers flocked to the cemetery. According to some reports, about 500 people gathered there. Incidents of vandalism increased. The indignation of local residents reached a critical level, and they appealed to the local authorities with a request to install a fence and increase patrolling of the area. This reduced the influx of "tourists". Only October remained as noisy.
So what really happened? Are these legends taken from cheap horror novels, or do dark tales actually contain a grain of truth? Perhaps cases of the supernatural took place, but over time they grew to gigantic proportions.

Nobody knows, and the locals remain strangely silent. Although the residents are against vandals and dark stories, they have done little to put an end to the legends forever. If almost all paranormal activity is associated with the death of the old church, why not demolish it? The building has been empty since 1922 and has been vandalized for many years. In 1996, the remains of the roof were torn off. The church was struck by lightning, and it was covered with a web of numerous cracks.

In 1999, on the eve of Halloween, journalists from a local newspaper and television, along with a group of spectators, came to the cemetery. The sheriff looked at this matter calmly, but then an unknown representative of the cemetery owners appeared and ordered everyone to leave the territory. The people had no choice but to comply. The owners of the cemetery, through a representative, said they do not want media attention because it attracts vandals. But it wouldn't be easier to let the film crew film the time of midnight and show that there is no devil there. This would debunk the legend.

But a much stranger event happened in 2002. A Journal-World newspaper reporter reported that the old stone church was demolished on Friday, March 29, 2002. A man named Major Weiss, who owns the land along with two other people (whose names he declined to name), said he did not authorize the demolition of the abandoned church. . People living next door were also unaware of the demolition. Only one person admitted that the walls of the temple collapsed about 2 weeks ago. From what - unknown.

There is a story that The Cure refused to play in Kansas because there is a cemetery in the state.

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, the American horror film "Deadly Detour" was released, 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 cried 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.