Remember when you were a child and there were stories that kept you up at night? For instance: Bloody Mary will appear in the mirror when you say her name three times. Teenagers in a parked car heard scratching on the door... Here is a collection of spooky stories to raise the hair on the back of your neck, and to tell others as you're driving down a remote country road late at night. Some are based on real-life events, and others are tales of uncertain origin.
The Screaming Tree
Image via Panoramio
Many ghost stories feature the screams of a woman. Raven Rock, a key location in Ichabod Crane's Sleepy Hollow is home to a specter who shrieks before a snowstorm, having died in one herself. Fort Mifflin has another such haunting. And on the outskirts of San Diego, there is a certain tree at the end of a dirt road. Legend says if you drive your car as close as you can and honk three times, the ghost of a girl will scream at the top of her lungs.
Suicide Bridge
Image via Colorado Boulevard
Such a lovely architecture, such a bloody past. At least 100 people have committed suicide by jumping off this bridge. The most famous story tells of a construction worker who fell off...and landed head-first in wet concrete at bottom. Assumed dead, he was left entombed in the cement below. Listen for his cries! But he is not alone. In the 1930s, a woman jumped off the bridge with her baby in arms. The baby miraculously survived by landing in a tree branch. The mother did not. She spends eternity searching for her baby. Some have seen a woman in a flowing robe jump off, disappearing into thin air, again and again.
The Ghost Light
Image via YouTube
On a rainy night in 1867, a flagman named Joe Baldwin was in the rear car of a train in North Carolina. The train suddenly jolted, and Joe realized that the car had become detached from the rest of the train. Terrified, Joe knew that a train was following close behind. He began waving his lantern back and forth to signal the oncoming train. Despite his efforts, the engineer did not see the stranded car in time. Joe was decapitated in the collision. Not long after the tragedy, people began seeing a light near the tracks even though no train was scheduled. Some say he was still warning the next train. Others say he was looking for his head. The tracks were removed in 1977, and the Ghost Light has not been seen since.
The Greenbrier Ghost
Image via West Virginia Encyclopedia
Zona Heaster Shue, a woman who lived in the house pictured with her husband, Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shue (what a name!), died in 1897. The surrounding community presumed her death natural, and she was given a proper burial. Four months later, Zona's mother stepped forward, claiming that her daughter's spirit had appeared to her. Zona told her mom the truth about her death: Erasmus had murdered her. He was put on trial, and Zona's body exhumed. Her neck had been broken. Erasmus was convicted. It is the only known case in which testimony from a ghost convicted a murderer. And all this in the little unassuming county of Greenbrier, West Virginia.
Ghost Hands
Image via Flickr
In this ghost story, you drive your car to a gravity hill, put it in neutral, and...it will roll uphill. Sprinkle baby powder on the hood and trunk of your car, and start it again. Get out and there may be dozens of handprints on the surface. Those are from the ghosts of the schoolchildren, guiding your car to safety. On some unknown date, their school bus driver lost control of the bus. It crashed and everyone aboard died. Now, these ghosts guide others from the same fate. There are several iterations of this story, occurring in different parts of the country.
Resurrection Mary
Image via WGN Radio
On a wintry night in 1927 a young couple at the Oh Henry Ballroom in Justice, Illinois got into an argument. The woman, named Mary, stormed out and started walking home in the bitter cold. She was heading up Archer Avenue when she was suddenly struck by a car and left on the roadside to die. If you drive by Archer Avenue, stay on the lookout for a hitchhiker in a white formal dress with blond hair and blue eyes. Many drivers have picked her up. She sits quietly until the car approaches Resurrection Cemetery, where she asks to be let out and disappears.
Diverting Spirits
Image via calisphere
Sarah Winchester built the Winchester Mystery House when she was widowed. Her husband, William Wirt Winchester, who died in 1881, was born into the famous Winchester family, of the rifle with the same name. Distraught from the loss of her husband, and their only child fifteen years previously, Sarah consulted a medium. She was told that she was cursed by the many souls who had died by the firearms her husband manufactured. And she would soon befall the same fate. The medium advised her to build a house where she could appease the angry spirits. With no master plan in hand, Sarah oversaw the construction of the Winchester Mystery House, continuously for 38 years. Around the clock. These numbers will help you understand: There are 160 rooms, 40 bedrooms, 2 ballrooms, 47 fireplaces, and 10,000 window panes.
Calls from the Dead
Image via Field Logix
One of the worst train disasters in commuter history occurred on September 12, 2008. The train engineer was busy texting, and missed a red signal. A minute later he looked up and saw a freight train heading straight at him. The damage: 25 people dead, 135 severely injured. Among the dead was a man named Charles Peck. His family, not sure whether he was alive or not, gathered together. As they were waiting for news, one by one, each family member started receiving phone calls from Charles's cell phone. When they picked up, all they heard was static. When they called back, it went directly to voicemail. His phone made 35 calls that night. The rescue crew traced the calls to the car Peck had been riding. He had died on impact.
Lived Once, Buried Twice
Image via Cult of Weird
In the small town of Lurgan, Ireland, a woman named Margorie McCall died of a fever in 1705. As it was a time when widespread illness was greatly feared, she was buried swiftly. And because so, her husband could not remove a valuable ring from her swollen finger. The next night, her body was dug up by robbers. They tried to get the ring off her finger, but finding it impossible, decided to cut her finger off. As the knife cut into her flesh, Margorie suddenly awoke, sat straight up and screamed. The terrified robbers fled. A weak Margorie managed to pull herself out of her grave and made her way home.
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