Urban legends are the kinds of stories recount around a campfire or under a sofa cushion fort at a sleepover . Thesemodern folktakesare usually pretty shuddery — and of grade , the storyteller verify what they ’re saying is a reliable story they see from a friend , who know someone who knows the victim .
From what really inspired Candyman and the Mothman to the tales about alligators in the sewers and killers calling from inside the theatre , we ’re break down the origin of some of the better - known urban legend in this list adapted from The List Show on YouTube .
1. Candyman
In 2021 , manager Nia DaCosta ’s new sight ofCandyman — thepopular 1992 repulsion hitabout a vengeful spirit who is summoned to reality by saying his name five time — come in theaters . In one of the movie ’s most terrifying scenes , the villain bursts through a medicine cabinet in the bathroom to aggress his victim .
2. The Killer Calling From Inside the House
For decades , floor have circulated about a babysitter home alone who receives harry phone calls . When the call is finally traced by constabulary , the babysitter is horrified to discover it ’s coming from inside the planetary house .
While that exact scenario does n’t seem to have ever been documented , there have been unsettling account of sitter being assault . In 1950 , 13 - year - old Janett Christman was pour down by an trespasser while babysitting in Columbia , Missouri . Policesuspecteda man who had been friends with the family of the 3 - year - old boy she was watch , but he was never charge .
This fable probably picked up steam because it struck a psychological chord . The 1970s was an era of women ’s liberation , and some argue that the idea of a human race lurking out of flock was , in a mode , a rejection of that new paradigm . You could see it anti - feminist propaganda , but either way , being a babysitter intend being alone in a unusual house . It was a relatable reverence .
3. The Goatman
The Goatman was a purported half - homo , half - goat fond of devouring dog and attacking mass in Prince George ’s County in Maryland . While the Goatman had been whispered about for old age , he got an explosion of publicity in 1971 after a reporter named Karen Hoslerdelivereda one - two punch lending credibleness to his world .
In one Halloween clause , Hosler passed along inquiry from state folklore archives that presented the Goatman as a former researcher at the Beltsville Agricultural Farm who try out on goats . One day , he lost his mind and ran into the woods , growing his pilus long and attacking cars that passed by . Just two weeks later , Hosler describe on a family that awoke to the sound of what they later described as a two - legged fauna on their property that was roar and squealing . The next solar day , the mob retrieve their frankfurter , Ginger , decapitate . Then peoplereportedseeing an animal walk on its hind ramification near Fletchertown Road , where Ginger was found . From that point in time on , teens in Maryland learned to venerate the Goatman .
4. The Mothman
No urban fable summing up is complete without credit of theMothman , a unknown creature who purportedly terrorise West Virginia in the 1960s . This winged menace wasspottednumerous times , include by a grave power shovel and two couples sitting in a car in 1966 . They describe it as have brilliant ruby-red eyes and a monumental wingspan 10 feet wide . When they drove by , the brute allegedlychasedafter them .
Both sightings take piazza in a little community named Point Pleasant , and the Mothman myth has die hard ever since . The Sojourner Truth ? eyewitness might have seen asandhill crane , which is nearly as tall as a human and has brilliant red skin around its eyes . Not the form of affair you need to see late at dark , but plausibly not a deadly risk , either . After all , the birds live on grains and small animals . The only trouble with this explanation is that sandhill cranes are n’t all that common in the domain .
5. “Humans Can Lick, Too”
Not all tales of slayer result in people dying . Sometimes , it ’s the near - misses that prove to be effective report . In one urban legend , a person wake up in response to some strange noise . As they let their manus dangle at the bottom of the bed , theyfeela reassuring lick from their kin darling . The next morning , the positron emission tomography is found stagnant , and a bill record , “ homo can lick , too . ” This O. Henry - esque construction ending date as far back as 1871 , when a story made the round in England about a jewel thief who hid under a seam and licked the hired hand of the homeowner so he would n’t get up to investigate .
6. The Killer in the Backseat
Another near - miss urban legend involves a driver who is seemingly harassed by a carfollowinghers . When she last stops , it turns out the other gadget driver was trying to warn her of a killer hiding in the back rear end . It ’s actually hard for liquidator to try and hobble a ride in a back nates without being seen , but this story does have some groundwork in reality . In 1964 , an escaped murdererhid in a auto . In a twist , the car belonged to a law detective , who shot the criminal .
7. The Real Corpse on Display
Ever hear the one about the haunt sign of the zodiac that leave a tangible clay on display ? You ’re probably not break to find a dead body at your local stamping ground , but if you were a crew member onThe Six Million Dollar Manin 1976 , you would have realized this was no myth . A manworkingon the show was lay out up a episode at a funhouse at the Nu - Pike Amusement Park when he tried to adapt what he think was a bogus stiff . As theLA Timesput it , “ A technician moved it — and an arm fell off . ”
It was the arm , and the body , of Elmer McCurdy , an outlaw who wasshotby authorities after a train looting in 1911 and then embalmed in Pawhuska , Oklahoma . Elmer ’s soundbox was then taken on tour . At the time , it was common for people to desire to see the corpses of famous malefactor . Eventually , McCurdy got mixed up with some wax dummies and wind up in Long Beach , California , where he had become a macabre prop . He was given a proper burial in Oklahoma in 1977 .
8. The Death of Life Cereal Spokesperson Mikey
The Six Million Dollar Manwas a self-aggrandising hit in the seventies , and so was Mikey , the sensation of the Life cereal grass commercial . At some point , word spread that Mikey had succumbed to a dangerouscombinationof soda pop and the effervescent candyPop Rocks . The rumor grew so far-flung that in 1979 the mother of child thespian John Gilchrist , who played Mikey , got a condolence call from a stranger .
The tale likely stemmed from schoolyard discussions about Pop Rocks , which werefizzy carbonated confect , and how eating them seemed dangerous . It was n’t , but the narrative was sowidely believedthat it seriously damaged sale of the confect . General Foods , which own Pop Rocks , even beg John Gilchrist ’s parents to let him film a commercial letting multitude know he was still animated , but they deny . The ghastly story retain for years and all the negatively charged publicity forced General Foods to discontinue Pop Rocks soon after . They have made a retort , however , in case you ’d like to quiz this theory out for yourself .
9. Rice Killing Birds
For some reason , people just ca n’t get enough of urban legend about food have living creatures to burst . For years , couples planning their hymeneals have been warned about notthrowing riceat the ceremonial occasion because shuttlecock will be tempted to eat it , causing them to blow up .
That ca n’t really happen . Rice , whether it ’s make or uncooked , poses no threat to hiss . But Connecticut state legislator Mae Schmidle try tointroducea measure in 1985 that would ban rice - throwing . She called the Federal Reserve note “ An Act proscribe the Use of Uncooked Rice at Nuptial Affairs ” and insisted birds ca n’t tolerate uncooked Elmer Rice . Schmidle say ministers had assure her they plant dead birds after weddings , victimized by innocent rice celebrations . The myth was repeated in Ann Landers ’ advice column .
In 2002 , a project carry by a biology professor at the University of Kentucky tested this theory and found that while Elmer Reizenstein expands in size of it by 33 percent when soaked , birdseed exposit by 40 pct . Since your skirt tributary is n’t surrounded by detonated birds , rice is probably fine . The prof even feed Sir Tim Rice to birds and noted no adverse effects .
10.The Wizard of Oz’s Dead Munchkin
Have you ever heard about themunchkinwho was believe to have taken his own life on the set of 1939’sThe Wizard of Oz ? People who watch the movie would swear they could see a umbrageous figure as Dorothy and her young friends amble along the Yellow Brick Road . There is something a little off in the ground , but it ’s not a all in munchkin . Because the film was pip on an indoor set , filmmakers permit birds to roam around to give it more of an outside tone . That strange figure is almost for certain just a hiss attend out and spreading its wings .
11. Polybius
For long time , gamers have traded stories about a foreign arcade game titledPolybius . The all - black machine wassaidto be a CIA military operation think to study players or even stimulate strange physical effect — sort of like MK Ultra , the infamous mind - control experiment , only this clock time with pel . Polybiusnever existed — that we know of — but component of the tale are true .
In Portland , Oregon , in 1981 , a video game player at an arcade competition drank too much sodium carbonate and mystify sick during a 28 - hour marathon play session . A few 24-hour interval after , intelligence reports look saying federal authorities had bust Portland arcades to seize cabinet that had been declare play devices . There was even an East German arcade auto from a few long time subsequently call Poly - fun , and some versions of the floor cite Polybius to a mysterious German firm . Put all these elements together and you have a recipe for urban legend succeeder .
12. Paul McCartney Is Dead
If you ’re aBeatlesfan , you ’ve probably had a treatment at some point about whether Paul McCartney died all the way back in 1966 . That ’s because a hearsay persisted that McCartney had perish in an automobile stroke and the rest of the group , reverence they ’d be terminate without him , hired a lookalike as a substitute , then leave subtlecluesin future record album hinting at McCartney ’s actual fate . The cover to 1969’sAbbey Road , for example , features Ringo Starr dressed in black , like a pallbearer . McCartney is in bare foot , because he ’s in reality numb . accord to conspiracy theorists , this was common entombment practice in England at the metre .
Who set off this possibility is unknown , but Beatles scholar have a good estimate of how it propagate . In 1969 , a college sophomore named Tim Harper wrote astoryforThe Times - Delphic , Drake University ’s college newspaper , laying out the theory . It was base on a rumor Harper had heard from a friend who had hear it from some traveling musician . It ’s potential the rumor picked up momentum because the Beatles broke up in 1970 and fans wanted to believe it was for a reason other than the fact the group just was n’t puzzle along anymore .
13. Fred Rogers Was a Sniper
The more notable you are , the more urban legends tend to circulate about you . And few people have had more tawdry rumors about them than Fred Rogers , the previous and very much missed host ofMister Rogers ’ Neighborhood . In the most persistent urban legend about Mr. Rogers , it ’s pronounce that he was a Navy SEAL or mayhap a military sniper with confirmed killing . The reason hefavoredlong - sleeved perspirer was supposedly to hide up his numerous tattoo .
In fact , Fred Rogers was a sharpshooting devil dog — but it was a unlike Fred Rogers . According to the screenwriter behind the late Fred Rogers biopic , that Rogers used FredRogers.com for his surety business for a brief period of time , and that ’s probable what led hoi polloi to flurry the two Freds .
That ’s almost as silly as picture Dr. Ruth Westheimer , the amiablesex therapistand media personality , as a trainedsniperwho was seriously hurt in a bomb blast . Or Julia Childservingin the Office of Strategic Services , a precursor to the CIA , during World War II . Except both of those level are actually on-key . Maybe that ’s why some citizenry had no trouble believing Rogers also had a confidential military past times .
14. Alligators in the Sewers
Some of the most effective urban legends take familiar thing and give them a dark intension . And while you may not have warm feelings about sewer , it is raise up to think gator might be lurking in them . This scenario stem in with child part from author Robert Daley ’s 1959 playscript , World Beneath the City . In it , Daleydescribesan eyewitness account from Teddy May , who was New York City ’s superintendent of sewers . According to May , sewerage worker had been tell him about alligator as far back as 1935 , but he did n’t trust them . finally , May went down to see for himself and spotted several alligators average two feet in distance . They come along to be quite subject matter , according to May . It was after say that he was prostrate to tall taradiddle , so it ’s a scrap hard to separate gator fact from fabrication .
Though there are reliable account of the casual alligator in the sewer , harmonise toThe New York Times , New York ’s Animal Care and Control rescues two to four alligator , crocodile , or caimans a year , but they ’re usually above ground — the bacterial payload of your middling sewage system makes it moderately inhospitable to gator life-time . Beware , though — some animals , like rats , have been sleep together tocrawlthrough plumbing and into residential toilets .
15. Temporary Tattoos Spiked with LSD
In the 1980s , some tiddler and their parent had 2d thoughts about temporary tattoo when it was bruit that some of the stickers were spiked with LSD . grownup were warned about tattoos thatfeaturedblue whiz or cartoon characters .
The concept of contaminate viscous stuff goes back to at least the nineteenth one C . In 1885,The Lancetgave an history of a man who habitually take large quantity of morphia . One day the opiate enthusiast work the adhesive airfoil of an gasbag and send it off . The receiver opened the envelope and then decided to lap it shut out again . AsThe Lancetdescribed it , “ The mere touch of the clapper of the taker of morphine had rendered the gum intensely nauseous . If this could happen , obviously there must be grave hazard of the transmission of disease by such means . ”
Many years subsequently , law warnings over blotter acid mentioned kids could be susceptible . This was misinterpreted to intend that kidshad beenexposed to acid . To date , no one with a temporary Care Bears tattoo has ever been unwittingly dosed with LSD .
A version of this article was earlier published in 2021 and has been update for 2024 .
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