It’s a fun time of year as marketers look for ways to tie their brand to the Halloween season so we get fascinating looks at spooky things we likely never would have seen or known about otherwise. Heck, even I’m guilty of this. A few years back I helped a pest control company put together an infographic that highlighted horror movie bugs and their real-life counterparts.
One of the most recent examples I came across was from the travel site Thrillist, who compiled a list of the creepiest urban legend in all 50 states. The piece is the first in a series of articles planned for October that explore urban legends. What I liked about this list is that the focus was on “the creepiest” and not necessarily the most popular. As I browsed the list I realized most of these particular legends I had never even heard of.
While I don’t want to spoil all the fun, I did want to share some of the ones I found most interesting from the list:
- In Illinois, a woman who died in 1921 was buried and then exhumed six years later at the request of her mother. When they opened the casket the body was almost as perfect as the day she was buried. If that wasn’t weird enough a statue was then erected at the gravesite with a photo of the corpse on it. People report the woman now haunts the cemetery
- In Maryland, the lore of a Goatman who kills teenagers, eats dogs, and screams like a goat runs so deep that the USDA had to publicly deny creating it in one of their research centers
- In Salem, Massachusetts a man who was pressed to death during the witch trials and allegedly cursed the town appears in the cemetery just before something terrible happens in the city
- In Ohio, there is a legend of the Melonheads – pale, sickly, genetically altered children with giant heads and razor sharp teeth that kill babies…’Nuff said
- In Utah, legend has it that Escalante Petrified Forest is cursed and visitors who have stolen pieces of the ancient wood will mail back their stolen souvenirs claiming bad things happen after stealing the wood
If you want to read all of the details about the above legends and tons more with details on why the legend is creepy as well as the legend’s origin check out the full list on Thrillist.
