Buzz
We’ve all heard them growing up—tales of a mysterious figure slipping into the backseat of a car at a gas station or the eerie sound of a hook tapping against the fogged-up window of a parked vehicle. Urban legends embody our collective anxieties, representing the dark forces lurking beneath the surface of society we’ve worked so hard to keep at bay. While most urban legends are simply overblown myths, some have origins that are far darker. Here are ten that might actually hold some truth.
10. The Dog Boy
Though the name suggests something supernatural, the Dog Boy wasn’t a creature of legend; Gerald Bettis was a real boy born in 1954. He earned his infamous moniker due to his disturbing habit of capturing stray animals to torment. Years later, his neighbors would recall with horror the unsettling screams coming from the Bettis household.
Gerald’s cruelty started early. By the time he was a teenager, he had grown to an imposing 6’4″ (1.93m) and weighed around 300 pounds (136kg). His parents were the primary targets of his abuse, and he continued his torment until his father died under suspicious circumstances, and his mother suffered a serious fall that resulted in a broken hip. Afterward, Alline Bettis was removed from the home by adult protective services, and Gerald was sentenced to prison.
Today, the Bettis house is said to be a hotspot of eerie paranormal activity, all believed to be connected to Gerald’s cruelty, with the suffering of both his human and animal victims fueling the supernatural occurrences. The property has changed hands multiple times, with new owners reporting strange phenomena such as objects mysteriously floating down the stairs, lights flickering on and off by themselves, and sightings of a large, strange man roaming the house while cradling a cat in his arms.
9. The Body Beneath the Bed
Vacancy.
The neon sign beckons you in; after countless hours on the road, you’re not just exhausted—you’re drained. All you want is a hot shower, a soft bed to collapse into, and some much-needed rest. The room is inexpensive. If you had to judge, you’d call this motel a little rundown, but right now, all you care about is comfort and a good night’s sleep.
As soon as you unlock the door and it creaks open, you’re hit by an overwhelming stench that nearly knocks you back. ‘There’s no way I’m staying here,’ you think to yourself, and you immediately tell the uninterested man at the front desk. He informs you that there are no other rooms available, but assures you maintenance will look into it.
It only takes a few minutes to figure out that the source of the foul stench is the bed. The maintenance worker lifts the mattress, revealing something that will forever be burned into your memory.
Since 1982, there have been at least a dozen confirmed instances where a putrid smell in a hotel room led to the discovery of a decaying body hidden beneath the bed. Each time, the body was deliberately placed there, sometimes by murderers or sometimes by accomplices after a fatal accident. In every case, the body was discovered by an unrelated person, simply looking for a place to rest for the night.
8. The Medicine Cabinet Killers
In the 1992 film *Candyman*, set in Chicago, uttering the villain’s name five times while staring into a mirror summons a vengeful spirit that delivers a quick and violent death. In 1982, in a Chicago housing project not far from the one shown in the movie, a group of murderers dismantled a medicine cabinet and crawled through the wall into Ruthie May McCoy’s apartment to rob and kill her.
The bathrooms of neighboring units in the housing project were connected by a shared wall, designed so that plumbers could easily remove the medicine cabinet to access the pipes. This also meant that someone could push out the medicine cabinet in the adjacent unit and crawl through the wall into the next apartment. That’s exactly what happened to Ruthie May McCoy, who, despite hearing the killers and calling 911, received no help. Her body was discovered two days later.
7. Polybius
During the peak of the Cold War, a decade after MK Ultra and the illicit CIA experiments tied to that project, an enigmatic game appeared in arcades around Portland, Oregon.
The game was housed in a simple black cabinet and presented a series of puzzles featuring various colors and geometric shapes. It had no name and was regularly maintained by pairs of men dressed in black suits. The game was said to be hypnotic and highly addictive, and those who played it allegedly experienced memory loss afterward. There are accounts of at least two teenagers vanishing after playing, with others reporting abductions by men in black suits after the game.
The game, eventually dubbed Polybius by those familiar with it, vanished just as mysteriously as it had arrived. Today, the legacy of the game is little more than a set of lingering questions: Who created it, and for what purpose?
6. Creepy Clowns
Long before the 2016 creepy clown phenomenon, a different harrowing jester haunted the children of Chicago: Homey the Clown, a chilling real-life counterpart to Damon Wayans' Homey D. Clown from In Living Color.
In 1991, children across Chicago kept a watchful eye out for a man dressed as a clown, cruising past schools in a white van. They said he was a kidnapper, a predator. Reports flooded the police and media, describing an African American male dressed as Homey trying to coax children into his van with promises of candy and money.
Media coverage provided a stark contrast; on October 9, WFLD TV reported that the police were dismissing Homey as an urban legend. However, just two days later, the Chicago Tribune published a story saying the police were taking the clown sightings seriously. Eventually, Homey slipped into the shadows of memory, either never captured or never having existed in the first place.
5. Poisoned Halloween Candy
No matter if you’re the child or the parent, Halloween always concludes the same way: a heap of candy poured out onto the dining room table for inspection. A few treats with torn wrappers inevitably end up in the trash, and then some pieces are handed out to eager, sugar-crazed children.
The reason for this TSA-like Halloween candy inspection, of course, is the fear of poisoned sweets. Everyone has heard a tale from a friend of a friend who knows someone whose child bit into a caramel apple only to find a hidden razor blade or had to be rushed to the ER after eating a tainted Tootsie Roll. While no one truly believes these stories, everyone still checks their candy.
In reality, these chilling stories gained traction in the 1980s, following the infamous Tylenol poisoning incidents that led to multiple fatalities. There have also been documented instances of poisoned treats handed out on Halloween, with the most notable case being in 1974 when an eight-year-old boy died after consuming cyanide-laced pixie sticks. His father was convicted of murder after it was revealed he had taken out a life insurance policy on the boy.
4. The Richmond Vampire
An ancient evil, cast out of England when its monstrous nature was revealed, is said to slumber during the day in a mausoleum at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
In 1925, a railway tunnel near the cemetery collapsed, trapping several men underground. When rescuers arrived, they encountered something nightmarish: a vampire crouched over one of its victims, drenched in blood, with sharp teeth and skin as red as fire. A group of men chased the creature, which vanished into the mausoleum containing the remains of W.W. Pool.
Records surrounding the tunnel collapse suggest that the creature rescuers encountered that day might have been Benjamin Mosby, a railway worker who was shoveling coal into a boiler when the tunnel collapsed onto the train he was operating. Mosby survived the collapse but sustained multiple broken teeth and severe burns from the accident. In a daze and in excruciating pain, he emerged from the rubble and rushed toward the cool waters of the nearby James River. Mosby died in a local hospital later that day and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery.
3. The Choking Doberman
A young woman returns home after a night out with friends to a horrifying sight: her beloved Doberman sprawled on its side, struggling to breathe. Panicked, she rushes her pet to the emergency veterinary clinic, where she’s informed that the required surgery could take hours and she should go home and wait for updates.
Upon returning home later that night, the woman’s phone rings. Breathless, the vet urgently tells her to leave the house immediately. They’ve cleared the obstruction from her dog’s throat—and discovered that it was three severed human fingers.
Eventually, a would-be burglar is found unconscious in a closet, having bled out from the injuries.
The belief that our dogs would go to any lengths to protect us is a timeless one. This notion likely stems from the ancient legend of Llywelyn the Great and his loyal dog Gelert. In 1228, Llywelyn, the Prince of the Welsh, returned home from a hunting trip to find his house in disarray. His infant son was missing, the crib upturned, and Gelert’s snout covered in blood.
Believing that his dog had killed his child, Llywelyn wasted no time in drawing his sword and fatally striking Gelert. Only after the deed was done did he hear the faint cries of his child from under the overturned crib. As he moved to retrieve the baby, he discovered the body of a bloodied wolf that Gelert had slain in order to protect the child.
2. The Vanishing Lady
At the dawn of the twentieth century, a young woman and her mother embarked on a journey to Paris. Upon their arrival in the City of Lights, the mother collapsed onto her bed, overcome by illness and exhaustion. The devoted daughter quickly called for the hotel’s doctor, who spoke urgently to the attendants in French before revealing that the mother was gravely ill and urgently needed medication.
The catch, however, was that the only place where this specific medication could be obtained was the doctor’s private office, located all the way across town.
The daughter departed in the doctor’s private carriage, but the journey took far longer than anticipated. The driver appeared in no rush to reach the destination, and hours passed before she returned to the hotel. When she asked about her mother at the front desk, however, she was met with nothing but a vacant stare.
“Your mother, mademoiselle? But you arrived alone.”
Frantic, the young woman hurried upstairs, only to find her mother’s room now occupied by strangers. The bed linens and curtains were different as well. Eventually, a French police officer confided in her that her mother had succumbed to the plague, and the hotel had disposed of her body, concealing the truth to prevent panic about the outbreak in the city.
The tale was reported by several journalists across various newspapers in the late 1800s. When questioned years later about its authenticity, one reporter admitted he couldn’t recall whether the story had been told to him or if it had simply been a fabrication of his own.
1. Organ Thieves
Accept a drink from the wrong person at a bar while traveling, and you might find yourself waking up in a bathtub full of ice, with a sharp pain in your lower back. That’s the story, anyway. In 1997, a viral email claimed that a sophisticated criminal ring was targeting business travelers across major cities, drugging them, and removing their kidneys to sell on the black market.
The origin of this urban legend could have come from a Turkish man who, according to a Reuters article, was lured to a hospital in Britain, drugged, and had his kidney taken. Subsequent reports, however, revealed that the man had previously placed an ad in a newspaper attempting to sell his kidney, and he was one of four Turkish men who had done so during that trip to Britain. His story of being deceived was fabricated.
Still, it’s probably safer to buy your own drinks.
