Top 10 Urban Legends You Didn't Know About
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Top 10 Lesser-Known Urban Legends
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Just because a legend is obscure doesn't mean it's any less creepy. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 10 Lesser-Known Urban Legends. For this list, we're exploring the most haunting and eerie stories you may never have heard of. We're basing our choices on a mix of sheer terror, detail, and how often each story has been passed on.
#10: The Bunny Man
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Like many scary stories, the Bunny Man starts with an accident; in this case, when a bus full of mental patients crashes on the side of the road. While the police catch most of the escaped inmates, two remain at large. After locals in the area start discovering skinned bunny carcasses, one of the prisoners is found hung from a bridge; skinned and left just like the dead bunnies. Rumors say that visiting the bridge after midnight will get you killed by the Bunny Man himself, while some versions of the story also claim the Bunny Man was struck by a train while running from the police.
#9: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (aka Kuchisake-onna)
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This is a Japanese tale in which a woman’s face is slashed from ear to ear, leaving a smiling scar, before being murdered by her jealous husband. After the woman dies, she haunts streets asking people, “Am I pretty?” There are variations on how to respond – and none are very good. Reply “No”, and she leaves – before following you home and killing you in your sleep. “Yes”, and she'll reveal her face and repeat the question. Saying “Yes” this time will earn you a similar scar, while giving ambiguous answers can confuse her long enough for you to escape. Throughout history, the woman has covered her scars with everything from fans to surgical masks.
#8: Boy Scout Lane
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The dates vary, but sometime in the mid-20th century, some Boy Scouts were out camping near a road in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Though the reasons differ wildly from story to story, the boys never return home. One variation has the Scoutmaster wake to find his entire troop missing, while another version says he killed them himself. An eerie take on the story says they dropped their lantern in the night by accident, and burned to death in a forest fire. Legend has it that the scouts haunt the road looking for a way home, with reports of footsteps, unexplained lights and even ghostly figures appearing in the area.
#7: Ningen
Varying accounts from fishermen and researchers claim they've seen giant white figures in the Antarctic waters that look... strangely human. These Ningen are anthropomorphic and covered in bright white skin, and can be as long as 30 meters. Though its arms and legs resemble our own, Ningens’ faces only have eyes and a mouth. Fans brought more attention to the monster on the Japanese forum 2channel, where they posted Google Earth stills and claims of government cover-ups. Their sightings seem to indicate that they may in fact be partly submerged icebergs, or albino whales refracted strangely through the water. With active sightings still reported today, however, it's unclear who should be believed.
#6: Skinned Tom
Tom slept with women all over his Tennessee town until he met Eleanor. The only problem? Eleanor already had a husband. After finding out about his wife's affair, Eleanor's husband follows her on one of her flings. With Eleanor and Tom mid-act, the husband busts them and stabs Eleanor with a hunter's knife. Tom is next, the husband turning his knife on him and flaying his skin. The husband then turns himself in to the police, who head to the site of the crime where they find the wife alive … but Tom missing. It’s said that Tom roams lover’s lanes in Tennessee waiting to skin couples with his knife.
#5: Curse of the Crying Boy Paintings
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In 1985, a fire devastated the home of a couple in Rotherham, England. In the ashy ruins, only a painting called The Crying Boy – one from a series by Italian artist Giovanni Bragolin – was found unscathed. Soon, similar stories began cropping up (from firefighters, no less) about other homes having burned down with prints of the painting found among the remains. British tabloid newspaper The Sun ran the stories, suggesting the crying boy paintings were cursed, and even caused the fires. Who the crying boy and his links to fires were varies – including an orphan who died in a fire and whose spirit was trapped, to a child who was plagued by fires wherever he went.
#4: The Haunted Attic
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A couple has just been married at a large wedding, so after the reception, those at the wedding decide to play hide-and-seek. The wife runs to the attic to hide in a large chest, but it closes on her and locks her in. Everyone is found except for the bride, who the husband assumes had cold feet and ran away. Years later, the family is clearing out the attic and discover the wife's body rotted inside the chest. This hauntingly plausible story is mentioned in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rope,' but the story dates back to poems and songs from the 1800s.
#3: Teke Teke
A Japanese schoolgirl accidentally falls onto train tracks after being pranked by bullies, and is cut in half by a train. Her upper-half returns to stalk the streets and even scare people by hiding her disfigurement behind windowsills. In some versions, once you hear her story, you'll get a phone call where she'll ask, 'Do you need your legs?' and 'Who told you my story?' Answering wrong gets you cut in half by her scythe, while insisting you need your legs will save you. Her name 'Teke Teke' comes from the gruesome clicking noise she makes as she drags herself around.
#2: The White Death
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A sad Scottish girl decides to erase her life from existence, going so far as to kill herself. Once her family finds out about her death, they all mysteriously die too. To continue destroying her memory, the girl came back as the White Death. When she finds you, she'll knock on your door seven times. Each knock represents something she takes from your body: flesh, bones, eyes, and even your soul. Much like in “The Ring,” the White Death starts following you once you've heard her story, and won't stop until you're erased too. Oops.
#1: The Pigman’s Road
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An underpass on Holland Road in Angola, New York is home to not one, but two terrifying stories. First, in 1867, a train derailed over the road, killing 50 people. Some say the victims of the “Angola Horror” still haunt the road. The underpass's scariest story, however, is the Pigman; a crazed butcher who skewered pig heads on stakes outside his home to keep people away. After a group of boys decide to knock on his door, it was their heads that ended up on the stakes. He fled, and was never seen again, but allegedly pig squeals can be heard by anyone foolish enough to walk the tracks near the train bridge to this day.
