98 Fun Facts About Urban Legends

What spectral figure is supposedly summoned by chanting her name into a mirror?

Bloody Mary descends from an older divination game in which young women climbed stairs backward with a candle and hand mirror, hoping to glimpse a future husband's face.

Which creepypasta character is often depicted as a tall, thin, faceless entity in a dark suit?

Slender Man was invented in 2009 by Eric Knudsen, posting as Victor Surge, who pasted the faceless figure into two doctored black-and-white photographs for an online paranormal-image contest.

Which creature, said to attack livestock and drain their blood, is often sighted in parts of the Americas?

Chupacabra means 'goat-sucker' in Spanish, from chupa ('sucks') and cabras ('goats'), after its reported habit of draining livestock.

What large reptile is rumored to live in the sewers of major cities, having been flushed down as pets?

Alligators: the sewer legend grew from a 1935 New York Times report of teenagers hauling a seven-foot alligator from an East Harlem storm drain, later embellished in Robert Daley's 1959 book The World Beneath the City.

Which urban legend tells of a killer with a prosthetic hand stalking couples in parked cars?

The Hookman's hook is always found dangling from the car door handle after the couple speeds away, the detail that makes the legend.

What is the usual name for the pale-gowned female ghost of betrayal or untimely death found in folklore worldwide?

The White Lady appears on nearly every continent, usually with a backstory of murder, suicide or a lover's betrayal; the Philippines' Balete Drive ghost is one of the best-known.

Which figure of Hispanic American folklore wanders near water, wailing for the children she drowned?

La Llorona drowned her own children in the river, in most tellings, and now wanders the banks wailing for them.

Which axe-wielding Fairfax County, Virginia legend is tied to a railroad overpass near Clifton?

The Bunny Man was traced by a Fairfax County library archivist to two real 1970 police reports of a man in a rabbit costume threatening people with an axe.

The part-man, part-goat Pope Lick Monster is said to live under a railroad trestle in which US state?

The Pope Lick Monster is a legendary part-man, part-goat creature reported to live beneath a railroad trestle bridge over Pope Lick Creek in Louisville, Kentucky.

Which folklorist popularized 'urban legend' with his 1981 book The Vanishing Hitchhiker?

Jan Harold Brunvand, a University of Utah folklorist, followed The Vanishing Hitchhiker (1981) with The Choking Doberman (1984) and The Mexican Pet (1986), building the modern study of urban legends.

The 'Hook' legend may have roots in 1946 Lovers' Lane murders in which Texas city?

Texarkana: the 1946 'Moonlight Murders' by the unidentified Phantom Killer, who attacked couples parked on lovers' lanes, are often cited as a real-life seed of the Hook legend.

In the 'babysitter and the man upstairs' legend, where are the menacing calls coming from?

Inside the house, the police trace reveals; the 1950 unsolved murder of babysitter Janett Christman in Missouri may have influenced it, and it inspired When a Stranger Calls.

In 'The Licked Hand' legend, who is really licking the girl's hand at night instead of her dog?

The intruder had hidden under the bed all night, licking her hand whenever she reached down; in the morning the dog is found dead beside a note reading 'Humans can lick too'.

In the 'killer in the backseat' legend, why does the pursuing driver keep flashing his high beams?

To warn her someone is hiding in her car is the twist; folklorist Carlos Drake first recorded it in 1968 from texts collected by Indiana University students.

A man from which country made the 1991 claim that possibly started the ice-bath stolen-kidney rumour?

Ahmet Koc's story of a stolen kidney seeded a rumour cycle that has since travelled the world.

Which Life cereal child actor was falsely rumoured to have died mixing Pop Rocks and cola?

John Gilchrist, 'Mikey' of the Life cereal ads, was alive and well; General Foods ran newspaper ads and wrote to school principals in 1979 to debunk the exploding-stomach rumour.

Contrary to the cryogenic-freezing legend, what actually happened to Walt Disney's remains?

He was cremated two days after his death in December 1966, and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

The famous 1969 Beatles death hoax claimed which member had died in 1966 and been replaced by a look-alike?

Paul McCartney was alive and farming in Scotland; fans heard 'Turn me on, dead man' in a backwards Revolution 9 and read clues into the Abbey Road cover.

Polybius, the legendary mind-altering arcade game, supposedly appeared in 1981 in which city?

Portland, Oregon, in 1981, is where the Polybius cabinets supposedly appeared; no machine, ROM or record of its claimed publisher Sinnesloschen has ever surfaced.

The black-eyed children legend began with a reporter's 1996 posts about which Texas city?

Abilene, Texas: in 1996 Abilene Reporter-News journalist Brian Bethel posted online that two black-eyed boys had asked to get into his car outside a cinema there, launching the legend.

Mothman sightings around Point Pleasant, West Virginia became linked to which December 1967 disaster?

The Silver Bridge collapse killed 46 people, and John Keel's 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies tied the creature to the tragedy.

According to legend, the Jersey Devil was the cursed thirteenth child of a woman known by what name?

Mother Leeds, in the usual 1735 telling, cried 'Let the child be the devil', and the creature has haunted the Pine Barrens ever since.

The 1934 'surgeon's photograph' of the Loch Ness Monster was attributed to a London gynaecologist named what?

Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist, lent his name to the 1934 photo; in 1994 Christian Spurling confessed it showed a toy submarine fitted with a sculpted head, a hoax organised by Marmaduke Wetherell.

At which Northern California location was the 1967 Patterson–Gimlin Bigfoot film shot?

Bluff Creek, in the Six Rivers National Forest, is where Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin shot their 59.5-second 16 mm film on October 20, 1967.

The first widely publicized chupacabra sightings emerged in 1995 on which island?

Puerto Rico's 1995 sightings started it; later 'chupacabra' carcasses in Mexico and Texas turned out to be coyotes and dogs with severe mange.

The ghost ship Ourang Medan, its crew supposedly found dead with terrified faces, was said to be from which nation?

Dutch: the Ourang Medan was described as a Dutch freighter lost in the Strait of Malacca, yet no Lloyd's or Dutch registry record of any such ship has ever been found.

Vincent Gaddis's 1964 article 'The Deadly Bermuda Triangle' crystallised the legend in which magazine?

Argosy, a men's adventure magazine, ran Gaddis's piece in February 1964; he set the triangle's corners at Miami, San Juan and Bermuda and cited the 1945 loss of Flight 19.

Which masked woman of Japanese urban legend asks passers-by whether she is pretty?

Kuchisake-onna panic swept Japan in 1979; escapes include calling her 'average', throwing hard candy, or saying 'pomade' three times.

In Japanese schools, the ghost Hanako-san is said to haunt which part of the building?

The toilets, specifically the third stall of a third-floor girls' lavatory: knock three times and ask if Hanako is there.

The Japanese ghost Teke Teke drags herself along on her hands because her body was cut in half by what?

A train: Teke Teke was a schoolgirl cut in half at a level crossing; she haunts stations at night and her name imitates the scraping sound of her torso on the ground.

The Japanese bathroom spirit Aka Manto offers his victims a choice between which two colours?

Red and blue: Aka Manto asks whether you want red paper or blue paper; red means being slashed to death, blue means strangulation, and the only escape is to refuse both.

The Slender Man was created in 2009 by a user of which website's Photoshop contest for paranormal images?

Something Awful's June 2009 'Create Paranormal Images' thread is where Eric Knudsen, posting as Victor Surge, first pasted Slender Man into two photographs; a 2014 Waukesha, Wisconsin stabbing by two fans caused a moral panic.

A news report from which Caribbean nation sparked the 2015 Charlie Charlie pencil-game craze?

Dominican Republic: an April 2015 Dominican television report warning about the Charlie Charlie pencil game was uploaded to YouTube and, via English-language Twitter, took the craze worldwide the following month.

The 2018 'Momo Challenge' image was a sculpture by which Japanese special-effects company?

Link Factory, a Tokyo special-effects company, made the sculpture 'Mother Bird' (artist Keisuke Aiso) in 2016; early reports wrongly credited artist Midori Hayashi, and police found little evidence anyone was harmed.

Poisoned Halloween candy myths are examples of what kind of story, according to folklorists?

Cautionary tales, combining two classic urban-legend themes, danger to children and contamination of food; confirmed cases of strangers doing this are essentially nonexistent.

Maryland's Goatman legend is often traced to experiments at which federal facility?

Beltsville Agricultural Research Center: the legend says a scientist's goat experiments there went wrong; a 1971 University of Maryland folklore project first recorded the tale, and a Prince George's County newspaper spread it that year.

New York City celebrates its sewer-alligator legend with a quasi-holiday on which date?

February 9 marks the day in 1935 when the New York Times reported boys hauling an alligator from an East Harlem sewer; sewer superintendent Teddy May's later tales of alligator colonies are widely doubted.

The first serious study of the vanishing hitchhiker legend found 'ghost at a dance' versions clustered where?

Beardsley and Hankey collected 79 accounts; the Chicago tales fed the Resurrection Mary legend.

According to Brunvand, urban legends are typically attributed to a source known by which acronym?

'Friend of a friend' personalises the tale while distancing the teller from responsibility for it.

The term 'urban legend' first appeared in print in 1968, used by which folklorist?

Brunvand later brought the phrase to a general audience with his 1981 bestseller.

Chicago's ghostly hitchhiker Resurrection Mary is said to vanish into a cemetery in which Illinois town?

Justice, Illinois, is home to Resurrection Cemetery on Archer Avenue, where drivers who pick up a blonde in a white party dress say she vanishes at the gates.

Where did the Soviets really drill the 12 km borehole behind the 'Well to Hell' legend?

The Kola Superdeep Borehole reached 12,262 m in 1989 and reported no screams; the 'hell sounds' were looped film sound effects.

The 'Well to Hell' story was first published by Ammennusastia, a Pentecostal journal from which country?

Finland: Ammennusastia, a Finnish Pentecostal journal, printed the story in 1989; its editors told investigator Rich Buhler it came from a reader's letter recalling an item in a Finnish newspaper.

Candle Cove, the creepypasta about a half-remembered children's TV show, was written by which web cartoonist?

Kris Straub, creator of the webcomics Chainsawsuit and Starslip, wrote Candle Cove in 2009 as a fake forum thread, inspired by an Onion piece about a 36-year-old still having Lidsville nightmares.

In Ohio's melon head legend, the large-headed children were orphans experimented on by a figure known as whom?

Dr. Crow, in the Kirtland, Ohio version, injected orphans with fluid that swelled their heads; legend says they killed him, burned the orphanage and fled into the woods near Cleveland.

The Staten Island boogeyman 'Cropsey' became linked to which real convicted child kidnapper in a 2009 documentary?

Rand had worked at the notorious Willowbrook State School and camped in the woods nearby.

Which Hungarian song of 1933 is the subject of a legend claiming that listeners take their own lives?

Gloomy Sunday, composed by Rezso Seress in 1933, was billed as the 'Hungarian Suicide Song' after Billie Holiday's 1941 recording; the BBC banned that version until 2002.

Pennsylvania's 'Green Man' or 'Charlie No-Face' legend grew from the nighttime walks of which real, disfigured man?

Robinson was badly injured in a childhood electrical accident and walked the roads near Pittsburgh at night to avoid causing panic.

Cow tipping is dismissed as legend, but roughly how much force would it take to topple a cow?

About 3,000 to 4,000 newtons: a 2005 University of British Columbia study found a standing cow needs roughly 2,900 N, about four or five people pushing at once, and a braced cow far more.

In the Choking Doberman legend, what does the vet find lodged in the dog's throat?

Human fingers: the vet finds two or three fingers in the gagging Doberman's throat, and the burglar who lost them is found unconscious in a closet; Brunvand's 1984 book took its title from the tale.

A 1977 rumour claimed which gum brand owed its unusual softness to spider eggs?

Bubble Yum, launched by Life Savers in 1975 as the first soft bubble gum, was hit by the spider-egg rumour in 1977; the company bought full-page newspaper rebuttals, including in The New York Times.

What did Royal Mail give Craig Shergold's family to cope with the flood of get-well cards?

Its own postcode: Royal Mail assigned one to the Shergold family after the 1989 chain letter drew an estimated 350 million cards, far beyond the Guinness record Craig had already won in 1990.

'Blue star tattoo' flyers claimed kids' stick-on tattoos were laced with which drug?

LSD is the drug the blue-star flyers name, claiming acid-soaked tattoos of Mickey Mouse or Bart Simpson were being handed to children; no such case has ever been documented.

The 'tourist guy' photo hoax that spread after 9/11 was made by a man from which country?

Hungary: Peter Guzli, a Hungarian, had taken the original photo on the observation deck in 1997 and pasted in the plane as a joke for friends; the winter coat in a September scene was one giveaway.

'Fan death', the idea that a running electric fan can kill a sleeper, is strongest where?

South Korea: fan death is a widely held belief there, where fans are sold with timers and summer newspaper reports echo warnings first printed in a 1927 Korean article about the new technology.

Smearing which product behind the ears supposedly wards off Australia's drop bears?

Vegemite smeared behind the ears is the classic tourist-fooling remedy, along with forks in the hair; the Australian Museum's deadpan species page lists the drop bear as Thylarctos plummetus.

Prankster Eugene Shepard 'discovered' the horned hodag in 1893 near which city?

Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where Shepard claimed his posse needed dynamite to kill the first hodag in 1893 and later twitched a wired 'live' one at the 1896 Oneida County fair; the city adopted it as its mascot.

In 2016 a retired officer said the Loveland Frog he shot in 1972 had really been what?

A tailless iguana: Mark Matthews said in 2016 that the creature he shot in 1972 was a large iguana missing its tail, probably an abandoned pet, and he showed the carcass to the colleague who first reported it.

Three teenagers reported the Dover Demon over two nights in 1977 in which state?

Massachusetts: the sightings were in Dover, southwest of Boston, on 21-22 April 1977; all three teenage witnesses drew the watermelon-headed creature, and police suggested a school-vacation hoax.

Sceptic Joe Nickell concluded the 1952 Flatwoods Monster was most likely which animal?

A barn owl, Nickell argued in 2000: its heart-shaped face, glowing eyes and perch in the foliage matched the 'monster', and the 'spaceship' was a meteor seen across three states that night.

The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp has stalked Bishopville in which state since 1988?

South Carolina: Bishopville, in Lee County, is where 17-year-old Christopher Davis said a seven-foot green creature attacked his car in June 1988; later sightings also involved mysteriously damaged vehicles.

In 1955 the Sutton family claimed a night-long gunfight with 'goblins' near which town?

Hopkinsville, Kentucky: the Sutton family fled their Kelly farmhouse and burst into the Hopkinsville police station on 21 August 1955 claiming a four-hour siege; Spielberg's unmade Night Skies drew on it.

What was the 'ghost boy' supposedly visible in a window in Three Men and a Baby?

A cardboard cutout: a standee of Ted Danson's character in a tuxedo and top hat, left on the set; the rumour surfaced in 1990, just before the sequel Three Men and a Little Lady.

The Bonsai Kitten hoax site, claiming to grow kittens in jars, came from which university?

MIT: the site went up in 2000 on an MIT server under the pseudonym Dr Michael Wong Chang; MIT took it down after complaints, and the FBI and Humane Society investigated a joke.

Which 1958 Disney documentary staged the lemming 'mass suicide' that cemented the myth?

White Wilderness: a 1982 CBC investigation found the crew bought lemmings in Manitoba, filmed them on a snow-covered turntable in Alberta, then herded them off a cliff into the Bow River.

Which company's sellers mostly spread the rumour that Procter & Gamble's logo was satanic?

Amway: P&G sued Amway distributors for spreading the satanism rumour through the company's voicemail system, and in 2007 a jury awarded it $19.25 million against four of them; the logo was phased out from 1985.

The Bell Witch, a poltergeist said to have intrigued Andrew Jackson, haunted which state?

Tennessee: the Bell farm at Adams, in Robertson County, was tormented from 1817 to 1821 by an entity calling itself 'Kate', and the story ends with patriarch John Bell poisoned by the witch in 1820.

Robert, the 'haunted' sailor-suited doll from 1904, is exhibited in which city?

Key West's Fort East Martello Museum has held Robert since 1994; the doll, reportedly a Steiff bought in 1904 for young Robert Eugene Otto, came from the Otto house on Eaton Street.

Annabelle, the supposedly haunted doll of the Conjuring films, is in real life what?

A Raggedy Ann: the Warrens said a student nurse received the rag doll in 1970 and gave it to them; the films swapped it for a menacing porcelain one, partly over trademark worries.

What did Ray Wallace's family reveal in 2002 that deflated the 1958 Bigfoot tracks?

Wallace was a coworker of Jerry Crew, the bulldozer driver whose 16-inch footprints launched the name. Reporter Andrew Genzoli of the Humboldt Times coined 'Bigfoot' in his coverage.

Who coined 'Abominable Snowman' after quizzing porters from the 1921 Everest expedition?

Newman wrote for The Statesman in Calcutta under the pen name 'Kim'. He mistranslated the Tibetan 'metoh' as 'filthy', then upgraded it to 'abominable' for effect.

The Nain Rouge, a red dwarf said to appear before disasters, haunts which US city?

Detroit: founder Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac supposedly struck the imp with his cane in 1701 and was cursed with bad luck; since 2010 the Marche du Nain Rouge has chased a costumed dwarf out of Midtown each spring.

Whose student newspaper launched the 1974 tale that Stull Cemetery is a gateway to Hell?

University of Kansas: a November 1974 University Daily Kansan article claimed the Devil appears at Stull on Halloween and the spring equinox; later lore added that Pope John Paul II rerouted his plane to avoid it.

Who supposedly returns a quarter left on a Clinton Road bridge in New Jersey at midnight?

A drowned boy's ghost is said to return coins thrown from the bridge; the road's reputation grew in 1983 when a cyclist found a body dumped there by hitman Richard Kuklinski.

The 1944 'Mad Gasser' panic, now usually called mass hysteria, hit which Illinois town?

Mattoon, Illinois, was hit from 31 August 1944; victims reported a sweet smell followed by nausea and leg paralysis, and sociologist Donald Johnson's 1945 study made it a textbook case of mass hysteria.

In 2001, which city reported night attacks by a helmeted 'Monkey-man' with metal claws?

New Delhi: in May 2001 residents of east Delhi reported a clawed, helmeted 'Monkey-man' attacking them at night; descriptions varied wildly, and at least two people died falling from rooftops in the panic.

Eastern Europe's 'Black Volga' legend said victims' blood was harvested to treat what?

Leukemia: the Black Volga was said to snatch children so their blood could treat wealthy Westerners or Arabs suffering from leukemia; the limousine supposedly cruised Poland, Hungary and beyond in the 1960s and 1970s.

What phrase does the creepypasta villain Jeff the Killer whisper before striking?

'Go to sleep' is Jeff's whisper; the character dates to a 2008 YouTube story by a user called Sesseur, in which Jeff spills a bucket of acid on his face while cleaning a bathtub.

The 2010 'Ben Drowned' creepypasta centres on a haunted cartridge of which Zelda game?

Majora's Mask: Alex Hall, posting as Jadusable in September 2010, described a cursed Majora's Mask cartridge bought at a yard sale, complete with glitched videos, and spun it into an alternate reality game.

'Lavender Town Syndrome' falsely blamed which game series' eerie music for child deaths?

Pokémon: the creepypasta, circulating from about 2010, claimed the Lavender Town theme in the 1996 Red and Green games drove Japanese children to suicide through high-pitched binaural tones; no such deaths were ever recorded.

The Philadelphia Experiment legend claims the US Navy made which ship vanish in 1943?

USS Eldridge, a destroyer escort, supposedly turned invisible and teleported to Norfolk, Virginia in October 1943; the whole tale traces to letters merchant seaman Carl Allen sent UFO author Morris Jessup from 1955.

The 'Devil's Highway', US Route 666, was renumbered in 2003 to which designation?

US 491 replaced the number in 2003 after New Mexico, Utah and Colorado asked for the change; the old Route 666 markers had been stolen repeatedly as souvenirs.

The lake monster Ogopogo is said to live in Okanagan Lake in which Canadian province?

British Columbia: Okanagan Lake lies in the province's interior; the name Ogopogo was borrowed from a 1924 English music-hall song, while the Syilx people called the lake spirit N'ha-a-itk or Naitaka.

Which city's Burger King hosted the famous late-1980s Elvis sighting that made national news?

Kalamazoo, Michigan: housewife Louise Welling said she saw Elvis at a Burger King there, and her claim, reported nationwide in 1988, turned 'Elvis in Kalamazoo' into a running joke.

Claims that Avril Lavigne was replaced by a double named Melissa began on a blog where?

Brazil: the Portuguese-language blog Avril Está Morta, started in 2011, claimed she died in 2003 after her debut album and was replaced by a double; believers cite a photoshoot with 'Melissa' written on her hand.

Which governor vetoed a 1983 law requiring warning stickers on records with backmasking?

Bill Clinton, then Arkansas governor, sent the 1983 bill back to the state senate; it had listed albums by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, ELO, Queen and Styx, and ELO answered the panic with Secret Messages.

Folklorists reject the popular claim that 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' describes which event?

The Great Plague: the idea that the roses are buboes, posies protective herbs and 'all fall down' death only appeared in the mid-20th century, and older European versions have no sneezing or falling at all.

Which Chinese astronaut said he could not see the Great Wall from orbit?

Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, said after his 2003 Shenzhou 5 flight that he had looked for the Great Wall and could not see it; the claim dates to a 1932 Ripley's Believe It or Not! strip.

Tales of the Mongolian death worm reached the West via a 1926 book by which fossil hunter?

Locals call it olgoi-khorkhoi, 'large intestine worm', and say it kills at a distance by spraying venom or electric discharge. In 1983 herders shown a Tartar sand boa agreed that was the animal.

The 'Taos Hum', a drone only some residents can hear, is named for a town in which state?

New Mexico: Taos, the arts town north of Santa Fe, gave the hum its name; a 1993 University of New Mexico study found about two percent of residents reported hearing it, each at a slightly different pitch.

The skunk ape, a foul-smelling cousin of Bigfoot, is most associated with which state?

Florida: the skunk ape is tied to the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp, and Florida newspapers reported a 'man-sized monkey' raiding food stores near Apalachicola as early as 1818.

The 2016 wave of 'creepy clown' sightings is usually dated to August 1 in which US city?

Green Bay, Wisconsin: on 1 August 2016 photos of 'Gags', a clown carrying black balloons, circulated there, later revealed as a film promotion; within weeks reports of clowns luring children spread to South Carolina and beyond.

A 2004 University of Texas at Dallas study blamed the Marfa lights on what?

Distorted car headlights: a May 2004 University of Texas at Dallas student study traced every light observed over four nights to vehicles on US 67, their beams bent and wobbling by temperature layers in the desert air.

In American tall tales, how does the hoop snake chase its prey?

Rolling like a wheel: the hoop snake grips its tail in its jaws and bowls after its victim, straightening out to strike with its venomous tail; it was first described in print in 1784.

Why, according to legend, can the hyper-venomous daddy long-legs not bite people?

Their fangs are too short, says the legend; in fact pholcid spiders can bite (MythBusters proved it in 2004) but their venom is medically trivial, and harvestmen and crane flies have no venom at all.

The cursed-image creepypasta 'Smile.jpg' shows which dog breed grinning with human teeth?

Siberian Husky: Smile Dog shows a husky with a wide human grin in a dim room; the story says the image first circulated on a bulletin board in 1992 and curses viewers with nightmares until they pass it on.

Spring-heeled Jack, the leaping Victorian bogeyman, was first reported in which year?

1837: the first reports came from London's outskirts that autumn, and in January 1838 Lord Mayor Sir John Cowan read out an anonymous complaint about the 'ghost or devil'; the last claimed sighting was Liverpool, 1904.

The 1981 'phantom clown' panic began in which Boston suburb?

Brookline, Massachusetts: in May 1981 children there reported clowns in a van trying to lure them in; the panic spread to Boston, Providence, Kansas City and Pittsburgh that spring, yet no clown was ever caught.