Urban legends ultimately are folklore with a hint of truth and plausibility to them. It is these elements that help them spread like wildfire throughout a town or a community without there being much evidence to support the story. Some urban legends send a warning . . . so consider yourself warned by reading this article.
Video Tape Legend
The video tape urban legend came into popular culture over the last 20-30 years. It is based on the Japanese movie ‘Ringu’ or the U.S remake, “The Ring.” It is said that if you watch the videotape you will die within forty-eight hours after watching it. It started when some college girls were having a slumber party and decided they should rent a movie at a local dealer. Once there the girls could not decide on what video to rent so one of them asked the clerk for help. The clerk said that she had just the thing and went to a room in the back. While the clerk was gone one of the girls found a box-less tape on the counter. She reached for it and at that moment the clerk returned and told her not to touch it, while handing her the other film. When the girl asked about the tape the clerk said that it was just a home movie. The girls rent the tape the clerk gave them and left, but not before the one girl took the other tape without anyone knowing.
When the girls returned to their house the one girl told them how she stole the video tape. The others started laughing and told her it was dumb to steal someone’s home videos, yet they still asked her to play the tape. As she put the tape in the power went out, but the TV stays on and plays the video. On the film it shows a woman being burned for practicing witchcraft and hoodoo. In it she utters a curse saying all that witnesses her death will face the same fate in two- days’ time. Then the video skips and cuts out. Sure enough the girls died forty-eight hours after watching the tape.
Ghost Tracks
Legend has it that 60 years ago, there was an accident that occurred between a train and a bus full of children in San Antonio, Texas. To this day if you went to the tracks and put your car in neutral, the car will move across the tracks. People have put baby powder after crossing the tracks and saw handprints on their cars. Was it really a ghost?
When testing the myth, some have washed their cars first and then crossed the tracks. When doing this there was no hand prints present. If this was true, then how does the car move over the tracks? Surveyors tested the elevation of the ground from the railroad tracks to the starting point of the car. They had noticed that there was an illusion of an incline in the road, but the ground was actually declining as the car goes closer to the tracks. Even though the road was declining towards the track by two tenths of a foot, this was enough to move the car. If this is true then how did this myth even get started? The bus accident that sparked interest was actually in Salt Lake City but made headlines in San Antonio. So people then began to believe that it was the old train tracks in San Antonio that were haunted.
The Babysitter and the Killer Upstairs
In a large isolated house, a couple left their two children home with the babysitter when they while they attended a dinner party. The children finally had been put to bed so the babysitter started to watch TV. As soon as she sat down the phone rang. The babysitter answered the phone only to hear a man laughing, “I’m upstairs with the children you’d better come up.” The babysitter thought it was just a joke so she hung up the phone and raised the volume on the TV. Shortly after the phone rang again, she answers and hears a man laughing, “I’m upstairs with the children, you’d better come up.” At this point the babysitter is terrified and immediately calls the operator who informs her they will notify police.
The babysitter was instructed to keep the man talking if he called again to give the operator time to trace the call. Yet again, the phone rings and the man laughs, “I’m upstairs with the children you’d better come up,” the babysitter tried to keep him talking but he knew what she was doing and immediately hung up the phone. The phone rings again, but this time it is the operator calling, “Get out of the house straight away, the man is on the extension.” As soon as she put the phone down she heard someone coming down the stairs. The babysitter ran out of the house right into the police. The police rushed into the house only to find an upstairs window open and the children dead. The man had vanished and was never found.
The Witch of Edison
The Piscataway Burial ground located on Woodbridge Avenue by the old white church in Edison carries a dark history. The street alone was walked on by George Washington, Ben Franklin, and John Adams. Here lies Soldiers from older times, original families such as the Stelles, Bonhams, Randolphs, and Drakes. There also lies the Hoopar brothers, who died from mushroom poisoning in 1693 and Thomas W. Harper, who died from a tornado after allegedly questioning God’s “power.” Lastly, there is the legendary witch. Her name was Mary Moore. She lived in the 1700’s and was accused of witchcraft in 1731. Neighbors of Mary stated that she had strange plants in her backyard and that she made animals do weird things; she even dressed like a witch. She was put to death for her “crimes” by being hung, or burned at the stake. However, there have been other stories where Mary Moore killed herself after murdering her husband.
There are multiple legends that relate to the story of Mary. It is said, that if you walk around Mary Moore’s grave three times and then spit, you will come face to face with her spirit. Other stories say that if you were to take Mary Moore’s headstone you will die shortly after. Are these stories real? In the 1950’s, there was a young boy who took the gravestone and hid it in his closet. Shortly after taking it, he was killed on Route 1. People thought the brother smashed the headstone, fearing it was cursed. Another story was about a group of friends who didn’t believe in the legend of Mary Moore. They decided it would be fun to take her headstone. The first person to take the headstone put it up on a stand above their bed. They died by being crushed when the headstone fell on them in their sleep. Another one of these friends took the headstone, and they tried to return it. However, they were hit by a car when crossing the street to the cemetery.
Elisa Day / Wild Rose
Many years ago in Ireland, there was a young woman named Elisa Day who was referred to as a “Wild Rose” because she was as beautiful as the wild roses that grew by the river. When young man came into town, he began courting Elisa. The couple went on three dates. The first time he went to her house, the second date he brought her a single rose and asked to meet her by the river, and on the third date he took her to the river.
On the third date, he waited until she turned her back to him and then he killed her saying, “All beauty must die…” He placed a rose in between her teeth and put her body into the river. Her body was never found.
Legend says you can see her ghost wandering around the river carrying a red rose. She inspired the song “Where the Wild Roses Grow.”
Bloody Mary
The myth of Bloody Mary has often been told in many households around Halloween time – around campfires, in dark rooms, and nearly any eerie setting around the country. The myth entails that an evil woman will appear by saying “Bloody Mary” repeatedly in front of a mirror, specifically in a dark room. The amount of times that “Bloody Mary” should be repeated often varies – usually anywhere between three and 100 times, but 13 seems to be the most popular. Once “Bloody Mary” arrives, she will claw the victim’s eyes out and ultimately kill them, or so the myth goes.
The origin of Bloody Mary varies greatly. The most popular belief is that Bloody Mary is a woman by the name of Mary Worth, who was mutilated in a car crash. Another common belief is that Bloody Mary is Queen Mary I of England, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Argon. Two other recognized beliefs are that Bloody Mary is the soul of a witch who was burned at the stake and is seeking revenge, or that Bloody Mary is Satan, going after souls.
Buried Alive
This old man was married for 50 years to the love of his life. She passed away one day and he was devastated. He wouldn’t let go and eventually had to be pried off of her so they could bury her. Back then all they did was bury them in the backyard, no preservation or embalming.
The old man finally went to sleep but he had nightmares that his wife was still alive in the coffin and was trying to scratch her way out. He flipped out and told the doctor so he could dig her up because he thought she was still alive. The doctor refused but after a week of constant badgering to dig her up he finally did and found that her nails were bent back and there were scratch marks on the coffin.
Footprints in the Snow
A 15 year old girl was babysitting her little sister while her parents went out to a party. She told her sister to go to bed at around 9:30 while she stayed up to watch T.V. She sat on the couch with a blanket and watched until it went off at around 10:30, after it went off she turned around in her seat to face the big glass door and watch the snow fall. She sat there for about 5 minutes or so when she noticed a strange man walking toward the glass from outside. He started to pull a shiny object out from his coat. Thinking it was a knife she immediately pulled the covers over her head. After about 10 minutes she removed the covers and saw that he was gone. She then called 911 and they rushed over.
They examined outside for any footprints in the snow, but there were none to be found. The cop then checked the back of the couch and was shocked at what he saw. There were wet footprints on the carpet.
The cops came to their conclusion and immediately told the girl she was very lucky because the man she saw staring at her was not standing outside, but he was standing behind her and what she saw was his reflection.
Doppelgänger
Doppelganger is German for “double-goer.” It is known as a physical or ghostly figure that looks like an exact double of you. Doppelgangers are said to be “death omens.” If a person see’s their doppelganger or a doppelganger of a relative it is bad luck. The victim and their family will be in jeopardy of illness and/or death. If the doppelganger is repeatedly shows up in a person’s presence than that means their closer to death than they think. Some just think a doppelganger is an evil twin that is trapped in another dimension and if seen it’s because something is going wrong in their world.
The Gas Station Attendant
A young woman’s car ran out of gas, and she knew that she needed to find a gas station. She was in an unfamiliar area and she did not know where she was. She stumbled across a gas station and decided to go there. An attendant came out and filled up her tank. The young woman felt strange and had a bad feeling about this place. She knew she needed to get out of there. After her gas tank was filled, she handed the attendant a twenty dollar bill. The attendant examined the bill and told her that the bill was counterfeit. He asked her to come into his office because he needed to call his manager. The young woman was hesitant because she had a strange feeling when she arrived at this place. The attendant convinced her to go and once she was alone with him, he told her the bill was not counterfeit, there had been a man with a hatchet hiding in her backseat.
