Urban Legends
An urban legend or urban myth is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them. The term is often used to mean something akin to an "apocryphal story." Like older folklore, urban legends sometimes have a germ of truth, but even in this case they are often distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized over time.

Despite its name, a typical urban legend does not necessarily originate in an urban setting. The term is simply used to differentiate modern legend from traditional folklore in preindustrial times. For this reason, sociologists and folklorists prefer the term "contemporary legend."
Urban legends are sometimes repeated in news stories and, in recent years, distributed by e-mail. People frequently allege that such tales happened to a "friend of a friend"—so often, in fact, that "friend of a friend," ("FOAF") has become a commonly used term when recounting this type of story.

Some urban legends have passed through the years with only minor changes to suit regional variations. One example is the story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo. More recent legends tend to reflect modern circumstances, like the story of people ambushed, anesthetized, and waking up minus one kidney, which was surgically removed for transplantation.

The Babysitter Story
The babysitter story is truly an unforgettable urban legend, told at slumber parties everywhere. The tale has different variations but the spooky and downright terrifying elements remain the same.

As the story goes, a teenage girl is hired by a young couple to baby-sit their two small children. They go out to a dinner party and leave the girl to tend to the kids in a somewhat isolated, large house at the end of the block.
When the hour gets late, she puts the children to bed and sits down to watch some late-night TV. The phone starts ringing and startles the half-asleep teenager. When she answers it, she hears heavy breathing and a man tells her he is "coming to get her." While she is somewhat scared, she dismisses it as a prank phone call.

About 15 minutes later, the phone rings again. When she answers it, the man starts laughing and tells her that he is closer. The baby sitter is truly frightened now and calls the police.
They tell her that it's probably just a prank phone call, but they will try to trace the call -- so she must keep him on the line as long as possible if he calls another time. She once again settles down on the couch, not sleepy at all.
The phone rings a third time and the man tells her he has come for her and it's only a matter of time. He continues with some heavy breathing until the babysitter is so terrified that she hangs up the phone again.

She quickly decides to get the children and flee the house when the phone rings again. This time it is a policeman on the other end and he tells her frantically "GET OUT OF THE HOUSE NOW!" THE MAN IS INSIDE THE HOUSE AND IS CALLING FROM THE UPSTAIRS EXTENSION!"
She runs from the house as the police arrive. The madman escapes but they find the children upstairs dead and a bloody axe laying on the bedroom floor next to an open window.

Note: The baby-sitter urban legend is as old as the hills. In this story, the man is always calling from the "upstairs extension" -- but it's probably unlikely that he would be able ring the phone from an extension. In most instances, he would have to be calling from a separate phone line upstairs.

Notice how the perpetrator gets away, leaving him "on the loose" to prey on other innocent teenage girls? It makes for some great storytelling, particularly when the crime is not solved.

Watch the 1979 movie "When a Stranger Calls" and the 1993 sequel "When a Stranger Calls Back" to see how this legend evolved into film. Want to see something newer? Released on February 3, 2006 is a remake of the former movie, also titled "When a Stranger Calls."

Killer in the Backseat
This is a scary urban legend called “Killer in the Backseat“, about a young woman who goes driving alone late at night and finds more than she bargained for.

One night a woman went out for drinks with her girlfriends. She left the bar fairly late at night, got in her car and onto the deserted highway. After a few miles, she noticed she was low on gas and pulled into a gas station.
She was frightened by the odd behavior of the attendant, who kept trying to get her to leave the car and join him in the office. She refused and drove off as fast as she could.

As she drove, she noticed a lone pair of headlights in her rear-view mirror, approaching fast. As the car pulled up behind her, dangerously close to her tailgate and the brights flashed.
Now she was getting nervous. The car behind her kept flashing the lights off and on and the driver seemed to be shouting and making signs with his hands.

Through every stoplight and turn, it followed her until she reached home and pulled into her driveway. Terrified, she made a mad dash into her house and called the police. As she ran from the car, so did the driver of the car behind her — and he screamed, “Lock the door and call the police! Call 911!”

When the police arrived the horrible truth was finally revealed to the woman. The man in the car had been trying to save her. As he pulled up behind her and his headlights illuminated her car, he saw the silhouette of a man with an axe rising up from the back seat behind her, so he flashed his brights to warn her.

The police arrested the crazed killer in the backseat who turned out to be an escaped mental patient. It was an extremely scary night and the woman had a lucky escape.

Roommates
This scary urban legend about two roommates is called “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights”.
Two girls were roommates in college and they were studying for a midterm exam the next day. One of the girls decided to give up studying and go to bed while the other stayed up late because she wanted to do well in the exam.

During the night, the girl who stayed up remembered that she had left one of the books she needed in her roommate’s bedroom. She didn’t want to wake her roommate so she sneaked into the bedroom and rummaged around in the dark until she found the book she needed.
She heard some heavy breathing and she whispered her roommate’s name, asking her if she was awake. There was no answer.
The girl heard something moving and whispered “Can I turn on the lights? I need to find something.”
There was no answer.

So the girl continued to search in the darkness and eventually she found the book she was looking for. The girl took the book and felt her way in the darkness towards the door. She stayed up all night studying and in the morning, raced down to the exam hall to take her test. But her roommate never showed up for the exam.
The girl was worried about her friend so when she got home, she rushed into her roomate’s bedroom and was met with the most horrible sight she had ever laid eyes on.

Her roommate lay motionless, sprawled on top of her bed in a pool of blood. She had been murdered.
Then the girl turned around and saw something that chilled her to the bone. Written on the wall behind her in smeared blood were the words “Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On The Lights?”

Resurrection Mary
One of the most famous, ghostly hitchhikers is Chicago’s Resurrection Mary. Reports and eyewitness accounts attest that beautiful, blonde, Mary was sighted on numerous occasions near Resurrection Cemetery wearing a long, white, flowing gown.
The first claims began back in 1930, after young Mary attended a dance at the O'Henry Ballroom (now called The Willowbrook Ballroom) and subsequently had an argument with her boyfriend. Mary fled the scene of the fight and hitchhiked down Archer Avenue on that cold winter night when she was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident.

She was then buried in Resurrection Cemetery, which utilizes heavy bars on the front gate. Witnesses claim that Mary did not pass into the other world because they have seen her ghost haunting both Archer Avenue and the ballroom at which she danced that fateful night.
Several things remain common to those who encounter Resurrection Mary. She is a young blond-haired, blue-eyed girl, simply stunning to look at. Her attire has always been a long ball gown and dancing shoes. Her skin is cold and clammy to touch to those who have contact. If she was picked up by a driver, she disappears through the car or asks to be let off when they pass the cemetery.
In 1976, a passerby called the police after noticing a woman who appeared to be locked inside Resurrection Cemetery. When the police arrived, the woman was nowhere to be seen but there was physical evidence that the bars on the gate were bent apart. Not only that, her handprints were embedded into the bars.

It's unknown just who Resurrection Mary is and exactly what occurred the night she died. Nonetheless, she will remain one of Chicago's favorite ghosts because apparently, she does not want to be forgotten.

The Wizard of Oz Suicide Legend
The Wizard of Oz is one of the most well known movie classics of all time. Almost everyone has seen it, so of course there are bound to be rumors. One, in particular, is the hanging theory -- the urban legend that either a midget or stagehand hanged themselves on film. The question is, what really happened? While most agree that it is in fact false, some still argue that the hanging was real.
The suicide scene allegedly takes place when Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man head down the yellow brick road, on their way to Emerald City (after the Wicked Witch leaves.) Deep in the background, a dark figure can be seen.

Some say that a distraught munchkin hanged himself. The story says that he was upset because the female munchkin that he loved didn’t feel the same way for him. He then decided to kill himself right on set. Others say that it was a clumsy stagehand who accidentally fell out of a prop tree onto the set, getting caught in a cable of some sort, and was strangled to death.

Legend has it that the figure in the forest clearly takes a wooden block, stands on it, hangs himself, and then kicks the block out from underneath. On the other hand, critics argue that it was an exotic bird which was placed on set to give the movie a natural and realistic atmosphere. The moving figure was simply a bird, most likely a crane, flapping its wings and pecking at the ground.
The rumor started after the movie came out on VHS tape, which enabled people to replay the scene over and over. On the small screen, things appear much differently. With the picture being so small, the image wasn’t clear and this lead people to start the rumors. Supposedly, on the big screen it is undeniably a bird.

If it really was a suicide, why would they keep it on the final movie? Why not just redo the scene? Some conclude that it was “too expensive” and they were short on money. And why wouldn’t someone notice what had happened? After all, the three actors didn’t react to it or even seem to notice what happened.

Whether you believe it or not, it’s up to you. We’ll probably never know what really happened on set. But, there’s no denying it, the moving figure in the trees resembles a man hanging himself.

Vanishing Hitchhiker
The Vanishing Hitchhiker is a scary urban legend about a young girl on her way to a dance and a boy who gives her a ride in his car.
A boy and his friend were in on their way to a dance, driving down a lonely country road. They saw a young girl standing at the side of the road, with her thumb out. The boys stopped to ask her if she’d like a ride. She asked them if they’d take her home but they told her they were on their way to a dance.

They asked the girl if she’d like to come too and she accepted their invitation. So they all got in the car and she sat in the back seat. It was a very cold night and she borrowed one of their overcoats.

They danced all night and when it got late, she asked them to take her home. So they drove to her house and stopped and let her out. Suddenly one of the boys remembered he had forgotted to ask her for his overcoat. His friend said “Wait until tomorrow. We’ll come back”.
The next morning the boys returned to look for the girl. They found her mother, a very old woman, at home. She said that the girl was her daughter, but she’d been dead for 12 years. She had been killed in an car accident at the same corner. The old woman pointed to a cemetery down the road.

The boys didn’t believe her and they went into the cemetery and looked around. Then they saw the overcoat draped over a headstone. Engraved in the tombstone was the girl’s name and the date of her death was exactly 12 years ago to the day.

Buried Alive!
My great-great grandmother, ill for quite some time, finally passed away after laying in a coma for several days. My great-great grandfather was devastated beyond belief, as she was his one true love and they had been married over 50 years. They were married so long it seemed as if they knew each other's innermost thoughts.

After the doctor pronounced her dead, my great-great grandfather insisted that she was not. They had to literally pry him away from his wife's body so they could ready her for burial.

Now, back in those days they had backyard burial plots and did not drain the body of its fluids. They simply prepared a proper coffin and committed the body (in its coffin) to its permanent resting place. Throughout this process, my great-great grandfather protested so fiercely that he had to be sedated and put to bed. His wife was buried and that was that.

That night he woke to a horrific vision of his wife hysterically trying to scratch her way out of the coffin. He phoned the doctor immediately and begged to have his wife's body exhumed. The doctor refused, but my great-great grandfather had this nightmare every night for a week, each time frantically begging to have his wife removed from the grave.

Finally the doctor gave in and, together with local authorities, exhumed the body. The coffin was pried open and to everyone's horror and amazement, my great-great grandmother's nails were bent back and there were obvious scratches on the inside of the coffin.

The Hook
A teenage boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began kissing the girl.

A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcer's voice came on, warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the state insane asylum — which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane — and that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.

The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he pulled out of the parking space.

When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook.

The Body in the Bed
A man and woman went to Las Vegas for their honeymoon, and checked into a suite at a hotel. When they got to their room they both detected a bad odor. The husband called down to the front desk and asked to speak to the manager. He explained that the room smelled very bad and they would like another suite. The manager apologized and told the man that they were all booked because of a convention. He offered to send them to a restaurant of their choice for lunch compliments of the hotel and said he was going to send a maid up to their room to clean and to try and get rid of the odor.

After a nice lunch the couple went back to their room. When they walked in they could both still smell the same odor. Again the husband called the front desk and told the manager that the room still smelled really bad. The manager told the man that they would try and find a suite at another hotel. He called every hotel on the strip, but every hotel was sold out because of the convention. The manager told the couple that they couldn't find them a room anywhere, but they would try and clean the room again. The couple wanted to see the sights and do a little gambling anyway, so they said they would give them two hours to clean and then they would be back.

When the couple had left, the manager and all of housekeeping went to the room to try and find what was making the room smell so bad. They searched the entire room and found nothing, so the maids changed the sheets, changed the towels, took down the curtains and put new ones up, cleaned the carpet and cleaned the suite again using the strongest cleaning products they had. The couple came back two hours later to find the room still had a bad odor. The husband was so angry at this point, he decided to find whatever this smell was himself. So he started tearing the entire suite apart himself.

As he pulled the top mattress off the box spring he found a dead body of a woman.