15 Small-Town Myths and Legends That Make the Jersey Devil Look Like Snuffleupagus

In Louisiana, you learn to fear the Grunch
15 Small-Town Myths and Legends That Make the Jersey Devil Look Like Snuffleupagus

The USA is enormous. Enoooooormous. And there are so many goddamn places in it. Think about it — even if every state only had 10 places worth knowing about, that would still be 500 places. But there are so, so many more than that — tiny-ass hamlets, big-ass cities, giant-ass woods, enormous-ass canyons and everything in between.

Places need stories. They’re what turn somewhere from a geographical feature to somewhere you can come from. It’s no wonder, then, that a lot of these too-many places have developed myths and legends — tales of cryptids, tragedies and murderers eternally tied to specific spots. 

Most of them are almost certainly nonsense, but if you find yourself in an overgrown forest at night, engine spluttering, shadows taking on unsettlingly predatory shapes, they don’t necessarily feel it…

Jonestown, Pennsylvania: Reflect Upon the Boy in the Bathroom

A student at Pine Haven School was shoved into a mirror in the boys' bathroom, which shattered and killed him. If you use the bathroom and look in the mirror, it's said you'll see him behind you in your reflection. CRACKED

Source / Shutterstock 

Bladenboro, North Carolina: Beware the Beast

In the 1950s, Bladenboro was terrorized by a monstrous vampiric cat-beast which munched on dogs, a lamb and - monstrously - a kitten. Monster hunters descended on the town and eventually a 25-pound bobcat was killed. Was it the Beast? CRACKED

Source / Nature 

Grunch Road, Louisiana: The Inbred Woodfolk Will Drink Your Blood

Legend has it that monstrous inbred forest albinos known as the Grunch will lure you out of your car with an injured goat. Then, when you get out to tend to it, they'll eat your flesh and drink you dry. CRACKED

Source 

Cumberland, Rhode Island: Listen out for Fingernail Freddy

A scruffy recluse harassed by guests at a nearby summer camp, Freddy once chased some away with a shotgun. They set his house alight in retaliation, killing his family. Не took to the woods, nails growing ever longer and sharper. CRACKED

Source / 949 Whom 

Sabattus, Maine: The Well to Hell

In the 1950s, a boy was lowered into Sabattus' haunted well on a dare. Eventually, his friends pulled him up, to find him white-haired and catatonic, eyes wide with terror and unable to speak, only to scream. CRACKED

Source / WJBG 

Quitman, Arkansas: Don’t Get Fetched by the Arkansas Dog Boy

The Arkansas Dog Boy is, it's said, six feet tall and 300 pounds. Half human, half canine, he might be what's left of Gerald Bettis, a local boy who spent the 1970s torturing and killing dogs, eventually becoming a monster. CRACKED

Source / Allied News 

Valentine, Nebraska: The Clarinetist Who Can Annoy You from Beyond the Grave

Clarinets are an irritating instrument, but one Nebraska musician who died in the 1940s after someone poisoned her reed has managed to annoy beyond death - visitors to Centennial Hall hear eerie music with no obvious source and feel cold spots. CRACKED

Source / Yamaha 

Slaughterhouse Canyon, Arizona: Fuck That Mother

In the 1800s, a poor family found themselves starving when dad went out to find food and never returned. His wife went mad with hunger and, wearing her wedding dress, murdered their children. Her screams still echo through the canyon. CRACKED

Source 

The Death-Foretelling Undertaker

CLOVERLAND 100 STEPS CEMETERY CLOSED DUSK TO-DAWN The 19th-century cemetery in Brazil has 100 steps, and counting them as you climb will lead to a ghostly undertaker appearing at the top and showing you a vision of your death. That sounds, of course, appalling. Don't do it. CRACKED

Source 

Pope Lick, Kentucky: Resist the Lure of the Goat Man

The Goat Man may have been a sideshow performer, or a Satanic farmer, or the Devil himself. Whatever his origins, he now lures people down to the train tracks into the paths of oncoming trains. CRACKED

Source 

Clifton, Virginia: The Bunnyman Will Get You

When an insane asylum was built in Clifton, residents successfully petitioned for the inmates to be moved elsewhere. The bus moving them crashed, and while most were captured, one escaped - the Bunnyman, living on rabbit flesh in between human kills. CRACKED

Source / NatGeo 

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