Le Loyon

Residents of the areas surrounding the Maules Forest in Switzerland told stories about a mysterious man who walked around the woods wearing a long camouflage cloak and a gas mask.

He was named the ghost of Maules or Le Loyon by the locals. But with no proof of his existence, it was all brushed off as folklore.

In 2013, however, a passerby snapped this photograph of Le Loyon. Not long after, his cloak and gas mask were found in the forest with a note saying he couldn't take being seen as a monster. It is unclear what happened to him, but he was never seen or heard from again.

Source: www.msn.com

The killer in your attic

It's a tale as old as time. We've all heard stories involving a potential killer living in our attic who comes down when everyone is peacefully asleep. But this has actually happened. In Germany in 1922, a farm owner named Andreas Gruber noticed that small things started going missing or being misplaced. His family also heard footsteps while Gruber himself found footprints in his house. A few weeks later, the entire family was found slaughtered in their home. The identity of the mysterious killer remains unsolved.

Source: www.msn.com

Charlie No-Face

If you're an American from the Pittsburgh, PA, area, chances are you've heard about Charlie No-Face, a faceless man who wanders the roads at night.

The story says the man was a utilities worker whose face melted in an acid attack or an electric accident, depending on who's telling it.

But, the truth is, the man was real. His name was Raymond Robinson and he was the victim of a childhood accident that completely disfigured his face. He, understandably, avoided crowds, opting to go for strolls at night.

Source: www.msn.com

The horror stories from the Japanese Occupation

To describe the WWII tragedies that befell Filipinos as “creepy” won’t do it justice. Even calling it “horrifying” is an understatement. Without a doubt, the Japanese atrocities in the Philippines showed us how far humans could go in the name of honor and lust for power.

Jintaro Ishida, a Japanese veteran who served in the navy during WWII, once shared how his comrades in the Philippines learned to kill innocent civilians–including women and children–as if they were “just killing insects.” A well in a village somewhere in Lipa, for example, became the final resting place of about 400 Filipinos who were thrown to their deaths. A total of 2,000 people in Calamba were also massacred on February 12, 1945, with the old men strangled to their deaths using a rope because it was “an easier and cheaper way to kill them than with rifles and bullets.”

The Engineering Building

Somewhere in the Philippines, there is this engineering building I've spent most of my college life in. Now, I get to see it twice a week for my part-time teaching classes. During the day, the halls of the building are brimming with life, but at night, when everyone has left the building, the cold, the dark and the quiet that would greet you would send chills down your spine. Through the years I've known the building I've heard of many spooky stories, but for now, I am sharing with you some of my stories - those that I've personally experienced as a student, and as an instructor.
Story Number 1: Candle Scent
We just successfully defended our research paper. Our team aced the defense and we were beyond joyful. Finally, we could release the stress and most importantly, get off of our (then) best corporate get-ups. We loved our outfits but as Engineering students who were about to get dinner and head home, we opted for comfort over style - it was 9PM on a weeknight after all. Since we were all girls, we all went to the same rest room (public with cubicles). There were a lot of chitchat and a lot of laughing and goofing around that we didn't notice we were the only ones left, but since we were "residents" of that building, we paid no attention to the cold and dark, plus we were there so it wasn't quiet. When we were walking down the hallway of the fourth floor, I caught the scent of a burning candle. I tried shrugging it off owing to the fact that there are several Chemical laboratories on the fifth floor and there may be people conducting experiments there, but then, my group mate stopped in her tracks and said, "Can you smell that?" My brain went into overdrive and in a span of two seconds, I have put two and two together - No way should a smell of a burning candle reach the fourth floor at that hour.

Wag Tularan Lugawan

In Sangandaan, Caloocan, locals say that the various lugawans in the area actually serve human parts generously supplied to them by nearby funeral parlors as goto. Are you brave enough to add this place on your weekend food trip itinerary?

Source: https://8list.ph

Laughing ghosts

There is an account by a couple who decided to watch a comedic film in Starmall Alabang’s Cinema. The movie was so funny that they said loud laughter would erupt from the audience. But to their surprise, when the lights were turned back on post-credits, there had been only a few people watching the film with them. A pretty creepy experience, unless their collective laughter was just that loud.

Source: https://8list.ph/philippines-urban-legends/#read-more

Cursed Painting

One of Juan Luna’s well-known paintings, the Mi Novia, is said to have cursed every person who had owned it before it was given to the National Museum. Don’t worry; you won’t be harmed by just looking at the piece on your museum visit.
Source: https://8list.ph/philippines-urban-legends/#read-more

Haunted Barrio

Take care when passing through Kaybiang Tunnel of Ternate, Cavite to enter the so-called Barrio ng Aswang. As one story goes, a group of friends went to the barrio but was disturbed by the ominous aura that emitted from the locals. When they ventured back home, one of them had become cursed by an aswang that had to be purged from him with the help of an abularyo. You’d hear a lot of ghost stories about the haunted barrio. If you’re brave enough, try going there to see for yourself just how haunting it is!
Source: https://8list.ph/philippines-urban-legends/

Arkansas: The Dog Boy

Why it's creepy: The name sounds kind of goofy, or actually even kind of like Goofy. But if you find yourself at 65 Mulberry Street, in the middle of the minuscule Arkansas town of Quitman, you won't laugh if you see the hulking outline of a 300-pound half man, half beast -- complete with glowing animal eyes -- glaring out of the windows. Walk quickly, as he has been known to chase people down his street, biting at their heels -- kind of like a dog, actually.

Where it came from: This is actually the rare urban legend where the story behind the story ends up being even creepier than the folklore. Gerald Bettis, the only son of the Bettis family of 65 Mulberry, was always a problem child. But not in the cute, Junior Healy way. Bettis would "collect" and torture animals (hence the "dog boy" moniker), before turning his sociopathic focus to his elderly parents, allegedly imprisoning them in their own home and potentially even murdering his father. Eventually, Bettis would be imprisoned for growing marijuana on his back porch and would die in a state penitentiary in 1988 of a drug overdose. -- WF
Source: www.thrillist.com

Arizona: Skinwalkers

Why it's creepy: It's easy to feel uneasy while driving through the desolate desert roads of Arizona, especially at night, and particularly so when you hear a short burst of taps on your window while cruising at 60 mph and turn to see the shapeshifting, mutilated, half-human creature responsible for the high-speed interruption. Relax -- it's only trying to rip the flesh off your bones. This legend is so ingrained in Arizona culture that, when a Navajo woman was found brutally murdered in Flagstaff, the accused killer's defense in court was that the attack could have only been perpetrated by a Skinwalker. There's even a defined and well-documented portion of the state known as Skinwalker Ranch where you are most likely to see one of the creatures. Not that you'd actually want to.

Where it came from: The Skinwalkers, like so many ancient American urban legends, have roots in Native American folklore. While it's fairly hard to gather specific details -- as speaking of potentially sinister legends is seriously taboo in Navajo culture -- it is understood that what non-Navajos refer to as "skinwalkers" are witch doctors who have become an evil reflection of everything the Navajo nation values. Basically, they are men who've transformed into malevolent, murderous creatures that have no qualms using their spiritual powers to kill. Navajo medicine men are trained to learn both good and evil aspects of their power, and Skinwalkers are those who have turned to the Dark Side. It's all very Star Wars. And, frankly, still terrifying. -- Wil Fulton

Alaska: The Alaska Triangle

Why it's creepy: Encompassing an area ranging from near Juneau in the southeast to the northern Barrow region to the western metropolis of Anchorage, Alaska's answer to the Bermuda Triangle is comprised some of the most barren wilderness in the US -- and it apparently craves souls. More than 20,000 people have gone missing without a trace in the area during the past half-century alone. Are they being consumed by mythological beings like the beastly Keelut or the ghoulish kidnapper Qalupalik, lost on extreme hikes, or simply vanishing into a dark vortex? Nobody knows, though it's not for lack of trying: When the government lost House Majority Leader Hale Boggs’ Cessna to the Triangle in 1972, a massive search turned up tons of conspiracy theories, but no bodies.

Where it came from: The area has been associated with evil spirits, and Tlingit lore for centuries attributed trickster demons for luring people to an icy death. Others believe the area exists amid an electromagnetically influenced “vile vortex.” Still others think it’s a Darwinian result of explorers taking on nature. Regardless, the area continues to claim people, and underneath that massive blanket of snow and rock likely lies one of the largest and best-preserved mass graves in the world. -- AK
Source: www.thrillist.com

The Jeepney Ride

An urban legend meant to showcase the hazards of riding a jeepney alone at night especially if you’re a girl, the story starts when a woman goes into a jeep without any passenger but herself and a driver at night.

When she asks to be dropped at her stop, the driver takes a glance at her through the rear view mirror and continues on driving. By this time, the girl is now worried that he might be planning something evil. After some time however, he finally drops her off at her stop.

Before she could hurriedly depart, the woman was told by the driver that she should immediately burn her clothes because when he looked at her through the mirror, she had no head—an omen signifying her death.

Source: filipiknow.net

THE HEADLESS PRIEST

Chances are you may have experienced being scared by old folks as a child about a headless priest coming out of your wound. As absurd as that may have sounded when you grew older, it just proves that stories of headless priests are alive and well, especially when November is drawing near.

As their name suggests, these clergymen roam universities, graveyards, churches, or any other conveniently eerie places. Sometimes they carry their heads with them; other times they do not, and are ostensibly searching for them.

As to why they lost their heads, these priests were said to have been decapitated either by Filipino revolutionaries during the Revolution or by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Urban legends about priests have also been most likely reinforced with earlier stories of biblical figures and martyrs who had been beheaded, like St. John the Baptist for example.

Read more at: filipiknow.net

The Dead Boyfriend

Here are two examples of the urban legend known as the "The Dead Boyfriend."

Example #1:

A girl and her boyfriend are making out in his car. They had parked in the woods so no one would see them. When they were done, the boy got out to pee and the girl waited for him in the safety of the car.

After waiting five minutes, the girl got out of the car to look for her boyfriend. Suddenly, she sees a man in the shadows. Scared, she gets back in the car to drive away, when she hears a very faint squeak... squeak... squeak...

This continued a few seconds until the girl decided she had no choice but to drive off. She hit the gas as hard as possible but couldn't go anywhere, because someone had tied a rope from the bumper of the car to a nearby tree.

Well, the girl slams on the gas again and then hears a loud scream. She gets out of the car and realizes that her boyfriend is hanging from the tree. The squeaky noises were his shoes slightly scraping across the top of the car!!!

HOW THE EXPLOSIVE 'POP ROCKS AND COKE' LEGEND DESTROYED AN ICONIC CANDY BRAND

 

John Gilchrist, the child actor best-known as Mikey from Life cereal's most notable commercial, was tossing around a baseball in 1979 when his mom got a bizarre phone call from a stranger in tears.

"I'm so sorry to hear about your son!" the woman wailed.

"What do you mean?" Gilchrist's mother shot back. "He's at the park -- he just came home from school."

Probably just a wacko, his mom thought -- but "it weirded her out," recalls Gilchrist, now 49, "so she sent my oldest brother to drive by the field where I was playing to make sure I was OK. That’s when I first heard the Pop Rocks story."

Gilchrist -- then an athletic 11-year-old living in Westchester, New York -- had unwittingly become the subject of a wild rumor: the actor who played Mikey in the 1972 Life cereal ad mixed too much of the carbonated candy with too much Coca-Cola and his stomach exploded.

Variations of the urban legend claimed that it was his head that had exploded or specified the precise number of Pop Rocks packets and Cokes involved (six each). But however it happened, the poor kid had died tragically and the entire country was talking about it.

"Mikey lost his Life!," hollered children on playgrounds across America. Spooked parents who heard the tale flooded the headquarters of General Foods, the company behind Pop Rocks, with worried calls and refused to let their kids eat the fizzy fad candy, which had arrived on shelves with great fanfare in 1975. Sales plunged. "When that story hit the country, it was like, 'Bam!'" says Jerry Saltzgaber, former Pop Rocks business manager for General Foods.

Even long after the lore was debunked (Gilchrist, obviously, is fine), few have heard the whole truth behind the first-of-its-kind candy and its beginnings as an accidental lab experiment. Behind the scenes, production was more dark than sweet: Confectionary chemists lost fingers churning out the highly pressurized treat. Splashy product rollout plans were foiled by candy bootleggers. And the fallout from the Mikey rumor sent Pop Rocks into a spiral of crisis from which it would never recover.

"By the end, we were forced to destroy tons of the candy," says Marv Rudolph, a product developer for Pop Rocks in the '70s. "We literally buried it in the ground."

Read more at: www.thrillist.com