Youth Incorporated Magazine

We often dismiss urban legends as tall-tales and fiction. In most cases, this is true as urban legends are usually created by horror and mystery fans just for fun. However, there have been many urban legends which have been inspired by true events or some which are even scarily true!

Alligators in the Sewer

There is often a tale going around in the US that alligators roam the sewers of New York and anyone caught in the sewers could possibly be attacked by one of these. However, in reality, it is very difficult for alligators to live in the pipes especially as these pipes freeze up during the winter. But a baby alligator was found in sewers of New York City in 2010. However, this is far from a colony.

Charlie No-Face

There was an urban legend in the town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that there was a disfigured man called Charlie No-Face who lurked around abandoned tunnels and even electricity began to go haywire as the man walked the tunnels.

The legend of Charlie No-Face ended up being somewhat true. A man named Raymond Robinson had had his face disfigured due to an accident involving an electric wire. In order to not scare the public, he would only walk out of his home at night. However, he did nothing haunting. In fact, he would let the people who were curious enough to approach him take a photo with him and was very friendly.

The Halloween Hangings

There is an urban legend going around that a prankster who wanted to prank his family on Halloween attempted to fake a hanging. However, the rope slips and the prankster dies for real. Nobody assists him as they think he is acting.

This is more a fact that a legend as this has happened multiple times in the US. In 1990 this happened to a teen in New Jersey and in 2001 it happened to another teen whose friends believed that he was acting.

Le Loyon

Le Loyon was a legend in Switzerland of a man roaming the Forests of Maules in a gas mask. People said he didn’t do anything haunting, just that he was really creepy.

However, in 2013 one curious pedestrian managed to get the photo of Le Loyon. Later, his mask and camouflage coat was found in the forest with a note stating that he could no longer be seen as a monster and that he is harmless. What actually happened to the person behind Le Loyon is a mystery.

Mystery Roommate

There is a legend that states there was a man who saw things going missing in his house only to set up a camera. He soon finds that there is a man living in his attic and taking all his supplies.

This actually happened in Tokyo, Japan. A man noticed food missing in his house and set up a camera to see if there was a thief who managed to enter his house. However, he was surprised to see a woman come out of his closet to get food from the refrigerator. It was later discovered that this homeless woman had found this man’s door unlocked and was living in his closet for a year!

The Bunny Man

The Bunny Man is a legend which states that a bus taking mental patients to an asylum is Fairfax County crashed. Many of inmates escaped and all but one were re-captured. Soon, people started finding half-eaten carcasses of rabbits in the area.

The legend though not true as there wasn’t any asylum in Fairfax County in 1904, does have some basis. In 1970, travellers often saw a man dressed in a Bunny costume roaming the streets of Fairfax County. One such traveller had parked their car on the street to visit their relative when a man in a bunny costume broke their window with an axe. The man screamed that they were on private property. He was later spotted by a security guard in the same year. However, the police were never able to capture the bunny man.

The Alice Killings

The Alice Killings was a Japanese urban legend which talked about a particular serial killer who was active from 1999 to 2005. He often left a playing card and the name Alice has written somewhere next to the victim. The victims were chosen at random. The first victim was found with her body parts impaled in tree branches, the second had his vocal cords torn out. The third victim was a teenage girl who was flayed with her mouth sliced and eyes carved out. A crown was also sewn to her head. The final victims were children who were given a lethal injection. The killer was captured in 2005 but couldn’t be connected to any of the crime scenes.

Truthfully, there were no such killings in Japan, but there were in Spain. A man named Alfredo Galan Sotillo was charged with murdering six people and injuring three and leaving playing cards on the victims. He was sentenced to 142 years in prison.

Bloody Mary

It is said that if you look into the mirror and call Bloody Mary three times you will be able to see her in the mirror. However, this myth has a scientific explanation called the Strange Face Illusion wherein if you look in the mirror constantly there is an illusion of a stranger looking back at you.

Cropsey

There was a legend that a man called Cropsey lived under the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island. He would generally kidnap children and murder them by hacking them to pieces.

This turned out to be true as a man called Andre Rand was found to be kidnapping children, and sexually abusing and murdering them under this abandoned school. Two children’s bodies were found but Rand refused to reveal the location of the bodies of the other children.