How many of you reading this have watched a horror movie or played a horror themed video game? Probably nearly everyone, and you probably made it through the experience by telling yourself that it’s only made up and things like that don’t actually happen in real life… Well think again.
As it turns out, things that seem to have been pulled straight out of a horror movie happen regularly across the world. There have been many cases of weird and unexplained events, but I have selected what I think are the Top 10 creepiest stories for your enjoyment (and goosebumps). But be warned, if you are reading this at night, you may want to turn your light on and check your door is locked…
10. The Mothman
The Mothman is a creature that has never been scientifically identified and is often considered a myth or legend. So while some may consider this to be a fake story, the events linked to the sightings of the supposed Mothman are just too weird to ignore! On November 12th 1966, 5 men digging a grave in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, reported seeing a man-like figure fly low from the trees above their heads. 3 days later, two young couples reported seeing a large white creature whose eyes glowed red when their car headlights picked it up. They further described it as a large flying man with ten foot wings that followed their car as they drove. Over the next year, more and more witnesses came forward, all reporting seeing the same white creature with red eyes. However, this all ended when over a year after the first sighting, on December 15th 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed and killed 46 people, and the Mothman was never seen again… Now even if you’re the type that believes in coincidences, can you really just brush this one off? A freaky moth-man hybrid shows up, a bridge collapses and the thing is never seen again? Sounds to me like us humans aren’t on the Mothman’s top friends list.
9. Congelier Mansion
Fans of American Horror Story, this one’s for you. Over a period of 56 years this house gained a reputation as America’s most haunted house, and the season 1 writers of AHS must have definitely found some inspiration here. In 1871, the wife of the original owner, Charles Congelier, caught her husband having an affair with the house maid. Distraught, she used a meat cleaver to murder her husband and his new lover. She was then found days later rocking in a chair while humming a lullaby to the severed head of the maid… Probably shouldn’t have f*cked with this girl. In 1892, a rail company purchased the house for it’s workers to use. However, not long after arriving, the workers reported hearing strange noises in the house and so refused to stay in it any longer (smart choice). Almost 10 years later, in 1901, neighbours of the house reported hearing a woman’s scream and a flash of light coming from the house one year after the new owner, Dr Brunrichter, purchased the property and moved in. Upon searching the property, police found the body of a woman with no head, as well as a laboratory in the basement which contained the severed heads of 5 more women. As it turned out, Dr Brunrichter was a bit of a nutcase, and was performing experiments on the heads to try and keep them alive. The house then remained empty, although during the 1920s Thomas Edison was believed to have visited the house while working on a device that would allow him to communicate with the dead (What, because inventing the light bulb isn’t good enough?!) Also, a medium visited the house during this time and reported detecting a gruesome spirit that had the potential to kill. In 1927, the house met it’s messy end when a natural gas storage tank nearby exploded, causing a chain reaction with the other tanks that eventually completely destroyed the house. The site of the house is still considered a hot spot for spiritual activity to this day. Well I won’t be paying a visit any time soon then…
8. H.H.Holmes (Murder Castle)
In Chicago, Illinois, H.H.Holmes became the one of the first documented serial killers after he was convicted of the murders committed in the infamous ‘Murder Castle’ during the ten year period of 1884-1894. The ‘Murder Castle’ was actually named World’s Fair Hotel, and was used as a hostelry. However, the top two floors contained a real life maze of terror, consisting of 100 windowless rooms, doorways opening to brick walls, oddly angled hallways, stairways to nowhere, and doors only open-able from the outside… Not exactly somewhere you’d want to spend a relaxed weekend getaway. During construction, Holmes repeatedly hired and fired builders so that nobody except him ever truly understood the design of the hotel. He chose his victims by hiring them to work in his hotel (they were mainly female) before introducing them to the maze of terror and eventually killing them.Holmes was also creative with his murders. Throughout the maze were soundproof bedrooms which were fitted with gas lines that allowed Holmes to asphyxiate his victims whenever he fancied. Also, close to his office was a huge soundproof bank vault where he would leave his victims to slowly suffocate. This would all be bad enough, but the horrors only got worse as you delved deeper into the castle. Holmes built a secret chute that led straight to the basement (presumably he dropped bodies down using this) where he would dissect his victims, stripping their flesh from the bones and crafting the skeletons into models before selling them to medical schools. Also found in the basement were pits of acid bottles of various poisons, and a stretching rack. Holmes was eventually captured and executed in 1896, but not before creating a pile of bodies that was anywhere between 9 and 200!
7. The Dyatlov Pass
This incident occurred in the Ural Mountains in Russia in 1959, and may very well be the work of a yeti or Bigfoot… Nine skiers went for a ski trip in the mountains of Kholat Syakhl, which is literally translated to Mountain of the Dead (good choice guys!). However, the nine skiers seemed to simply vanish. On February 26th, a search party was formed and it wasn’t long before they found the badly damaged tent of the skiers along with all of their possessions, including their shoes. Shoeless footprints were discovered leading away from the tent, and after following them, the search party found 5 of the skiers, all wearing only their underwear. They were ruled to have died of hypothermia. However, things got stranger when the four remaining bodies were found over two months later. They had fatal injuries consisting of major skull trauma, major chest fractures, and, disturbingly in the case of one victim, missing tongue and missing eyes. This kind of damage is associated with victims of high speed car crashes, although there were no external injuries. The authorities later provided the explanation that tribes living in the mountains must have thought the skiers were trespassing and killed them as a punishment. However, only the hiker’s footprints were visible and there were no signs of hand to hand combat. So unless these tribes members have wings and are extremely stealthy, this theory quickly falls apart.
6. Armin Meiwes
This one isn’t as much creepy as it is pure disturbing. If you have a weak stomach then it’s probably best that you skip this one because it’s about to get gory! In 2001, Armin Meiwes sent out an internet advertisement that stated he was “looking for a well built 18 to 30 year old to be slaughtered and then consumed” (imagine something like that on Match.com… yeah I don’t think we’re a match actually, thank you very much!) Despite the bizarre ad, one man, Bernd Jurgen Armando, answered the ad and met Armin at his apartment not long after. The two videotaped their meeting (and trust me, from the details of what happened next, it’s not a tape you’ll want to be watching any time soon) Armin began by amputating Bernd’s penis with a knife, and then proceeded to attempt to eat it. Bernd even tried his own raw penis, but deemed that it was too chewy and so Armin fried it with some of Bernd’s fat. This ultimately failed, and so Armin chopped it up and fed it to his dog. While Bernd was bleeding to death from his wounds in Armin’s bathtub, Armin read a Star Trek book (as you do when someone is dying in your bathroom). He did this for three hours, before eventually stabbing Bernd repeatedly in the throat, and hanging him on a meat hook in a specially designed room in his own house called ‘The Slaughter Room’. Over the next 10 months, Armin fed on strips of flesh that he tore from the body, as well as grinding the bones to make flour… Thankfully, he was convicted in 2004 and will spend the rest of his life in prison.
5. Elisa Lam
In 2013 in Vancouver, Canada, guests at Cecil Hotel complained that the water from the taps tasted funny. Upon checking the water tanks on top of the building, the dead body of a young woman was found inside one of them. That’s right, the guests had been drinking the decomposing body of a human being… And it gets better! A four minute video posted to YouTube revealed elevator surveillance footage of Elisa that was thought to have been a few moments before her death. The video is available on-line for you to watch, but be prepared for some serious creeps… Elisa enters the elevator and presses all the buttons, but the doors do not close. She then cautiously checks outside the elevator, as if looking for someone, before returning to the elevator and hiding in the corner. About halfway through, she exits the elevator and begins moving her hands as if feeling the air for something. She then begins to gesture as if speaking to someone, although there is no-one in front of her. The video ends with her walking away and the elevator returning to work as normal. Her death was ruled as “accidental by drowning” and many people attribute her odd behaviour to the influence of drugs. However, the autopsy reports declared that there were no traces of drugs or alcohol in her system, so what caused her behaviour? Could there have been some ghostly going-ons…
4. Charles E. Peck
This is when we start to get into some seriously paranormal business so seriously, if you haven’t already done so, you may want to turn on your light! In Los Angeles, 2008, two trains collided killing 25 people and injuring many others. One of the victims of the crash was Charles E. Peck. In the first 11 hours after the crash, Charles’ loved ones received a total of 35 phone calls from Charles between them. However, if they answered the call they only heard static, and an attempt to return the call was met with his voicemail. 12 hours after the accident, the signal from the phone was traced and led to the discovery of Charles’ body. Charles was travelling in the lead car and so had died on impact, his body being reported as having shown no signs of being alive long enough to make the calls. Adding to the mystery, although the signal from the phone had led to that very scene, the phone was never found…
3. The Harlequin
Imagine being haunted by some freaky ass clown type ghost for your whole life. Well that’s just what happened to Dan Mitchell of Wisconsin. The hauntings started when Dan was just 5. The Harlequin would visit him at night, call itself the Tooth Fairy and dance around his room telling him stories. However, the Harlequin didn’t limit his terror to just Dan. In 1981, as the family sat down for a dinner, Dan’s father mentioned that he was very agitated because he kept hearing someone moving about upstairs. At that moment, a sinister and terrifying laugh was heard from upstairs, causing his father to shoot up from the dinner table in a state of terror. Each Mitchell family member reports a different experience. Dan’s brother recalled cycling with Dan and being followed by a homeless looking man on a three wheeled bicycle that is normally found at the circus. Dan has a similar memory, although he thought it was a dream. Dan’s mother reported hearing people moving around the house either upstairs or in the basement during the day, and in the garage during the night. As if all this wasn’t enough, the Harlequin also visited other children, each of whom described it as all white, with abnormally long limbs and empty eyes… Remember that flash of white on your wall last night that you thought was from outside? Yeah…
2. The Overtoun Bridge
If you’re a dog person and aren’t in any way a fan of harm befalling dogs, then I advise you to move straight on to number 1. If not then, please, stay and let this story give you the creeps! The Overtoun Bridge in Scotland is famous for all the wrong reasons. In the past 50 years, 50 dogs have jumped to their deaths from the bridge, with no warning or provocation. Even stranger, all the dogs have jumped from the same spot on the bridge: between the two parapets on the right hand side. Also, all of the suicides have been committed on clear, sunny days and all of the dogs have been long nosed breeds (Labradors, Collies, and Retrievers) Animal protection organisations can not figure out what’s causing the dogs to suddenly make this fatal jump, and adding to the mystery, in 2008 a man threw his infant son off the bridge due to being convinced that his son was the Antichrist… I’d rather swim than cross this bridge, sh*t’s crazy! Although, in Celtic Mythology, Overtoun is known as ‘The Thin Place’, an area in which Heaven and Earth are reputed to be close, so maybe that has something to do with it…
1. Zozzaby the Clown
This one freaked the hell out of me. Taking the top spot of creepiest real life story is Zozzaby the Clown. Frederick Zozzaby was a performer in the early 1900s who wasn’t exactly the most entertaining of acts. Due to being addicted to alcohol and drugs, Zozzaby rarely made any impact while performing, and so sank into a deep depression. During his depression, he hatched a plan to pour gasoline over his audience and light them on fire during his next performance! However, the theatre manager caught wind of the plot and had the police arrest him, leading to him being subsequently locked up in Lancashire Asylum. In 1929, Zozzaby killed himself. However, it doesn’t stop there. Audience members attending performances at the Floral Pavilion (where Zozzaby performed while he was alive) reported seeing Zozzaby wandering the aisles. Even more disturbing, is that children have reported hearing strange laughter while they were sleeping and, upon awakening, saw a translucent clown staring and pointing directly at them… They describe the clown as having a long, bent nose and blackened, eyeless sockets. Ok can we just take a minute and appreciate how scary this actually is! Imagine waking up from a nice dream in the middle of the night and seeing some demonic Krusty the Clown staring at you… I’m going to need some new underwear after that!
And that’s the Top 10 Creepiest Real Life Stories! Of course those aren’t the only ones out there so if you feel like having a sleepless night then go check out the rest of them or even just find some more information on the ones above, and let me know what you think is the creepiest in the comments section below. If you’ve made it this far then thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this one. Also, if you did enjoy it, then why not give give my page a follow, I post every Wednesday and Saturday with new Top 10s that are bound to entertain and intrigue you.
Don’t forget to check under your bed tonight…
AaronDuke 