10 terrifying urban legends that are based on true stories

Here are 10 super-creepy urban legends that are based on a true story!

1. The Funhouse Mummy

In 1976, an American camera crew visited a Californian amusement park to film inside its haunted house. Whilst there, a mannequin that was hanging from the ceiling suddenly lost one of its arms and when the crew tried to reattach it, they discovered something horrifying... the mannequin had human bones!
Experts subsequently confirmed that this was in fact the corpse of Elmer McCurdy, a felon who was murdered by a bounty hunter in 1911. An undertaker later embalmed the body, but kept it on display to show potential clients. One day a man turned up claiming to be McCurdy's brother - a complete lie, but he managed to leave with the corpse, which then became a center piece in his haunted house attraction!
Once McCurdy's body was identified, he was then given a proper burial in Oklahoma.

©Photo source: Giphy

2. Being buried alive

Some of the scariest stories we hear are of people being declared dead only to 'wake up' and find themselves buried alive. According to a certain William Tebb, more than 200 identical cases occurred at the end of the 19th Century. Proof of this was found when bodies were exhumed and scratch marks were discovered on the inside of coffin lids! It was for this reason that during the early 20th Century, coffins were fitted with 'safety bells' so that the 'deceased' could sound the alarm before they suffocated to death.
Although extremely rare, cases of people 'waking from the dead' have been reported in modern times. One such case was that of a middle-aged man who died at Sion Hospital in France, only to wake up just before an autopsy was due to be carried out!

©Photo source: Giphy

3. Murder in a library

Libraries are quiet, peaceful places where we can enjoy some silence and bury our noses in a book, without being disturbed. They're the last place we expect a grisly murder to be committed!
But this was exactly the case in 1969, when a 22 year-old student called Betsy Aardsma settled down with a book in the Pattee Library at Penn State University. At some point she was fatally stabbed in the chest without anyone noticing - a silent murder that went unheard and remains unsolved to this very day!

©Photo source: Giphy

4. A killer in your home

The Gruber family enjoyed an uneventful life on their farm about 35 miles from Munich. One day they heard footsteps in the attic, but rather than investigating, they put it down to birds or rats scuttling around. Shortly afterwards, Andreas Gruber, the farm's owner, saw footprints in the snow that led from some woods to the farm. And that was not all... Keys went missing and objects would inexplicably turn up, but no one in the family bothered to call the police. The family's housekeeper resigned as she was convinced the house was haunted and on March 31st 1922, a replacement moved in. Later that day a massacre took place - the owners, their daughter, their two grandchildren and the housekeeper were brutally murdered with a mattock and to this day no one knows what really happened.

©Photo source: Giphy

5. The killer surgeon

Killer doctors are the stuff of nightmares and one such murderer was Glen Tucker, an American surgeon who practiced during the 1970's. Tucker had a particular penchant for performing amputations under the pretense that patients' limbs had developed gangrene. What's more, as a qualified plastic surgeon he would use deformed breast implants when operating on his female patients. One day a patient woke up during a nose-job only to find the operating theater deserted except for Tucker who was mutilating her nose. She complained to hospital authorities, but was horrified when she saw Tucker try to follow her home...
Once Glen Tucker realized the cops were on to him, he faked his own death by drowning in 1982. In 2011, he was later discovered to be living in Florida, but decided to commit suicide rather than be judged. Before taking his own life, however, he committed one final evil deed - the murder of his wife and his cat...

©Photo source: Giphy

6. Hell hath no fury like a psychotic ex

Being dumped is hard, but most of us manage to move on from a relationship. But that wasn't the case with Ryan Watenpaugh, a 34 year-old Californian who became bent on revenge. In 2014, his girlfriend broke up with him due to his violent behavior. A few days later she reported that her Pomeranian dog (Bear) had disappeared. Watenpaugh proved to be a sympathetic shoulder to cry on and invited his ex to dinner in order to cheer her up.
A few days' later he sent his ex a text message to inform her that she'd eaten her own dog and, to prove the point, he left the dog's uncooked remains on her doorstep..
His ex obviously reported the crime and Watenpaugh admitted everything except that he'd killed and cooked the dog. Without any proof as to who killed the dog and, obviously, unable to show that 'Bear' had been eaten, the case remains officially unsolved...

©Photo source: Giphy

7. When Scream becomes a real-life horror movie

One day, a14 year-old British girl began to receive text messages from an intruder who said he was watching her. She didn't pay any attention and assumed it was a prank. One evening she received another 'I'm watching you text' and decided to go to sleep in her mom's bedroom. Later that night she returned to her own room, only to find that objects had been moved. She checked under her bed only to discover an 18 year-old man hiding there! Fortunately the girl escaped unharmed, but it's proved to be a lesson to us all!

©Photo source: Giphy

8. The legend of Charlie No Face

There's a well-known urban legend in Pittsburgh that talks of a certain Charlie No Face - a ghostly figure said to roam country lanes at night. Obviously people don't take this seriously, except that there's some truth to this spine-chilling tale. A Charlie No Face did exist! He was Raymond Robinson, a man who in 1919 suffered horrific injuries whilst playing on an electrified trolley bridge.
Aware that his grotesquely deformed face would terrify people, he became a recluse and only left home at night. Robinson never hurt anyone and sadly ended his days alone...

9. Organ trafficking

Between 2000 and 2008, no less than 500 people in New Delhi, India fell prey to organ traffickers. This urban legend is scarily close to the truth! Traffickers would pose as employers and once they'd enticed people into their car, they'd knock them out with a good dose of chloroform. Victims lucky enough to survive the ordeal would wake up to find organs missing...

©Photo source: Giphy

10. The grave robber

Anatoly Moskovin is a reputable Russian historian who's fascinated by necrology. In 2011, he was approached by police who were investigating cemetery-related crimes. Rather than finding themselves faced with a humble academic, they were shocked to discover a video of this childless man's house that showed kids' clothes and toys stashed in a corridor. Upon further investigation they found life-sized dolls dressed in kids' clothes dotted around his home. The strange smell confirmed the worst - these 'dolls' were in fact mummified bodies!
During his trial, Moskovin confessed to having exhumed and mummified girls' bodies over a 10-year period. He'd keep these effigies at home and would re-bury any bodies that he couldn't mummify. Of the 150 bodies he exhumed, 29 were found mummified and on display in his house.

©Photo source: Giphy

Source: Cracked