Terrifying True Urban Legends
We've all heard terrifying urban legends growing up, but what happens when they're based on real events....
We're diving into some terrifying urban legends that ended up being true.
Have your own story to share? Contact us.
SOURCES
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2417685/Police-hunt-mysterious-figure-walked-Swiss-woods-day-wearing-gas-mask-boiler-suit-cloak-TEN-YEARS.html
https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/2009/10/21/historically-speaking-sunken-house-resting/65048719007/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/558314/urban-legends-that-turned-out-to-be-true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Robinson_(Green_Man)
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oX4iAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O68FAAAAIBAJ&pg=6775%2C2485221
https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/unbelievable-true-story-of-elmer-mccurdy-16507858.php
https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2018/07/elmer-mccurdy-traveling-corpse/
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vCJejzn7yNA
https://www.facebook.com/BestofCa/videos/460676094630154
https://www.newspapers.com/image/836485292/?terms=elmer%20mccurdy&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/646378953/?terms=elmer%20mccurdy&match=1
TRANSCRIPT
You know, theres a house that sits at the bottom of this lake.
Residents of Salem, Connecticut had heard this urban legend their entire lives. That sitting at the bottom of their town’s lake was a fully intact house. No way! Kids would shout on playgrounds while their peers tried to creep them out with stories
No it’s true, my dad heard piano music playing from the bottom of the lake while he was out fishing, there’s something down there.
Tales of this mysterious house and how it got to the bottom of the lake swirled around the town of Salem for generations. And many credited it as just another urban legend.
What they would eventually find out, however, was that if you were to slip beneath the murky surface of Gardner lake and sink to the bottom like a stone, you would find an old wooden house on the lake’s floor
But how did it get there?
Well, In 1895, a man named Thomas Lecount wanted to move his summer home from the south shore of the lake to the east shore, and he hired a contractor named Mr. Woodmansee for the job.
But Mr. Woodmansee thought it would be too expensive to move the house via the dirt roads surrounding the lake. Why do that, when it was a much shorter path to move it OVER the lake.
The plan was to wait until the winter, when there was a thick layer of ice coating the lake, and then carefully slide the home from one end to the other.
Once the dead of winter hit, he and his men shoveled paths through the snow on top of the ice, and had horses and cables brought in. Then, on February 13th, he and his men got to work.
Initially, the house slid fine, without issue. but about three fourths of the way across the lake, The men tugged on the ropes, but the house didn’t budge. They pulled again, nothing. The house had gone over an unshoveled patch of snow and got lodged on the bank. As it sat there, the bending and bowing of the ice could be heard.
The men quickly tried to shovel their way out while the horses pulled, but the house wouldn’t budge. To the west, the sun was quickly disappearing below the horizon, making the chill in the air more biting. Mr. Woodmansee knew hehad to make a decision. Keep trying and risk hurting his already exhausted and freezing men, or come back in the morning. Woodmansee decided to wait until the next day. Though the ice moaned and cracked as it settled, he thought it would freeze to be even stronger overnight.
[sound of ice slightly cracking]
Unbeknownst to him, that was the worst decision he could have made. Gardner lake was dammed, which no one bothered to check, and overnight the lake was partially drained. This meant that there would now be a gap between the water line and the unmoving ice.
By the time the men arrived the following morning, the house was at a 45 degree angle, it’s back half had broken through the ice and was now sinking.
Woodmansee and his men looked at the house, defeated. There was no way they could finish the job now.
The house eventually settled in 15 feet of water when spring came and melted the ice. For the next few years the attic was still visible above the water line, and over the winters people would skate up to it. But over the next few decades it would sink further and further into the mud, until there was nothing but the legend of the house at the bottom of the lake.
This is just one of many times where an old urban legend actually had some truth to it. Over time, the story may have warped and grown, but it didn’t change the kernel of truth behind it. Today, I want to share more of those legends with you, the strange, the spooky, all the way to the downright terrifying. I’m going to share with you two stories. The first one is the legend of a monster in the woods that may hold more truth than anyone wants to admit, and the second is about a funhouse mannequin that is not what you think. And as always, listener discretion is advised.
Welcome to heart starts pounding, a podcast of horrors, hauntings, and mysteries. I’m your host, Kaelyn Moore
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[Fade out music]
[Silence]
To starts us off, I want to tell you a legend.
[Fade in piano classical, slightly ominous]
If you were to travel to Maules, Switzerland in the late 90’s, you would see a beautiful, pine tree forest dotted with wildflowers. In between the forest you’d see a few large fields with paved walking paths. You’d see locals from the nearby village walking the paths on the weekends, and children playing and laughing. You’d hear the light wind blowing through the trees and tall grass. But if you listen close enough, you may hear something else.
Whispers. Mostly from children, trying to scare each other with tales of what lives in these woods. You’d never guess from looking around at the beautiful landscape, but some people believe that something terrifying is lurking behind the pine trees. Some call it a cryptid. Others believe it’s human. But everyone calls it the same thing. Le Loyon.
It seemed at first that everyone knew someone who had seen Le Loyon, but no one had seen it for themselves. Locals would tell stories of their friend who saw a tall, imposing man walking the paths by himself. He was described as wearing a gas mask, a long black cloak, and a military boiler suit. They estimated he was over 6ft tall, and his hulking appearance and scary garb made him stick out. But just as quickly as he was spotted, he’d be gone.
Tales of Le Loyon circulated for years, but as time went on, instead of the legend dying down, it seemed that more people were starting to see him for themselves
One local mother was out walking with her kids one night when she caught a glimpse of Le Loyon. She reported
It scared my children. He came out of the woods with his military clothes. We saw neither his face nor his eyes behind his big, dark gas mask. It was scary!
Another resident, Marianne Descloux claimed that quote
It was a rainy Sunday. He had on a cap, a dark cloak and gas mask. What goes on in his head? I don’t know. It was unpleasant. I hope I never run into him again!
People had all sorts of theories about what Le Loyon could be. To some, he was a crypid, way too mysterious to be a man. Others swore he was the boogeyman. But some locals were afraid that he was just a regular guy that just enjoyed spooking children in his strange attire. Or perhaps he had some sort of deformity or skin condition and was afraid to be out in the open air where people could see him.
Regardless, Police were called to search the area, but they found nothing to prove the man in the gas mask was real. So Le Loyon remained a legend, though locals insisted they weren’t crazy, they knew what the saw. But for now, he was just a tall tale they would tell each other. Just another reason teens dared each other to go into the forest at night.
[Fade out music]
[Fade in creepier classical]
Then, one day in 2013, A nature photographer in the area was out when he heard something in the woods next to him.
Sfx, rustling in the woods
A man, wearing a gas mask and cape, stepped out of the woods while the photographer was on the trail. The photographer reported that quote
It had a military cape, boots, and an army gas mask – an antique type…He stared at me and then turned his back on me and left in silence!
Before Le Loyon went back into the woods, the man grabbed his camera and snapped a photo. In it, you can clearly see a camouflage cape on a hulking stranger walking towards the woods.
The photo was sent to local news and immediately went viral. Websites touted it as the first real image capturing Le Loyon. And people felt vindicated, they weren’t crazy. The gas masked man in the woods was real and now they had proof.
But what’s even stranger than Le Loyon be caught on film, is what happened afterwards. Apparently, he didn’t like the attention because reported in local paper Le Matin, soon after the photo went viral, Le Loyon’s long trench coat and gas mask were found folded in the clearing he was photographed in.
With it was a note chastising the paper for running the photo. The note is written in french, and it claims that these walks were therapy to the man behind the mask, and because of the paper outing him, he’ll never do them again.
He asked why children were afraid of him and not afraid of what they were seeing on tv or in the media.
The end reads that Switzerland is a very small country that believes everything that doesn’t conform needs to be eradicated. He felt like he was being left in peace until the paper ran the story. The author refers to himself as a beast, and says the hunt for him is too great. But that he will come back to haunt the narrow minds of your kind because a ghost never dies.
And then le Loyon was never seen again. Some people feared he took his life, others felt that the note referred more to putting an end to that part of his life. The part that walks around the woods in scary clothes, but ultimately doesn’t hurt anyone.
[Music fade out]
[Fade in bright classical piano, slightly ominous]
So maybe there was a kernel of truth to the story of Le Loyon after all, and the children and mothers who caught glimpses of the man in the forest weren’t fibbing. When I first heard this story, it reminded me of the legend of Charlie No Face
In Western Pennsylvania, from the 40’s to the 70’s, there was a legend about a man with no face who would wander the streets at night. He was sometimes called the green man, as children alleged that he had green skin from being electrocuted as a child.
The story, though terrifying, was partly true. There was a man, Raymond Theodore Robinson, who would wander the streets at night. And while he did have a face, a childhood accident robbed it of most of it’s features.
When Robison was just 8 years old, he was climbing an electrical pole to reach a bird's nest when he made contact with a wire carrying 11,000 volts of electricity. The injury kept him in the hospital for 2 months, and he lost his eyes, nose, right arm, as well as skin on his face.
But he wasn’t a monster, or cryptid, he was a man who was self conscious about the way he looked and would only walk at night so as to not scare children.
Maybe something similar was the case with Le Loyon. Maybe he was a man who just wanted to hide from the world. In his own strange way.
This brings us to our next story. The legend of the Fun House Dummy. After the break
Our next legend is unlike one I’ve ever heard before. And it starts in southern california at the turn of the century.
From 1902 to 1979, there was an amusement park, called the Pike, in Long Beach, California that jettisoned out into the ocean. It wasn’t just a pier that the park was built on, it was about 6 city blocks that were constructed over the water. And it was where EVERYONE hung out
In the early 1900’s it was a place you could see the first motion pictures as they came out, catch a ride on a wooden coaster out over the waves, or even get a tattoo as they first started becoming popular.
The park morphed over its lifespan, growing in size and thrills the older it got and By the 50’s, there were over 200 amusements on and around the pier. That’s also when the Pike was renamed the Nu Pike.
Of course, like any amusement park, it wasn’t without it’s accidents. Someone once died on the Figure 8 coaster, which was open from 1908 to 1914. The rider had seen a sign saying no standing on the ride, and must have thought that was a challenge. It wasn’t long after he stood up on the coaster that he was beheaded.
But that’s not where this legend starts. This legend starts on another section of the pier, inside an attraction known as the Laff In The Dark Funhouse.
[Fade out music]
[Fade in creepy piano]
So this attraction was a ride where guests would load into a car that would follow a track through different horror themed rooms. And from what I’ve seen of it, it was pretty terrifying. One of the first things you’d pass on the ride was a 6 foot tall paper mache woman named laughing sal. Sal looked like a rag doll who grew into an oversized adult, and if you fed her a few cents, she would do a horrifying, deep belly laugh for you
[SFX of Laffing Sal Laughing]
The rest of the ride was full of fake skeletons and wrapped up mummies. As you turned a corner a devil’s face would pop out from nowhere in the dark. Most of the ride was creepy but still fun, a place for kids to scare each other and teens to have a few moments alone in the dark.
But there was one prop in the funhouse that really seemed to stick out. Towards the end of the ride, there was a mannequin that had been painted with red fluorescent paint and was strung up by it’s neck to give it the look of a hanging man. While the other mannequins looked plastic and had large, cartoon like expressions, this one looked sullen and frail. It’s expression was especially lifeless, almost peaceful.
One young boy remembered the smell of that part of the ride. It was rotten and strong. He’d get a chill every time he’d pass the hanged man mannequin
Kids started telling each other that, while the other skeletons and dead bodies in the ride were fake, this one was very real. You’d hear whispers about the real dead body in the ride as you waited in line, kids would shriek as they passed the hanged man, and teens would try to touch him to prove they weren’t scared.
The hanged man became local legend. But, as with the theme of this very episode, legends are usually rooted in a bit of truth.
In December of 1976, the film crew from the tv show, 6 Million Dollar Man arrived at the Laff In The Dark Funhouse to film an episode. The funhouse was cleared of all riders and the crew stepped in to do a little production design.
At one point while filming, the director decided he didn’t like the way the hanged man looked in a shot, and asked one of the crew members to go take him down. As the crew member undid the rope to lower the mannequin, it’s arm fell off, a clean break from the shoulder. The crew member ran to get some glue, but when he got back and attempted to put the arm back on, he noticed that the arm was not plastic. Inside, there was bone.
He starts screaming, and soon police are on the scene who confiscate the mannequin and transport it to the coroners office. There, it’s promptly confirmed to be a real dead body.
But How did a human body end up in a fun house?! And who was this person?
The coroner did a preliminary exam and ruled that the body looked ancient. Perhaps it was a central or south american mummy that was mistakenly sold as a prop. The police, not so jokingly admitted that this wouldn’t be the first time they’ve encountered that. YIKES
During a more thorough autopsy, however, it was discovered that a copper jacket from a bullet was lodged in the bodies chest. The technique used to embalm him was also a modern one, NOT what was used in ancient central america. So now the coroner believed the body was less than 100 years old.
Also found during the autopsy was a ticket, shoved into the corpses mouth, for the LA crime museum. It wasn’t much, but it was somewhere to start.
The Coroner, Thomas Noguchi, worked with historians to trace the paper trail of the body, and they came to the conclusion that this man was Elmer McCurdy, an old west outlaw who was killed in a shootout and then sold as a prop for decades after.
Elmer’s story starts in 1911, when he and a group of bandits robbed a train in Oklahoma. They made off with some whisky and $45, which doesn’t seem like enough to die over, but this was the wild west. Two days after the robbery, Elmer died in an hour long shootout after a posse seeking retribution for the robbery found him.
But Elmer’s story hardly ends with his death. After the shootout, he was brought to the local funeral home in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, where they embalmed him. Afterwards, he was propped up in the morgues window for someone to claim him, but also for locals to gawk at. There, he laid unclaimed for years. The outlaw had no friends or family who could come claim him. His family, it was rumored, was in maine and didn’t even know he was living in oklahoma
The longer he sat the more word spread around the area that there was an embalmed bandit sitting in the mortuary. Rumor had it he was in near perfect condition despite how long he had been dead for. Soon, People were traveling miles to catch a glimpse of the 5’3” outlaw, but still, no one claimed him.
Not until two men from california road into town on horse back claiming to be the long lost brothers of Elmer. They begged the mortician to hand over their brother, and- sick with grief- they loaded him in the back of their wagon and rode him back to california.
Only, those men weren’t his brothers. They were Carnies. The legend of the embalmed bandit had traveled all the way to California, and now, these two men were going to try to make a profit off of it.
Thus started Elmer’s new career as a sideshow attraction. He was sold from carnival to carnival, making his way around the country. One man named Dwain Esper, claimed he owned Elmer’s corpse for 15 years and made $100,000 off of touring him around the country. Dwain was also a director, the one who gave us Reefer Madness if youve ever seen, and he featured Elmer’s body in his movie Narcotic.
Another man, Lorne McCargar claimed he remembered seeing Elmer’s body in the 20’s at a circus. He thought it was Barnum and Bailey’s circus, and that there was a tent in the sideshow attraction area where a body was billed as “The Oklahoma Outlaw”
Inside the tent was a pine box with the leathery body of a man inside. A woman running the show announced
“This is the body of Frank McCurtis, the Oklahoma outlaw who in 1911 held up and robbed a Katy train running between Oklahoma and kansas. After a fight he was shot in the right breast, received the bullet wound and afterwards took poison. The body is not petrified, but mummified. If it was petrified it would be heavy like stone but it only weighs 95 points. There is one thousand dollars offered to anyone who can prove this is not a genuine body. You may bring your own doctor to examine it if you wish.”
10 years later he was featured in LA Times’s fun things to do downtown, where the morbidly curious could pay 10 cents to see Elmer in his casket
After that he was bought by another carney, covered in Wax, and added to a villain's display of wax dummies. But soon side show attractions fell out of favor, and he was put into storage for the next 20 years
In the 60’s he was sold to the hollywood wax museum and it’s probably at this time that people stop thinking he’s a real corpse. He had been in storage for 2 decades at that point, and now was covered in wax. The wax museum sold him to another wax museum, which quickly went under, and then he was sold off one final time to the Laff in the dark fun house.
[Fade out music]
[fade in bright classical piano, slightly ominous]
In 1977, after he had been rescued from Long Beach, Elmer was finally laid to rest back in Oklahoma. A horse drawn buggy carried his pine box to a quiet hill, where he was at long last awarded some privacy. For being a pretty poor outlaw in life, one who only robbed trains when he needed a few bucks for more alcohol, he was incredibly successful in death.
And it didn’t stop there. After his burial, his legacy continued on. That boy that saw Elmer in Laff in the dark funhouse and noticed the smell? That was Mark Taylor, a designer for the He-Man toys, one of the most successful lines of toys ever. After seeing the strange corpse there, he was haunted by the image for decades until finally, he put the image down into a toy design. It inspired the villain character Skeletor who still lives on today as part of the He-Man brand.
Elmer may be retired, but his legacy lives on, forever changing and morphing like the legend of the hanged man.
Researching this episode, I couldn’t help but think about the legends that were told to me growing up. That my neighbor shot at kids that touched his lawn, that a body was found in the attic of a house up the road, that a small pond in town was full of dead cats. As much as they shape shifted and grew overtime, I wonder if they all started with a kernel of truth.
Think of the legends you grew up with, the scary ones about your town, about your community. Were any of them real? I’m actually curious, feel free to email me and let me know. The stories we tell each other, even the ones about houses at the bottom of a lake, all come from somewhere.
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