People Share Urban Legends That Are Actually True

An urban legend is defined as "a humorous or horrific story or piece of information circulated as though true, especially one purporting to involve someone vaguely related or known to the teller."

Many of the retellings begin with "my cousin's friend's brother's girlfriend knew the guy this happened to."

But as wild as most urban legends are, some turn out to be true.

Reddit user Ghost7579ox asked:

"What’s an urban legend you know that’s actually true?"

Traveling Funhouse Mummy

"The Funhouse Mummy legend is real. Elmer McCurdy was a bank and train robber killed in a shootout in 1911. His body was embalmed with arsenic and put on display."

"It ended up going on tour, even being used in a couple of films. His body went missing in the 1960s."

"It turned up again in a fun house that was going to be used for the filming of an episode of the $6 Million Dollar Man. The crew were removing some mannequins.

"When the arm fell off one of the mannequins, and they noticed a bone sticking out, the police were called. McCurdy’s body was buried in Guthrie, Oklahoma."

~ Alternative_Fill2048

Instagram

New Jersey's Pastagate

"It isn’t a legend yet, but as long as Old Bridge NJ exists, there will be the story of the mysteriously large dump of pasta next to a river that was labeled a terroristic act."

~ SabotageFusion1

* In 2023, 500 pounds of spaghetti, elbows, and alphabet pasta was discovered in the woods near a river in Old Bridge, New Jersey. It was later discovered a man was clearing out his deceased mother’s home, which was up for sale, and found a stockpile of food that she had left behind. He decided to dispose of it in the woods, which led to the massive dry pasta dump. After several days of rain, the pasta absorbed enough water to appear fully cooked.

Fredericton's Tunnels

"A local urban legend in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada was that there is a series of tunnels that connect the universities, prominent buildings, homes, etc... in our city's downtown."

"My apartment is in an old house built by a wealthy businessman in the late 1800s."

"There is an entrance in the basement. It's spooky as hell and sealed off, but my landlord has confirmed that's where it leads."

"Turns out it's true, but the original purpose is lost although an official once told the CBC they're heating tunnels tall enough to walk through. Most were filled or bricked over in the 1960s."

~ AwkwardBubbly

Benmar Schmidhuber on Unsplash

Toronto's Village Killer

"For several years (2010-2017) in Toronto, gay men went missing in the Village."

"The community was convinced it was a serial killer on the loose, but the police said no. They claimed the murders and disappearances were all unrelated and the serial killer was just an urban legend."

"Turns out they were totally related and the guy—Bruce MacArthur was killing gay men and burying them in and around the properties he was working at as a groundskeeper/landscaper."

"Some were put in decorative planter boxes on display at expensive properties."

~ Gyal_Cup

youtu.be

Kansas City's Subtropolis

"The Subtropolis underground city. No one thought it was real until the 1970's. Now, it still catches people off guard, even people who have lived nearby their whole life."

"In Kansas City, there's a massive mostly man made cave system. It started as a government facility (and part of it remains guarded by the military to this day) exact dates are still not known. But in 1947, it was sold to a mining company, who, rather than collapse the whole thing and strip mine it, kept expanding it."

"In the 1960's the Hunt family (billionaires from Texas oil, also the owners of the Kansas City Chiefs) bought it, and spent a decade developing it. In the 1970's they started renting out warehouse and office space."

"These days, it's almost entirely warehousing, but there are some businesses that still operate out of it. You can go drive through it, I think it costs a few bucks."

"It's very easy to get lost down there. It's upsetting how far underground you can go. It's a very large facility, 1,100 acres."

~ Sensitive-Chemical83

- YouTubeyoutu.be

We Hold These Truths...

"The story of the guy who bought a crappy painting at a flea market for a few dollars and found an original copy of the Declaration of Independence taped to the inside of the frame."

"I thought it was bullsh*t, but later found out it’s true: It happened in 1989 in Pennsylvania, and that copy was later bought at auction by TV producer Norman Lear."

~ TriTri14

National Archives

Life Imitates Art

"I always mention this one, because it's so famous it got a Snopes page back in the late 90s."

"Close to where I live there's a drive-in, and in 1996 that drive-in was hit by tornado, and the tornado just happened to go through a screen that would have been showing Twister that night. That's the true part."

"What everyone seems to get wrong (and I remember it being a thing when I was a kid, several people I knew claimed to be there when it happened) is that it happened during the screening of Twister. Some claim that they thought it was an elaborate special effect."

"This part never happened, as the tornado went through the screen during the day time. Outdoor movie theatres operate at night, so I'm not sure how anyone could have been watching a movie at the time the tornado rolled through."

"On top of that, there were no reports of injuries or deaths, and if a tornado was powerful enough to destroy a screen at a drive-in, and there were people there, you'd think there would be at least a few reports of injuries, among other things. Instead, the only report was damage."

"So, to recap, true parts:"

"- Drive-in hit by tornado"

"- Screen destroyed would have been showing Twister that night"

"Untrue part:"

"- Tornado happened at night during the actual screening of Twister"

~ SimonCallahan

youtu.be

Ohio's (KK)Klancrest Housing Development

"Klancrest planned housing development in New Philadelphia, Ohio."

"Always thought talk of a KKK compound was typical small town urban legend. I got into Geographic Information System (GIS) exploring for a while and downloaded additional layers from my counties FTP server that showed defunct incorporations and historical plat maps.

"The Ku Klux Klan's Klancrest was a very real plan in 1926. Luckily the Great Depression killed the plans."

~ ArchaicBrainWorms

Tuscarawas County Ohio records

* The Tuscarawas County, Ohio chapter of the Ku Klux Klan boasted a membership of more than 10,000 people—nearly a quarter of the county’s residents—in the 1920s. Its headquarters was the 245-acre Protestant Home Farm—unofficially called the Klan Farm—on Crooked Run Road, in New Philadelphia, Ohio.

The KKK held its state conclave there in 1924, which drew more than 100,000 men, women, and children from across Ohio. Republican U.S. Senator Frank B. Willis spoke at the “Klan Farm." During that time period, the KKK openly endorsed political candidates, including Akron and Youngstown mayors.

By 1926, the Klan Farm had plans to add a swimming pool, tennis courts, and a children’s playground and to open an adjacent residential community called “Klancrest” that would sell lots only to “desirable persons.”

Coshocton County Historical Society/Facebook

Cornwall's Beast of Bodmin Moor

"Beast of Bodmin Moor—a legendary black cat said to stalk the moors of Cornwall, England, described as being the size of a puma with sharp teeth and white-yellow eyes—in the UK.

"Apart from anything else they recently found and confirmed droppings left behind are from a big cat—as in lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards."

"Several big cats were kept locally until the law changed in the 80s where they had to be registered with the government."

"Rather than register them, some people just let them go somewhere a bit out of town and quietly dismantled any enclosure..."

"A family friend had a black panther, then suddenly it vanished and we all 'must have imagined' it existed at all."

~ Never_trust_dolphins

Finland's Uncle Jammu

"When I was a kid, all the other kids always told me to 'watch out for uncle Jammu', meaning an old man who would snatch kids and do bad things to them."

"I used to think the name was made up and completely random and that no such man really existed."

Well, turns out there was real-life child murderer by that name—Antti Veikko Ilmari 'Jammu' Siltavuori.""

"The case was so brutal and shocking it quickly gained national notoriety and thus the name and legend was created."

"This was in Finland."

~ foxmachine

Myllypuro Poliisi

Tallahassee's Sunland Hospital

"I grew up hearing about an abandoned psych ward in the woods of Tallahassee, Florida. Some versions had it as an abandoned pediatric psych ward."

"This was the legend in the 70's. Sometime in the 2000's, when they built the Blairstone extension, there it was in all its abandoned horrifying glory."

"The Sunland Center psychiatric hospital for 'troubled' teens was the subject of the documentary Welcome To Sunland."

~ djrstar

Maine's Wild Man of the Woods

"Christopher Thomas Knight was once an urban legend in Maine."

"For years there was a story about a wild man who lived in the woods and was sneaking around and breaking into people’s summer cabins.

"Until he was captured in 2013—after living in the woods off things he scavenged for 27 years."

~ Frankie_Monster

Strange Maine/Facebook

Alleged Alabama Potato Salad Massacre

"The Great Potato Salad Massacre back in 1976. Small Alabama town. Middle of July. Soaring temperatures. Southern Baptist Church summer picnic."

"Some husband put the potato salad in the back trunk the night before—didn't know it needed to be refrigerated."

"At the picnic he puts it on the food table. Everyone eats it. These are Southern Baptists after all.

"An hour later the fuse was lit so to speak. Nay, a hundred fuses were lit. The men were playing softball, the women were trading pie recipes, the kids were swimming in the pond.

"Mayhem ensues. Gastro-Explosions erupt in every last one of those that ate the salad."

"The massacre is what happened in their britches and to the outhouses the lucky few got to use. Everyone else either decimated and desecrated the bushes, the trees or their car seats as they foolishly thought they could make it home in time."

"How do I know it's true? My grandpa is the man that was in charge of the potato salad. He didnt eat any. But my grandma reminds him all the time since they were excommunicated from the church."

~ Temporary_Detail716

*the author can neither confirm nor deny this event occurred

Los Angeles' Artist on the Street

"In my college town there was one homeless guy who everyone kind of knew of. He stood out because he always wore a black suit with no shirt and walked around barefoot with no baggage or shopping cart or anything."

"A rumor started going around that he was actually a famous painter whose work sold for thousands, that he had a patron that took care of him, and he just lived like a vagrant out of preference (and schizophrenia)."

Most people called bullsh*t, including myself, until I met someone that knew his name: William Laga."

~ Son_of_Kong

William Laga Abstract Artist(@williamlaga_)/Instagram

Cincinnati's Construction Clown

"The 'Construction Clown' in Cincinnati, Ohio. I lived in Roselawn and Bridgetown as a kid and started to hear stories from friends about a middle aged man with a clown collar/ruff, hard hat, clown suit, and a construction worker's metal tool box riding the public transit 'all day' without purpose, or milling around constructon sites."

"There's no way that's true, I thought, until one day I took a bus to a local Kroger grocery store for something. As I walked through the parking lot to the store I saw him standing outside the front doors, tool box in hand, hardhat, white ruffed collar, bright red sweatshirt, overalls, and work boots painted yellow."

"It was terrifying. I milled around the parking lot for what felt like forever and noticed that most people coming and going from the store were avoiding the guy. He just stood there, not moving, in the middle of the entry/exit doors of that Kroger."

"Suddenly though, he was gone. I didn't see if he walked away or got into a car, or went inside, but I had lost my nerve completely and went back to the bus stop."

"As soon as I paid the fare and looked up to find a seat, there he was...just sitting in the middle of the bus. I realized the bus had also stopped right in front of the grocery store so he must have gotten on there."

"Anyway, I sat one row back from him and he didn't move or say a word until it was time for me to exit. I saw him again a few more times in the neighborhood, almost always in passing while he was riding the bus again or standing at various bus stops."

"He was always dressed in the red sweatshirt and overalls or a full-on clown suit. One time he had a shovel. Then one day he was just gone and people stopped talking about him."

"Probably twenty years later when I was in my 30's I was visiting home and running around the city with my mom. We ended up in Covington, Kentucky doing something or other and were stuck in traffic on MLK Boulevard."

"As we inched up the road I looked over and saw a silver bust statue of the guy! It was in front of the Hellmann Creative Center."

"I completely lost it...nobody including my mother had ever believed me when I told stories of seeing this guy when I was a kid but there's a f*cking statue of him right there on the side of the road!"

"Anyway, meet Raymond Thunder-Sky, Cininnati's 'Construction Clown'."

~ QuickLookBack

thecarnegie/Instagram

What's your favorite urban legend?