LAHORE – Urban legends are not just for the kids to be scared of, they scare us to this day even as independent adults. What is even more nerve-wracking is that some of these legends are properly documented.
Here are five urban legends that are here to give you sleepless nights.
The Legend:
A couple checks into a hotel and have to put up with a foul odor in their room all night. They call the staff to complain and somebody figures out the stench is coming from the bed. We have seen a similar scene in American Horror Story Hotel as well where two girls are stuck in a similar room that leads to their doomed fate.
The Truth:
This actually happened, in Las Vegas. Also, Kansas City, MO and Atlantic City, NJ and several times in Florida and California. Lets just say it is not just a “Legend”.
The Legend:
What was thought to be your typically charming Halloween decoration depicting a lynched woman hanging from a tree, turns out to be a genuine suicide.
The Truth:
There was an actual incident of the sort where five days before Halloween a real woman was found hanging in a public space. People thought it was a prop until someone spotted what the actual scenario was.
The Legend:
A teenager manages to provide the Halloween show he’s in with the ultimate finale when, while pretending to hang himself in front of the audience, he actually hangs himself.
The Truth:
This happened for real too and not just once. They were all males in their teenage years.
The Legend:
Someone is committed to his or her eternal resting place, even though they aren’t quite ready to take that final nap and are pretty much breathing but assumed to be dead and buried. Scratch marks are later found on the coffin lid along with other desperate signs of escape.
The Truth:
In the late 19th century, William Tebb tried to compile all the instances of premature burial from medical sources of the day. He managed to collect 219 cases of near-premature burial, 149 cases of actual premature burial and a dozen cases where dissection or embalming had begun on a not-yet-deceased body.
The Legend:
A prop of a mummy at a carnival was an actual person’s mummy!
The Truth:
The body was actually that of criminal mastermind Elmer McCurdy, who was killed in a shootout after robbing a train in 1911. The princely sum old Elmer got killed for? $46 (and two jugs of whiskey).
