6 Urban Legends That Turned Out To Be TRUE

Number 1: THE LEGEND OF POLYBIUS

Now being a lover of video games myself, I had to include this urban legend, which is actually more like a conspiracy theory. In the late 19 hundreds, there was a popular arcade game named Polybius, which seemed to have very peculiar effects on people that played it. And no, I don’t mean when you’re on a kill streak then scream out loud after dying. The effects Polybius supposedly had on people playing it, included symptoms of disorientation, amnesia, game addiction, stomach pains and even suicide. People that would visit the arcades regularly that this game station was at, reported that they would often see strong looking, serious men in suits documenting and keeping a close eye on the game and the players that would play it. Once a stricter law was involved on gambling machines, police were sent to a large number of arcades to remove gambling machines at children’s game arcades. However, many of the crazy theories about this game were confirmed, as whilst removing the gambling machines they also removed Polybius but no other additional games. Suspicious? Definitely. Coincidence? Let us know in the comments what you think.

Number 2: The Candyman

The Candyman urban legend focuses around a cruel murder occurring from a jumping out of the medicine cabernet at a poor victim. Well believe it or not, but this actually happened. In 1987 the Chicago Reader released an article about Ruth McCoy, a woman living in a Chicago block of flats, who made a horrifying call to the police saying that she was being attacked from people coming through the medicine cabernet. How could this happen? Well the block of flats that Ruth lived in was all connected through the piping system, that went through the backs of the medicine cabernets in the apartments. This was on purpose though, in order to help the plumbers out if there was ever a problem. I personally don’t think they thought that this scary type of problem would ever occur though.

Number 3: The Boogieman of Staten Island

In the late 1980s, there was an urban legend that children would scare themselves over. This urban legend stated that if they visited the woods of Staten Island late at night, then they would be abducted by the Boogieman named “Cropsey”. The name Cropsey would haunt the children’s nightmares, with whispers of this villainous character in all of the urban legend and campfire stories. Parents convinced their young ones Cropsey wasn’t real, but it turned out he actually was. Andre Rand was convicted for child abduction case in 1987, after kidnapping a child from the Statin Island forest. He was also suspected of a larger number of child abduction cases, all of which he denies. I guess unfortunately in Staten Island, the Boogieman was real. Errrg.

Number 4: People that hide in your house

Now if you’re a subscriber of the Eff Your Review channel, then you’ve probably seen that we’ve done a video on this before, but this is truly petrifying. On a decent number of occasions, there have been random people found living secretly in houses and apartments. They usually hide in the walls or the attic, and come out at night to use the toilet and eat your food. This used to be an urban legend, but over the last 10 years a number of horror films have been made about this, as well as real stories being documented and spoken about. All I know is that tonight before I go to sleep I’m definitely checking my attic. Oh wait, I live in a flat. Phew! If you are interested in the video that we’ve made on this topic, then check out the link in this videos description after watching this.

Number 5: The Alice Killings

Now, this urban legend probably deserves a full video because it’s so interesting, but here is it shortened. In Japan, 1999 to 2005 an urban legend was spoken about widely that there was a serial killer who would murder their victims and leave a single playing card on their bodies. These playing cards would say one word. That word being “Alice”. The set of murders were infamously named the Alice killings and haunted a nation. However, the research I found shows that there isn’t currently any evidence of this happening in Japan, however in Spain 2003 a serial killer was arrested who would performed these exact acts. The serial killer would use playing cards in his murders, and was finally sentenced to 142 years in prison. I certainly don’t think they will be getting out of prison anytime soon.

Number 6: The Funhouse Horror Urban Legend

Horror funhouses are quite a popular topic for horror movies. Films such as The Funhouse Massacre and Haunt do an excellent job at making these fun horror houses seem like somewhere you’ll find real serial killers and dead bodies in. There are even a number of horror story urban legends that speak about this being real, and guess what. It kind of is… In December 1976 a camera crew in California arrived at a horror house to find an episode for “The Six Million Doller Man”. When the staff were cleaning out the horror house, they removed a prop of a corpse, however they didn’t realise one thing. This wasn’t a prop, it was a real dead body that was in the horror house. If this doesn’t make you feel cautious around haunted horror houses then nothing will.