Haunted American History

31 Days of Halloween | Day 23: The North Berwick Witch Trials — The Devil's Halloween Gathering

In the winter of 1590, an elderly Scottish healer named Agnes Sampson was brought before King James VI of Scotland. She had been accused of witchcraft, tortured, and for

31 Days of Halloween | Day 22: The Queen Mary — The Haunted Ship's Dark History

In 1967, the RMS Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach, California, after more than three decades crossing the Atlantic. Not long afterward, a marine engineer working deep in

31 Days of Halloween | Day 21: Savannah, Georgia — America's Most Haunted City

In Savannah, Georgia, ghost stories are everywhere. In Wright Square, a woman is said to wander the night asking strangers if they've seen her baby. Her name was Alice R

31 Days of Halloween | Day 20: The Amityville Horror — The True Story Behind the Haunting

On November 13, 1974, a young man ran into a bar in Amityville, New York, shouting that his parents had been shot. When police arrived at his family's waterfront home, t

31 Days of Halloween | Day 19: Friday the 13th — The Truth Behind the Unlucky Day

In 1907, a wealthy Boston businessman named Thomas Lawson published a novel called Friday, the Thirteenth. It told the story of a stockbroker who exploited people's fear

31 Days of Halloween | Day 18: The Salem Witch Trials — From Tragedy to Halloween Capital

In 1891, a jeweler in Salem, Massachusetts, began selling a silver souvenir spoon decorated with a witch on a broomstick. Beneath the witch were three small pins. Those

31 Days of Halloween | Day 17: The Bunyip — Australia's Mysterious Water Monster

In 1845, a strange fossil bone appeared in the Australian town of Geelong. When an Aboriginal man was shown the remains, he reportedly identified the creature immediatel

31 Days of Halloween | Day 16: The War of the Worlds — The Halloween Panic That Never Was

On October 30, 1938, a radio reporter broadcasting from a farm field in New Jersey suddenly stopped speaking. Moments earlier, he had described a terrifying scene: a str

31 Days of Halloween | Day 15: The True Story Behind The Exorcist

In 1949, a thirteen-year-old boy living outside Washington, D.C., began experiencing something his family couldn't explain. Scratching sounds came from inside the walls.

31 Days of Halloween | Day 14: The Candy Man — The Murder That Changed Halloween

On Halloween night in 1974, eight-year-old Timothy O'Bryan came home from trick-or-treating in Pasadena, Texas, with a giant Pixy Stix. His father helped him open it. T

31 Days of Halloween | Day 13: The Hook — America's Most Famous Urban Legend

In November of 1960, a teenage girl wrote a letter to Dear Abby warning other teenagers about something she'd heard. A young couple had been parked on a deserted road wh

31 Days of Halloween | Day 12: The History of Haunted Houses

In 1888, a woman named Maggie Fox stood before two thousand people in a New York theater, removed her shoe, and demonstrated how she had spent decades convincing American

31 Days of Halloween | Day 11: The Woman Who Tamed Halloween

In 1899, Halloween was so destructive in parts of America that grown men sat outside their homes with shotguns, waiting for the pranksters to arrive. People stole gates,

31 Days of Halloween | Day 10: American Werewolves in America

On Halloween night in 1991, eighteen-year-old Doris Gipson was driving along a rural road outside Elkhorn, Wisconsin, when she struck something with her car. She stopped

31 Days of Halloween | Day 9: The Witches of Pendle Hill

In 1612, a young woman named Alizon Device asked a traveling peddler for some pins. He refused. A short distance down the road, the man collapsed. Today, a doctor woul

31 Days of Halloween | Day 8: The Jersey Devil

In January of 1909, strange tracks began appearing in the snow across New Jersey. They crossed yards. Climbed fences. Appeared on rooftops. Witnesses reported hearing wi

31 Days of Halloween | Day 7: The Real Legend of Sleepy Hollow

In 1776, somewhere in the hills of Westchester County, an American cannonball took the head off a Hessian soldier. His name was never recorded. His grave has never been

31 Days of Halloween | Day 6: The Vampires of New England

In March of 1892, a group of men entered a cemetery in rural Rhode Island and opened the coffin of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown. Then they cut out her heart. Her famil

31 Days of Halloween | Day 5: The Bell Witch — America's Most Famous Haunting

In 1820, John Bell died on his farm in northern Tennessee. According to the legend, a ghost killed him. For years, the Bell family had supposedly been tormented by some

31 Days of Halloween | Day 4: Black Shuck — The Devil's Hound

On August 4, 1577, a violent storm descended on the English countryside. Then something entered the church. Witnesses described an enormous black dog tearing through th