What is a better way to celebrate Halloween with some more urban legends to read on a dark night.

Mothman

In the late 1960s, a humanoid moth-like creature was spotted in the Point Pleasant, West Virginia over the span of a year. It was over this period that over a hundred people caught a glimpse of the supposed “mothman” (although there might be over two hundred witnesses). The first sighting of this creature occurred at a cemetery near Clendenin, West Virginia on November 12, 1966 when five gravediggers noticed a brown figure gliding over them. The next sighting happened three days later when two couples on a double date went on a drive through the “TNT area”, an abandoned World War II munitions complex located five miles north of Point Pleasant. They described the winged creature with glowing red eyes as “shaped like a man but bigger” with sturdy legs and a noticeable gait. The creature proceeded to take flight and followed them but “wasn’t even flapping its wings”. They also mention that it “squeaked like a big mouse”. The sightings came to a halt on December 15, 1967 when the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River, killing 46 people in the process. People have connected the collapse with the “mothman” sightings.

There are rumors that the “mothman” is a hoax thought up by some local pranksters. There is some doubt to this theory as there are over a dozen people who claimed to be the “mothman”. Plus, their stories are inconsistent with the eyewitness accounts of the “mothman”. However, there are some hoaxes related to the “mothman”. One of the most notable ones was a prankster pilot who glided over the Ohio River over a period of several nights in early spring 1967 just to scare locals. Another theory is that it is some of bird. On November 18, 1966, three Point Pleasant firemen saw a “huge creature” when they visited the TNT area but insisted “it was definitely a bird”. Another mothman eyewitness by the name of Lynda Scarberry insists the creature’s eyes were more like car headlights instead of the “glowing eyes” of the earlier encounters. Steve Warner, who worked at the munitions plant, mentioned there were “owls all over this place” when he worked there. A lifelong resident of the Point Pleasant area, he never uhad an encounter with the “mothman”. Due to the creature’s squeaky cry and reflector-like eyes, it has been theorized that it might be the common barn owl. Not only that, they also mainly barns and abandoned buildings. Otherwise, there is not much known about the “mothman.”

Black-Eyed Children

Black-eyed children are paranormal creatures that resemble children between the ages of six and 16-only with all-black eyes. Supposedly, these mysterious creatures show up at your door at night to ask permission to use the phone or the bathroom in a monotone voice. It is rumored that these creatures are vampires because of similar folklore of not being able to enter a house unless the owner invites them in.

The urban legend originated on a 1998 ghost-themed message board on Usenet. A man by the name of Brian Bethel told about his encounter with “those darn black-eyed kids” outside a movie theater in Abilene, Texas two years prior. After another person posted his encounter with these black-eyed children in Portland, Oregon, the black-eyed children legend took off. The urban legend gained new life on the Internet in 2013 thanks to an episode of the MSN online show “Weekly Strange” and due to a Kickstarter campaign by Vancouver film director Nick Hagen to make a film on the urban legend.

The Wendigo

The Wendigo is a mythological creature that has a craving for human flesh that is well known among native tribes from the Rockie Mountains all the way to Quebec. The Edmonton-based historian Nathan Carlson described the creature as “an owl-eyed monster with large claws, matted hair, a naked emaciated body and a heart made out of solid ice.”

In the late 1800s to the early 1900s, there was widespread panic about the Wendigo due to several grisly murders throughout northern Alberta, Canada. The most notorious case revolved around a Cree trapper named Swift Runner who was hanged in the December of 1879 at Fort Saskatchewan for killing and eating eight of his family members the previous winter. Swift Runner insisted that the spirit of the Wendigo caused him to commit horrendous act. This case, amongst others, led to the coinage of the term “wendigo psychosis”.

The Jersey Devil

The Jersey Devil is a mythological demon with the body of a kangaroo, the face of a horse, the head of a dog and the wings of a bat complete with horns and a tail. The creature is said to reside in the Pinelands of southern New Jersey. The Pinelands consists of pine trees, sandy roads and marshes that stretch on for miles. The Jersey Devil is known to kill livestock and ravage crops. It has been spotted in at least fifty towns throughout southern New Jersey. The Jersey Devil is such a nuisance, there was a $100,000 reward for the creature’s capture-dead or alive. So far, no one has claimed the bounty despite the occasional rumor of the creature’s demise.

According to legend, a certain Mrs. Leeds of Estellville gave birth to the creature around 250 years ago. While she was in painful labor giving birth to her thirteenth child, she proclaimed “may it be a devil!” She got her wish as the child was a demon. The demon baby grew wings and flew out out the window into the Pinelands where it remains today.

One of the earliest sightings of the famed creature was by Joseph Bonaparte (the brother of Napoleon) while he was hunting on his Bordentown, New Jersey estate in 1820. The most notorious encounter of the Jersey Devil was during a statewide rampage by the creature during one week in January 1909. It was during that week that people and animals alike were attacked by the creature. As a result, schools and businesses had to be cancelled that week.

The Max Headroom Incident

On November 22, 1987, an unknown television pirate wearing a Max Headroom mask hijacked the airwaves of two television stations in Chicago. The first was during a recap of that day’s Bears game by WGN sports anchor Dan Roan when the program was briefly hijacked by the man for thirty seconds. Roan quipped after the interruption, “well if you’re wondering what happened…so am I.”

The pirate returned at around 11:15 that night when he hijacked the signals of PBS affiliate WTTW for about 90 seconds during a showing of the British science fiction program “Doctor Who”. The man in the Max Headroom mask went on a diatribe about WGN sportscaster Chuck Swirsky being a “freaky nerd”, humming the theme of the 50s TV show “Clutch Cargo”, taking a swipe at New Coke by tossing a Pepsi can at the camera. The incident ended when a female accomplice spanked the pirate’s buttocks with a flyswatter.

Despite investigations by the FCC and the FBI, the perpetrator was never caught.