Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Describe The Creepiest Event That's Ever Happened In Their Small Town

People Describe The Creepiest Event That's Ever Happened In Their Small Town
File:Small town evening (4691861030).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

A small town creates good conditions for myths, legends, and long-remembered tragedies.


Lacking the hustle and bustle of big industries and people running every which way, the people in town take an interest in one another.

That could take the form of kindness or gossip, but either way, many things are known about the community's past and present.

And so, when a Reddit thread asked for users of small towns to name the wildest, most tragic, or creepiest past event, a whole trove of responses was at the ready.

gingerbread-coffin asked, "People of reddit who live in small towns, what is the main creepy event or legend that happened in said small town?"

Knew Too Much

"Rich guy has torrid affair with the wife of one of his father's employees. Rich boy also joins the local Masonic Lodge and regularly gets drunk and spills lodge secrets. Rich boy turns up dead in a ditch, beaten to death."

"Was the killer the employee whose wife cuckolded him, a bitter member of the Masonic Lodge--or somebody else?"

"Case is still open 65 years later"

-- StuShepherd

Travelling Dead Bodies

"There is an urban creature in my country called the 'Pocong' it's basically a dead body wrapped in cloth from head to toe leaving the face space open and usually shamans or witch doctors use these spirits for their own benefit."

"During 2019 one pocong went rogue and travelled to 3 different states. It became sort of like a local meme. There were even pics of the sightings going viral on Malaysian Twitter."

"Creepy yet funny when you think abt how it became a local meme lol."

-- Mordec***rigbi***

Haunting Stories of War

"Small french town here"

"During the war of vendée (1793 - 1796), 209 civilian that were suspected to support the royalist got executed by the other side on a small wood close to were i use to live."

"Went there by night several time, there's a panel explaining every thing on a wall in the middle of the wood. Pretty eerie."

-- Glonk2000

"Ghost Rider"

"We have a road that if you speed on it after midnight a ghost motorcycle rider appears and chases you. Pretty sure there was even some indie movie made about the phenomenon." -- beepa217

"I feel like every city has a haunted road. The local legend here is that a school bus stalled on railroad tracks and was hit by a train. Now if you put flour on your car windows and stop your car on the same train track, the ghost kids will push it off the track and you'll see their handprint."

"... Or so I've been told. I've never gone to check and I don't know anyone who has either. Plus, there's several small towns and a couple big cities in my state that have the same exact story." -- gingerbread-coffin

The World Kept Going

"Some guy got really f***ing mad at his ex-girlfriend and decided to kill her and two elderly at her job. He then set her workplace (a care home for the elderly) on fire and drowned himself in a lake nearby."

"It's now, a few decades later, a kindergarten which I went to."

-- GaLact1c_

Snitching Limbs

"I went to college in Kirksville, Missouri, where in 2013 a man killed someone, dismembered the body, set the apartment on fire to destroy the evidence, and then proceeded to throw the arms at witnesses (which, despite his attempt to destroy the evidence, might have implied he was guilty)"

"Makes for quite the local legend among college kids."

-- nerednegnav

A Tough Day for that School

"A high school girl got pregnant and didn't tell anyone. She was successful in hiding it and finally gave birth in the school bathroom to a stillborn without anyone knowing. She panicked and hid the baby in her locker."

"It was discovered by a janitor a couple of days later because of the smell. Poor girl ended up in an institution."

-- krukson

NOT Public Art

"Don't know if this counts, but a high school kid was curb stomped and killed outside of the local 711 in the early 2000s and you can still see what basically looks like bite marks on the curb where it happened."

"Really f***ed up when tourists ask what the significance of it is thinking it's some kind of local artist having done it then seeing their face when you explain someone literally died there."

-- dman2316

Story Gets Worse and Worse

"A guy and his son froze to death in the back of their van (I believe they ran out of gas?) and the dad was holding a handgun when he died."

"They weren't discovered for awhile, and the couple that discovered them cut off some of the dad's frozen fingers to steal the gun and then they went on a cross-country crime spree."

-- Katy-L-Wood

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Donald Trump; Martin Luther King Jr.
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images; Jack Sheahan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Trump Ripped After Forcing National Parks To Drop Free Entry On MLK Day And Juneteenth For Infuriating Reason

President Donald Trump was criticized after the National Park Service announced it will be dropping Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth for next year's calendar of free-entry days and adding Trump's birthday, which happens to fall on Flag Day, on June 14.

Last month, the Department of the Interior unveiled changes to what it now calls its “resident-only patriotic fee-free days,” expanding the calendar to include new dates like the Fourth of July weekend and President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday, while dropping others that had honored the department itself, including the Bureau of Land Management’s anniversary.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Juanita Broaddrick's tweet overlayed against a picture of the J. Crew sign
@atensnut/X; Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

MAGA Is Melting Down Over A Pink J. Crew Sweater For Men—And Our Eyes Can't Roll Hard Enough

MAGA fans are melting down over a $168 men's sweater from J. Crew with a fair-isle collar, claiming, in yet another example of the idiocy of the culture wars, that only liberals would actually wear it.

We know what you're thinking... Really?!

Keep ReadingShow less
Robert Garcia; Marjorie Taylor Greene
WWHL/Bravo; Daniel Heuer/AFP via Getty Images

Dem Rep. Has An Idea For A New Line Of Work For MTG After She Leaves Congress—And It Would Certainly Be Something

California Democratic Representative Robert Garcia was elected in November 2022 and even before being sworn in, he was locking horns with one-time MAGA darling and Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

For years, MTG was best known as the QAnon conspiracy theory-spewing, State of the Union heckling, crossfit hyping, Trump ride-or-dying, anti-LGBTQ+ racist MAGA minion from Georgia.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump Jr.
Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images

Don Jr. Sparks Outrage After Startup Company He Backed Scores Massive Contract With Pentagon

Donald Trump Jr. is facing criticism after The Financial Times reported that Vulcan Elements, a startup he backed, scored a $620 million government contract with the Department of Defense.

The company said the deal falls under a broader $1.4 billion collaboration with the federal government and ReElement Technologies aimed at scaling up U.S. magnet production and strengthening the domestic supply chain.

Keep ReadingShow less

People Describe The Deepest Internet 'Rabbit Hole' They've Ever Fallen Down

Who amongst us hasn't wasted HOURS of life surfing the web for things we couldn't help being intrigued by?

Going on the internet for one quick look at a sale, then staying up until sunrise trying to uncover a 50-year-old unsolved murder mystery is totally normal.

Keep ReadingShow less