Urban Legend Stories

Urban legend stories pass through email, word of mouth, articles, books and television shows. They often focus on frightening stories and are often presented as moral tales, such as the drinking and driving tale below. For those who enjoy a good urban legend, stories like these will give you a chill, and a fun tale to pass on to your friends.

Many paranormal tales and legends surround the Titanic. The urban legends surrounding the ship continue to grow as time goes by, perhaps because the story of the luxury liner still captures the public's attention almost 100 years after she sank.

Some report that the Titanic carried a cursed mummy. An American museum purchased the mummy of Amen-Ra, and were shipping it from England to the United States aboard the Titanic. The mummy had previously brought grave misfortune upon all who owned it. The Titanic was no exception, for Amen-Ra’s curse brought death to over 1,500 passengers aboard the ill-fated vessel.

Although the Titanic was an English ship, she was built in Ireland. When the hull numbers were painted onto the ship, the Catholic crew stared in disbelief at the reflection the numbers made on a piece of metal in the shipyard. The numbers, when read backwards in the reflection, appeared to spell the words NO POPE. They quickly warned their supervisors that the ship was cursed, for the devil had put his stamp on the numbers, but they were laughed at and told to get back to work. Later, they wished they’d been more persuasive.

Many urban legends provide cautionary tales, much like modern-day Aesop fables.

An advertising executive was thrilled to land his first big account. He invited the entire account team out to celebrate. Unfortunately, the advertising executive drank much more than he ate. His colleagues didn’t notice how drunk he was, as one by one they left the restaurant. The executive, stumbling, climbed behind the wheel of his car and started for home. As he drove along a dark stretch of road, weaving and struggling to stay in his lane of traffic, he felt a thud and shudder near the front of his sport utility vehicle. Thinking he’d hit a deer, he glanced in his rear-view mirror to see if the animal was all right, but there was nothing in the roadway. He managed to weave his way home and parked haphazardly in the driveway.

The next morning he awoke to his wife’s shrieks of terror. He raced downstairs to see what was the matter. She stood on the front steps, morning paper in hand, pointing a trembling finger toward his car.

He squinted in the morning light. There, embedded into the front grill of the SUV was the bloody body of a homeless man. The thump he heard the night before was his car hitting the man. The body had become stuck on the grill, and the executive had driven home and parked in the driveway with the dead body attached to his car.

Jim led an excited group of Boy Scouts out to Eagle Lake for a weekend camping trip. After a full day of hiking, canoeing and swimming, the exhausted campers pitched their tents for the night and built a fire. Jim asked one of the boys, Tommy, to gather long, thin sticks they could use to roast hot dogs over the open flames, while two other boys prepared baked beans. Tommy returned with branches the perfect size and shape. They gathered around the fire telling ghost stories and munching on hot dogs. Jim, who was a vegetarian, passed on the hot dogs, and instead grabbed his own stick from near his tent to toast a few marshmallows.

At around 2 a.m., Jim awoke to an odd sound. At first he couldn’t identify the sound. Then he realized that several of the campers were outside, getting sick to their stomach. He left the tent to help his troop. Boys were doubled over in the bushes, so sick they couldn’t speak.

By the time he was able to get help from the ranger station and rush the children to the hospital, several had died. They later learned that Tommy had gathered oleander sticks, one of the most poisonous plants in the area, and the heat from the fire had transferred the oleander poison to the hot dogs. Of all the lessons he'd taught them, Jim had failed to teach the Scouts how to identify poisonous plants.

For dozens more chillingly good urban legend stories, visit any of the following websites.

• Snopes features hundreds of legends. If they’re true, they link over to the exact circumstances.
• Urban Legends Online provides legends on everything from bugs to superstitions.
• Truth or Legends updates hourly on the latest email, Internet and modern day hoaxes, scams and legends.

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