If you have been directed to this page from within “Voices from the Grave,” it’s likely because you were told a ghost story about a haunted location near you but the story you were told is actually a very famous ghost story that, for whatever reason has been accidentally set in dozens, if not hundreds of other locations around the world. Chances are, you’re about to see a story on this page that you thought was set just down the street from you, but actually takes place in an entirely different state.
Children ghosts from a school bus accident protect stalled cars
This story details the sad tale of a school bus accident that took the lives of several children. To this day, in the intersection, or across the railroad tracks where the accident took place, if you stop your car and leave it in neutral, the protective ghosts of the children victims will push your car to safety, preventing another such tragedy. Most tales even talk of covering the back of the car with baby powder to reveal the small handprints of the phantom children.
The reality is that the school bus accident did take place and the ghost story exists with little variation. The tragedy took place in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1938. Read more about the story in the Snopes pages here: http://snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/handprint.asp
The story has incorrectly been associated with several sites including Cuba Road in Barrington, IL where phantom cars and a phantom train is observed, but is most commonly incorrectly linked to a suburb of San Antonio, Texas.
Serial killer targets teen couples in their cars at the local ‘Lover’s Lane’
This tale popularly involves a close call with the killer losing his hooked hand on the car door as the couple speeds away. This is loosely based on the so-called Phantom Killer in Texarkana in 1946. The press dubbing this uncatchable criminal a ‘phantom,’ had to have only intensified the probability of an urban legend spinning off from the truth. Read more about the story in the Snopes pages here: http://snopes.com/horrors/madmen/hook.asp
This murderer is commonly accidentally associated with Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in Midlothian, IL, one of the most haunted cemeteries in America.
Hitchhiking girl ends up being a ghost
There are a number of ghosts seen on roadsides across the world, but this story in question involves, not only seeing a female ghost on the roadside, but, not knowing she’s a phantom, offering her a ride home. During the journey the ghost vanishes from the car. Now alone, the driver decides to head to the address the specter passenger conveyed before vanishing. At the destination, they discover that their arrival was expected, as this is the anniversary of the girl’s death.
Hard to pinpoint the exact origin as there are a number of actual vanishing hitchhiker ghosts, but one of the most famous in the world and one that also ties in with a girl coming home from a dance is Archer Avenue’s Resurrection Mary in Justice, Illinois. However, for other possible leads and a historical perspective, view the Snopes page on the topic here: http://snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/vanish.asp
