The world we know today is the result of a series of violence and brutality that occurred throughout history.
Such violence often comes in different forms such as wars, criminal acts, and even the occasional conflicts we encounter with both our family and friends. Violence comes as a natural mechanism in our evolutionary makeup as one of the primary defenses against attacks.
However, there are instances where violence becomes a dangerous weapon used not just for torture or for pleasure but also for exerting one’s power and influence over a huge minority. Unfortunately the negative energy that exudes from these violent acts leave imprints in several locations that can even be felt years after the incident.
Here are just some of the world’s most frightening locations whose extremely violent history continues to haunt us until today.
1. Atsugi Hangar Bay
On the eve of the end of the Second World War, Emperor Hirohito made a radio broadcast that announced their surrender to the Allied Forces on August 15, 1945. This announcement marked the end of the Second World War. Two weeks later, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived at the Atsugi Naval Air Facility to officially accept their surrender.
As the story goes, rather than admitting defeat, pilots stationed at the said air facility slipped into one of the hangars and committed mass hara kiri or ritual suicide. The pilots were said to have been angered by the disgrace of the surrender of their country. To this day, there have been reports of the pilots’ souls continuing to haunt the said premises. Servicemen have reported seeing red eyes floating in the darkness and doors slamming at all hours of the night with no one there.
2. Hampton Lillibridge House
Reputed to be the most haunted house in Savannah, the Hampton Lillibridge is quite deceiving as it is the perfect model of a charming, well-maintained relic of the eighteenth-century American-style house. From a sailor caught hanging from a makeshift noose to the dying gasps of an entire family poisoned by their slaves, this quaint home is truly a house of horrors.
One of the creepiest stories from the Hampton Lillibridge house involves the past owner, a man named Jim Williams. Williams and several friends were in the house when they heard noises coming from upstairs. The house was still being renovated at the time, and the noises were coming from a room with an open chimney shaft on the third floor. When Williams’s friend walked into the room, he felt an invisible force grip his body and drag him toward the open shaft. Only by dropping to the floor did he prevent himself from being flung to his death.
3. The 29 Hanbury Street
Said to be the site of the grizzly murders done by London’s notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper, this particular address on the London street is where the Ripper’s second out of the five victims namely Annie Chapman was found. With her head nearly severed and her uterus cut from her abdomen, this became one of the most haunted locations in the city.
Despite being demolished to make way for a brewery, there had been sightings of the headless ghost of Annie Chapman wandering around the spot where her body was found. Her ghost is said to be seen wandering during the anniversary of her death when a cold wind swept at precisely 6:00 a.m., which was reportedly the time of her death.
4. The Ostrich Inn
The Ostrich Inn gained a notoriety for being the site of John Jarman‘s alleged murders. Conveniently located as the site for weary travelers from the capital of London, it was reported that Jarman would lead travelers who settle in for the night for the fright of their lives. It was said that at the pull of a lever, the floor would open and would tip the bed sending the victims kicking and screaming to their death into a cat filled with boiling water.
He allegedly killed sixty people during the seventeenth century with the help of his wife. Some of the reported incidents in the inn would include sudden noises, flickering lights, and machinery turning itself on behind locked doors.
5. Dead Children’s Playground
This well-maintained and expansive location is the sight of a series of unsolved child abductions during the early 1960’s. According to reports, children were found later discarded in the playground located just at the edge of the cemetery. The crimes have yet to be solved until today. Aptly named as the Dead Children’s Playground, it is reported that when the clock strikes ten on a dead calm night, the rusty swings would creak to life while unearthly giggles could be heard over the still cemetery premises.
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6. Jerome, Arizona
This ghost town got is reputation during the 1800s when body counts began to rise following a series of gunfights and violence that plagued the town during the copper boom. Dubbed as “The Wickedest Town in America,” the most haunted location in the town is called the Husband’s Alley where all things deadly and decadent were done. It has been reported that the ghostly call of young girls can still be heard echoing in the empty streets.
Perhaps the most famous ghost figure known to be seen by many is Sammie Dean, a young prostitute who was strangled in her bed by a customer. It is believed that she still prowls the homes in search for her killer. Another is that of a “Headless Charlie” who is said to haunt the dark tunnels for the head he lost during a freak accident. From ghosts of those who dies of the flu in 1917 to victims of violence, this sleepy town has every horrible tale to tell wherever you go.
7. Letchworth Village
Mental asylums have gained quite a notoriety as one of the most haunted places on earth due to its erratic history of mistreating patients and using them for illegal medical experiments, and the Letchworth is no exception. Formerly known as one of the most prestigious metal healthcare facilities in the country, it eventually lost its status due to several incidents, which include the overcrowding of patients in overpopulated rooms to using patients for a medical experiment.
Patients started to become neglected while many women were abused. The said asylum officially closed in 1996, and since then, ghostly remnants can still be heard. From children giggling to chairs scraping across concrete floors, it does not come as a surprise that this is one places one shouldn’t venture into at all.
8. Black Hag’s Cell
Europe also has developed a reputation for being one of the world’s perfect locations for all things scary and spooky, and Ireland is one of them. From leprechauns to killer phantom canines, the Irish moors is also infested with stories all things dark and terrifying. Perhaps one of the most famous haunted locations in Ireland is that of the “Black Hag’s Cell.”
The said “cell” is an Old Abbey that was believed to be the site where a satanic nun performed her satanic rituals. It is also where she met her fate when she was reportedly buried alive. It has been reported that at night hair-raising screams would echo over the hills. It was said that her tormented spirit still haunts the grounds.
Other versions would recount how a nun was believed to have died from an arrow and was buried alive by the earl of Desmond. After hearing the terrifying screams, the coffin was soon exhumed only to find out it was too late. It is said that she’d rubbed her fingertips off by scratching her way out of the coffin.
9. Baker Hotel
Located at Mineral Wells, Texas, the Baker Hotel has developed quite a reputation from being an opulent getaway for the rich and famous to becoming a haunted location. Perhaps one of the most famous ghost sightings associated with this hotel is that of a woman in white who took a dive off the hotel’s roof. Another is that of a weeping old woman in a wheelchair wailing the words “I can’t do it” over and over again, and that of a boy whispering “It hurts, Mommy.”
Plans are underway to restore the dying hotel to its former glory, which may or may not be a good idea for both the specters and incoming visitors.
10. The House of Death
The 14 West 10th Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, has developed quite a reputation due to several tales of violent murders and suicides during the turn of the twentieth century. Perhaps one of the most famous incidents was that of actress and poet Jan Bryant Bartell who occupied the said home during the 1960s.
Within weeks, she began to experience horrifying events similar to that of the horror movie Amityville Horror with incidents like an icy hand brushing the back of her neck, footsteps following her around the empty house, and the smell of things dying. If that is not horrifying enough, how about the incident where one of her dogs would spend hours growling and bristling at an empty chair. From an aborted child to bodies buried beneath the floorboards, it would not come as a surprise that the Bartells would eventually abandon the place to avoid anymore untoward incident.
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