6 Urban Myths That Are Based In Reality

4. Killer Clowns

There’s been a craze in the last two decades with the killer clowns, but did you know they’re more to their story than the classic Stephen King book “It”? While it definitely contributed to the popularisation of the genre, it did not originate the fad.

John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer who got the nickname Killer Clown due to the fact that he used to work as one. Despite not being related to any of his murders, the nickname stuck and it got popularised through the media.

5. Bunny Man

If you were in Virginia in the 1970s you definitely hear of the Bunny Man. While it sounds like a fun nickname, the stories around him are far more sinister and they can have a lot of variations: he is an escaped mental patient that has an axe or a hatchet, he hangs dead rabbits off the side of a bridge, he is a specter that comes out only on Halloween, everything under the sun has been spun into this story.

Yet, the origin of this tale is a few police reports and sightings in Fairfax country where twice a man in a bunny costume has been reported of threatening people with an axe for allegedly trespassing on the property, in one of them allegedly throwing the weapon at a car. Both cases have been closed due to lack of evidence, but the urban legend of the Bunny Man was born.

6. Cropsey

While for some the Boogeyman is but fantasy, for others it can be a very real thing. The myth that if you do not listen to your parents the boogeyman will come and take you away is nonsense, but in the 1980s Staten Island, it was very real. Cropsey was rumored to come after children in the middle of the night to kidnap them, the urban myth having him carry a bloody axe as well.

While now just an urban legend, its origins could be traced to Andre Rand, a janitor who used to work for a school for children with disabilities. He was found guilty of kidnapping two children, but in reality, they suspect the number to have been much higher. His story might have been what started the legend of Cropsey, which, just like the others, only hold a sliver of the actual true story.