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00:00A blood-sucking vampire haunting a decaying cemetery, creepy clowns abducting children
00:10into the woods, and a video game so dangerous it could kill you.
00:18Have you ever been warned about conjuring an angry spirit by repeating the words
00:22Bloody Mary in front of a mirror?
00:25Or maybe you've considered the possibility of a giant beast named Bigfoot.
00:32These are just a few examples of modern mythology called urban legends.
00:39For centuries, humans have told extraordinary tales of mystical creatures and supernatural events.
00:46And today, we continue the tradition by sharing stories of things like creepy encounters
00:53and cursed objects in, in human entities.
01:00Where do these urban legends come from?
01:05And could they be true?
01:08Well, that is what we'll try and find out.
01:11It is said that aspects of what make us human are the capacity for abstract thought, moral reasoning, and creative expression,
01:35which may explain our habit of sharing outrageous stories that make us question the nature of reality itself.
01:43Might the legendary Bigfoot wander the Pacific Northwest?
01:49Could Area 51 be hiding extraterrestrial secrets?
01:53Or are there places where you can really stumble upon a portal to hell?
02:00These are but a few of the countless questions raised by the thrilling tales we call urban legends.
02:11An urban legend is a modern folk tale, and we tell them for the reasons that people have always told folk tales.
02:17They are there to entertain.
02:19They are there to horrify us.
02:21A good urban legend is based on being plausible, or nearly plausible, but also very unexpected and unusual.
02:30And the best ones tend to work because they're not something that can be easily verified.
02:34I think that's part of the appeal.
02:36We are attracted to the mystery.
02:39Urban legends come out of nowhere and spread very, very quickly.
02:42A lot of these legends are about scary things.
02:46Monsters, ghosts, horrible things that could go wrong.
02:49People are expressing their fears.
02:52So there could be somebody saying they saw something strange in a particular area.
02:57And then these stories become repeated, sometimes embellished, oftentimes kind of made more and more compelling as time goes on.
03:05The real heyday of urban legends was the 1970s and the 1980s.
03:10The legends circulating at that time were stories like The Vanishing Hitchhiker,
03:14which is about the motorist who drives past a young woman on the side of the road and she asks for a ride.
03:23And when he gets to the destination, she's gone.
03:25Usually he finds out that a young woman died at that exact curve in the road some years before,
03:31and this happens regularly.
03:33When I think of urban legends, I definitely think about the story of the teenage couple making out in the car
03:39and then, you know, being accosted by someone with a hook hand and murdering them.
03:44There will always be legends we can't fully explain.
03:47I think that part of human curiosity is that we want to believe in the unknown.
03:51While some urban legends seem too far-fetched to be true,
03:55there are in fact stories whose origins are shockingly real.
04:02Urban legends could be based on some sort of true event,
04:06and it got perhaps exaggerated or the names and places were changed.
04:10One example is that there are urban legends about alligators that have gotten flushed down the toilet as babies
04:16and now live in the sewers and eat sewer workers.
04:22Alligators living in the sewers.
04:24Now, that urban legend caught fire because people really were bringing home baby alligators.
04:29So it evolves from there.
04:31You start to think, well, if that happens, then this can happen.
04:34So a baby alligator suddenly becomes a giant killer out in the sewers.
04:40The fun thing about urban legends is they often overlap with reality,
04:44maybe worries about pollution or government testing,
04:47could be expressed in contemporary legends about mutant creatures
04:51that have grown up around these testing sites.
04:53We know that radiation does cause mutations.
04:56We've seen this with Chernobyl.
04:58These are real concerns on real contemporary issues
05:01that people express very often in these narrative forms.
05:06Are urban legends just modern-day fairy tales meant to entertain the human psyche?
05:11Or could they be a kind of warning to protect us from the strange and unknown world around us?
05:19Perhaps the answer lies with one seemingly impossible tale
05:22about how a human being can suddenly erupt into flames.
05:27Spontaneous human combustion is the urban legend that through some chemical reaction,
05:35the human body will spontaneously burst into flames,
05:39leaving the person nothing more than a mound of ash.
05:43The belief that you can spontaneously combust goes back hundreds of years.
05:49In the 1800s, some of our most popular writers talked about spontaneous human combustion.
05:57Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Irvin Melville,
06:00they all depicted spontaneous human combustion in their writings.
06:06We have to wonder, what is it about spontaneous human combustion
06:09that has made it such an enduring legend over these centuries?
06:14Galway, Ireland, December 22, 2010.
06:22Authorities rushed to the home of 76-year-old retiree Michael Faraday.
06:27Once inside, they're faced with a tragic scene.
06:31Please be advised, some images may be disturbing.
06:35Inside Mr. Faraday's home, it was said that his body was burned badly,
06:42as was the ceiling above him and the floor beneath him.
06:46Accelerants were searched for, thinking this might be a case of arson.
06:50Accelerants were not found, so that was ruled out.
06:53The medical examiner was Dr. McLaughlin.
06:57After nine months of investigating the case,
07:00he declared it to be, remarkably, death by spontaneous human combustion.
07:06What the first responders found in answering the call at the Faraday residence
07:10was a mystery then, and remains a mystery to this day.
07:16The coroner decides that this spark has come from within the body.
07:20It couldn't be from anything else.
07:22It has to have come from within.
07:24We'd like to think that if there's a fire, there's a way for us to get away.
07:27But the idea that the fire is in us, that is really kind of scary, I think, to everyone.
07:33The thought that a human being can mysteriously burst into flames is truly alarming.
07:39But what could have led this coroner to deliver such a bizarre diagnosis?
07:45Well, as with many urban legends,
07:47this strange event seems to have happened more than once.
07:52One of the better-known cases of spontaneous human combustion
07:57occurred to Mary Hardy Reeser in July 1951.
08:02Photos showed two firemen shoveling up her ash and remains.
08:06The entire pile of ash weighed about eight pounds,
08:10a remarkable weight reduction overnight.
08:13More remarkable was the lack of fire and heat damage to surrounding materials,
08:17including daybed linen only a few feet from the fire scene.
08:22Dismystified the local St. Petersburg police and fire departments.
08:27So mystifying that the police department kept us an open file that is unsolved.
08:33That's how extreme this fire scene was in trying to explain it.
08:36Remarkably, over the last three centuries,
08:40there have been around 200 reports of people allegedly bursting into flames.
08:46And until we can properly understand this medical mystery,
08:49spontaneous human combustion will remain.
08:53An urban legend that continues to smolder.
08:57The existence of the legend, I don't think, is a mystery at all.
09:03Spontaneous human combustion has been consistently reported time and again
09:08in different literary means, reported by doctors, reported by police officers.
09:13These are authoritative accounts.
09:17And it really puts spontaneous human combustion
09:20into the category of a weird thing that keeps happening.
09:25How many times do we need to see a human body disintegrate into ash
09:31to wonder what's going on here?
09:39Highgate Cemetery, London, England.
09:42This sprawling Victorian-era Greyguard
09:45is the final resting place of around 170,000 people.
09:50It was first consecrated in 1839
09:52as part of a plan to create seven new cemeteries in London.
09:58Its age and unique design
10:00create an otherworldly space
10:03where the living and the dead come to meet.
10:08Highgate Cemetery was first laid out in the mid-19th century.
10:13There's avenues and there's circles
10:17and there's winding paths
10:19and you can get very lost there.
10:23It's a very creepy place
10:24because the Victorians were obsessed with death
10:27and they loved creating necropolises
10:31and that was one of them.
10:33There's so many kind of spooky, dark, moth-covered columns and tombs.
10:40You always do feel that there's just something lurking around the corner,
10:45if not behind a headstone,
10:48waiting to jump out at you.
10:50While Highgate's Victorian monuments to the dead
10:53create a spooky impression,
10:55the cemetery is perhaps most famous
10:58for being the home of a monstrous urban legend.
11:02It is said that this old graveyard
11:05is the haven of a bloodthirsty creature
11:08known as the Highgate vampire.
11:12In 1970, there were rumours that circulated
11:16that a vampire had been seen in the cemetery.
11:20The Highgate vampire story happens
11:22at a time when there's a lot of interest
11:26in the occult, in horror.
11:28You've got the hammer horror films in the cinemas.
11:32There's the Dracula series
11:33with Christopher Lee playing the vampire.
11:36And really that kind of feeds into the public consciousness.
11:40But I defy you to go to Highgate Cemetery
11:43and not feel a sense of fear.
11:47If there's going to be a vampire anywhere,
11:49it's going to be in Highgate Cemetery.
11:52The vampire tradition is a very old tradition in Europe.
11:56Now the traditional vampire
11:57is a loathsome, repelling creature.
12:00Someone who is so evil and rotten in their soul
12:02that when they die and you bury them,
12:05their soul is not going to leave that body.
12:07Their soul is going to get up with that body
12:09and then go terrorize the local communities.
12:12They drink people's blood.
12:14The Highgate vampire is a combination of things
12:17that emerge around the late 1960s and 1970s
12:22around Highgate Cemetery.
12:24There are accounts of an evil presence
12:25that people claim to have seen.
12:28And you've got a real sort of panic on your hands.
12:31Could a vampire really be terrorizing Highgate Cemetery?
12:35What would cause people to even consider such a claim?
12:39In 1969, there had been some pretty serious vandalism
12:44and grave desecrations going on in Highgate.
12:47It was not uncommon to find bodies
12:49that had been dragged out of their coffins
12:51and left lying in the path.
12:53You have rumors of Satanism.
12:56David Ferrant ran a group
12:57called the British Psychic and Occult Society.
13:01So he was interested in all kinds of supernatural topics.
13:04So David Ferrant decided to do a sort of investigation.
13:09He did an all-night vigil in the cemetery.
13:12And he said that while he was doing this,
13:14he saw a dark figure moving across the cemetery.
13:18It was about seven feet tall.
13:20And when this sort of shadowy figure looked at him,
13:23he was hypnotized by its eyes.
13:26He felt paralyzed.
13:27So after having this encounter,
13:30he eventually wrote the local newspaper
13:32and said, I have seen this mysterious specter
13:34in Highgate Cemetery.
13:36Has anybody else seen this?
13:39And it turned out lots of people
13:41had seen strange things in the cemetery.
13:43And all the rumors about a vampire began to accumulate.
13:48Accounts of these vampires being seven feet tall,
13:50that they have red eyes,
13:52that people are seeing these crypts that have been opened,
13:56and they see these bodies that don't look alive.
13:59They don't look dead.
13:59They look somewhere in between.
14:01And so clearly something's happening.
14:06Could the tales of frightening encounters
14:09with a red-eyed vampire
14:10be the result of an overactive imagination?
14:14Or was there something truly sinister
14:17going on at the century-old cemetery?
14:20In 1970, another brave soul
14:24believed he found the source
14:26of the unholy activity happening at Highgate.
14:31Sean Manchester presented himself
14:33as a Christian occultist,
14:35much in the style of Dr. Van Helsing
14:38from the Dracula movies.
14:40So Sean Manchester said,
14:41I know what's really going on at Highgate.
14:43He said it is a king vampire from Wallachia.
14:47Wallachia is a principality
14:49in what today is Romania
14:50that was once ruled by Vlad Tepes,
14:53better known as Dracula.
14:55And he said this king vampire
14:57was brought here sometime in the 1700s,
15:00and it's dormant beneath the cemetery.
15:03And he also claimed that all of this vandalism
15:06that's occurring in the cemetery,
15:07it's the satanic cult,
15:09and it's performing these powerful rituals
15:11in the cemetery at night
15:12for the purpose of resurrecting this king vampire.
15:15A king vampire being resurrected
15:19by a satanic cult?
15:22Sounds more like a frightening campfire tale
15:24than the truth.
15:26And yet, in March of 1970,
15:30on Friday the 13th,
15:32this story would become forever ingrained
15:35in modern folklore.
15:38The Highgate vampire story escalates
15:41once it gets to the national media
15:44and they broadcast
15:45that there was going to be
15:47a sort of an exorcism
15:47of this thing in Highgate Cemetery
15:49on Friday the 13th, of course.
15:53And once that's on the news,
15:55two hours later,
15:56a mob essentially forms up.
15:58Highgate Cemetery is swamped
15:59with amateur vampire hunters.
16:01Apparently, the police are there.
16:02They can't hold them back.
16:03They kind of swarm over the gates
16:04of the cemetery
16:05hunting for this vampire.
16:09It was reported
16:10that around 100 people
16:12went hunting for the Highgate vampire.
16:14But the fabled creature
16:16was never found.
16:18And while skeptics are quick
16:20to dismiss the idea
16:21of a bloodthirsty demon
16:22that roams the cemetery,
16:25like many urban legends,
16:27it seems that something strange
16:30really was happening.
16:32The question is,
16:34what was it?
16:35There were definitely
16:36very strange things going on
16:37in Highgate.
16:38in addition to vandalism
16:41with pseudo-satanic rituals.
16:44One detail that's often ignored
16:45is that there were a lot
16:46of dead foxes found
16:48at the cemetery,
16:49supposedly drained of blood.
16:51We still don't know
16:52what killed these foxes.
16:54So this is often how
16:56urban legends form,
16:57at the intersection
16:58of unexplainable phenomena
17:00and then folklore
17:02and then folklore rushing in
17:04to build a story
17:04about that mystery.
17:08Was there really
17:09a vampire prowling the grounds
17:11of the Highgate cemetery?
17:12Or was it a case
17:14of mass hysteria?
17:16Perhaps the answer
17:17may be found
17:17by examining another
17:19famous urban legend
17:21about mysterious figures
17:24that lurk in the shadows,
17:26known as the men in black.
17:29Since the 1940s,
17:35both sightings
17:37and strange encounters
17:38with unidentified flying objects
17:40have sparked
17:41countless urban legends
17:44of close encounters
17:46with extraterrestrial beings,
17:49civilian abductions
17:50and testing
17:51on alien space crabs,
17:54and livestock
17:55found mutilated
17:57as the result
17:58of otherworldly entities.
18:01But one of the most
18:02fascinating legends
18:03surrounds the mysterious
18:05men in black.
18:08The legend of the men in black
18:10is that ever since
18:12the dawn of the UFO age
18:13in the late 1940s,
18:15UFO witnesses
18:16have been silenced,
18:18have been threatened,
18:20and have even possibly
18:21been physically harmed
18:22by the men in black
18:24in their pursuit
18:25in their pursuit
18:25of the truth
18:27behind what UFOs
18:29might be.
18:30These figures
18:31are usually considered
18:33to be agents
18:34of any number
18:35of government agencies.
18:37But there are others
18:38who believe
18:39that the men in black
18:40might be agents
18:41of an organization
18:43that is so deeply hidden
18:44within our government
18:45that we don't even know
18:47its name.
18:47The men in black
18:49usually show up
18:50after someone's
18:51seen a UFO
18:52or seen some sort
18:53of strange light
18:53in the sky.
18:54They try to dissuade them
18:56from talking about the UFO.
18:58Sometimes they take
18:59any evidence
19:00that people have
19:01of the UFOs,
19:02including pieces of it
19:04or photographs,
19:07and they strongly
19:07encourage them
19:08not to talk about them.
19:11Is there really
19:12a top-secret
19:13government agency
19:15that employs
19:16mysterious agents
19:17to suppress
19:18extraterrestrial secrets?
19:20Perhaps the answer
19:22can be found
19:22by examining
19:23the origin
19:23of this long-standing
19:25urban legend
19:26and the tale
19:28of a prominent
19:29ufologist
19:30from the 1950s
19:31named
19:32Albert K. Bender.
19:34Albert K. Bender
19:36is really
19:36the origin
19:38of the men
19:39in black legend.
19:40He worked
19:41for the Air Force
19:41during World War II,
19:43but by the 1950s
19:44he started
19:45something called
19:46the International
19:47Flying Saucer Bureau
19:48and it published
19:50a newsletter
19:50called the Space Review.
19:52In 1953,
19:54in the Space Review,
19:56he wrote,
19:57I've discovered
19:57the secret
19:58of the flying saucers.
19:59I know
20:00what the flying saucers
20:01really are
20:01and I'm going
20:02to tell the public.
20:03but he never
20:04did tell the public.
20:06Instead,
20:07he shuttered
20:08the International
20:08Flying Saucer Bureau
20:10and stopped
20:11investigating UFOs.
20:14What would compel
20:15Albert Bender
20:16to suddenly go silent?
20:18Well,
20:19nearly a decade
20:19after his strange
20:20change of heart
20:21in 1962,
20:23Bender shared
20:24an unsettling
20:25explanation
20:26in his book
20:26titled
20:27Flying Saucers
20:29and the Three Men.
20:30What Bender
20:32eventually said
20:33was
20:34these three men
20:35in black
20:35came to my house
20:36and they said
20:37we know
20:37what you've been doing
20:38you're getting
20:38too close to the truth
20:39you need to stop
20:40talking about this
20:41right now
20:41or there's going
20:42to be serious
20:43consequences.
20:44They acted
20:45as if they were
20:45from the government
20:46but they were
20:47very frightening.
20:48When the men
20:49in black
20:50initially
20:50contacted him
20:52Bender claimed
20:54he felt
20:54the temperature
20:55in the room
20:56drop,
20:57he got
20:58an excruciating
20:59headache
20:59and heard
21:01a voice
21:01telling him
21:02to not delve
21:04any more deeply
21:05into the
21:06Flying Saucer
21:06mystery
21:07and it terrified
21:09Bender so much
21:10that he was
21:11completely happy
21:12to shut down
21:13his Flying Saucer
21:14organization
21:15and to refuse
21:17to talk about
21:18the topic
21:19even to his
21:20closest friends.
21:21Did men in black
21:23with strange powers
21:24really scare
21:25Albert Bender
21:26into silence?
21:27While skeptics
21:29dismiss the claims
21:30as pure urban
21:31legend
21:31many have wondered
21:33why do stories
21:35of men in black
21:36still persist?
21:39In the summer
21:40of 2008
21:41residents outside
21:43of Needles,
21:43California
21:44saw something
21:45shooting through
21:46their sky.
21:47It looked like
21:47a long cylinder.
21:49It was covered
21:51in a turquoise
21:52blue flame
21:53and it crashed
21:55on the side
21:56of the Colorado River
21:57and a matter
22:00of moments later
22:01big sky copters
22:03came with a crane
22:04removing whatever
22:06debris had crashed
22:07there.
22:09The next day
22:11townsfolk noticed
22:12strange men
22:14in black looking
22:15government officials
22:16in town.
22:17They were
22:18intimidating witnesses
22:19that it would be
22:20to their best interest
22:22if they did not speak
22:23about what they
22:24had seen.
22:25The Needles crash
22:26in 2008
22:27contains many
22:28of modern day
22:29tropes of what
22:30we think of
22:30men in black.
22:32Who were the strange
22:34men allegedly
22:34intimidating residents
22:36of Needles,
22:36California?
22:38Well,
22:38according to urban legend,
22:40these mysterious
22:40beings might not
22:42even be men
22:43at all.
22:44There are several
22:47things that
22:48witnesses have
22:49experienced
22:50that have led
22:50people to believe
22:51that the men in black
22:53could be extraterrestrial
22:54in origin.
22:56They act like
22:57creatures who
22:58maybe have learned
22:59how to behave
23:00like humans
23:01from monitoring
23:02our mass media.
23:05Are these
23:05government officials?
23:07Are they
23:07extradimensional
23:09creatures?
23:10Are they some
23:11combination of the
23:12above?
23:13We don't know that.
23:14But there's a
23:16kernel of truth
23:16at the heart
23:17of the men in black
23:18legend.
23:19Ever since the
23:21beginning of the
23:21flying saucer age
23:22in the late 1940s,
23:24there have been
23:25persistent reports
23:27of men
23:28dressed in black
23:29threatening,
23:30intimidating,
23:31or otherwise
23:33silencing
23:34UFO witnesses.
23:37This is a real
23:38story.
23:40Are the rumored
23:41men in black
23:42covering up
23:43the existence
23:43presence of UFOs?
23:45And who are they
23:47really?
23:49When it comes to
23:50urban legends,
23:50the fact is that
23:51you can't always
23:53trust your eyes
23:54and ears.
23:55Like in the case
23:57of a rash of
23:58creepy clown sightings
24:00that swept the
24:01United States
24:02in 2016
24:03before spreading
24:05across the entire
24:07world.
24:11Green Bay,
24:12Wisconsin,
24:13August 2016.
24:16Authorities are
24:17inundated with calls
24:18as freaked out
24:19residents report a
24:21strange figure prowling
24:22the streets.
24:23And what they
24:24describe seeing is a
24:26disturbing presence
24:28of a very unusual
24:30kind.
24:31On August 1st,
24:332016,
24:34people in the
24:35Green Bay area
24:36start seeing this
24:37mysterious clown
24:39that's haunting the
24:40street,
24:40seems to be lurking.
24:42And that clown is
24:42absolutely terrifying.
24:44It is a white-faced
24:46clown,
24:46but then you've got
24:47smudged,
24:48creepy accents around
24:49the eyes and the mouth.
24:50He's holding this
24:51bouquet of black
24:53balloons.
24:54Suddenly,
24:54everyone is talking
24:55about this clown
24:56that seems to be
24:57haunting the streets
24:58of Green Bay,
24:58Wisconsin.
25:00This menacing clown
25:02was later revealed
25:03to be part of a
25:03marketing stunt
25:04for a new horror film.
25:06But it seemed to
25:07have sparked
25:08something very strange
25:10to happen
25:10when similar reports
25:12of creepy clowns
25:14started popping up
25:16everywhere.
25:17Later that month,
25:18we were getting
25:18reports from other
25:19places.
25:21Greenville,
25:21South Carolina,
25:22children were
25:23reporting clowns
25:24at the edge
25:25of the woods
25:25offering them
25:26money to follow
25:28them into the forest.
25:29And that fear,
25:30that anxiety
25:31catches on.
25:33And thanks to
25:33the internet,
25:34it spreads
25:35around the world
25:36in a matter
25:37of days
25:37or even hours.
25:40Now we get
25:40images,
25:42videos,
25:43parents are
25:44freaking out,
25:45police stations
25:45are getting phone calls,
25:46they're hearing
25:47about predators
25:47in the environment
25:48dressed as clowns.
25:50Oh my God.
25:52And people
25:52tried to figure out
25:53whether that's
25:54a real genuine threat
25:55or whether that's
25:56someone setting up
25:58an elaborate hoax.
26:00The creepy clown craze
26:01of 2016
26:02was this remarkable
26:04moment in pop culture
26:05history.
26:06At last count,
26:0719 different countries
26:08had their own clown sightings
26:10within that period.
26:11It bears all those
26:13earmarks of really
26:14good folklore,
26:15really good urban legend
26:16because this taps
26:18into that same
26:18existing fear
26:19about traveling
26:19into the woods
26:20by yourself
26:21and protecting children.
26:22But now it's got
26:23this extra
26:24level of absurdity,
26:26level of creepiness
26:27with a clown
26:28being the threat
26:29that's emerging
26:30from the woods
26:30for the kids.
26:31Is there any truth
26:33to the urban legend
26:34that there are
26:35dangerous madmen
26:36in clown costumes
26:38seeking to harm
26:39our children?
26:40What it sounds like
26:41the stuff of nightmares,
26:43reports of sightings
26:44of creepy clowns
26:46evoke a mass hysteria.
26:48Oh my God.
26:50What's even more bizarre
26:50about this whole thing
26:51is that it's not even
26:52the first scary clown
26:54craze to happen.
26:55Going all the way
26:56back to 1981
26:57in the Boston area,
26:59this is the first time
27:00we really see
27:01a widespread clown
27:02sighting children,
27:04saying that they saw
27:05a clown approach them
27:06in a van
27:06and then immediately
27:07disappear before any
27:09kind of police
27:09could make it
27:10to the scene on time.
27:11And it's important
27:12to note that no clown
27:13ever was found
27:14at this particular
27:16clown hunt.
27:20In 1981,
27:22reports of creepy clowns
27:23also appeared in Omaha,
27:25Kansas City,
27:25Denver, Providence,
27:26and Pittsburgh.
27:27But thankfully,
27:29there was no real evidence
27:30that clowns
27:31were abducting children.
27:34But based on the sheer terror
27:36that these reports inspired,
27:38it begs the question,
27:39how have we become
27:42so afraid of clowns?
27:46Nothing in modern pop culture
27:49has changed more than clowns.
27:52In the 1800s,
27:54with the height of the circus,
27:55the clowns were the most popular performers.
27:58They were the A-list celebrities.
28:01They were the ones that everyone
28:03went to the circus to see.
28:05They entertained us,
28:06made us laugh.
28:07But today, pop culture has portrayed clowns
28:15as evil beings,
28:16from Pennywise and Stephen King's It
28:19to killer clowns from outer space
28:22to Batman's nemesis, the Joker.
28:26They have painted them as things
28:28that are sinister, creepy,
28:30and possibly deadly.
28:33While evil clowns have certainly
28:35become part of the popular culture,
28:37tragically,
28:38the urban legend became all too real
28:40in the 1970s
28:41with a serial killer named
28:44John Wayne Gacy.
28:47John Wayne Gacy is one of the most infamous
28:50serial killers in American history.
28:52He murdered many teen or very young boys,
28:56would lure them back to his home
28:58and then murder them
28:59and bury them under his house.
29:01And when he's arrested,
29:03it kind of comes to light
29:04that he also happened to moonlight
29:06as a clown for local hospitals.
29:09John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer
29:12who had a persona called Pogo the Clown.
29:15So this really cemented
29:17into the American consciousness
29:18that there really is such a thing
29:21as a killer clown
29:22and that people who dress as clowns,
29:25they may only be performing as a clown
29:27so that they can have access to children.
29:31John Wayne Gacy's alter ego,
29:34Pogo the Clown,
29:35is a grim reminder
29:36that a dangerous madman
29:38could be hiding under a layer of grease paint.
29:42One of the things
29:43that always lingers for me
29:45with the creepy clown craze
29:48was who were the actual clowns?
29:53The people standing outside elementary schools,
29:56standing under streetlights at night,
29:59we never got the follow-up stories.
30:01And that tells us something
30:02about the creepy clown craze.
30:05We weren't looking for answers.
30:07We were looking to be scared.
30:11Is it possible
30:12that we're in for another wave
30:14of creepy clown sightings in the future?
30:17Or is the phenomenon
30:19just an elaborate hoax?
30:22Perhaps I don't tell.
30:23However, there is another urban legend
30:27that's been a mystery
30:28for more than 185 years.
30:31It's the story of a demonic entity
30:33that terrorized London,
30:35known as Spring-Heeled Jack.
30:43London, England, February 19th, 1838.
30:48Around 9 p.m.,
30:51an 18-year-old Jane Osso,
30:53a young woman born into Victorian high society,
30:57hears a rat outside her front door.
31:01She looks outside
31:02and sees a mysterious figure
31:05who identifies himself as a policeman
31:07and asks her for assistance.
31:11Believing him,
31:12she opens her door
31:13and very soon,
31:16she'll wish she hadn't.
31:17He's kind of wrapped in this cloak
31:21and he says he's a policeman
31:23and he throws off his cloak
31:25and then she kind of suddenly sees
31:28he's got this strange face
31:29with these big red eyes.
31:32He looks very sort of inhuman
31:33and then she realizes
31:35he's also got claws
31:36and he blows a sort of ball of flame
31:39in her face,
31:40kind of describes blue-white flame
31:42and then he lurches at her
31:44and he starts to attack her.
31:47This man began to claw at her face,
31:50her neck,
31:50her arms and her dress.
31:52She was screaming and struggling
31:54and luckily her sister heard her.
31:56Jane was actually being dragged
31:58out of the home.
32:00Her sister fortunately was able
32:01to get her back inside
32:03but not before Jane's dress
32:05was almost completely torn off.
32:08Who or what attacked Jane Osso?
32:13Her attack made headlines
32:14all over London
32:14and a wave of terror flooded the city
32:17because this was not the first woman
32:19said to have been attacked
32:20by a shadowy figure
32:22that is known in urban legend
32:25as Spring-Heeled Jack.
32:28In the 1830s
32:30this curious story emerges
32:33in the newspapers
32:34that there is an attacker
32:38on the dark, foggy streets of London
32:40called Spring-Heeled Jack
32:43who has eyes that are like balls of fire,
32:47who has claw-like hands,
32:50who wears a skin-tight black costume
32:53and who can jump enormous heights.
32:58So Spring-Heeled Jack
33:00is a type of urban legend
33:02that's sometimes called
33:03a phantom attacker.
33:04So in phantom attacker stories
33:06there is someone
33:08who is attacking people
33:09but it's not killing someone.
33:12About 50 years after Spring-Heeled Jack
33:14we have the Jack the Ripper murders.
33:18Jack the Ripper is not a phantom attacker.
33:20He's an unidentified serial killer.
33:24But there are similarities
33:26with the panic over Spring-Heeled Jack
33:28in that we have someone
33:29who is stalking the streets at night,
33:32attacking women
33:33who nobody seems able to identify or catch.
33:38While Jack the Ripper
33:39was a very real killer in 1888,
33:42the urban legend of a phantom attacker
33:44with superhuman abilities
33:46does sound a bit hard to believe.
33:50But incredibly,
33:52after reports of Spring-Heeled Jack
33:54started appearing in the 1830s,
33:57they continued for decades.
34:02Spring-Heeled Jack sightings
34:04lasted a very long time.
34:05They dip in the late 50s
34:08into the early 1860s.
34:10He then gets reimagined
34:11as this Penny Dreadful character.
34:14Penny Dreadfuls were cheap publications
34:16in serialized form
34:18and this seems to sort of reignite
34:20a lot of the folkloric tales again.
34:23And then he's seen in Wales,
34:25he's seen up in Scotland.
34:27There's a sighting in Liverpool in 1904.
34:30In Sheffield,
34:32he was known to be around the region
34:34until the First World War.
34:35So you've got a character
34:36that, if it is the same individual,
34:38is coming up for at least 100 years
34:41since he first appeared.
34:42Wasn't it really a fire-breathing superhuman
34:45with claws,
34:46preying on women for 100 years?
34:49Well, some experts believe
34:50that details of this mysterious attacker
34:53were embellished like many good urban legends.
34:56And some suggest
35:00this monster served as a cautionary tale
35:03for Victorian women
35:05living in 19th century London.
35:09The time period in which
35:11Spring-Heeled Jack emerged
35:14was the 1830s.
35:16So we're pretty much
35:17smack in the middle
35:18of the Industrial Revolution
35:20at this point.
35:22Industrialization changed a lot.
35:23It moved people out
35:24from pastoral spaces
35:26into urban spaces.
35:27It created a lot of congestion,
35:30people living on top of each other
35:31in sometimes rough conditions.
35:34And the story that we see
35:35is of this bizarre criminal
35:38targeting women specifically
35:41in this urban setting.
35:42And in so many ways,
35:44this is just really quintessentially
35:47the fear of the unknown stranger.
35:50So this is clearly a concept
35:54that women are often in danger
35:56of predatory creatures,
35:58whether they be human beings or not.
36:01Spring-Heeled Jack does speak
36:02to some of that violence
36:03towards women
36:04in the Victorian period.
36:06It's almost kind of reinforcing
36:07the notion
36:07that women should just be
36:09sitting at home
36:10and the public sphere
36:11is kind of the masculine sphere.
36:13But it's something
36:13that was often spoken about
36:14in this time period.
36:16And so there is a sort of
36:18a controlling element to this.
36:20What Spring-Heeled Jack invented
36:22to keep 19th century women at home
36:24is certainly possible.
36:26But if that's true,
36:27then why is this story
36:29re-emerged in the modern age?
36:34Epson, England.
36:36February 14th, 2012.
36:39A family is taking a taxi ride
36:41through town
36:41and suddenly they witness something
36:44that's impossible to explain.
36:46They see a figure
36:49jump over a highway divider,
36:51run across two lanes of traffic,
36:54and then somehow leap up
36:56a 15-foot embankment,
36:58all within the span
36:59of about two seconds.
37:01On top of this,
37:02they said whoever this was
37:04had no facial features.
37:06So this is a really strange encounter
37:08and it sounds a lot like
37:10the original Spring-Heeled Jack sightings
37:11from the 1800s.
37:13Has Spring-Heeled Jack returned
37:15to begin a new reign of terror?
37:18Only time will tell.
37:21But there's another urban legend
37:23of a different kind
37:24that started in American arcades
37:27about a game
37:28said to possess
37:30mind-altering powers.
37:38Portland, Oregon, 1991.
37:46The video game revolution
37:50takes over America
37:51and gamers flock to arcades
37:55throughout the city.
37:57And it's said that there is
37:58one legendary game
38:00that people are lining up to play.
38:02The only problem is
38:03it might cost you your life.
38:06It's called Polybius.
38:10So the Polybius urban legend
38:11is that there was this game console
38:14that was placed in certain arcades.
38:17People would play it
38:18and it was supposedly
38:20either controlling their mind
38:21or in some cases we also hear
38:23that people were having headaches
38:25or seizures.
38:26It was causing them
38:27to have some sort
38:29of medical condition
38:30because of the game itself.
38:32Kids are getting into fights
38:33and becoming aggressive.
38:35Some of them are dying.
38:36And where these games
38:38were installed,
38:39men in black suits
38:40would come and tinker
38:41with these games.
38:42And it's believed
38:43that these were some type
38:44of government agents
38:45that were altering
38:46the equipment in order
38:47to see what effects
38:48that Polybius would have
38:49on the people playing it.
38:50But the thing is,
38:51there's no actual evidence
38:52that it existed.
38:54If there's no proof
38:56of Polybius,
38:57then where did this urban legend
38:58come from?
39:00The only known evidence
39:01of its existence
39:02can be found
39:03where many modern urban legends
39:04are born.
39:06The internet.
39:08Polybius really comes down
39:10to a single website
39:12in 1998,
39:14the coin-off website
39:15that discussed
39:17different arcade games
39:18from the 1980s
39:19that has an entry
39:21for this game,
39:22Polybius.
39:24So whether that website
39:25grew out of people's
39:27memories of the game
39:28or whether that website
39:29created people's memories
39:31of the game,
39:32that was really
39:34the linchpin
39:35that leads
39:36to the entire legend
39:38catching on
39:39as it did.
39:40Is the story
39:41of Polybius
39:42a complete fabrication?
39:44Or could there be
39:44some truth
39:45to a dangerous video game?
39:47Well, perhaps the newfound
39:49form of entertainment
39:50in the 1980s
39:51really did warrant
39:53some caution
39:54and even fear.
39:58The arcade phenomenon
39:59was a new one.
40:01And in the early 80s,
40:02that's what kids did.
40:04There was one kid
40:04who played 28 straight hours
40:06and ended up
40:07making himself sick over it.
40:08Kids were playing
40:09this Tempest game
40:10and they were having seizures.
40:12Another game called Berserk,
40:14a kid has a heart attack
40:15and then a couple weeks later,
40:16another kid has a heart attack
40:17on the same machine.
40:19This was a lot of concern
40:20for parents
40:21who didn't really understand
40:22what video games were.
40:24Did fears of video games
40:26warping the minds
40:27of America's youth
40:28create the urban legend
40:30of Polybius?
40:32Perhaps.
40:34But the bigger question
40:35is not how urban legends begin,
40:37but why they continue
40:39to endure
40:40from one generation
40:41to the next.
40:42It's often hard
40:46to find the origin
40:47of an urban legend,
40:48but it spreads
40:50because it's a good story.
40:52Something about it
40:52appeals to people's experience
40:54and that's why they tell it.
40:56There's something about it
40:57that's articulating
40:58something important.
41:00There's a well-known saying
41:01about urban legends
41:02among folklorists,
41:04which is that
41:04legends might not always be true,
41:07but they're always getting
41:08something right.
41:09The world is full
41:11of experiences,
41:13real things
41:13that people see,
41:16witness,
41:17experience for themselves
41:18that they can't explain.
41:20And those are the things
41:21where we fill in those answers
41:23with urban legends.
41:27So, what's the verdict?
41:30Can people spontaneously combust?
41:33Are mysterious men
41:34in black hiding among us
41:35concealing the truth
41:36about UFOs?
41:37And what about
41:39Spring Hill Jack?
41:41Was he real?
41:43You know,
41:44it's easy to be skeptical,
41:45but the truth is
41:46not a single one
41:47of these modern myths
41:48have been definitively debunked.
41:51So, if you happen
41:52to catch a glimpse
41:52of some creepy clowns
41:55prowling around
41:56your neighborhood,
41:58perhaps it's better
41:59to close the blinds,
42:01lock the door,
42:03and let them
42:04and all other
42:06urban legends
42:08remain
42:08unexplained.
42:11to be continued...
42:18to be continued...
42:23to be continued...
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