Updated December 19, 2019 22.7K votes 4.8K voters 395.8K views
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Vote up the weirdest, most disturbing Texan urban legends.
Every state in America has its own set of myths and urban legends, and Texas is no different. Texas urban legends are some of the creepiest in the United States, and they might make you think twice before planning a visit.Â
Texan urban legends are very diverse, ranging from a deranged headless horseman to a baby with fangs powerful enough to rip out your throat to children with pitch-black eyes that wander the night. Whatever horror you can imagine, you'll likely be able to find it in Texas. Check out the list below for some of the scariest stories from one of America's biggest states and vote up the creepy urban legends from Texas that scare you the most.Â
Children are creepy in any context, so any urban legend including black-eyed children is bound to turn some heads. In the late '90s, a journalist named Brian Bethel was working in his town of Abilene, Texas, when he encountered something that he'll remember until his last day.
He was parked outside a movie theater when two children knocked on his window. For reasons he couldn't understand, he was completely gripped with fear. He rolled down the window and the kids asked for a ride back to their house so they could get cash for the movie. His fear made him hesitate, but the kids were persistent. They kept saying weird things, like how they weren't armed or anything.
Once Bethel looked back at the kids, he was terrified to see that their eyes had turned pitch black. They started screaming at him that they could only come in the car if he invited them in, and he quickly drove away. As a journalist, he spread the word and was surprised when other people wrote back saying they had experienced something similar.
In Huntsville, Texas, the stretch of land officially known as Bowden Road is more commonly referred to as Demon's Road for all the strange occurrences that have happened on it. Perhaps it has something to do with the cemetery at the end of the road, where people have reported seeing ghostly figures wander around at night. The most popular myth includes a woman who saw a man walking around the cemetery, but she didn't pay him any attention.
Days later, the woman was getting into the shower when, all of a sudden, the same man from the cemetery was there in her bathroom before quickly disappearing.
When parents say don't take candy from strangers, they really mean don't take candy from strangers! That's the moral of The Candy Lady urban legend. Back around the turn of the 20th century, a bunch of children started going missing in a small rural Texas county. The legend claims it was The Candy Lady, who was known for dropping off small candies on children's window ledges during the night. Soon, the candy would come with a note asking for the children to come out and play with her, and the children were never seen again.
As time went on, weirder occurrences started to happen, like a father finding a rotting tooth in a candy wrapper or the little boy who was found slain in a ditch with his pockets stuffed with candy. If a child goes missing today, people are quick to blame The Candy Lady.
If legend is to be believed, you don't want to go to the Bexar County Hospital. There, a murderous spirit wandered the halls, slaying patients in order of their room number. It started in one ward in the hospital, where patients kept asking about a particular nurse. The staff checked the security cameras and found the patients were seemingly speaking to no one. Then, the patients started dying in their room number order.
This urban legend is most likely based on the real-life Genene Jones, who was a worker at the hospital who poisoned at least 11 infants during her time there.
El Paso, Texas, is home to many restless spirits and urban legends, one of the biggest being the story of La Llorona. Translated to "The Crier," La Llorona is just a bundle of horribleness wrapped in awful. She's part banshee, part horse, and haunts the riverbanks of the Rio Grande. She's on a never-ending quest to find her two children that she slew and tossed into the river in order to win the love of her wealthy boyfriend.
Reports on how she perished vary, with people either saying she took her life and perished in the river because she couldn't live with her shame, or that an angry crowd found her and submerged her in the river because of what she did. Nowadays, you might be able to see La Llorona walking the riverbanks at night, sporting a bloody nightgown and a horse head.
In Amarillo, Texas, there's a closed school that everyone avoids. The Summit Elementary School is one of the most haunted places in the town, and its dark history makes it a central hub for ghosts and spirits. There's a whole host of different urban legends surrounding the building. A few of the biggest include: it was where a janitor liked to throw students in the boiler; it was a popular spot for racially motivated slaying; and there are supposedly slain sex workers hidden within some of the walls of the school.
Whatever happened in that building, people tend to stay away.
