The Psychos Next Door

Come on, admit it, it scares you to think of running into weird locals in some backwater roadway or small town, maybe a stretch of the desert while driving alone, or perhaps right next door....

LeLeyon: Misanthropic Wanderer

Some countries know how to have a legend. Switzerland is definitely one of them. This photo above supposedly is the first picture taken of LeLeyon in his 10 year reign of terror.

This cryptic figure wears a military uniform, a thick clock, and an antique gas mask covering his face.

He's been reported to wander the woodlands in a certain area, walking the same route over and over again.  Someone recently sneaked up on him and got a photo. LeLeyon stared the person down, turned, and walked off.

Many local families will not go in the woods, parents tuck their children away and women avoid the country roads.

Locals hope to find a way to speak with him/her and ask not to be so threatening, but legends are passed around of a person afraid of the apocalypse, someone horribly disfigured, or simply mentally ill.

The Bloody Benders: Neighbor Murderers

In the small town of Cherryvale, Kansas in the 1870s, a German family, the Benders, built an inn to house travelers.  Unknowingly, the traveler would enter, sit down at the table, seated with his back to a canvas curtain. The young attractive  Bender woman, Katie, would keep his attention while one of the Bender men attacked him with a hammer from behind.  They would then, slit his throat, take his money and possessions and toss his body down a trapdoor under the house.  Later, they would go back and bury him in the orchard.  Katie hung posters in town announcing she was a healer and could cure all kinds of illnesses, as well as talk with the dead. When all was said and done, the family had murdered 11 people. They even murdered a man and buried his daughter alive with his mutilated body!  It took a prominent doctor going missing for people to start to cast an eye at the Bender family.

The family fled and it was never solved as to where they went or what became of them. Many years later, two women were taken to Kansas who were thought to be two Bender women, but there was no way to prove they were. In fact, the family was actually not a family - they were just criminals who posed as a family.

The Leatherman: Creepy Hobo

Since 1862, there have been reports of a wandering hobo who traveled an 365-mile circle from Connecticut to the Hudson River.  He spoke only in grunts and gestures and wore a crude suit stitched together of leather. He slept mostly in caves. Many claim he's still wandering today. He followed this lengthy repeatable circuit in precisely 34 days.  When trekking back his history, he actually began his journey in France in the 1820s. He wanted to win the hand of a young woman and was told he must excel at leather work or leave the country all together.  In his shame at failure, he went missing. Many years later in 1862, this man in Connecticut showed up matching his description.  He had a very strong constitution, but in the 1880s, he passed away in one of his caves. The caves still stand in the woods on the Mattatuck Trail in Watertown, Connecticut.

Peruvian Fat Collecting Gang

No, I did not make this one up! In Peru the cops caught a band of freaks who were stealing people, gutting them like deer and draining them of body fat to sell for cosmetic use. The liquid fat was worth $60,000 a gallon.

Neighbors With Weird Houses

Forget crabgrass, imagine living next door to these - 

Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA 

Coral Castle in Homestead, FL

 

Shangri-La in Hightowers, NC 

The Peterson Rock Gardens in Redmond, OR

 

Prairie Moon Garden in Fountain City, WI

Salvation Mountain, San Diego, CA

The Forevertron in South-Central Wisconsin

okay, okay, I admit I'd like to live next door to this huge steampunk dream (above), mostly because no one would mess with my house, thinking it was guarded by a missile system.

Sleeping With the Dead Next Door 

Sleeping with the dead - a 43-year-old widow in Buenos Aires sleeps in the mausoleum with her dead husband to keep him company. She had brought in a bed, a burner, a cooker, and internet hookup.

What's up with Buenos Aires? This man lived with his mom's mummified corpse at the kitchen table for a decade! 

A woman in Belgium slept beside her husband for more than a year after his death.  The body was mummified, and neighbors smelled nothing odd.  She could have kept going on like that, but they hadn't paid rent in a year, so owners came to investigate.

Haunted Towns 

It might not be the freaky neighbors, it might be that you live in a very haunted town. Here's a list of some - 

Baltimore, Maryland

New Orleans, Louisiana

Galveston, Texas

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Savannah, Georgia

Portland, Oregon

Athens, Ohio

Washington, D.C.

Chicago, Illinois

San Francisco, California

Tombstone, Arizona

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Louisville, Kentucky

Weston, West Virginia

And, if all this isn't scary enough, consider this - real life is often times enough to inspire horror movies. The movie "The Strangers" was based on a true event of some people stalked and killed within a cabin.

**Tomorrow's post is "Ghost Ships and Fata Morgana Mirages"**