8 Freaky Urban Legends That Turned Out To Be Real

#1 No-Face Man

The legend is based on a real person: Raymond Robinson, who was nearly fatally injured in an electrical accident when he was young and lost his eyes, nose, one ear, and one arm. His skin was so badly damaged, it gave off a strange hue, which is where the "green" in Green Man originated. Ostracized from society, Raymond walked the country roads of western Pennsylvania by night because this was the only time he could go outside without causing mass hysteria.

#2 The Collector

In Russia, the Collector urban legend has a bright future because it played out in real life. Its new mascot is local Russian historian Anatoly Moskvin, who stole corpses from cemeteries in dozens of towns east of Moscow. According to police, he dug up at least 29 corpses and made dolls out of themlife-sized faceless female dolls with platinum blond wigs.

#3 The Legend of "Dog Boy"

Incredibly, the Dog Boy legend is (mostly) real and is based on the life of Gerald Floyd Bettis, who actually added on to the family home so that he could store more stray dogs and cats to torture. Bettis was also a tyrant when it came to his parents.

While there's no proof Bettis had any kind of paranormal forces at work with him, he was 6'4" and weighed close to 300 pounds, which must have made his sadistic behavior all the more terrifying to his victims.

#4 A Real Life Boogeyman

The Cropsey urban legend developed throughout the 70s and 80s after several children went missing from Staten Island.

A guy name Andre Rand who use to work at Willowbrook State facility for mentally challenged children who had since lived out in the woods. He was a drug user and possibly an occultist with a lengthy rap cheat--the perfect candidate for our real-life boogeyman. Though he was never officially charged with the Staten Island child murders, Rand is currently serving 50 years to life for kidnapping and first-degree murder and is still the top suspect in the Cropsey disappearances.

#5 The Human Fat Vampires

The 'human fat vampire' legend actually has a 400-year-old history in Peru. During this time, locals spoke of vampires who hunted down and fed on the blubber of tourists and left behind bodies drained of all their fat. It turns out the legend may have been true all along, except the "vampires" are traffickers who hack people up and remove their fat to sell on the black market.

#6 The Exploding Whale That Rained Blubber

You might have heard this one or you might not have. Many Oregonians most likely grew up doubting its authenticity, but it was true all along. As it turns out, a beached whale + shoddy explosives=bloody whale blubber falling from the sky.

In 1970, a dead sperm whale washed up on the coast of Oregon. Logically, the Oregon Highway Division deemed that the best way to remove the whale would be to blow it up with dynamite.

#7 Frozen Solid and Surviving

In 1981, North Dakota proved these scientists wrong with an incredible true story of a young woman named Jean Hilliard who was found frozen solid after getting trapped in 22 below zero temperatures.

"When she arrived at the Fosston, Minn., hospital, her skin was too hard to pierce with a hypodermic needle. Her temperature was too low to register on a thermometer. Her face was ashen and her eyes were solid and did not respond to light."

"I can't explain why she's alive,'' said Dr. George Sather, who treated Jean

#8 The Shadow In the Corner

Unsurprisingly, the people who report such occurrences are often sleep deprived or in a state of sleep paralysis. For years, thousands of people have sworn to waking up in the middle of the night to a shadowy figure bearing down on them, or staring from across the room.

In Fukuoka, Japan, a man who lived "alone" in his apartment began to suspect that something else was present there with him, moving things around and stealing food. He decided to set up surveillance cameras and, sure enough, he captured footage of an old woman slithering out of his cupboard. The woman was 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa, who was homeless and admitted to police that she had lived in the man's home for about a year, lurking just beyond his eyesight in closets and cupboards.