American Ghost Stories and Legends for Halloween

The Headless Horseman (New York)

In Washington Irving’s 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the lanky schoolteacher Ichabod Crane is chased one autumn night by a headless rider — said to be the ghost of a soldier who lost his head to a cannonball. The story ends with Ichabod vanishing and a smashed pumpkin found by the bridge. It remains one of America’s most famous Halloween tales, and the village of Sleepy Hollow, New York, still celebrates it every fall.

The Bell Witch (Tennessee)

From about 1817 to 1821, the Bell family farm near Adams, Tennessee, was reportedly plagued by an invisible spirit that knocked on walls, pulled bedcovers and spoke aloud. Locals called it the Bell Witch. The legend grew for generations and is considered one of the most famous American ghost stories. A cave on the old property is a local attraction today.

The Jersey Devil (New Jersey)

According to folklore from the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey, a woman known as Mother Leeds gave birth to her 13th child in the 1730s — and the baby transformed into a winged creature with hooves and a forked tail before flying up the chimney. Reported sightings spiked in 1909, and the Jersey Devil remains the state’s best-known monster (and the name of its NHL team).

Mothman (West Virginia)

In 1966 and 1967, residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, reported seeing a tall winged creature with glowing red eyes. The sightings ended around the time of the Silver Bridge collapse in December 1967, which fueled the legend. Point Pleasant now has a Mothman statue, a museum and an annual festival.

The Winchester Mystery House (California)

Sarah Winchester, widow of the heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, kept building onto her San Jose mansion from 1886 until her death in 1922. The house has stairways leading to ceilings, doors opening onto walls and roughly 160 rooms. Popular legend claims she built nonstop to confuse spirits — historians debate that story, but the house is one of America’s most famous “haunted” landmarks and offers tours.

Lizzie Borden (Massachusetts)

In 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were killed with a hatchet in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Andrew’s daughter Lizzie was tried for the murders and acquitted in 1893, and the case was never solved. A grim schoolyard rhyme kept the story alive, and the house now operates as a museum and bed-and-breakfast.

The Salem witch trials (Massachusetts)

Not a legend but real history: in 1692 and 1693, a wave of witchcraft accusations swept Salem Village and nearby towns in colonial Massachusetts. More than 200 people were accused; 19 were hanged and one man was pressed to death with heavy stones. Several more died in jail. The trials are now remembered as a warning about fear, mass hysteria and injustice. Salem’s memorials and museums tell the story year-round.

Classic American urban legends

• The vanishing hitchhiker — a driver gives a ride to a quiet stranger, who disappears from the back seat… and turns out to have died years earlier.
• Bloody Mary — say her name three times in a dark mirror at a sleepover, if you dare.
• The hook-hand man — a couple parked on lovers’ lane hears a radio warning about an escaped man with a hook for a hand.
• The babysitter and the phone — the creepy calls are coming from inside the house.

These stories are fiction — but perfect for a scary story circle.