Welcome back friends, if I was to do a top 10 us states with the scariest urban legends
- Ohio would definitely be on the list.
The video I did on Ohios Urban Legends was very popular, so I went back and found some
even creepier ones for a whole new video and here we are.
If you want a part 3 then leave a like and let me know, if you want something else entirely,
I can do that too.
For now though, get comfortable, Im Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Scary Ohio Urban
Legends Part 2.
Starting off at number 10 we have Gore Orphanage[a].
Legend says that in 1903, Mr and Mrs Sprunger founded Gore Orphanage in Vermillion Ohio.
Soon, there were over 100 boys and girls living there.
Then, rumours of the orphants mistreatment began.
They say thats Mrs Sprunger would cook cows heads and lungs and force the children to
eat them or starve.
Mr Sprunger would beat the kids with a leather strap until their bodies were covered in welts
and bruises, he would also rent out the children to local farmers as slave labor.
The children were only allowed to wash themselves once every 2 weeks and all had to use the
same dirty bath water.
Their rooms were infested with rats that bit them as they slept.
Eventually, the children tried to escape.
Sometimes alone and sometimes in pairs, they braved the dark and tried to cross the river
at night, hoping to find people to look after them in the town.
On one cold night in December 1923, Gore Orphanage caught fire - to this day, nobody knows how
it started, some say a child knocked over an oil lamp, others say Mr Sprunger started
the fire because he hated the children and wanted to collect the insurance money.
The building burnt to the ground with the children trapped inside.
Locals couldn't get close to the inferno to save them and had to listen to their screams
as the Orphanage was reduced to a charred husk.
Over 100 children died that night.
Legend says that you can see their ghosts lurking the field where the Orphanage once
stood.
Late at night, you can hear the sounds of screaming and pleading for help.
Moving on to number 9 we have Athens Insane Asylum[b].
This building opened its doors in 1874, becoming one of Ohios largest asylums for the mentally
ill.
In the beginning, things went well - it offered some of the best care to its patients.
As the years went on, the owners realised that they could put some of the patients to
work there, specifically the farm.
The greedier they got, the more patients they took on.
By the 1950s, it had become a dumping ground for anyone that a family couldn't afford or
simply didnt want to look after.
At 2,000 patients, it was 3 times over its capacity yet the number of staff remained
unchanged.
Patients were forcibly restrained for days at a time, left in crowded rooms meant for
one person, and regularly beaten by staff.
In 1993, the hospital finally closed its doors - the remaining buildings were left to Ohio
University.
In the years after, students would tell tales of strange figures standing in the empty wings
of the former hospital.
For me though, the most creepy part is the report of a stain on the top floor of the
building.
They say its of Margaret Schilling, a patient who went missing in 1979.
She was found 42 days later in an abandoned ward.
Tests showed that she died of heart failure, yet she was found naked with her clothes folded
neatly next to her body.
To the horror of those who found her, the body had decomposed so badly that a stain
had seeped into the concrete.
It couldn't be scrubbed away and they say to this day, the stain can still be seen.
Next up at number 8 we have The Melonheads.[c] These humanoid creatures are said to be found
in Lake County Ohio.
According to legend, the government ran a number of secret experiments on local children.
A man called Dr Crow performed the experiments on children in an orphanage, the government
hoped that they wouldnt cause as much of a stir that way.
The results of the experiment were shocking - the childrens hair began to fall out and
their bodies mutated, increasing their head to a gigantic size as a result of injecting
them with excess fluid.
The children feared for their lives - they grouped together and overthrew the twisted
Doctor, murdering him one night in the orphanage.
They then set fire to the building and fled to the woods to become feral.
In the years since, locals have reported seeing fully grown adults with huge heads darting
through the trees.
While this is already creepy by itself, they also say that the so called -Melonheads- are
now cannibals, feeding on any person that wanders too close to the woods …
Moving on to number 7 we have The Reformatory[d].
This is an old prison build in 1896 and designed by Levi T. Scofield.
He wanted the place to inspire the inmates to experience a spiritual renewal and give
up their harmful lifestyle, repent their wrong doing.
In the end though, it gained a reputation for death after more than 200 people died
there over the years.
These days, people say it the building is haunted by the spirits of the dead.
One such person is Helen Glattke, the wife of the prisons one time warden.
She was accidentally shot in the lung when a gun fell off a shelf.
Legend says thought that she actually killed herself and the accident story was nothing
more than a coverup.
Then theres the rumours of a prisoner setting himself on fire in his cell, an old woman
roaming the grounds and also - the hole.
The hole was said to be a confinement space in the basement, designed for 20 people at
most, however guards would cram it full of prisoners just to torture them.
The pain and anguish suffered within the walls are said to still remain …
Moving on to number 6 we have Franklin Castle.[e] The Victorian era building is said to be the
the most haunted house in Ohio - its a bold claim but the story seems to back it up.
It was built in the 1880s by a grocer turned banker called Hannes Tiedemann.
Despite being rich, his life was struck by a number of tragedies.
In that house, his 15 year old daughter died, so too did his mother and 3 other children
who died in infancy.
His wife was so overcome with grief that she became despondent.
He attempted to distract her by turning the house into a castle - he built elaborate turrets,
prominent gargoyles and a sprawling network of rooms.
He stopped though when his wife also passed away.
He sold the property.
It changed hands a number of times over the decades.
In the 1960s, reports of hauntings in the house began to spread.
There were strange electrical surges, the sound of babies crying and a mysterious woman
in black who roamed the hallways at night.
In 1975, human bones were found in a closet in the house.
Since then, there have been reports of an axe murderer there, a mass shooting of Nazis
in the basement and even the hanging of one of the original daughters of the family.
People may dispute some of the stories, but most people who visit it agree that a lasting
presence can felt at old Franklin Castle …
Moving on to number 5 we have the Loveland Frog Men[f].
This is a weird one - and Im saying this as a guy who has done more Urban Legends videos
than he's had hot dinner.
Residents of the town of Loveland have been reporting, since 1955, that amphibious men
live along the river.
The first sighting occurred when a business man claims to have witnessed 3 bipedal, quasi-reptilian
entities congregating by the side of the road.
The man pulled his car to the curb and watched the creatures for about 3 minutes.
He described the creatures as 3 to 4 ft tall, covered with leathery skin and having webbed
hands and feet.
While they had some human like creatures, he said they had distinctly -frog like- heads.
Just before the creatures left, one of them seemed to wave what the witness describes
as a wand above its head - sparks came out of it.
The man left but over the years, many have reported similar experience, leading many
locals to see the Frog Men as just a strange part of reality …
Next up at number 4 we have The Grassman.[g] You can think of this one as Ohios version
of Bigfoot.
Its said to have all the same characteristics - a tall, bipedal hominid that skulks around
Ohios deep woods.
The Grassman gets its name from apparently building small, hut like structures or nests,
made out of tall grass.
The first sighting occurred in 1978 when some local kids ran into their grandparents home
screaming about a hairy monster they saw in the gravel pit outside.
When the grandparents went outside to investigate - they saw it too.
They say it was covered in dark matted hair, sitting in the pit and fiddling with some
trash.
They later estimated it to be about 300 pounds.
The family fled but it wasnt the last time that they or many other locals saw them.
When people started investigating, they found records from the 1700s of Native Americans
in the area who spoke of a race of bipedal ape man.
They referred to them as the -Wild Ones of the Woods- and would leave food out for them
in an effort to keep the peace.
Next up at number 3 we have The Cincinnati Music Hall[h].
This is a classical music performance hall in Cincinnati, completed in 1878.
Before construction was even finished, it was said the location was a place where -the
dead render the lives of the living a burden to them- … when a nearby canal was being
made, authorities found over 100 human skeletons that had to be removed, they buried them in
the ground on which the building now stands on.
More remains were placed there in 1838 when a steamboat exploded and flung bodies all
over the city - they were also buried in the ground below the Music Hall.
If that wasnt enough, it also stands atop of an old orphan asylum and an old civil war
hospital.
All of this has resulted in locals claiming its the most haunted place in town.
One night watchman felt the presence of ghosts there, he said -They never touch me, but I
always know when they are around, by an icy chill, a thrill as of electricity.
They never annoy me now by mere knocking, for I have gotten used to it.
So used to it that sometimes when people have really knocked at the door I didnt open, because
I thought it was only the dead that kept knocking, knocking, knocking …- well Im glad he can
be so calm with dead people knocking at the door, but most of us would nope right out
of there …
Moving on to number 2 we have Lake Hope Furnace.[i] During the Industrial Revolution, the furnace
was used to process iron ore gathered from the areas sandstone bedrock.
After 20 years, the furnaces shut down but some creepy stories remain.
They say that in order to ensure the furnace continued operating at night, watchmen were
employed to tend the furnace fires.
One one fateful night, a watchman was walking along the platform with his lantern when he
slipped in the darkness and fell into the bubbling ore inside the furnace.
He screamed out for help but was confused in seconds.
Now, legend says that on stormy nights, a ghostly watchman returns to make his rounds.
There have been dozens of reports of a dark figure carrying a lantern walking along the
top of Lake Hope Furnace.
Some even say the figure continues pacing back and forth across the furnace until lightning
strikes nearby, causing him to disappear, until the next stormy night ...
And finally at number 1 we have The Wickerham Inn[j].
In the late 1790s, a man called Peter Wickerham moved to Adams County Ohio and opened an inn.
It was very popular and saw many coach drivers and locals stopping there to to drink, eat
and converse.
One night, a driver was bragging to the inn about how much money he was carrying, some
men in the corner of the room hatched a plan.
As he headed to met, they jumped him - brutally murdering him.
When he didnt appear for check out the next morning, an employee was sent to check on
him.
They returned a moment later, pale as a sheet and visibly shaken.
When the others entered the room - they saw a horrible sight.
The room was covered in blood, everywhere.
On the floor, the blood had seeped into the floorboards, creating the bloody outline of
a headloss body - but - perhaps even more shockingly - there was no body.
Peter Wickerham feared this would be the end of his business.
He ordered everything in the room to be taken out and burned.
He also told them to scrub the floor to remove the bloody outline but no matter how hard
they tried, the outline would not fade.
Around that same time, people reported seeing the ghostly outline of a headless man peering
out of the upstairs window … a long time passed and in the 1920s, the inn was reenacted.
In the basement, the stone floor was removed to install a new heating system.
As they pulled up the flooring, they recoiled in horror at the sight of a complete human
skeleton, complete except for the skull …
Thank you Ohio for those scary stories, I wanna hear everyone from Ohio in the comments
section letting me know if you want a part 3 - if youre not from Ohio, where are you
from?
Have I done an Urban Legends video about your home?
If I havent, why not?
Whats wrong with me?
Enough questions for now - thanks for watching as always guys, my name is Danny Burke and
Ill see you all in the next video …