WHEN URBAN LEGENDS AND CRIME COLLIDE
WHEN URBAN LEGENDS AND CRIME COLLIDE __________________________________________________________________ “Bloody Mary” repeated three times in the mirror, the tall, faceless man who lurks in the dark, the story of a man waking up with a missing kidney. Urban legends have always been whispered to us. From a young age, we have been told stories about black-eyed children, the mysterious call received by a babysitter and hundreds of other stories that make our skin crawl. Urban legends surround us, and they can be anything from tales told on the school bus to internet stories. But why do stories like this spread, and why do they impact us so much? Urban legends typically grow popular through storytelling. The speaker usually claims that such things happened to “a friend of a friend,” making the story something we want to believe. Because why would a friend lie? The peculiarities and suspense of an urban legend are what makes them spread. The more shocking yet realistic the stor...