The United States of America, where the most horror films are filmed, is also the leader in the number of urban legends dedicated to cemeteries. Some of them are creepy, others not very … Among them are stories about Mary from the Resurrection, about a ghost with a hook and about tombstones in the form of black angels. It is difficult to determine where truth ends here and fiction begins …
One legend says that Mary, a resident of Chicago, died in a car accident in 1934, returning from a dance evening, and was buried in the Resurrection Cemetery. Since 1939, the ghost of a beautiful blonde woman with blue eyes, dressed in a ball gown, began to appear in the vicinity of Chicago. Sometimes she tries to jump onto the hood of a passing car, provoking an accident, sometimes she stops the car and asks for a ride to a nightclub.
It usually ends up with her and the car driver spending the night at the club. Shortly before dawn, the girl asks to take her home, but does not give the exact address, but says that she must go along Anker Avenue to the north. When the car passes the Voskresensky cemetery, the driver suddenly sees that his passenger begins to melt and, finally, dissolves into the air …
The second most popular among the "cemetery" horror stories is the legend of a spirit with a hook that watches over late visitors in the cemetery and slits their throats … Here is one of these stories. A young couple comes to the cemetery to have sex right in the car. At this time, a message was broadcast on the radio that a maniac killer escaped from a nearby mental hospital.
The lovers decide to leave this place, but the engine won't start … The guy goes for help, but the girl remains in the car. After some time, the girl hears something scratching on the roof of the car. It turns out that this is the dead body of her boyfriend: it hangs from a tree, the throat is cut from ear to ear, and the fingers of the dead man's hands scratch the roof of the car …
As many as two eerie legends are associated with the so-called "black angels". Both of these angel statues are located in Iowa, but in different cemeteries. One of the statues, bronze and gold plated, eight and a half feet high, was installed in 1912 at Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City. The tombstone was commissioned by a certain Teresa Feldevert, who emigrated to America from Bohemia.
The monument, designed by Bohemian artist Mario Korbel, was intended for the grave where the ashes of her son and husband lay. The first died in 1891, the second in 1911. Teresa herself died in 1924 and was also buried “under an angel.” Soon the surface of the monument began to gradually darken, and within a few years its color became completely black. Perhaps this happened as a result of the oxidation of the metal, but they also talked about mystical reasons. So, one of the legends says that the members of the Feldevert family either committed many sins or practiced witchcraft. No wonder the head and wings of the angels are lowered down, and do not look up, as usual …
Another legend tells that on the night after Teresa's funeral, lightning hit the tombstone, so it turned black … The third - that Teresa swore on her husband's grave that she would be faithful to him until his death, and if she cheats, then let the angel turn black … Apparently, she's yet she did not hold back … Finally, the most terrible legend is that Teresa killed her son (according to the official version, he died of meningitis at the age of 18). And the angel turned black, because he could not bear the burden of her sin … Gloomy beliefs are also associated with this monument. For example, what if a girl kisses the feet of a black angel on a full moon, then in six months she will die.
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Another variation of the same belief: if you touch an angel on Halloween night, you will die in seven years. And if you kiss an angel directly on the lips, it will supposedly cause instant cardiac arrest … Council Bluffs has a Fairview Cemetery, one of the oldest in the area. Once there were Indian burials, then the cemetery became the property of the Mormon community.
Around 1919, an angel memorial appeared on the grave of Ruth Ann Doge, wife of General Grenville M. Doge, a Civil War veteran and chief engineer of the Transcontinental Railroad. Ruth passed away in 1916. On the eve of her death, she had visions in which a beautiful angelic being gave her a vessel with the water of immortality. Mrs Doge's daughters, Anna and Eleanor, turned to the famous American sculptor Daniel Chester French, ordering him to sculpt an angel statue that would exactly match their mother's dying descriptions. The order was completed. In the hand of the angel is a vase-fountain, constantly filled with water. In 1960, the fountain was turned off.
In 1984, restoration work began on the monument. Apparently, over the previous quarter of a century, it darkened … Now water is again splashing in the angel's bowl, and the tombstone itself is included in the register of national historical monuments.
TRINITY MARGARITA