For years young Johnny would take his bike out to the Tar Pits near Waco, Texas. He leaped over the pits while his family, fans and friends looked on with wonder. He enjoyed nothing more than his weekend trips to the pits and every weekend his mother would grudgingly ask him to stay home this weekend. He never did stay home and his mother always followed to pray he would make the terrifying and dangerous leap over the black tar that eternally bubbled up from the earth.
No matter how many times Johnny's Mother watched him leap over the pits and land impressively along the far edge, she could never be comforted in the danger he put himself in.
Johnny lined up to make his jump and raced down a short hill to a small ledge which would give him the air he needed to land. His bike roared beneath him and the ground fell away exactly as planned. It was flawless and everyone cheered, clapped and whistled. Johnny had done the impossible. He brought his bike around the pits and lined up to make the jump again. He wouldn't have anyone chalking this up to luck. He sped away down the hill and up onto the ledge, when the dirt gave way, and instead of raising into the air he fell into the pits. He was forty feet from any solid ground and his impact with the tar broke his legs. He screamed as his horrified fans looked on.
Read other tales and the inspiration for this story HERE!
9. Shoe Factory Road- An old, derelict Spanish Colonial revival style house and an abandoned farm formerly stood along Shoe Factory Road in Hoffman Estates. Both were rumored to be haunted. The unique, stone house was at one time the Charles A. Lindbergh School, named after the famed aviator. According to local historian John Russell Ghrist, it was built in 1929. The school closed in 1948 and spent the next 30 years as a residence, until it became abandoned sometime during the late 1980s.Local teens believed that the stone house became abandoned after a child living in the home killed his parents. They claim the ghost of this child, who plays with a knife, could be seen sitting on the steps. The haunted farm, and its nefarious barn, had several stories associated with it. One story involved the farmer going insane and murdering his family, then burying them in the middle of a circle of trees. The other had the family being murdered and hung in the barn by a mental patient. Both of these buildings were torn down in 2007.
6. Seventh Avenue Dead End- Just east of downtown Sterling, 7th Avenue ends in front of a railroad track that runs parallel to the Rock River, which divides Sterling and Rock Falls. Several people have drowned or have been hit by a train in the area. Although 7th Avenue is nearly identical to the other nearby side streets, eyewitnesses have reported seeing or hearing the ghost of a woman there. She is said to be searching for her missing child along the riverbank just over the railroad tracks. While no one really knows who this young woman was in life, many locals have heard the story.
3. Blood’s Point Road- A cornucopia of urban legends have attached themselves to this aptly-named rural avenue and its neighboring cemetery. Visitors have reported seeing phantom vehicles and a dog with glowing red eyes. According to legend, the railroad bridge was the scene of a deadly school bus accident, as well as more than one hanging. These hangings have also been attributed to a bridge along nearby Sweeny Road. The cemetery itself is said to be visited by a wide variety of phenomenon—from orbs, to a phantom dog, to a vanishing barn, to the disembodied laughter of children and electrical malfunctions. Blood’s Point was named after Arthur Blood, the first white settler of Flora Township. Some locals maintain that he brought a curse with him that remains to this day.
1 . Cuba Road- Cuba Road sits nestled between the towns of Lake Zurich and Barrington, both upper and upper-middle class retreats. It is the setting of a plethora of paranormal phenomenon, including a phantom car (or cars), a pair of spectral lovers, and a vanishing house. A side street called Rainbow Road formerly had the distinction of being home to an abandoned mansion that some believed was an old asylum. Along Cuba Road sits White Cemetery, which author Scott Markus has referred to as the Bachelor’s Grove of the north-Chicago suburbs. This small, rectangular graveyard dates from the 1820s and its ghostlore concerns mysterious, hovering balls of light.
