From podcasts to ghost tours and documentaries to TV shows, stories of the paranormal continue to fascinate us all. Here is a complete guide to the most frightening, dark corners of America—state by state, scare by scare.
Fear Factor
Northeast • Octagon House, Cornwall, Wood Island Lighthouse, Glenn Dale Hospital, House of Seven Gables, Lizzie Borden House, Pine Barrens, Amityville Horror House, Gettysburg, Emily’s Bridge, and more
Washington, D.C.
The White House
Connecticut
Delaware
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
The True Amityville Horror • >When we think of the Amityville Horror—either from the original 1979 movie, the 1977 book or the 1975 news story—the people who immediately come to mind are the Lutz family, who moved in and out of the Ocean Avenue house after just 28 days because of their unbearable experiences there.
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Southeast • Moundville, Crescent Hotel, St. Augustine Lighthouse, Bonaventure Cemetery, Nada Tunnel, Windsor Ruins, Biltmore Estate, Pawleys Island, Orpheum Theatre, |Harpers Ferry, and more
Alabama
Cahawba
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
The Legend of Marie Laveau, Voodoo Oueen of New Orleans • >In a city of saints, Marie Laveau stands above all others.
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
West Virginia
Midwest • Old Joliet Prison, Valparaiso University, Des Moines Governor’s Mansion, Fort Leavenworth, South Manitou Island, Wabasha Street Caves, Glore Psychiatric Museum, Deadwood, Wounded Knee, and more
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Michigan
Minnesota
Jeffrey Dahmer: Horrors Scarier Than Fiction • > On June 22, 1991, Tracy Edwards ran frantically down a Milwaukee street, a pair of handcuffs dangling from one wrist. Edwards, then 32, told police that he had escaped from a man he met at a bar who was now going to kill him.
Missouri
Nebraska
North Dakota
Ohio
South Dakota
Wisconsin
Southwest • Vulture Gold Mine, Jerome Grand Hotel, KiMo Theater, Dawson Cemetery, Gadsden Hotel, Picher, Fort Reno, Cain’s Ballroom, La Carafe, Terlingua, Grand Galvez, and more
Arizona
New Mexico
The Ghost of Pancho Villa • >Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa haunted the U.S.-Mexico border in the early 1900s making supply raids during his country’s 10-year civil war.
Oklahoma
Texas
West • Red Onion Saloon, Eldred Rock Lighthouse, RMS Queen Mary, Bodie, Stanley Hotel, Iolani Palace, Shoshone Ice Caves, Grand Union Hotel, Hoover Dam, Cecil Hotel, and more
Alaska
Eldred Rock Lighthouse, Lynn Canal
California
Colorado
Hawaii
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
Bad Times at the Cecil Hotel • > Steps from downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row, where 10,000 homeless people live in squalid conditions, the once regal Cecil Hotel possesses a sinister reputation replete with suicidal leaps, murders and poisonings.
Oregon
Utah
Washington
Wyoming
Charles Manson’s American Horror Story • > On Aug. 9, 1969, on a warm evening just past midnight, four people belonging to a group that Charles Manson called his “family” invaded a private residence at 10050 Cielo Dr. in Benedict Canyon.
Scary America
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