11 Reasons That Massachusetts Is The Most Terrifying, Spookiest State

This small coastal town is know for being the location of the infamous Salem Witch Trials, a case of mass hysteria that claimed the lives of at least 19 people. Today, the town is filled with old sailing mansions, witchy shops, haunted hotels and gorgeous waterfront. Read more about Salem’s creepy history here.

The Freetown-Fall River State Forest is known as one of the most supernaturally active forests on Earth. It’s part of the Bridgewater Triangle, an area of about 200 square miles with high levels of reported ghostly and unexplained activity. Visitors to the forest attest to spotting floating light orbs, giant snakes, UFOs, ghosts and strange small people darting between the trees. The forest is also the location of several documented murders, suicides and animal mutilations.

The Lizzie Borden case is one of the most well-known unsolved murders in the country. In 1892, the Borden family of Fall River fell victim to a double homicide that claimed the lives of Elizabeth Borden's parents. She was tried and acquitted for the murders, though she was popularly thought to have been the killer. Today, the home is a bed and breakfast and supposedly haunted by the dead Bordens.

Stories of the Gloucester Harbor Sea Serpent date back to the days before European colonists, but the earliest documented report came in 1817. Locals made sworn statements to a local Justice of the Peace that they had seen a strange, twisting serpent-like creature in the waters of Gloucester Harbor. The most recent sighting was reported in the early 1990s.

Dogtown is an abandoned settlement near Gloucester that has a creepy history. Originally established in 1693 by colonists, it was nearly empty by 1812 due to pirate attacks and migration to larger towns. Vagrants and stray dogs began to take over the abandoned homes, and rumors began to circulate that a coven of witches had also taken up residence. Thomazine "Tammy" Younger was known as "Queen of the Witches" and was frequently reported to have cursed teams of oxen, farmers and their families for their refusal to pay her homage as they passed through the area. Today, the town is a distinctly creepy place. Read more about it here

For real. The "Narrative of the Life of James Allen, alias Jonas Pierce, alias James H. York, alias Burley Grove, the Highwayman, Being His Death-bed Confession to the Warden of the Massachusetts State Prison" is housed in the Boston Athenaeum and is bound in the skin of James Allen, notorious highway robber and the author of the tome. Read more here.

Nicknamed "The Sea Witch," the USS Salem is supposedly one of the most haunted vessels afloat. In 1953, the ship went to help survivors of a massive earthquake in Greece. It was filled with the injured and dying. The morgue began to fill up, and eventually the crew began stacking bodies to the ceiling in large rooms in the belly of the ship. Ghostly sightings have been reported ever since.

Take Fort Revere, for example. This gorgeous old military outpost is rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of over 200 French soldiers who died of smallpox during the Revolutionary War and are buried on the grassy slope just beside the fort. Get the full story here.

Okay, maybe not every building. But when you have architecture dating back to the founding of the nation, it’s no surprise that ghost stories about old homes, inns and restaurants are pretty thick on the ground. For example, this haunted mansion with backstory filled with tragedy, forbidden love and suicide.

The SK Pierce Mansion in Gardner looks undoubtedly creepy and it has the sinister history to back it up. With multiple deaths and reports of aggressive ghosts, visitors actually have to sign a waiver in order to enter this haunted property. Read more here

The Danvers State Lunatic Asylum opened in 1878 and became the notorious birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy. It inspired the Hollywood blockbuster Session 9 and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep."