8 Horrifying Ohio Stories You Didn’t Learn About In History Class

The abandoned coal mining town of Moonville in southeastern Ohio (Vinton County) was founded in 1856, when the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad ran through the area's woods. One structure of the town that remains today is the Moonville Tunnel; a haunted tunnel where legend has it the ghost of a man who was killed instantly by a train passing through the tunnel wanders along the track bed near the old tunnel at night.

From tales of a haunted mill and a crybaby bridge to a shaking graveyard and a headless horseman, Rogues Hollow is one of Ohio’s most haunted areas. It’s Ohio’s very own version of "Sleepy Hollow" and most Ohioans don’t even know it exists. Like many rural areas and small towns in Ohio, Rogues Hollow was once a thriving coal mining village near the modern day town of Doylestown, Ohio. Rogues Hollow was actually once a place notorious for outlaws and gangsters to hide out. Shoot-outs and robberies were common here. And these continued until the early 20th-century. In spite of the town's crooked reality and the peculiar tales, creepy things continue to happen here. Sounds of a crying baby at night, shaking grounds at the graveyard and ghost sightings continue to haunt the hollow and the visitors that dare to explore.

The small town of Sabina, known as "The Eden of Ohio," was once home to "Eugene the Mummy," an unidentified dead man who became an unusual roadside attraction—and was displayed in the town for more than 36 years. People came from all over the country to see him, but he was never identified. Today, Eugene rests in a grave in the town’s cemetery. The headstone reads: "Eugene, Found Dead: 1928, Buried: 1964."

The area known as "Hell Town" today was once known as Boston Mills, before the town was bought out by the U.S. government to make way for Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The once thriving town eventually turned into a ghost town. Today, some people claim that the government actually closed the town after some sort of chemical accident that caused the citizens to mutate—and some people claim to have actually seen disfigured, mutated people still hiding in the area. Legend has it, there is also a decaying church with an upside down cross within the abandoned town that was once (and possibly still) used for satanic worship.

The small town of Circleville and the people of Pickaway County began to encounter what some might call a real-life-A-from-"Pretty-Little-Liars"-experience in the late 70s when thousands of individuals started receiving personal, mysterious letters about their lives. The letters were written in block style and contained vindictive, violent and vulgar material. One of the letter recipient's husband was murdered, which was believed to be connected to the letters, and the letters continued even after a suspect was placed in prison. The letters continued to arrive in residents' mailboxes—both city officials and average citizens alike— until the late 90s. The writer was never revealed.

Once upon a time, this small unincorporated community was one of the "phalanxes" (or social communes) established in America in the mid-19th century. Utopia was founded in 1844 by Charles Fourier, a Frenchman who believed that the world was about to enter a 35,000-year period of peace. While the utopian society idea of the town failed, a spiritual group still held secret services in the town's underground chapel. Today, along the banks of the Ohio River in Clermont County, you’ll find what some consider to be a ghost town, although the town is still home to some residents.

Also known as the "Cleveland Torso Murderer," this unidentified serial killer murdered and dismembered at least twelve victims from among the homeless in Cleveland—many of whom remain unidentified to this day. Recent speculation suggests the Butcher may have traveled west and was also the murderer of Elizabeth Short, of the "Black Dahlia Murder Case.

This legend starts and ends with Gore Orphanage Road. According to Weird Ohio, there once was an orphanage along this road in Vermilion, Ohio in the late 1800s. Supposedly, a mysterious fire burned down the orphanage and Old Man Gore lost his license to run an orphanage, so a new orphanage was never built. Today, brave explorers have reported distant screams of children in the area, as well as children's hand prints mysteriously appearing on their cars.