College life can be tough. Between classes, extracurriculars, internships, the pressure of having to know what you want to do with the rest of your adult life at a young age, and the faceless ghosts terrorizing you when you sleep, the “Animal House” life isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.
Oh, wait, I’m sorry, were you thrown off by that last part? Basically, what I meant to say was that for some students, the college struggle goes beyond the academic and into the realm of the supernatural. Below, find the seven scariest real-life hauntings on college campuses:
7. Fordham University
The Bronx campus of Fordham University is gorgeous, but it also comes with icy ghost hands that will grab your shoulders in Keating Hall — the basement of which was once an old hospital morgue, if you believe the local legends. Also, ladies, be sure to say hi to the blonde ghost that haunts the shower room, even though she’ll never talk back. (She’s the silent type.)
6. Nagasaki University
Nearly 70 years after the atomic bomb hit Nagasaki, “screams, cries, and the smell of burning flesh” have all been reported from both students and visitors.
5. University of Illinois
Thinking about pursuing higher education at the University of Illinois? Great! Just hope you’re okay with the faceless man who terrorizes the student body. Legend has it, more than one student was found hanged in their closet after encounters with ‘Ol Facey.
4. Heidelberg University
Women in Nazi Germany went through forced sterilization at the university’s clinic due to Hitler’s eugenic movement, and at nightfall, you can still hear them weeping. Understandably. Also, at least two Jewish professors were murdered in the Holocaust, and in their former classrooms, the the chalkboards have been known to “self-erase” and randomly produce strange words, written by no one.
3. Oxford University
England’s famous Oxford University, the oldest in the English-speaking world, has a number of famous ghosts. Like, literally famous — the ghost of Colonel Francis Winderbank haunts Merton College library, while the headless spirit of Archbishop William Laud hangs out in the St. John’s College library.
2. University of Toronto
In the 1850s, a stonemason named Ivan Reznikoff tried to kill his rival, Paul Diabolos, with an axe — supposedly over a shared lover. Diabolos supposedly got the better of Reznikoff and murdered him, hiding his body somewhere in the building. Now, there are three pieces of evidence that support this banana-pants story — one, the still-visible axe marks on a door where Reznikoff swung, two, skeletal remains found in the building after a fire, and three, the personal account of future respected lawyer and parliamentarian Allen Bristol Aylesworth, who personally spoke with a man claiming to be Reznikoff’s ghost.
1. Ohio University
Fox once shot an episode of “Scariest Places on Earth” here, due to its numerous reported paranormal incidents. Wilson Hall, in particular, is located in the middle of a pentagram consisting of five cemeteries, and a student’s reported death in room 428 in the 1970s led to subsequent residents of the room reporting paranormal activity. Legend has it, a second student later died in the same room after practicing witchcraft, and it’s been vacant and boarded up ever since.
Oh, and did we mention that there was a mental institution built next to the university, compete with a cemetery mostly populated by unmarked graves? And that there’s another dorm where a female student, Laura, fell to her death, and ever since then Bob Marley’s “Laura” won’t play on any musical device?
Happy studying, kids, and be sure to check out MTV’s “The Dorm” on Sunday, October 26 at 8 p.m. ET:
No Comments