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Slicing through spooky, but fake, urban legends LET'S GET REAL SCARY STORIES ARE COMMON TRICKS

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Scary urban myths abound

BY EDIE GROSS

Date published: 10/26/2007

BY EDIE GROSS

OK, so the craziest thing happened to a guy my hairdresser's husband works with.

He was in South America on business and decided to unwind in the hotel bar after a long day of meetings.

He remembers sipping a mojito at the bar while chatting with some locals--and then waking up the next morning in his hotel bathtub covered in ice.

He called the authorities, who rushed him to a local hospital. And there, he found out one of his kidneys had been removed!

Can you believe that?

Well, sort of.

That tiny bit of believability--after all, surgeons remove kidneys all the time, albeit usually with the donor's permission--is what makes the tale an enduring urban legend. And a scary one at that.

"The things that make urban legends last, it's the emotional impact and the plausibility," said David Emery, who writes about urban myths for About.com. "If it's just believable enough, people buy into it, and if people buy into it, they're likely to tell it."

The kidney-theft myth has been circulating on the Internet for at least 10 years, but has probably been around longer than that.

No "victims" have ever been identified, though the rumor may have started with a kernel of truth to it: In the late '80s, a Turkish man claimed his kidney was stolen during a physical he agreed to after being prom-ised a job in England. He later admitted to selling the organ.

The idea that anyone could be a victim through no fault of his own likely fueled the spread of the tale, according to Snopes.com, a Web site that tracks--and often debunks--urban myths.

Some of the most classic tales--razor blades tucked into candy, lollipops infused with hallucinogenic drugs--center around Halloween.

Joel Best, a sociology professor at the University of Delaware, studied the candy-tampering phenomenon, plowing through news reports between 1958 and 2005 to see how widespread the problem really was.

The results: He found 89 reports of suspected candy-tampering but no evidence of any child being killed or injured by an item picked up during the course of trick-or-treating.

And even when pins and needles were discovered in candy, often it turned to be a prank--a kid tries to freak out his parents, a lady tries to scare off teen trick-or-treaters--rather than an intention to hurt someone, according to Snopes.com.

POISONED OR TAMPERED-WITH CANDY The poisoned-candy myth has been around for decades but picked up steam in the early '80s after the well-publicized Tylenol poisonings left seven consumers dead. One Texas father was convicted of murder in 1975 after intentionally poisoning his son with cyanide-laced Pixie Stix, but random poisonings of trick-or-treaters have never been proven. University of Delaware sociology professor Joel Best studied newspaper articles dating back to 1958, and uncovered 89 reports of candy-tampering--nearly all of them pranks intended to scare rather than harm. LALA LOLLIPOPS Parents were warned that schoolkids were being offered lollipops laced with hallucinogens. While the federal Drug Enforcement Administration did come across lollipops laced with THC, the main ingredient in marijuana, and PCP, also known as angel dust, they weren't being handed out to kids. Instead, they were being sold on the streets of Chicago to willing recipients. LSD TATTOOS This one dates back to the '70s and alleges that LSD-soaked lick-and-stick tattoos in the shape of blue stars or cartoon characters were being sold to kids. No verifiable cases have ever been reported. EXPLODING GUT This might be one of the most famous urban legends out there, that downing Pop Rocks candy and soda at the same time will cause your stomach to explode. The most famous alleged victim was Mikey, the freckled kid in the LIFE cereal commercials, who supposedly ate six packs of the candy followed by six Pepsis and then died in a gaseous cloud of sugar and carbonated bubbles. In fact, he's still alive. And combining Pop Rocks and soda isn't any more lethal than milk and cookies. KIDNEYS ON ICE This myth warns of an organ-theft ring that preys largely on travelers. A businessman (you could also insert "college student" or "tourist") is enjoying a drink in a hotel bar, but suddenly wakes up hours later in a bathtub full of ice. In the interim, he was drugged and one of his kidneys was surgically removed. Snopes.com and urban legends expert Jan Harold Brunvand date the tale back to 1991. According to Snopes, in an effort to verify the claims the National Kidney Foundation asked victims to step forward. No one ever did. HALLOWEEN MASSACRE This rumor's been around for nearly three decades in one fashion or another. The premise is that a well-known psychic has predicted a Halloween massacre on a U.S. college campus. For years, the psychic named was usually Jeanne Dixon. On occasion, Nostradamus got the credit. The latest incarnation claims that TV psychic Sylvia Browne predicted on "The Montel Williams" show that a mass murderer would strike Kent State this Halloween. Browne has denied ever making such a prediction. NEEDLES AT GAS PUMPS This one made the rounds via e-mail, warning folks that HIV-infected needles had been found attached to gas pumps (or inside coin-return slots) so that customers would get stuck--and possibly infected with a deadly disease--while trying to fill their tanks. Snopes.com labels it a hoax designed to prey on people's fears of contracting AIDS. HOOK MAN Two teens park on lovers lane for a make-out session when the radio broadcasts an announcement about a convicted murderer who has just escaped from a nearby insane asylum. Citizens, the announcer says, should be able to spot him because he's got a hook where his right hand should be. The girl wants to leave. The boy doesn't. They argue about it, and eventually the boy throws the car in gear and drives his date home. But when he comes around to the passenger side to let her out, much to his horror, he spots a bloody hook dangling from the door handle. Folklorists say the story was likely designed to discourage kids from "parking." There have been actual cases of couples being attacked or killed while parked in isolated spots--but not by hook-handed assailants. Brunvand also (wisely) points out that folks at the insane asylum probably wouldn't have fitted a convicted murderer with a prosthetic hook. BLOODY MARY Coming to a slumber party near you Kids, often on a dare, would lock themselves in a dark bathroom, stare into the mirror and repeat "Bloody Mary" three times. Legend has it that the ritual would awaken the spirit of a not-so-merry Mary, who would then take revenge on the offending kid in some unspecified but horrific manner. In reality, Mary usually keeps to herself, but the game succeeds in scaring the bejesus out of the participants. Information for this report was gathered from Snopes.com, UrbanLegends.About.com, urban legends expert Jan Harold Brunvand, University of Delaware sociology professor Joel Best and Discovery Channel's "MythBusters."

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Date published: 10/26/2007

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