7 Tennessee Urban Legends

There’s nothing like a spooky tale to liven up a quiet night and get your blood pumping. There’s something magnificently chilling about the unknown, terror hides in the dark and within the imagination. Tennessee may be a pretty happy state from the looks of it, with all the hot chicken and southern hospitality and such. It’s behind pretty doors that you find the scariest stories – and we’ve found a couple just for you.

The Bathroom Bully

Jamestown TN has an eerie tale about Pine Haven school, a local abandoned building that houses a ghost.

Years ago, a young boy named Paul was alone in the bathroom before class when he was confronted by the school bully. Paul was a shy, quiet boy and he didn't have many friends. A lot of the kids would pick on Paul and he dreaded going to school more than anything. He often begged his parent to not make him go to school and would explain to them how he was being bullied daily.

One day in the bathroom while he was washing his hands, he was shoved into the mirror, breaking it on impact and cracking his head open on the sink as he fell. Terrified of getting in trouble, the bully pulled up the floor boards and shoved the body under the school to rot.

With no one living roaming the halls any longer, you are more than welcome to wander into the bathroom at the end of the hall. Legend has it, if you look in the mirror you will see the dead boy behind you.

Bell Witch Cave

The Bell Witch Legend is one of the most prominent horror stories of Tennessee. Adams, Tennessee, in the early 19th century, John Bell and his family were haunted by an malignant spirit, also known as a poltergeist.

A remarkable occurrence, which attracted wide-spread interest, was connected with the family of John Bell, who settled near what is now Adams Station about 1804. So great was the excitement that people came from hundreds of miles around to witness the manifestations of what was popularly known as the "Bell Witch."

This witch was supposed to be some spiritual being having the voice and attributes of a woman. It was invisible to the eye, yet it would hold conversation and even shake hands with certain individuals. The tricks it performed were wonderful and seemingly designed to annoy the family. It would take the sugar from the bowls, spill the milk, take the quilts from the beds, slap and pinch the children, and then laugh at the discomfiture of its victims.

At first it was believed to be a good spirit, but its subsequent acts, together with the curses with which it supplemented its remarks, proved the contrary. Soon things turned more violent and the family began getting physically hurt by the spirit. Cuts, scratches, bruises and broken bones are only a few of the reports.

A volume might be written concerning the performance of this wonderful being, as they are now described by contemporaries and their descendants. That all this actually occurred will not be disputed, nor will a rational explanation be attempted. Supposedly the haunting got so awful that it took John Bell's life and continues to haunt and cast a pall over northern Tennessee.

Old Green Eyes

Chickamauga Battlefield, Chattanooga TN is a place of fascination, where many men lost their lives and others wandered into the rest of theirs changed and forever broken.

"Old Green Eyes," was a Confederate soldier whose head was the only part of his body found after the dust settled. If you walk the fields at night, it is said that you can see a pair of glowing green eyes following you. There is a creature roaming the bloody battlefields of Chickamauga at night.

There are documented vehicle accidents that occurred when visitors, who were driving through the park at night, claimed to have seen unearthly glowing green eyes staring out at them from the black woods. These haunting eyes frightened them to such a degree they swerved off the road and immediately informed the park rangers of having seen a terrifying vision.

But these sightings are not just recent encounters. The leering green eyes date back to the bloody Civil War Battle of Chickamauga where the 125th Ohio Regiment saw a tiger like creature with shining green eyes roaming through the dead and dying on Snodgrass Hill.

Other soldiers of the same battle claimed to have seen the unnatural form of a man searching the dead for his cannonball decapitated head.

There are beliefs that the Green Eyes spirit existed long before the Civil War when the Native Americans inhabited the land that would later become the battlefield of Chickamauga. However, it is possible that Green Eyes dates back to the ancient times of the mound builders and guards the sacred worship mounds.

Either way, people still claim to see those haunting green eyes in the woods at night.

Skinned Tom

Walland, TN. In life, Tom was a good-looking guy who liked the ladies. He started seeing a girl not knowing she was married. Eventually her husband got wind of what was going on and vowed revenge on the two of them. He told his wife he was going out of town for the weekend, then hid in the woods behind their house. As he'd guessed, that evening Tom showed up to take the lady out. The husband followed them to the nearby Lovers' Lane.

Things were getting pretty hot and heavy (if you know what I mean) when all of a sudden the car door was jerked open and Tom came face-to-face with one very huge, very angry-looking man wielding a hunting knife.

"Oh no!" screamed the girl "It's my husband!"

"That's right!" yelled her husband. "And I'm about to teach you a lesson you'll never forget!" He pulled her out of the car, rammed the knife into her stomach once, and tossed her aside. Then he turned back to Tom, grinning maniacally.

"Don't hurt me!" Tom begged. "I swear, I didn't know she was married!" But the wronged husband didn't listen. He dragged Tom out of the car and skinned him alive with the hunting knife. They say that his wife was still alive and witnessed the entire event. The husband then went to town and turned himself in to the police.

When the police arrived at the crime scene, they found the woman, who was miraculously still alive. But Tom was nowhere to be found.

They say he's still hanging around Lovers' Lane, waiting to catch a couple and "teach" them the same lesson his girlfriend's husband taught him. He's described as a bloody, skinless body in '20s clothes, carrying the knife he himself was skinned with. All the teenagers around here grow up hearing "Don't go to Lovers' Lane if you don't want to be Skinned Tom's next victim!"

The Signal Man

You may have heard of the headless train conductor before, but Chapel Hill is known for it's ghostly lights that run along the town railroad tracks and a headless conductor that wanders them endlessly, forever trying to signal a train that will never come.

His name was Skip Adjent. The legend, shared over several decades, claims the young man was hit and killed by a train while along the tracks of Chapel Hill, Tennessee.

His story is just one variation of the tale behind the Chapel Hill Ghost Light, which is considered to be one of the state’s most haunted legends.

A song was even wrote to describe the haunted story.

Many years ago along the railroad track one night,

A man was walking home and held a lantern for his light.

He never heard the whistle scream or the mighty engine pound,

He never even knew it, when the freight train ran him down.

The engineer ran back in time to see the poor man die,

But as he neared the tragic spot a light rose in the sky.

The lamp the man carried was never found that night.

Now the old folks say above the track, His lantern shining bright.

And still, his lantern shines, watching every freight train go by.

There’s a Ghost Light shining in the Chapel Hill sky.

Several pictures have been taken along the tracks that allegedly show the light. Over the years, people have come from all over to spend the night there and even throw watch parties.

“The crowds sometime would get so rowdy and some even brought guns to shoot at the light to see if they could bring it down, There was one person killed from Bedford County out on the railroad tracks. He was so enamored by the light that he came out here and got too close to the track and got hit by a train.

Southern Living Magazine named Chapel Hill one of the top haunted places in the country.

The White Screamer

In White Bluff, Tennessee you'll find the locals whispering about the, "White Screamer."

Some claim to have seen the hulking, white creature while others merely lock their deadbolts at night. Legend has it that an old couple lived in the woods and hid their terrifyingly ugly child in the basement.

When it grew old enough, it escaped, killing the parents and streaking into the woods, only able to scream with abandon in the chill of the night. Supposedly, pets and cattle have fallen prey to the white being.

Blood Money

Leave a couple dollars on the grave of Sadie Baker and you may just appease the witch.

Concord Cemetery is the final resting place of Baker, who was buried alive by her community in the 19th century for witchcraft. Don't go walking in the graveyard at night, because the locals swear they see her wandering amongst the tombstones.

the story begins back in the 1800s. The Shelton family had been in the area for years and they are a well-known family. They were said to have had many beautiful daughters and strong sons, the most beautiful daughter being Olivia. She was said to have long black hair and sapphire eyes as well as a very shy and sweet demeanor. She apparently had every man in town begging to do her bidding.

One day, Olivia was on her way home and came upon a young woman wearing a dusty cape, staring at the ground looking for coins. Olivia had never seen the woman before and was very curious. She knelt beside the woman and could tell that she had not bathed in days, and figured she was tired and hungry as well. Olivia asked the woman who she was and where she was traveling to but the woman gave no response. Olivia assumed the woman was simply shy and said “Well, you shall come with me to my home and we shall sort it all out.” The woman followed her.

Olivia brought the woman home and her mother and sisters began to clean her up. As soon as the filthy cape was taken away, the woman’s breathtaking beauty began to shine through. She had blonde hair, jade eyes and alabaster skin. While she was in her early twenties, her frame was so petite that she easily fit into Olivia’s clothes. The other girls were instantly jealous and curious as to who this mysteriously beautiful woman was and why she did not talk.

As weeks went by the girls all grew increasingly jealous of the beautiful stranger, whom they now called Sadie Baker (it is unclear how the name came to be.) Even the mother was now feeling resentment for Sadie and wanted her removed from the home. But the father was infatuated with the beautiful stranger and refused to let her leave. Months went by and Sadie was now the woman of the house. The wife had been moved into an upstairs bedroom and the daughters were forbidden to leave the attic room that was prepared for them. Some time later the mother died from starvation.

Sadie was now living the life of a queen, even as the household finances dwindled to nearly nothing. The husband and his sons indulged her in jewels and fine clothes. She soon persuaded them to rob and steal from local people and stores to provide her with even more embellishments.

It is said that every man who came before her fell under her spell. Soon the women of the town all gathered and decided to kidnap Sadie and prove that she was a witch. They staked her to a tree and performed numerous methods of torture, yet Sadie only laughed at them. They even tried to burn her but the flames would not touch her. They finally bound her and buried her alive.

From that day on, it is said that men are particularly drawn to her grave and that her beautiful, flawless spirit can be seen following behind men. If a woman passes the grave they must place money on the tombstone or Sadie Baker will come for them and take away their men.