22 Haunting Cemeteries That Will Scare You to Death

Bury your fears before visiting these places of eternal rest.

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As the final resting place of the dead, cemeteries are rife with paranormal activity. From haunted jungle graveyards in Malaysia, to eerie abandoned burial grounds in Chicago, here are the very best of our cemetery stories.

1. Haunted Grounds: Bonaventure Cemetery and the Ghost of Gracie Watson

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Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery is known for its striking monuments to the dead. Yet there is one haunting headstone that stops visitors in their tracks. Don’t take a gift from Little Gracie’s grave … or her life-like statue might cry tears of blood. READ MORE 

2. 12 Haunted Cemeteries to Visit Before You Die

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These awe-inspiring burial grounds belong on your bucket list. From witches and vampires to voodoo priestesses and phantom lights, step inside the world’s most haunted cemeteries. READ MORE 

3. Resurrection Cemetery and the Ghost of Resurrection Mary

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They say her spirit dances past the cemetery at night, dressed entirely in white. For over 80 years, Chicago has been haunted by Resurrection Mary, a troubled spirit in a flowing white dress who wanders the grounds of Resurrection Cemetery. READ MORE

4. London’s Highgate Cemetery and the Curse of The Highgate Vampire

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They say her spirit dances past the cemetery at night, dressed entirely in white. For over 80 years, Chicago has been haunted by Resurrection Mary, a troubled spirit in a flowing white dress who wanders the grounds of Resurrection Cemetery. READ MORE

5. The Guardians of Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery

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Though the cemetery is open daily to the public from 7:00 A.M. to sunset, Halloween is Lone Fir’s busiest time of year, when the cemetery hosts the popular “Tour of Untimely Departures”, featuring the graveyard’s most famous residents, including James and Elizabeth Stephens. Nearly 1,000 people queue up outside for a chance to meet them, and to see their undying love, carved into stone, for themselves each year. READ MORE

6. Peace Cemetery and the Ghost of Billy Cook

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Along the edge of this abandoned Missouri graveyard roams the restless soul of Billy Cook, an executed spree killer from 1950 buried just outside the cemetery grounds. READ MORE

7. Stull Cemetery: A Hellmouth in the Heart of Kansas

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At the appointed hour, a hidden, secret staircase somewhere in the cemetery becomes unsealed; the stairs appear to lead down into a grave, but they’re actually a direct passage to the underworld. And once you go down them … you’ll never come back. READ MORE 

8. Bachelor’s Grove: Chicagoland’s Sinister Abandoned Cemetery

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Outside Chicago lies an abandoned graveyard believed to be the most haunted place in the region. Step inside Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery, a desolate burial ground that’s home to floating orbs of light, phantom farmhouses, and a two-headed apparition. READ MORE

9. La Recoleta Cemetery: Argentina’s Hauntingly Beautiful Burial Ground

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Haunting this grand cemetery in Buenos Aires are reports of a spectral watchman and the ghastly legend of a poor soul being buried alive. READ MORE

10. Beware the Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery

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Don’t go near the Black Angel statue of Iowa City’s Oakland Cemetery, a mournful bronze monument to tragedy that’s said to bring death to anyone who touches it. READ MORE

11. The Ghosts of Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery

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Haunting Richmond’s historic Hollywood Cemetery are eerie tales of anguished soldiers, an eternal watch dog, and one hideous vampire with jagged teeth and hanging skin. READ MORE

12. Lady in White: The Haunted Burial Grounds of Union Cemetery

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They say she drifts among the tombstones in her diaphanous gown, searching for her dead son. Connecticut’s Union Cemetery has been called one of the most haunted burial grounds in the United States, and is the alleged home of a bevy of spirits—including the famed White Lady. READ MORE

13. 13 Creepy Snapshots from Sedlec Ossuary in The Czech Republic

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  • Photo: The Private Collection of Matthew Thompson

This modest chapel from the Middle Ages holds a dark secret – the skeletal remains of 40,000 souls arranged in ghoulish sculpture. Welcome to Sedlec Ossuary, Kutná Hora’s Church of Bones.

14. 9 Strange Graves from Around the World

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Every headstone tells a tale – and these little-known sites of eternal slumber embody the weirdest and most wonderful. From Père Lachaise in Paris to Brooklyn’s Evergreens Cemetery, join us as we unearth the stories behind the stones. READ MORE

15. Buried History: Haunting Photos of Boston’s Historic Cemeteries

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Boston’s long and troubled history is memorialized in the acres of burial grounds along its streets, which inter some of the most important figures of American history. Tour the headstones in these archival photos just released from the Boston Public Library.

16. Hart Island: The Big Apple’s Mass Burial Ground of Unknown Dead

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Unearth the eerie history of Hart Island, a massive island cemetery off the coast of New York City where over one million souls are entombed in unmarked graves. READ MORE 

17. 9 Famous Graves to Add to Your Bucket List

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These writers, artists, musicians–and even a princess–were famous in life, but they still draw crowds even after their deaths. Take a tour of the resting places of Jules Verne, Princess Diana, and more without disturbing their peace. READ MORE

18. London’s Ancient Outcast Graveyard

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Behind a rusted gate in south London lie the remains of some 15,000 lost souls. Step inside the Cross Bones Graveyard, a mass burial ground for prostitutes, beggars, and thieves. READ MORE

19. 9 Lost and Forgotten Graveyards from Around the World

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From a playground in Philadelphia to a bustling square in Paris, pedestrians stroll over these long-lost burial grounds daily … unaware of what lies beneath. READ MORE

20. Showmen’s Rest: The Deadly Hammond Circus Train Wreck of 1918

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In 1918, over 50 performers died in an Illinois train wreck while en route to their next performance. Today, they’re buried in Showmen’s Rest, a quiet cemetery outside Chicago that contains the remains of clowns, trapeze artists, strongmen, and acrobats. READ MORE

21. Margaret Morton and Kyrgyzstan’s Ancestral Cemeteries

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  • Photo: Courtesy of Margaret Morton

Ornate domes and stone minarets rise out of the rocky landscape. Wooden yurt skeletons intermingle with overgrown brush. Journey to the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, where eerie monuments to the deceased line the hills. READ MORE

22. 5 Best Guided Cemetery Tours in America

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From headless legends and Southern Gothic splendor to the ghosts of Old Hollywood, these guided cemetery tours are sure to send shivers down your spine. READ MORE