10 Bloodthirsty Creatures From Global Folklore

Should you ever find yourself at the Pine Ranch Reservation in South Dakota and you happen to hear a whistling sounding up in the dense woods, you should turn on your heel and run away as fast and far as you can. If you don’t, you might just bump into Walking Sam.

Walking Sam is a mythical stick person resembling a skeleton. He is very tall and wears a black top hat. From his arms hangs the tragic souls of his victims. It is said that once someone hears Walking Sam whistling, they will start hearing creepy voices in their head urging them to commit suicide. He digs into a person’s deepest insecurities and preys on their darkest secrets until they heed his call to end their own lives.

Legend tells of a young girl who started suffering from depression and preferred to hide away in her bedroom. She heard stern voices telling her that she was worthless and that she should just end it all. The voices even told her she was a mistake and her parents never wanted her. One day it was raining very hard while she was listening to the voices, but just before she completely gave in to their demands, the rain suddenly let up and the girl happened to glance towards the woods.

As she did, she saw a top hat disappearing behind a tree. Later, the girl asked her grandmother about what she had seen, and her grandmother immediately realized that Walking Sam was after her granddaughter. The old woman placed a protection spell over the girl which protected her from the voices. But she still heard faint whistling straining through the woods whenever she passed it.