10 Haunted Houses That Have Murdered People

8. Don't Go Playing With Ghost Trains

This one is more of a cautionary tale for those interested in the paranormal to be careful with their investigations, than a true death-by-haunting. Depends what sort of causal links you see between the two, perhaps. There's a well known story in Statesville, North Carolina, of a passenger train which toppled off the rails and sent thirty people to their deaths off a high bridge, back in August 27, 1891.

The legend is that, ever since then, if you hang around on the same train tracks on the anniversary of the tragedy you will see a uniformed man with a gold watch, who heralds a spectral re-enactment of the scene complete with the squealing of wheels and the screams of victims plunging to their deaths.

Seeking out that ghost train, in 2010 between 10 and 12 enthusiasts of the paranormal set out to witness what would happen on the 119th anniversary of the crash. What actually happened is that they created a tragedy of their own, not counting on an actual, corporeal train speeding along the tracks towards them. Running back along the rails, all but two survived. The lure of the ghost train was too great.