1. Melon Heads
According to modern American folklore, the regions of Kirtland, Ohio, Trumbull, Connecticut and Ottawa County, Michigan are home to a sinister group of feral children with bulbous, oversized heads, known (somewhat cruelly, we reckon) as Melon Heads. Supposedly, these eerie children are responsible for killing and devouring hitchhikers (although, in some legends, wearing black at night can camouflage you due to their poor eyesight). They are usually described as having thin, skeletal bodies, pale skin and of course, their distinctively oversized, hairless craniums. In this sense, they fit with a pattern in modern folklore that includes Zeta Reticulan aliens (or Greys), El Chupacabra and the creature known to cryptozoologists as The Dover Demon. The frightening look of such creatures, together with its frequent invocation in popular culture, may actually be due to half-remembered birth trauma, as discussed in a marvellous 2003 article by Frederick V. Malmstrom. Over the decades, each area has come up with at least one unique origin story for these deformed, cannibalistic creatures. The usual version of this gruesome, yet oft-told, tale is that a heartless scientist named Dr. Crow (or Crowe, or Krohe amongst other variations) performed experiments on the children that caused their heads to swell up with fluid (this is a real condition, known as hydrocephalus). In some versions, Crow kept the children in a disused mansion (or abandoned insane asylum), which then mysteriously burned to the ground, releasing these bizarre grotesques into the wild. In a version that may well be the original tale, Dr. Crows wife is accidentally killed during an argument and the children (who love her like a mother) slaughter Dr. Crow in apparent retaliation, before the starting the fire. A more gruesome account has the mentally disturbed children becoming more and more violent until they eventually turn on their cruel tormentor and tear him limb from limb, with the fire being caused in the resulting chaos. In still other versions, the Melon Heads are said to be the product of extensive inbreeding. There is also an alternate origin story involving witchcraft. Usually, Melon Heads were said to be seen from car windows, hiding in the foliage around various secluded roads (there are several reported Melon Head sites), but occasionally eyewitness accounts have them darting across the road, leaving frightened motorists to wonder at what they may have seen. A favourite activity has local teens searching for the monsters at night, or else abandoning panic-stricken friends on the desolate stretch of road supposedly inhabited by these fearsome creatures. The stories were also repeated as urban legends, usually with the aim of spicing up a hot date. But why would teenagers be so interested in meeting such creatures? There is a long tradition of juvenile rites of passage practiced by teenagers and preteens throughout the Western world. Taking a quick spin down Dracula Drive (as one supposed Melon-Head habitat is locally known) is one such rite. Activities like invoking the evil spirit of Bloody Mary or Mary Worth are very good examples. Kids do this by turning out the lights, standing in front of a mirror and saying her name 13 times (getting louder with each repetition) whilst at the same time spinning around in circles, catching an increasingly blurred glimpse of their own reflection with each new rotation. On, or around, the 13th chant, the ghosts reflection will appear and, according to various legends, scratch the chanters face, glare at them through the mirror or even,in some versions, drag them into a mirror dimension. According to psychologists, children and young teenagers need to satisfy their thirst for excitement via participation in such ritual games because they offer a safe way to release fears and anxiety common to growing up. Kids know that there (probably) isnt really an evil witch on the other side of the mirror, but a lively imagination can furnish them with just enough doubt on the subject as to make the game worth playing. So, if we are willing to accept that there probably arent a pack of viciously deranged deformities running wild in rural America, what gave rise to the story? Well, according to an investigation into the subject by Ryan O of HauntedUSA.org, the storys actual origins lie in the 1950s and early 1960s. A young boy suffering with acute hydrocephalus lived on Wisner Road in Kirtland Ohio (an area rich in urban legends it was also known for the Crybaby Bridge which was apparently home to the spectral sounds of a dead baby). The kid, as it turned out, actually had a fantastic sense of humour, as one of his favourite activities was to go out to local roads, (accompanied by his normal school friends) and scare the living daylights out of the older kids, many of whom were on dates at the time. Now thats what we call turning a frown upside down! From there, the legend of the melon heads grew, as did the mythology surrounding it. Sadly, the original melon head kid eventually passed away due to his condition (he is apparently buried in Kirtland South Cemetery). However, his friends went on to become successful businessmen in the local area and apparently still remember him fondly, noting him as the basis of an enduring local legend... It kind of makes you wish that you had a melon headed friend growing up, So there you have it, ten reported creatures that do not actually exist. As an experiment, try typing the names of these imaginary monsters into a Google search, we guarantee that you will find more than a few quasi-scientific accounts of their existence. It just goes to show that people love a good mystery and will do almost anything to keep one alive. The supernatural, then, remains a perennially undiscovered country of monsters, mysteries, spirits and ghosts, as dictionary author Samuel Johnson is once said to have quipped regarding the latter, all argument is against it; but all belief is for it. Says it all, really.