Are Urban Legends About Ghosts True? By Jennifer Scelsi of CSI: Paranormal

In the case of urban legends, it really depends on the legend itself. Many urban legends are based in fact, but over the years they get added to and enhanced until they become practically unrecognizable to the truth.

The legend of the five horsemen is a prime example of an urban legend that has gotten totally out of hand and has caused some people to actually move out of town because of it.

The story of the five horsemen is set somewhere in the Old West. Out of respect to the town, I'm not going to give up the location it is private! Anyway, the story goes that five outlaws murdered a family over a land dispute.

Six men from this town and six men from a neighboring town formed a posse and hunted down and killed the horsemen.

Less than a year later, one of the towns burned to the ground under what were termed "mysterious circumstances."

The legend says that since the horsemen were killed, they ride through the remaining town, and when they do, people in that small town die.

This legend captured my attention so I began researching the legend to see what I could find out. And after careful review of my research, I was shocked to discover that during the known years the horsemen rode, more people died than in the years when there were either no reported sightings of the horsemen or very few sightings.

The cemetery records turned up another interesting bit of information: most of the people who died in the years the horsemen were known to ride were direct descendants of the twelve men who made up the posse and killed the horsemen.

Does this circumstantial evidence make us think that the horsemen are really killing these people? Absolutely not. Rather, we believe that most of the people are dying from either natural causes or some type of accident. In addition, the median age of people of this town is sixty-five years old. People die; it happens. I am more likely to believe that the horsemen have become a convenient excuse for otherwise natural deaths.

The lesson in all this is not to put too much value on urban legends. While they may be born from true events that happened in the past, it would be irrational to think that a ghost with an urban legend could haunt your home, or in the extreme, kill someone