Part of what makes Las Vegas such a popular travel-destination – aside from the famous Strip and its bright casino lights, of course – is that it’s a storyteller’s paradise and home to several urban legends.
And while some of the famous stories about Vegas are glaringly obviously just too good to be true, others fall into the proverbial “truth is stranger than fiction” category. Some of what we’re about to tell you, you’ll find historically exceptionally intriguing, while others are downright creepy. But all of it (or so, at least, we’ve been told!) is at least to some extent, true.
The Ghost Of The MGM Grand
Our first story is a tragic tale of a very unfortunate event. On November 21, 1980, one of the most devastating fires ever to have hit the U.S., broke out at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Since this was during a time when Las Vegas hotels and casinos were not yet obligated to have smoke-detectors and automatic sprinklers installed, there was no stopping the raging fire once it started to spread. Reportedly started by faulty wiring, the raging flames claimed the lives of 85 people.
Not to at all make light of what had happened on that fateful day so many years ago, locals are solemnly convinced that the ghosts of some of those who died in the fire continue to roam the halls of the hotel to this day. The old hotel was completely consumed by the fire, but in its place now stands Bally’s Las Vegas. And its here the spirits of the dead, presumably unable to find peace, continue to wander.
Dell H. Robison Middle School
Since the minds of children are typically rich with imagination and oftentimes far-fetched fantasy, there’s no place quite like a middle school for a good old urban legend to be born. Even so, since so many witnesses have to date claimed to have seen the spirit wandering around the school premises at Dell H. Robison Middle School, this particular tale is more likely true than fabricated.
The spirit reportedly takes on the form of a man dressed as a school janitor, who then roams the premises with blood-stained hands. He’s even been known to show up in some of the students’ nightmares, threatening their lives and limbs.
The truly fascinating bit is that each and every witness claiming to have seen the spirit, also claim that they only stopped seeing the wandering ghost once they attended church in the city.
The Megabucks Curse
The Excalibur’s Megabucks jackpot curse started back in the year 2000 when one Cynthia Jay-Brennan, shortly after having won a life-changing amount of money playing for the Megabucks jackpot, was involved in a crippling car accident that left her completely paralysed.
The legend drew even more believers when in 2003, an anonymous winner of the jackpot had apparently died from a drug overdose while staying at the Excalibur Hotel. Other winners to have reportedly died include some killed in plane crashes, someone murdered in a gang fight in Los Angeles, and even a couple rumoured to have suffered heart attacks.