Creepiest Playground In America top 10 most frightening

song is Prelude No 15 by Chris Zabriskie "Halloween is perfect time to raise the dead. While you can creep yourself out at hundreds of manufactured haunted houses, why not go for the real deal. These truly scary locations are steeped in history while all are home to legendary tales and infamous spirits. But adventurers beware. From a former insane asylum to cursed battlegrounds, these spooky sites are not for the faint of heart. New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans is a town steeped in mythical traditions like witchcraft and vampires. Numerous cemeteries dot the landscape but the St. Louis Cemetery is the oldest in the city. Here, visitors will discover ornate above-ground tombs and mausoleums, winding footpaths and crumbling memorials. While many ghosts are rumored to call this place their home, Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, reigns supreme. San Jose, California With mile-long hallways, staircases to nowhere and doors that open into walls, this mysterious maze-like Victorian mansion in San Jose boasts160-rooms. The home was originally built by Sarah Winchester, the wealthy widow of William Wirt Winchester (son of the manufacturer of the Winchester repeating rifle). Sarah tragically lost both her daughter and husband to illness and later sought help from a spiritual advisor to overcome her depression. The medium warned Sarah that the Winchester family had been struck by a terrible curse, and would be haunted by the ghosts of the many deceased killed by the Winchester rifle. The only way to appease the dead according to the medium, was to build a house for the lost souls... and never stop building. For 38 years, construction on the house continued for 24 hours a day, until Sarah died. Today, visitors to the home will want to look out for the many unlucky number 13's featured in the house design as they roam the haunted halls. This former state hospital for the mentally insane is part history site, part hotbed of paranormal activity. Ghosts of Civil War soldiers and former patients are said to be walking through the two and half miles of hallways. Visitors claim to see things move or feel the presence of spirits. The largest hand-cut stone building in North America, this mammoth granite structure was constructed in 1858. The asylum originally housed 250 residents at a time, but at its peak in the 1950s, more than 2,000 patients called this place home. Trans-Alleghany stopped treating patients in 1994, but brave thrill seekers can roam the halls on any number of special guided tours including a night-time flashlight ghost hunting experience. Benton, Indiana Only two dozen or so crumbling grave markers remain in this famously haunted cemetery in Indiana. Legend has that it was founded by a cult called the Crabbites, who sacrificed small animals and participated in sex orgies. Another story holds that a mother of an infant who died was so distraught that she went to the cemetery and dug up the child's body after it was buried. Grieving, she took her own life. Visitors claim to have seen her ghost, dressed in black, weeping over her daughter's grave, near the site of an old stump that has since rotted away years ago. Moundsville, West Virginia It is estimated that one thousand inmates died while being incarcerated at this fearsome, Gothic style prison. Some died of natural causes or from inmate violence, but over the course of the penitentiary's history, 94 men were put to death since the first executions began in 1899. Less than 500 inmates were housed in the facility when it opened in 1866. But by the 1930s, its population was exceeded 2,400. Today, many ghosts are said to be lurking the halls, but the most famous is the Shadow Man. Visitors have also claimed to see the ghost of a maintenance man who was stabbed to death by prisoners in the basement for snitching to prison guards about inmate activity. Historical tours begin just after sun set, leading guests through the haunted prison by nightfall." from http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/10...