Danny
23-Jan-2007, 07:38 AM
so im writing a piece for one of my a level courseowkrs about urban legends, and ive been interested in the subject for a long time and know a lot of em, but i just read one on wikipedia that ive never heard before but swear ive seen a movie about or something. its calld the "melon heads" myth and is centred around ohio and cleveland.
The Melon Heads are a long-running urban legend of deformed individuals who prowl in the woods of southern-west Michigan and parts of northern Ohio.
There are many versions of the tale, but the most well-known involves a man named Dr. Crow. One version of the legend states that Crow performed experiments on children with hydrocephalus, a condition where afflicted children were born with water in the brain, often causing swelling of the head. Dr. Crow was a World War II doctor that dealt with the problem. Crow allegedly used only his own tools and property, and the government sent him the kids. According to the story, Crow was deranged and performed atrocities on the children, whom he enjoyed hurting and killing sadistically. Crow carried out his experiments deep in the woods far from anyone who would discover them at the Felt Mansion.
There are many different versions of the Dr. Crow story, one less chilling story is that Dr. Crow was involved in government experiments that involved radiation. The government paid Dr. Crow and his wife to stay out of the limelight. Although Dr. Crow and his wife were normal, their children were born with abnormally swelled heads. It is said that when Crow's wife died, the children were so devastated that they burnt down the house, killing themselves and Dr. Crow.
It is said that melon heads have poor vision, so that people who go into the woods in clothing that is dark, black, blue, dark green, will be safe from them. Those wearing white or light-colored clothing will be hunted out. It has also been said that they can run very quickly, and can keep up with cars going 45-50 miles per hour.
Many stories are told about melon heads, but most have been gruesome; saying they went out of Dr. Crow's control and went on a killing spree which still continues today. The roads with the most sightings are Wisner Road and King Memorial Roads in Chardon, Ohio. Reports of sightings have also occurred in Saugatuck, Michigan in caves in the dunes. Sightings are rare, and they are said to be very shy...running away from any sight of headlights.
heres a newspaper entry
There is perhaps no town on Earth as spooky as Kirtland.
This East Side suburb has a sordid history of weirdness. It's where cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren murdered the Avery family and buried their bodies under the floor of a decaying barn.
Today, Kirtland is still rural and underpopulated, a community of cabins on rolling hills amid vast stretches of forest. There is a place on King Memorial Road called Gravity Hill, where the laws of physics are seemingly reversed ‹ cars roll uphill, here. There's a crybaby bridge, too. Local legend claims a teenager became pregnant in the early 1900s under suspicious circumstances. When her father demanded she give it up for adoption, the teen took her baby and leaped into the river. If you stand on the bridge at midnight and chant "crybaby" three times, you can hear the faint cries of a child drifting through the trees.
But nothing is quite as scary as the tale of the Melonheads.
Around the turn of the last century, a man known only as Dr. Crow built an orphanage at the end of Wisner Road, atop a hill overlooking the crybaby bridge. He was an evil and twisted doctor, and at night, when the nurses were away, he conducted odd medical experiments on the children. The procedures caused the kids to develop abnormally large heads with no hair, on top of small, deformed bodies. He called them his "melonheads." But one day, the melonheads revolted. They killed the doctor, burned down the orphanage and escaped into the woods, where they still live today.
Ever since the orphanage burned down, residents of Kirtland have reported strange sightings of short, naked creatures with large heads roaming the woods.
Fire Chief Anthony Hutton has heard the story, but has never seen a melonhead himself ‹ though not for lack of trying. "When I was in school, we used to take the girls out there to scare 'em," he says with a sly smile.
Other residents suspect there may be a logical explanation to the myth. "How it all came about was, there was this doctor who lived here that had some mongoloid children," says Nancy Gorman, who owns horse stables on Wisner Road. "People were just scared of 'em because they didn't know better."
Maybe. But that doesn't explain the number of residents that post new sightings on the Internet. One fellow, on Creepycleveland.net, says he watched helplessly as a melonhead came out of the woods, attacked, then ate his pet dog. So, if you visit Winser Road this Halloween, keep Sparky at home.
wierd huh?, it reminds me of a few other urban myths like the chimera house one about a house full of failed human experimentation mutations, plus all those ones about generations of inbreds living in the south and louisiana swampland preying on "townies" that stray off the ebaten path, but this is a wierd one, and one of the few not on warpheads wierd world's site, just wondered if any americans on here had ever heard tell of this one cus its new to me.
The Melon Heads are a long-running urban legend of deformed individuals who prowl in the woods of southern-west Michigan and parts of northern Ohio.
There are many versions of the tale, but the most well-known involves a man named Dr. Crow. One version of the legend states that Crow performed experiments on children with hydrocephalus, a condition where afflicted children were born with water in the brain, often causing swelling of the head. Dr. Crow was a World War II doctor that dealt with the problem. Crow allegedly used only his own tools and property, and the government sent him the kids. According to the story, Crow was deranged and performed atrocities on the children, whom he enjoyed hurting and killing sadistically. Crow carried out his experiments deep in the woods far from anyone who would discover them at the Felt Mansion.
There are many different versions of the Dr. Crow story, one less chilling story is that Dr. Crow was involved in government experiments that involved radiation. The government paid Dr. Crow and his wife to stay out of the limelight. Although Dr. Crow and his wife were normal, their children were born with abnormally swelled heads. It is said that when Crow's wife died, the children were so devastated that they burnt down the house, killing themselves and Dr. Crow.
It is said that melon heads have poor vision, so that people who go into the woods in clothing that is dark, black, blue, dark green, will be safe from them. Those wearing white or light-colored clothing will be hunted out. It has also been said that they can run very quickly, and can keep up with cars going 45-50 miles per hour.
Many stories are told about melon heads, but most have been gruesome; saying they went out of Dr. Crow's control and went on a killing spree which still continues today. The roads with the most sightings are Wisner Road and King Memorial Roads in Chardon, Ohio. Reports of sightings have also occurred in Saugatuck, Michigan in caves in the dunes. Sightings are rare, and they are said to be very shy...running away from any sight of headlights.
heres a newspaper entry
There is perhaps no town on Earth as spooky as Kirtland.
This East Side suburb has a sordid history of weirdness. It's where cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren murdered the Avery family and buried their bodies under the floor of a decaying barn.
Today, Kirtland is still rural and underpopulated, a community of cabins on rolling hills amid vast stretches of forest. There is a place on King Memorial Road called Gravity Hill, where the laws of physics are seemingly reversed ‹ cars roll uphill, here. There's a crybaby bridge, too. Local legend claims a teenager became pregnant in the early 1900s under suspicious circumstances. When her father demanded she give it up for adoption, the teen took her baby and leaped into the river. If you stand on the bridge at midnight and chant "crybaby" three times, you can hear the faint cries of a child drifting through the trees.
But nothing is quite as scary as the tale of the Melonheads.
Around the turn of the last century, a man known only as Dr. Crow built an orphanage at the end of Wisner Road, atop a hill overlooking the crybaby bridge. He was an evil and twisted doctor, and at night, when the nurses were away, he conducted odd medical experiments on the children. The procedures caused the kids to develop abnormally large heads with no hair, on top of small, deformed bodies. He called them his "melonheads." But one day, the melonheads revolted. They killed the doctor, burned down the orphanage and escaped into the woods, where they still live today.
Ever since the orphanage burned down, residents of Kirtland have reported strange sightings of short, naked creatures with large heads roaming the woods.
Fire Chief Anthony Hutton has heard the story, but has never seen a melonhead himself ‹ though not for lack of trying. "When I was in school, we used to take the girls out there to scare 'em," he says with a sly smile.
Other residents suspect there may be a logical explanation to the myth. "How it all came about was, there was this doctor who lived here that had some mongoloid children," says Nancy Gorman, who owns horse stables on Wisner Road. "People were just scared of 'em because they didn't know better."
Maybe. But that doesn't explain the number of residents that post new sightings on the Internet. One fellow, on Creepycleveland.net, says he watched helplessly as a melonhead came out of the woods, attacked, then ate his pet dog. So, if you visit Winser Road this Halloween, keep Sparky at home.
wierd huh?, it reminds me of a few other urban myths like the chimera house one about a house full of failed human experimentation mutations, plus all those ones about generations of inbreds living in the south and louisiana swampland preying on "townies" that stray off the ebaten path, but this is a wierd one, and one of the few not on warpheads wierd world's site, just wondered if any americans on here had ever heard tell of this one cus its new to me.