5 Spine-Chilling Stories of Women Who Haunt Even After Death

One of Japan’s most chilling urban legends, this spirit’s name roughly means “woman with the slit mouth.” Stories about her first appeared in the late 1970s. Supposedly, her mouth is cut from ear to ear, and she appears solely to chase and torment children. At first, she hides her disfigurement behind a surgical mask, but when she finds a child alone, she pulls it down and asks if they think she’s beautiful.

The legend says if the answer is no, she slashes the responder with scissors. If yes, she cuts their face from ear to ear to resemble her own. When these stories first spread, fear gripped Japan so deeply that kids started walking home from school in groups for safety.

This spirit is said to wander alone in French Fort Cove, Canada, searching for her lost head. Doug Underhill dates this ghost story back to the 1700s in his book Miramichi Tales Tall & True, when noble French women were sent to Canada to join convents.

Sadly, this poor nun’s life ended tragically—either at the hands of a deranged fur trapper or a ruthless treasure-seeking sailor couple. Either way, the story ends the same: her head was cut off, and the rest of her body roams endlessly, seeking to be whole again.

This ghost is believed to be Lady Dorothy Walpole, named after the brown brocade dress she wore. Lady Walpole was married to Viscount Charles Townshend and lived in the grand Raynham Hall, but her life there was miserable. Her husband was notorious for his bad temper, and when he discovered her infidelity, he imprisoned her within their home.

She later died of smallpox in 1726, and her spirit was first seen on Christmas 1835. The following year, she scared a visitor so badly that he fired a pistol at her apparition’s face. The ghost vanished but reappeared in 1926 and 1936, with a photographer claiming to have captured her descending the stairs.

In Kathryn Tucker Windham’s book 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, she tells the tragic story of Martha, a shy girl who reluctantly came from New York to Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama—her grandmother’s alma mater. Martha loved red and decorated her dorm room with red blankets, curtains, and trinkets.

Unfortunately, she never made friends and grew more withdrawn. She began wandering the dorm halls at night, silently staring through open doors into other rooms. This haunting walk is said to continue even years after she wrapped herself in her red blanket and took her own life.

LaLaurie is often called America’s first female serial killer. In the 1830s, she belonged to New Orleans’ social elite and lived in a grand home until a fire in 1834 revealed horrifying secrets hidden inside. When neighbors rushed to help put out the flames, screams led them to a locked door.

After breaking it open, they found enslaved people who had been tortured, chained, and mutilated. The enraged crowd drove LaLaurie out of the city, and more bodies were reportedly found beneath the floorboards. She died in Paris in 1849, but some say her terrible deeds condemned her to haunt her old home forever—sometimes seen mockingly wielding a whip, hovering over babies and children.