The Creepiest Urban Legends

"The Dead Body Under Your Freaking Mattress"

The Legend:
A couple checks into a hotel and have to put up with
a foul odor in their room all night. They call the staff
to complain and somebody figures out the stench
is coming from the bed.

Now, there's no way that scenario is going to have a
good ending. You're almost hoping at that point that
it'll turn out the last guest just got drunk and pooped
behind the headboard. But, no, the staff take off the
mattress and discover the couple has been sleeping
over the rotting body of a dead girl who had been
stuffed in the box spring.

The Truth:
This actually happened, in Las Vegas. Also, Kansas City,
MO and Atlantic City, NJ and several times in Florida and
California and, well, let's just say that in or under the bed
in a hotel room seems to be a fairly popular destination
for the recently deceased.

It makes sense if you think about it. The closet and under
the bed are the two most popular places to hide just
about anything, so it's not surprising a hell of a lot of
corpses end up there as well. In fact, the odds are pretty
good that at least once a guy has killed a prostitute,
tried to stuff her under the bed, only to find there was
already a body there.

The strangest part isn't that the bodies wind up in such
a terrible hiding place (killers often aren't the type to plan
ahead). No, the strange thing is that in almost every story
people will sleep part of, or in many cases, the entire
night, on top of the corpse before reporting it.

Most people we know will complain if they detect that
someone might have smoked a cigarette in their room
four months ago. Not these people, they slept inches
above an oozing heap of rotting human flesh rather
than inconvenience the hotel management by asking
for a new room.

Or, at least we hope sleeping is all they did on that bed.
Oh, man, can you imagine dying and then the first thing
that happens is some middle age couple starts porking
over you? Ew.

Hopefully they at least got a free continental breakfast
out of the ordeal.
Received on Mon Jan 28 08:47:07 2008