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Most people have heard of haunted houses, but what about haunted vehicles? Automotive history is full of spooky stories and urban legends. Some vehicles have built a reputation as "cursed cars" due to historical associations with fatal incidents that occurred in or around them, while others only exist as apparitions.
It might not be Halloween for a long while yet, but if you have a taste for the spooky, read on to learn more about history's most haunted cars (and buses and vans)…
The Golden Eagle
The "Golden Eagle," a 1964 Dodge 330 Limited Edition, is also known by its infamous nickname, "The Most Evil Car In America."
The car started its life as a police vehicle and quickly gained its reputation as a cursed car after three police officers who drove it ended up committing horrific crimes. All three officers murdered their families and then killed themselves.
Even after being sold, the car allegedly killed more people by malfunctioning abruptly or opening its doors on the highway. An entire family died in a house fire after one of the children touched the car on a dare. A local church group eventually believed the car was possessed, and the Golden Eagle was finally dismantled in 2010.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand's Graf & Stift Death Limo
This 1910 Graf & Stift Double Phaeton acquired tragic historical significance after Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed by Gavrilo Princip, which triggered the start of the First World War.
In a spooky coincidence, the car's license plate was AIII 118, which some have interpreted as a reference to the date of the Armistice that ended World War I (11/11/18). The car's reputation for bringing bad luck was cemented over the next twelve years, during which it was involved in six accidents and thirteen deaths.
Among the car's many unlucky owners was an Austrian general who ended up in an insane asylum at the end of his life and a Romanian man who killed himself and five passengers in a crash.
James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder
When Hollywood star James Dean showed his newly-delivered Porsche 550 Spyder, his friend Alec Guinness warned him he would die within a week if he got into the car.
His prediction proved true, as precisely seven days later, James Dean was killed in a car crash on a California highway at the age of 24. The car, having earned the nickname "Little Bastard," kept causing trouble long after the fateful day of Dean's death. When legendary car customizer George Barris acquired the Little Bastard after the crash, he sold its engine and drivetrain to two racing drivers, one of whom was killed and the other severely injured shortly afterward.
The car was later used as a display item to demonstrate the dangers of road accidents. However, unexplained incidents continued to happen, including a fire in the garage where it was displayed. While being used as a road safety awareness prop in a high school, the car fell on a student, breaking her hip.
Eventually, after five years of killing and maiming, the now-infamous car disappeared altogether in 1960. The whereabouts of James Dean's Little Bastard are still unknown.
John F. Kennedy's Lincoln Continental SS-X-100
JFK's Lincoln has become one of the most famous haunted cars in history thanks to its historical association with the president's death.
Kennedy was riding in the car with the top down when he was shot and killed during a presidential visit to Dallas, Texas. Oddly, the car was kept in service (and repainted, changing color from blue to black) for a few years after JFK's death.
Eventually, it was phased out of service. The Henry Ford Museum acquired the vehicle, and ever since it was put on display, visitors have reported all sorts of spooky incidents, including ghostly apparitions.
Bonnie and Clyde V8 Ford "Death Car"
Bonnie and Clyde, two of the most famous criminals in America, gained their pop-culture status by robbing banks in the 1930s and ruthlessly killing anyone who stood in the way of their plans. Bonnie and Clyde's car, a Ford Model 18 V8, became known as the "Death Car" when police caught the couple and killed them by firing over 100 shots at the vehicle.
The Ford became one of America's most well-known "cursed cars" thanks to its role in Bonnie and Clyde's demise. It is now on display at Whiskey Pete's Casino in Primm, Nevada, with the bullet holes still clearly visible.
The Jumping Car Of Cape Town
Late one night in 2004, a family in Cape Town, South Africa, was abruptly awoken by the sound of their Renault Megane starting up and revving furiously. Initially thinking the car was being stolen, they rushed out the front door only to find no one sitting in the car, and several witnesses reported the vehicle appeared to be "jumping" backward by itself.
According to Renault, this particular car had a rusty starter to blame for its unusual behavior. However, this does not explain the vehicle's engine revving without input on the gas pedal. Thanks to the incident, the "Jumping Car of Cape Town" joined the ranks of creepy cars that became famous worldwide.
1968 Volkswagen Van
This 1968 Volkswagen van gained its reputation as a haunted car after being owned by Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a physician who publicly supported assisted suicide.
Kevorkian used the van for work purposes and is thought to have assisted around 130 of his terminally ill patients in taking their own lives.
Many of these suicides took place inside the van, giving it its paranormal fame. Dr Kevorkian died in 2011, but the VW van is still around and has become a favorite of ghost-hunting enthusiasts.
The Black Volga
This haunted car isn't a specific vehicle but an urban legend from Eastern Europe. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, several people living in Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and the surrounding areas reported sightings of a ghostly GAZ-21 or GAZ-24 Volga, always painted in black and sometimes with horns taking the place of its side mirrors.
The car was said to be driven by the Devil himself. According to the legend, several people, many of them children, were abducted by the Black Volga, sometimes being sucked inside the car as if by a vacuum.
The model of the Black Volga is a likely connection to the NKVD (the Soviet secret police that terrorized the population of Eastern Europe at the time) since they would frequently use a black Volga as a service vehicle.
The Phantom Car Wreck of Surrey
Next up on the list is an actual ghost car (no, not the Rolls-Royce Ghost). In 2002, several drivers in the British county of Surrey reported having seen a car swerve off a road. When police officers came to investigate due to the repeated calls, they found no evidence that a recent crash had happened in the area.
However, when searching a bit further down the road, police found a wrecked car containing a body that had been there for an extended period. Tests determined that the car crash had happened five months earlier, and soon, stories began to circulate about the witnesses having seen a "ghostly replay" of the accident.
Number 7 London Bus
A longstanding urban legend among English drivers, specifically Londoners, is the "ghost bus of Ladbroke Grove." Ladbroke Grove is an area of west London where, as far back as the 1930s, spooky stories have been circulating about a phantom number 7 bus.
According to the legend, the bus suddenly appears late at night in the middle of Cambridge Gardens (a road where the number 7 route isn't supposed to run). The apparition causes drivers to swerve off the road, sometimes with lethal results.
In the 1930s, a man crashed his car trying to avoid the bus and died after his vehicle burst into flames. Police assumed he had been driving recklessly until several witnesses reported seeing the ghostly bus.
