In one of the more disturbing stories in this list, Bessie Gilmore contacted a demon as a child while playing with a Ouija board. She believed that the entity became attached to her family after her two sisters were paralyzed and killed. Years later, Bessie married and began living with her mother-in-law, Fay, who was a medium. After a special séance, she came home to discover the spiritualist exhausted and helped her to bed. She later woke up to a feeling of being touched and saw an inhuman face leering at her from the darkness. Shocked, she turned to face Fay staggering toward her. The older woman told her to get out and shouted, “It knows who you are!” Rushing through the house to get her children, Bessie discovered the creature now standing over her son Gary and looking him directly in the eyes. Although they managed to get out, Gary was plagued with nightmares for years after, leading his mother to believe he’d been possessed.

As an adult, Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in 1977 for the murder of two men, crimes Bessie attributed to the demon that dwelt inside him. Interestingly, Gary’s last words before execution were, “Let’s do it” which earned him fame posthumously when advertising executive Dan Wieden credited his parting words as the inspiration for Nike’s tagline.