29 Americans Describe The Scariest, Most Evil Places In The United States

These Americans reveal the worst and evil places to avoid in the United States. Some cities are riddled with crime, others natural disasters, or it’s just unsafe for humans (like explosive fields). Found on r/AskReddit.
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1. I’ve heard some crazy things about this city

East St. Louis.

2. Dry county

As a 21-year-old Australian living in suburban Utah, I know a lot of my mates back home would be absolutely terrified if they knew about the alcohol laws here.

3. Alabama (but they were asking for it)

The Top Gear guys said driving through Alabama in flamboyantly decorated cars was the scariest thing they’ve ever done, which is saying a hell of a lot.

4. “Come hungry, leave happy”

Golden Corral on a Saturday night.

5. Uh, what the fuck

I live in Oklahoma. The Native Americans here tell stories of the creatures here (little people, staginis, etc.) There is a place in Sasakwa, OK called Bird Creek Church. My friend’s grandma said that skinwalkers were all around that place.

So one weekend my friends and I wanted an adventure. We went.

We heard things speaking in the woods.

The one thing that I will never forget was when my friend was standing next to me and we looked into the dark woods. We saw a dark figure behind a rock. It wasn’t facing us and it was breathing hard. We were freaking out, and then it got up and I swear on my life, it was about 8ft tall and it had wings and it chased us. That was the most fucked up shit I have ever been through. They told me that I have to keep tobacco under my bed and around the outside of my house. (To keep out the skinwalkers) They blessed it.

6. New Jersey

Camden, New Jersey is the shitholiest shithole ever to exist. Police force went on strike because of low pay. Criminals took over. Only place I’ve ever been for work where the client told me it’s best to leave their facility before sunset.

7. This city again

When I was in St Louis on vacation sort of, we use this GPS unit (TomTom) to find some shrimp bar on the outskirts of St Louis, I can’t remember the exact name but I think it was Fast Freddie’s. Anyway, when we typed it in it sent us to a place called Fast Freddy’s Fried Chicken which was located in ESL.

We were driving towards it just listening to the directions from the TomTom and the guy in the backseat who was the one familiar with the area was not paying attention to where we were messing with this cell phone or something.

All of a sudden he looks up and says “Oh shit, we are in East St Louis aren’t we….? Drive. Just drive. Don’t even stop at stop signs, just slow down so you know it safe and keep going.”

This was at like 8pm it was getting dark. He is hastily trying to reroute directions on the GPS, and all of a sudden a cop pulls us over. He wasn’t even concerned about the fact that we didn’t stop at stop signs, he simply noticed that we had out of state plates and was concerned for our safety and wanted to make sure that we weren’t lost. He gave us directions back to the freeway, and tagged along behind.

8. I think we can all agree on this

The DMV.

9. Polygamists everywhere

Colorado City, Arizona. Founded by the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints church and most of the citizens are polygamists. Driving through there is really creepy. People either immediately run inside (women and children), or keep a creepy eye on you (the men).

10. “Bodymore”

My weed guy lives in East Baltimore and I’ll only go to his row home early in the morning.

I showed up to grab a quarter in the evening one time and was verbally harassed and had a corner boy lift up his shirt to show me he was strapped.

Baltimore is underrated as a super dangerous place.

11. This guy almost died

I’ve been to all 48 of the contiguous states, 33 of them more than once and lived in 9 of them. I got 3/4 down the list of comments and realized I’ve been to all of those places (Visiting rundown urban environments is sort of a hobby of mine).

In my experience, “bad” areas of cities aren’t really that scary but rather depressing. Poverty, prostitution, drug abuse and gang activity is what you get but if you mind your own business people generally leave you alone. There are only a couple of occasions that come to mind where I could say I felt unsure of my safety.

In Autumn 2000, I found myself walking the streets of Cherry Hill, Baltimore with luggage and no money at 2am. I got off the greyhound and just took a wrong turn. Some guys were giving me a hard time but luckily an older gentlemen pulled over and offered me a ride to where I was going. I was definitely nervous but not really scared.
In 2004, I spent the night in a car in Jamaica Queens, NY and that was nerve racking because people would actually stop and look into the car while passing by but didn’t have problems.

The scariest semi-urban experience was probably in El Paso, Texas in 2003. I had been driving all day and decided to pull over at a rest stop to catch some Z’s. I was pretty naive then and was completely oblivious to the fact the I had been a stones throw away from Juarez Mexico. At about 2am I awoke to 3 mexican dudes slamming on my window. To this day I don’t know what they were saying because I don’t speak spanish but I could tell I was fucked because they were obviously in a panic mode. Just then a cop car came from nowhere with screeching tires. He had been chasing them and luckily got to them before they got to me. Afterwards I found out they were cartel guys and the cop said they probably would have killed me and taken the car. Who knows if that was true but let’s just stay I’ve never been back.

Those were all situations that I put myself in and really should have been avoided. Nowadays when I visit bad neighborhoods (ate BBQ in Compton, Los Angeles just last week), I go during the day and make sure I don’t put myself in situations where I’m alone.

12. Florida

Alibabba avenue has the highest crime rate in the states for such a small area.

13. Where the Raiders play

Drove through the bad part of Oakland lost one night on a road trip. It was about 5 blocks worth. The only cars on the road were us, a few gnarly beaters speeding on the wrong side of the road as often as not and about 12 speeding cop cars who didn’t even bother to chase the crazy beaters. We heard about 20 gunshots in the space of maybe 5 minutes. We drove by 2 locations with about 5 cop cars pulled over and flashing. We drove up and over a hill and were in what appeared to be a rather up scale neighborhood. That was weird.

14. I’ve never heard of this place before

Oniontown, NY

15. Fascinating

Galveston, Texas.

Probably the most haunted island ever. Pretty much every building has a ghost story thanks to the 1900 storm.

Hurricanes are fairly common and cause millions in damage every time.

And to top it all off, ONE of TWO level one security research centers in the US is on the island. It houses things like the bubonic plague and other super contagious diseases. The other research facility is buried deep underground, this one is all above ground. Did I mention hurricanes are frequent?

16. Drunk rednecks

The scariest place I have ever been is rural West Virginia. I’m white and it’s a pretty white state, but I still stuck out like a sore thumb. The people there look different, talk different, and drive different cars if you drive anything other than an old pickup truck. Also, down there, it seems like everyone has a gun. That is fine on its own, but when you factor in the people with guns that are clearly on meth, it’s pretty unnerving.

Also, being an outsider in a local bar was quite the experience. Some people were perfectly nice, but you also had the stereotypical drunk rednecks talking shit. They beat the tweakers with guns, but shit talking drunk rednecks with guns aren’t much better. The trips I’ve taken down there are the closest to deliverance the movie as I’ve ever experienced.

17. Pennsylvania

I’m surprised no one said Chester PA. Notoriously violent for a long time. I think it was in the top ten most dangerous places to live last year. The city is in bad shape!

18. California

Double Rock – San Francisco. Not even the cops go there. One way in, one way out. Controlled completely by the local gang.

19. Oregon

Some of the craziest stuff went down in Wilsonville, Oregon. I went to the sunday school attached to this place called the “Living Enrichment Center” by a series of underground tunnels. Turns out the place is massively haunted.

20. Indiana

Gary, Indiana. It is the only place that I make sure I have enough gas in the tank before passing through.

21. Sketchy California

Stockton, CA is pretty sketchy. I think it’s been rated #9 on most dangerous places in the US. High murder rates, highest car theft in the country. My family and I ate at a Chinese restaurant (in not even the bad area of town), took the dog out of the car to go to the bathroom before we left for home, and I heard 3 gunshots just 3 blocks away. Got out quick.

22. It’s true

On a trip to Niagara Falls, N.Y., we wound up in a pretty scary neighborhood looking for the outlet mall (the only reason anyone goes to the American side of the falls anymore). That whole town is a monument to faded glamour that makes nearby Buffalo look like Beverly Hills.

23. “Not a good time.”

Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati. The cops literally travel in pairs. Not a good time.

24. “Non-crime scary places”

Barrow, Alaska. The sun sets in November and doesn’t come back up until January.

Supai, Arizona. It’s a town at the bottom of the grand canyon. There are no roads that go to Supai. It’s a 6 hour round trip on a mule to get there and back.

The entirety of west Texas. It’s a freaking desert. There’s something like 2 people per square mile. If you get lost, you can quite easily die.

White Sands Missile Range. It’s a missile range. Things literally blow up daily. Given, it’s heinously illegal to be in the missile range at any given time, but I’d be more worried about the explosions. The first nuclear bomb was detonated there. Go ahead and get on google maps for this. Wait for it to load. Oh wait, it’s actually loaded… zoom out. Keep zooming out. Look at how big it is. 3,200 square miles of white, sand, and explosions.

25. I lived in Columbia — it wasn’t that bad

Try Columbia, SC. I went to an HBCU there, where people were robbed in the dorms. I was there for two years and there was about five armed robberies on campus. First football practice, they sprayed the Burger King right down the street. Two notch road is the place to be mane.

26. This lava field

I’ll go with El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico.

It’s “just” a 400 square mile lava field.

Parts of it have trees and brush growing in it which are slightly taller than you can see over the top of. If you go in there without a good sense of direction it’s easy to get lost a hundred yards from the parking lot because everything looks the same in every direction.

27. The neighborhood around Temple is pretty sketchy

Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. just don’t. took a trip from an ex gf’s apartment by Temple University to go to a Sonic. Definitely the sketchiest neighborhood I’ve ever had to drive through.

28. I’ve been there and it is very, very desolate. Burned cars, empty lots, empty buildings. Very eerie

Hunt’s Point, New York City.

Only 40% of people living there are employed and the average family makes $17k a year. It has the highest violent crime rate per capita in NYC, and it is known for its huge prostitution scene. HBO has shot three documentaries on prostitution in the area, two of which specifically focused on child prostitution.

Two years back, a few friends and I got stranded at the train station there at 11 at night. All of us were wearing some sort of neon clothing and generally looking as white as possible so it was an interesting experience.

29. Specifically Williamsburg

Detroit, one of the worst cities in not only America, but the world, as far as many of us are concerned. It is a cesspool of humanity, and should be avoided at all costs. Also, Brooklyn, New York. $3,000/month for a studio apartment? GTFO of here. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

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