19. PCP Cannibal

Legend: Since PCP, also known as “Angel Dust,” first emerged in popular culture during the late 1970s, there have been various unsubstantiated tales of its users losing their minds and resorting to cannibalism.

Reality: In 2002, a rapper named Big Lurch was found naked in the streets of LA and staring at the sky. It turned out that he’d been on a PCP binge for days and had murdered his 21-year-old female roommate and ate parts of her body. In 2009 in Bakersfield, CA, a four-year-old boy told investigators “my daddy ate my eyes.” His father, Angel Vidal Mendoza, was arrested and suspected of carrying the act out while under the influence of PCP. (source1) (source2)

20. Congratulations—Now You Have AIDS

Legend: Ever since the AIDS crisis emerged in the mid-1980s, there have been rumors of people being approached in crowded clubs, feeling a minor pinch, and then having someone whisper in their ears that they are now a member of the “AIDS club.”

Reality: Although there are several documented cases of “pin prick attacks” where people deliberately jabbed their victims with syringes in an attempt to infect them with HIV, the sole documented case where someone actually came down with AIDS and died occurred in Australia in 1990 when a prison inmate jabbed a guard with a needle. The guard died of AIDS-related complications seven years later. (source)