Urban Legends Part 2

Black Agnes or Black Aggie as I have found is the name of the statue that is reported to kill people. This huge statue is titled Thanatos (death in Greek) and is the grave marker for John Erastus Hubbard who lived from 1847-1899.

Now according to the legend this statue will kill anyone who happens to sit in its lap. There are several variations of this story, some not including certain death for sitting on the statue but they all say that laying in the statue's lap will bring certain death.

But according to Wikipedia 'Black Aggie is the name given to statue formerly placed on General Felix Agnus in Druid Ridge Cemetery in Pikesville, Maryland.'

Wikipedia also had this to say about the history of Black Aggie; a replica of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' 1891 allegorical figure named Grief:

Beginning with its installation in 1926, the replica was surrounded by many urban legends, principally that someone spending a night in its lap would be haunted by the ghosts of those buried there; that the spirits of individuals buried at Druid Ridge would annually convene at the statue; that no grass would grow on the ground where the statue's shadow would lie during the daytime; or that the statue would animate itself during the night, whether by physically moving or by showing glowing red eyes.

These urban legends led to much unwelcome attention toward the statue; many people were caught breaking into the cemetery at night to visit it, and the pedestal was frequently vandalized. The Agnus family, disturbed by the attention the statue received, donated it to the Smithsonian in 1967. It sat for many years in storage at the National Museum of American Art (later named the Smithsonian American Art Museum) where an authorized recasting of the original Adams Memorial statue now sits.

Black Aggie was moved from her previous home at the museum to a courtyard behind the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. where she currently stands. The bare, blank pedestal remains at the statue's former home at Druid Ridge Cemetery.

Another statue, similarly called "Black Agnus" is located at Green Mount Cemetery in Montpelier, Vermont. This one is of a man sitting and covered in a shawl, but his head is visible and his looking up with closed eyes. This statue is copper rather than bronze, so it has a green patina.

I found another version of this urban legend on YouTube that is completely different from the other versions I have come across.

Do I know which legend is the original? No I don't. But each legend is fascinating. There is another Black Anges but she is the Countess of Dunbar in Scotland who defended her home from the English during a siege in 1337. I hope you enjoyed this installment of Urban Legends! Keep an eye out for next weeks post along with other various posts.