STORY:

“I used to live in an apartment complex that was supposedly haunted. I guess there was a stabbing there, with some guy stabbing his wife. I don’t remember if the stabbing happened or not, but I had neighbors who would say that they would see the wife walking in the halls. They said she must be searching for her husband so she could get revenge. I never saw anything, but my neighbors swore they did.”

CONTEXT:

The informant heard this legend when she was younger. She lived in a lower-income apartment complex, which she stated did not have very well kept infrastructure. She heard this legend mainly from neighborhood kids, and she has never double checked if a stabbing had actually occurred.

ANALYSIS:

This legend is an example of an injustice haunt. Many ghost stories originate from an injustice being committed against someone or many people. In this case, a woman was murdered and now she is dedicated to getting revenge on her killer. These stories come about due to people’s desire to see justice for an atrocity, and this is no different. The location being a lower-income apartment complex also adds to the legend. There is an element of systemic neglect that would drive people to focus more on spiritual concerns that they can have more influence over. When people feel neglected by the present world, as the rundown complex would imply, they tend to embrace spirituality which is an area they may feel heard. This ghost story could be a component of this.