For a while , Central Park , the 770 - acre dark-green oasis in the center of Manhattan , was n’t look at a lieu you really wanted to go . In the former 1980s , there were 1,000 + crimes of various types committed in the parking lot every year , but muggers and vandal are n’t the only weirdo that have run rampant there . From its initiative in 1857 through today , the ballpark has played host to all sort of scary things going bump in the night .
A Secret and a Mysterious DeathThe weirdness starts at the very beginning with Calvert Vaux , co - graphic designer of the parking lot .
If a letter apparently written by Vaux in 1895 is to be believed , he possessed noesis of a secret of historical importance hidden in the park , as well as a solidification of papers that could aid in break that secret when decipher . Vaux pronounce in the letter that there were those who wished for the secret to remain secret and that he feared for his life . He was find drown in Brooklyn ’s Gravesend Bay two months later . Vaux wanted other masses to be aware of the secret in the park and the statistical distribution of the “ Central Park Papers ” is currently deal out by David Wise , who sells copy of them through hiswebsite .
Are the letter and the secret real number , or this is an elaborate game ? No one knows , as those who have buy the papers and discovered the secret are bound by a contract bridge that requires them to fulfill Vaux ’s care to keep their discovery confidential . If you ’re in New York , you ’ll just have to figure out the the true for yourself .
The Monsters take ManhattanOver an entrance to Belvedere Castle is a cockatrice , a fabled creature resembling an oversized rooster with a reptilian tail , project by sculptor Jacob Wrey Mould . While these fabled wildcat have n’t been found in the palace , New York City or anywhere else in the world , the car park does have it ’s plowshare of monsters .
Nick Redfern , source of several book on the paranormal , differentiate a storyabout a unknown , two-footed humanoid creature distinguish at the edge of the Mungo Park . The thing was cover up with rusting - colored hair and stood no more than three feet tall . One eyewitness claims the creature charged at him , stopped , stared right into his eyes for several seconds and then melt under a bridge circuit .
Not all the park ’s fiend are mythical , though . There have been several alligator sightings in and around the common go steady back to at least the thirties , when theNew York Timesreported that law were searching for a “ swarm ” of gators seen by two children . In 2007 , as part of a restoration project , the common ’s lake was dredged and a three - foot - long koi carp and a few 50 lb snapping turtles were discovered .
If there ’s something strange in your neighborhood … The Dakota building , settle at Central Park West at 72nd St. , was named such because when it was first built in the eighties , the Upper West Side was still “ rural ” and referred to as “ The Dakota Territory . ” The Dakota is whereRosemary gave birth to the Antichristand has been call home by repugnance master Boris Karloff and at least three ghosts . The first is that of a piffling boy , first seen by construction workers during a overhaul in the early LX . A few years subsequently , the second spook , girlfriend dressed in other 20th wear , was reportedly see by painters a few years subsequently . Both of these apparitions have made several appearance since then , but no clues as to their individuality or reasons for haunt the building are available . The final ghost spot around the Dakota is that of John Lennon , who lived there for a clip and was murdered outside building in 1980 . Several people have claimed to see his fig near one of the gated entrances to the park .
