Hitchhike Annie and the Ghosts of Calvary Drive in St. Louis

I have a fondness for urban legends, those stories that you hear from a friend of a friend and know aren't true, but can't help wondering about. One of my favorite urban legends is the tale of the vanishing hitchhiker. A man picks her up and takes her to her destination, but she disappears from his car along the way. In St. Louis the vanishing hitchhiker tale takes place right in the middle of two cemeteries on West Florissant Avenue.

Bellefontaine Cemetery first appeared in the late 1840s when city and church leaders determined there was a need for a new cemetery. The cemetery appeared just in time as St. Louis was devastated by a cholera epidemic that killed thousands of people in a relatively short span. When the city needed even more space to bury their need, they built the nearby Calvary Cemetery.

If you've ever seen Bellefontaine or the Calvary Cemetery for yourself you may have crossed Calvary Drive, where the vanishing hitchhiker story takes place. Like other urban legends in this vein, the original story dates back to at least the 1940s just as automobiles were rising in popularity as soldiers arrived home from the War. Back in those days the people that spotted here called her by the nickname Hitchhike Annie.

Hitchhike Annie nearly always made her appearances early in the night, just as the sun was setting in the sky. Hundreds of people claimed to see over the years and each described her as the same: a pretty girl with dark brown hair, white skin, and wearing a white dress. In some instances motorists stopped to offer help and in other cases she waved them down for help.

She usually claimed to have problems with her car and ask for a ride. Just as the other vanishing hitchhiker stories say, she would disappear without a trace from their car and always right by the gates to Bellefontaine Cemetery.

If the story of Hitchhike Annie is true, than she must have some company on that lonely stretch of road because there are two other ghosts supposedly haunting this area of St. Louis. One is a little boy who jumps out in front of cars driving down the road. No one who has seen him has been able to say anything except that he looked young and wore old fashioned clothing.

The other ghost keeping Annie company is that of a older woman dressed all in black with a veil covering her face. People claim the woman walked right in front of their car and disappeared just as they were about to hit her, or just before they stopped their cars.

Some people claim these ghosts are somehow connected to the cemeteries and that wouldn't be surprising. What is surprising is that no one has come forward with any stories about who the ghosts were and why they haven't moved on.

Sources:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/belcalv.html
http://paranormal.about.com/cs/trueghoststories/a/aa102003_2.htm