Secrets of the 20,000 dead bodies buried under Washington Square Park, said to be NYC’s most “haunted” place.
The 350-year-old “hangman’s elm” , which still stands at the park’s northwest entrance, was said to have been used by Marquis de Lafayette to execute 20 horseback thieves.of locals are known to have succumbed to this horrific fate. The city wanted to keep infected bodies as far away from the bustle of daily life as possible.
“The earth would give way, and before you know it, you would bump into somebody’s coffin or grave or skeleton and smash the bones,” said another ghost enthusiast on YouTube. “People began to notice after a while. The ghosts were out at night looking for their missing body parts.” But even after the park was filled way beyond its subterranean capacity, it continued to be a hellscape. The city wasn’t just hauling in dead New Yorkers to be buried there — they also brought them there to die.