The Horrifying History of Buckout Road

Beware. The pages of Eric Pleska’s latest book about an isolated road hidden in the woods of suburban New York City may contain disturbing and frightening content. Please proceed with caution.Now camouflaged amongst modern million-dollar mansions, the shocking history of this street that connects West Harrison to White Plains is eerie and littered with spooky urban legends, some several centuries old.There are spooky tales of grave robbing, war battles, lost treasure, and horrible crimes, including multiple documented brutal murders. There are even stories about ghost sightings, Native American curses, witch executions, and cannibal albinos. The road’s diverse range of eclectic residents has ranged from iconic hermit The Leatherman to America’s first horror movie star, John Barrymore, and multiple alleged ghoulish specters, including a vengeful British Revolutionary War captain and the ghost of Mary Buckhout.The unassuming roughly 1.5-mile-long backwoods road was the site of a slave rebellion that led to the largest population of formerly enslaved people in the entire state. It’s also where several noteworthy Revolutionary War incidents occurred, including the nearby beheading of a Hessian soldier, which inspired the creation of America’s first ghostly phantom, The Headless Horseman.If you are easily scared, you may want to turn back now; otherwise, prepare to discover why Buckout Road has earned the title of America’s scariest street.