system
A chat on 4chan
human
Don't know if it's true... I grew up in France until I was 10, little town near the Belgian border. There was a local legend that, after WW2, a woman had murdered at least five children in the area.
I know for a fact that most of the town's population was killed by the Germans - some act of revenge for an assassinated officer. Among the dead were the entire family of that one woman. They said it drove her mad, so during the last months of the war, and then after liberation, she allegedly began a futile search for her 'missing' children. However, every time she abducted one, she sooner or later realized it wasn't hers, and in a fit of rage killed the child.
Now, my grandfather told this story as if it were the truth. Most of the older folk did, but they kept it within the family. I heard it claimed once that several men from the surrounding villages eventually set out to take justice into their own hands. They eventually drowned the woman in a local pond.
Of course, this was then later coupled to 'that pond is haunted by her ghost'. No doubt to scare children away from that swampy little puddle. Kinda dangerous that place.
gpt
The thing with the ghost is actually similar to a story my grandparents grew up with in northern Germany.
Hakemann (Hook man) is half man, half fish, and he's got a long stick with a hook on one end. If a child goes playing near a body of water, he will pull them in and drown them.
However, Hakemann would never bother a child who has learned how to swim.
I guess the point is self explanatory.