Phantom headlights, the apparition of a drowned child and even sightings of a shadowy “devil” are among the eerie experiences visitors say they have encountered on New Jersey’s famously haunted Clinton Road.
For generations, the isolated route has been surrounded by dark folklore. Its reputation grew further after the remains of a notorious killer’s victim were discovered nearby and alleged satanic symbols were reportedly found inside the ruins of an old estate.
Clinton Road runs for roughly 10 miles through a remote, largely uninhabited stretch of forest, linking two small communities near New Jersey’s northern border.
“It has a real kind of isolated, creepy vibe to it,” said Kathy Kelly, a New Jersey supernatural historian who owns The Paranormal Museum in Asbury Park.
Kelly, 57, described Clinton Road as a “magnet” for paranormal stories. She said tales about the road have circulated since her childhood, while her work at the museum continues to bring her fresh accounts from people who have visited the area.
The road follows the edge of Clinton Reservoir and once included a treacherous turn known as Dead Man’s Curve. The bend was nearly 90 degrees, creating the risk that an unsuspecting driver could leave the roadway and plunge into the icy reservoir.
Although the dangerous corner was redesigned as a gentler curve in 2016, local legend still links the site to the ghost of a young boy who supposedly drowned after falling from a bridge beyond the turn.
According to the stories Kelly has heard, drivers traveling the road late at night sometimes see their headlights illuminate the figure of a child standing directly in their path.
New Jersey’s Clinton Road is often described as America’s “most haunted road,” with visitors claiming to have seen phantom headlights, a drowned boy’s ghost and other unexplained apparitions.
Folklore also places the Jersey Devil in the secluded woodland surrounding Clinton Road. A 3D illustration of the legendary cryptid is pictured.
Richard Kuklinski, who killed at least five people between 1980 and 1984, disposed of one victim’s body along Clinton Road.
“A lot of the stories are related to the ghost boy, because that’s just the creepiest thing on the planet, right?” Kelly said.
One version of the legend claims that a coin tossed from the bridge will mysteriously come flying back. More disturbing variations warn that the boy’s spirit will shove anyone who peers over the edge into the water.
Other accounts describe cars or headlights appearing without warning along the dark roadway. Kelly said the tale resembles a wider piece of roadside folklore: motorists are warned that flashing their high beams at a phantom vehicle will cause it to return and pursue them.
Clinton Road is also associated with the Jersey Devil, the legendary creature deeply rooted in American folklore. Believers say the cryptid continues to roam the thick, secluded woods nearby.
Kelly acknowledged that the road’s fearsome reputation may shape what visitors think they see. People who arrive expecting something supernatural, she said, may interpret ordinary sights and sounds as evidence of a haunting.
Even so, the historian maintains that Clinton Road’s history includes events that are genuinely unsettling, regardless of whether the paranormal claims can be proven.
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“One of the Iceman’s bodies was found along Clinton Road,” Kelly said, referring to career criminal Richard Kuklinski, who was responsible for at least five killings between 1980 and 1984.
In 1983, cyclist discovered the body of Kuklinski’s victim, Daniel Deppner, beside Clinton Road. The remains had been placed inside a green garbage bag, with a vulture reportedly pecking at the body when it was found.
Kathy Kelly, a New Jersey supernatural historian and owner of The Paranormal Museum in Asbury Park, told the Daily Mail that stories about Clinton Road have been part of her life since childhood.
Kuklinski was convicted of murdering Deppner and three others in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison. While incarcerated in 2003, he confessed to killing a New York City detective as well.
Clinton Road also has ties to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s, as satanic symbols were found inside the ruins of an estate built on the bank of the Clinton Reservoir by a railroad official and banker named Richard James Cross.
The home, which was constructed to resemble a castle and later dubbed Cross Castle, was built in 1905 for an estimated cost of $1.4 million, equivalent to about $53.6 million today.
A fire destroyed part of the structure in the mid-20th century, and it fell into ruin. Some believe the ruins then became the site of satanic ritualistic practices.
Local officials razed Cross Castle in 1988, as it was deemed to be an attractive nuisance.
Kelly conceded that satanic symbols were found at the location, and that ‘there’s a lot of people in New Jersey history that got caught up in ritual and ceremony and did weird stuff.’
But she said that in all likelihood the symbols in Cross Castle were simply tagged by ‘kids blowing off steam.’
Still, the symbols became yet another piece of lore that contributed to the overall image of Clinton Road, the supernatural historian said.
Clinton Road is also tied to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s, as satanic symbols were found in the ruins of a nearby estate called Cross Castle (pictured) built in 1905
‘Now you have several generations of people who believed they were Satanists. And so the area has become creepy and scary,’ Kelly told the Daily Mail.
‘Not because of anything that actually happened there, but because of things that people believed happened there.’
But Kelly also said: ‘I think it can be true that something unusual did happen there. People don’t really necessarily know what it was, but stories were built up around it.’
Those stories about Clinton Road continue to capture the imagination of people across the country.
It was officially recognized as America’s ‘Most Haunted Road’ for the third year in a row by the rental car agency SIXT, which determined that more than one million online searches about the road were made over the past year.