Urban Legends

Soap Sally

Soap Sally is a scary urban legend about a creepy old woman who kidnaps runaway children and turns them into Lye Soap.

There's a legend in some regions of Appalachia about Soap Sally. Some people say she is an old woman who wears too much make-up and others say she's an old man trying to pretend he's an old woman.

According to the legend, Soap Sally stalks the area at dusk, looking for children who have run away from home. She grabs them by the hand, in a death-like grip and leads them off. And nobody ever sees them again.

People say she grinds up their bodies and turns the children into soap. There is a special kind of soap called 'Lye Soap' which was made years ago from the fat and bones of animals. Soap Sally uses the fat and bones of children to make her own special brand of soaps. Some even say she made the soap to resemble children's hands.

And when she is done, she sells the soaps to the parents of the missing children. The parents never realize that they were washing themselves with the remains of their own children.

Every time a child would go missing, two or three days later, Soap Sally could be seen, going town from town, carrying a sack full of hand-made soaps, selling it cheap to unsuspecting parents.

In past times, parents would warn their children about Soap Sally, saying, "If you don't come home by dark, Soap Sally will get you," or "Stay away from those woods! Soap Sally will get you..."