Hanged Ghosts are created when a person commits suicide by hanging themselves, or if they are hung to death as punishment for their crimes. The slower and more painful the death – i.e. by slow suffocation rather than a quick snap of the neck – the more likely they will be to become a Hanged Ghost.
Hanged ghosts are said to haunt the area surrounding the place they committed suicide. They are often depicted with long red tongues hanging from their mouths, with a noose around their neck, and their feet daggling loose in the air.
Legend says that if you ever come across a Hanged Ghost, you should never make eye contact with them. For if you do, they will lure you toward them in a mesmerised state and persuade you to hang yourself, too.
In some versions, if a Hanged Ghost successfully persuades a person to hang themselves, their victim becomes a Hanged Ghost, and the original Hanged Ghost goes free.
In other versions, a Hanged Ghost is not bound to any one location and can haunt a person for days on end, slowly persuading them to commit suicide. When they feel the time is right, they will appear to the person in a high place and lower a noose to them.