Case file · Haunting
The Devil's Tree, Port St. Lucie
Local legend in Port St. Lucie, Florida, says an oak in Oak Hammock Park is cursed because Gerard Schaefer, a deputy sheriff who murdered two teenage girls in 1973, tied his victims to it.
1973 CE · 27.31, -80.35 · status: legend
The account
Stories say ropes hung on the tree vanish and that chainsaws fail when the city tries to cut it down.
The sceptical view
The murders and Schaefer's conviction are documented; the tree's link to them is local hearsay.