Often, greed is a central theme in malevolent true stories. Greed can drive people to act in extremely malevolent ways, such as embezzling funds from charities or defrauding the elderly out of their life savings. It's a sad reality that these things happen in the real world and they often make for disturbing but true stories.
I'm not sure which specific'malevolent true story' you are referring to. There could be many stories that might be considered malevolent in different ways, like true crime stories involving serial killers or malicious acts within a community.
One of the early malevolent ghost stories might be from ancient Japanese folklore. There are tales of vengeful spirits known as onryō. These ghosts were often created by the wrongdoings against a person in their lifetime. They would return to exact revenge, causing harm to those who had wronged them or even to innocent bystanders. For example, the story of Okiku, a maid who was wronged and became an onryō, haunting those around her.
Another theme could be the blurring of the lines between the living and the dead. In many first malevolent ghost stories, the ghosts can interact with the living world in a way that is both scary and mysterious. They might appear suddenly, or cause strange things to happen around the living. For example, objects moving on their own or strange noises being heard. This shows that the boundary between the two realms is not as clear as we might think, and it adds to the fear factor.
Well, one of the early malevolent ghost stories might be related to the idea of a banshee in Irish folklore. The banshee is a female spirit whose wailing is said to be a sign of impending death in a family. It's a very spooky concept. People believe that if you hear her cry, someone in your family will die soon, and she was often seen as a malevolent presence, bringing fear and dread.
No. Some ghosts might just be lost spirits. They could be there for various reasons and not necessarily mean harm. They could be trying to communicate something rather than causing trouble.