4. North Brother Island, New York, USA

North Brother Island sounds like an inviting place, but this island in the East River of New York has a sad past. After a ship sank, about 1,000 passengers took refuge on the island. It later became a hospital for people with contagious diseases, including Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary. 

Mary was the first recorded patient to have typhoid fever, and she infected 50 other people, three of whom died. Today the island is abandoned, and it has actually become a bird sanctuary. We wonder if Typhoid Mary haunts the island, which is why no one visits it.