“Hurry baaaaack,” the ghost says as you’re escaping the haunted house, almost to safety. “Hurry baaaaaaaaaaack.”

“Be sure to bring your death certificate.”

It’s a chilling warning, especially since it’s coming from Little Leota, the smaller version of Madame Leota. A disembodied head of a spirit medium, she resides in the seance room of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Once you’re off your “doom buggy” ride car and headed toward the exit, certain you’ve seen your last ghost and you’re about to make it out alive, she makes one final appearance, uttering her ghastly message.

But once upon a time, it was more than just a warning: Disneyland issued “real” death certificates to those who escaped the ride.

The existence of the Disneyland death certificate is one of the most hotly contested Disney history topics among online fans. For as many people swearing up and down that they definitely got one personally, there are just as many who are completely positive it’s a rumor and it never happened.

“Don’t ask a Haunted Mansion cast member for a death certificate,” Betsy Malloy wrote for her 2019 TripSavvy Guide to the Haunted Mansion. “You may have seen that so many times online that you think it must be true, but it isn’t — and may have never been.”

But according to Disney, the certificates were once real — and free — souvenirs of the ride, part of the “delightfully chilling” mansion that the Ghost Host narrator describes as having “999 happy haunts.” It’s unclear when they started, and their end date is equally fuzzy. In 2012, a fan posted a photo of herself to MouseWait.com, holding one of the certificates. “Throwback Thursday-receiving my ‘Death Certificate’ at Haunted Mansion last year,” she captioned it. The paper certificate in the photo, ostensibly from 2011, says simply, “I survived the Haunted Mansion,” and has a depiction of the hitchhiking ghosts on it.

The controversy seems to date back to a 2013 Buzzfeed article about the secrets of Disneyland, which told guests they could “ask the host/hostess when you enter the foyer, and if you’re lucky they’ll tell you to come back to the front of the HM after your ride and they’ll have ’em there waiting for you.” But by the time the article was published, Disneyland had already stopped distributing them to guests.

“Ex-CM here,” Redditor TotoNeko posted on the Disneyland Reddit in 2014. “I would like to point out that despite what the internet says, Haunted Mansion DOES NOT (I repeat: DOES NOT. DOES NOT. DOES NOT.) give out death certificates. I am still friends with Mansion CMs who are having a hard time doing their job because Guests are DEMANDING to get a certificate from them that, I repeat, DOES NOT exist. Please spread the word and save the poor Mansion CMs some trouble. Thanks.”

I would like to apologize to the Haunted Mansion cast member I asked about this earlier in the week. I hadn’t read this 9-year-old PSA at that time. As I got off the ride, I did ask him whether they still give out death certificates. “No,” he said. “We don’t do that anymore.”

TotoNeko wasn’t totally right, though. As of 2015, some guests who went on the Happiest Haunts tour — a guided tour that’s an add-on to a regular park ticket that details the spookier tales of Disney — received one as a souvenir. “Honorary death certificate,” it read. “In memory of your dead-fast devotion to the Haunted Mansion, the Ghost Relations Department hereby admits you to your final resting place amongst our Grim Grinning Family of Restless Spirits and Happy Haunts.” It’s signed by Madame Leota and Gracey, the owner of the mansion.

When I took that tour in 2018, I received a key as my souvenir, with a Mickey head made of marigolds (a nod to the Plaza de la Familia and Dia de los Muertos elements of the seasonal celebration). The key had “Ghost Relations 2018” inscribed on it.

But that wasn’t the last time the death certificate would make an appearance. According to PlanDisney, the question-and-answer forum on Disney’s official website, they returned in 2019.

“Back in August, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts raised commemorative merchandise from the graveyard to honor the 50th anniversary of the house,” Disney panelist Rayna wrote. “For some reason unknown to living man, the spirits only resurrected the death certificates at Walt Disney World Resort. Unfortunately, Master Gracey’s Maids and Butlers are doomed at Disneyland Resort.”

So if you’re planning a trip to the Haunted Mansion anytime soon, do be sure to bring your death certificate. Just don’t ask a cast member for one.