![]() Literary scholar Christopher Pittard traces the plot dynamics of the legend to Victorian literature, particularly the 1913 horror novel The Lodger by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes. I hope this does the same for other kids. Then he saw-a hook on the door handle! I will never park to make out as long as I live. When the boy took his girl home, he went around to open the car door for her. The couple become frightened and drove away. He was described as having a hook instead of a right hand. The music was interrupted by an announcer who said there was an escaped convict in the area who had served time for rape and robbery. I don't know whether it's true or not, but it doesn't matter because it served its purpose for me: A fellow and his date pulled into their favorite "lovers lane" to listen to the radio and do a little necking. The first known publication of the story occurred on November 8, 1960, when a reader letter telling the story was reprinted in Dear Abby, a popular advice column:ĭear Abby: If you are interested in teenagers, you will print this story. Snopes writer David Mikkelson has speculated that the legend might have roots in real-life lovers' lane murders, such as the 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders. According to Brunvand in The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, the story had become widespread amongst American teenagers by 1959, and continued to expand into the 1960s. The origins of the Hook legend are not entirely known, though, according to folklorist and historian Jan Harold Brunvand, the story began to circulate some time in the 1950s in the United States. But to the woman's horror, the person raises both of his arms to reveal that they are holding her date's severed head in one hand and the car keys in the other. Luckily, the car is locked, so the person can't get inside. She then falls asleep while waiting and wakes up to see a hideous person looking at her through the window. The man then decides to head off on foot to find someone to help with the problem while the woman stays behind in the car. When she does so, she sees the grisly aftermath of the man's murder.Ī similar legend recounts that a young couple are heading back from a great date when their car breaks down (either from running out of fuel or a malfunction). While being escorted to safety, she is warned not to look behind her. In another variation of the story, the woman is discovered by police. As she starts to panic, she runs into the maniac and is also killed. Other tales have the woman leaving the car when her date doesn't come back, only to see his mutilated body (either on the car's roof, nailed on a tree, or just a few short stops away). In other versions, the man does return to the car only to see his date brutally murdered with a hook embedded in her. ![]() ![]() In another version of this variation, he's hanging right side up and either his blood is dripping on the roof or his feet are scraping against the roof. Another variation has the woman seeing the man's butchered body suspended upside down from a tree with his fingernails scraping against the roof. She eventually exits and sees the escaped patient sitting on the roof, banging the man's severed head on it. She is then disturbed many times by a thumping on the roof of the car. While waiting for him to return, the woman turns on the radio and hears the report of an escaped mental patient. In an alternate version, the couple drive through an unknown part of the country late at night and stop in the middle of the woods, because either the man has to urinate, or the car breaks down and the man leaves for help. Thinking that his date just imagined it, the man returns to the car only to see that the woman has been brutally murdered with a hook. The man leaves to confront the figure, who then suddenly disappears. In another version, the woman sees a shadowy figure watching the couple from nearby. Some versions start the same way, but have the couple spotting the killer, warning others, and then narrowly escaping with the killer holding onto the car's roof. Different variations include a scraping sound on the car door. In the end, the killer's hook is either found hanging from the door handle or embedded into the door itself. For varying reasons, they decide to leave quickly. Suddenly, a news bulletin reports that a serial killer has just escaped from a nearby institution. The basic premise involves a young couple cuddling in a car with the radio playing.
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