The Hook: The Truth Behind the Urban Legend

[00:00:00] You see you guys, it's raining. Yeah, it's raining. It's cold.

[00:00:03] Michelle is wearing a blanket right now. Yeah, it's very cold.

[00:00:10] I mean, I've been recording in the nude this whole time.

[00:00:15] Welcome to Scary Mystery Surprise, where we talk about scary things that surprised us around the

[00:00:21] internet. I'm Edwin and I'm Michelle.

[00:00:28] It's the 1950s.

[00:00:34] You are a teenage girl on a date with your steady boyfriend, the high school quarterback,

[00:00:42] Dwight Shrew. Nice.

[00:00:45] First you went and got milkshakes slash beat shakes at the burger stand.

[00:00:50] Oh Dwight.

[00:00:53] Now it's off to Lake Drive, a well-known teenage lover's lane.

[00:01:02] You park in a secluded spot. There's no one around.

[00:01:08] Makeout music is lowly playing on the radio. Hormones are raging.

[00:01:14] All of a sudden the music is interrupted by a breaking news bulletin.

[00:01:21] Be on the lookout for a serial killer with a hook for our head.

[00:01:24] He's just escaped the institution nearby.

[00:01:29] Then the music starts up again, but the news has kind of killed the mood.

[00:01:33] Always does.

[00:01:35] And you both decide it's time to call it a night.

[00:01:38] Dwight goes to start the engine.

[00:01:41] It whirs and then it dies.

[00:01:44] Out of gas. God damn it Dwight.

[00:01:49] You're both stuck out there in the dark.

[00:01:54] Now Edwin, choose your story ending. Pick a number between one and six.

[00:02:00] Do you live? Do you die? It all depends on what you choose.

[00:02:04] Because this is the story of the hook.

[00:02:09] And there's several outcomes because there's several different versions of this story.

[00:02:17] So what will you choose Edwin? Okay, um number four.

[00:02:24] Number four. Oh. Do I live? Okay so number four. Dwight leaves for help.

[00:02:32] He saw a gas station a mile or two down from the road.

[00:02:35] He leaves you with the car. This sounds safer than going with him.

[00:02:39] He makes it to the gas station and comes back with a tow truck.

[00:02:42] There he finds you murdered with a hook embedded in your chest.

[00:02:52] Do you want to pick again? Yes, number two.

[00:02:55] Number two. Okay Dwight leaves for help.

[00:02:58] He saw a gas station a mile or two down the road.

[00:03:01] While waiting for him to return, you turn on the radio and hear the report again

[00:03:05] about the escaped serial killer slash mental patient.

[00:03:10] You are then disturbed by a thumping on the roof of the car.

[00:03:16] You eventually can't stand it anymore and you're just like what is that?

[00:03:22] So you get out of the car. Oh no I knew I was gonna do that.

[00:03:26] I know it was dumb and on the roof of the car you see the escaped mental patient

[00:03:33] sitting on the roof banging Dwight's severed head.

[00:03:40] So the escaped mental patient with a hook for a hand is such a standard

[00:03:46] urban legend. Yeah. There's so many different because you know like sometimes the girl lives,

[00:03:50] sometimes she dies, sometimes the boyfriend. Like there's so many different versions which

[00:03:55] I love and one of my favorites. Well there's two that I really like.

[00:03:59] So here pick again pick another one. Three. Okay Dwight leaves for help.

[00:04:05] He saw a gas station a mile or two down the road.

[00:04:08] While waiting for him to return, you turn on the radio and you hear

[00:04:12] about the escaped mental patient again. You are then disturbed by scratching on the roof of

[00:04:19] your car and well you just can't take it anymore after a while.

[00:04:25] And when you get out of the car there's Dwight's butchered body suspended upside down from a tree

[00:04:32] with his fingernails scraping against the roof. You panic and you run into the maniac and are also killed.

[00:04:39] Oh no. To get that length of rope for Dwight to be able to scratch the roof.

[00:04:52] Well and also to tang the body upside down while you're in the car and not notice like.

[00:04:57] You would have to be on the tree and drop them.

[00:05:01] And like blowing up which I love and you have a hook for a hand so like also you're like.

[00:05:10] There's a lot that goes into it. One of my favorites is Dwight leaves for help.

[00:05:17] He goes to the gas station. You're listening to the radio again.

[00:05:21] Suddenly there starts to be rhythmic tapping on the car roof like rain.

[00:05:25] The doors are locked. There's no way you were going out there until Dwight comes back.

[00:05:30] Good thinking. Yeah I didn't know at this time you were like no no no no.

[00:05:34] At some point you fall asleep to the rhythmic tapping on the roof.

[00:05:38] In the morning your car is discovered by the police.

[00:05:41] Yeah just like whatever Dwight never came back but the police are here now.

[00:05:46] They escort you over to one of their squad cars but they insist that you not turn around

[00:05:51] and look back. So you turn around. But yeah of course curiosity gets the better of you though.

[00:05:58] What had been that tapping on the car that had kept you company all night?

[00:06:01] It hadn't rained. There is Dwight's butchered body suspended upside down from a tree with blood

[00:06:08] from his slit throat dripping against the car roof. It had been dripping there all night.

[00:06:16] Okay that one's creepy plus when you said the rhythmic tapping I was like

[00:06:21] maybe she did that too you know 80 HD kicked in and she just started making a sick beat.

[00:06:28] She's bobbing her head.

[00:06:32] Although you know that one's one of my favorites but this one got me. This is number six which

[00:06:37] Edwin didn't pick but I'm picking for him. Dwight decides to head off on foot to find

[00:06:42] someone to help with the car while you stay behind. You fall asleep while waiting then all

[00:06:48] of a sudden you hear a tap on the glass. This wakes you. You see a hideous person looking at

[00:06:54] you through the window. Luckily the car is locked so this person can't get inside but to your horror

[00:07:01] the person raises one of their arms to reveal Dwight's decapitated head resting on a hook.

[00:07:09] In the other hand the car keys jingle jingle jingle.

[00:07:15] The hook is a delicious urban legend and the origins of the hook are not entirely known but the

[00:07:21] story began to circulate in the 1950s and the first stone publication of the story was in

[00:07:26] November 8 1960 when a reader when a reader letter telling the story was reprinted in Dear

[00:07:33] Abbey which is a popular advice column. Obviously Dear Abbey is just the name of it.

[00:07:39] But here's what was the first time this was ever in print. Dear Abbey, if you're interested in

[00:07:50] teenagers you will print this story. I don't know whether it's true or not but it doesn't matter

[00:07:56] because it served its purpose for me. A fellow and his date pulled into their favorite lover's lane

[00:08:02] to listen to the radio and do a little necking. The music was interrupted by an announcer who

[00:08:07] said there was an escaped convict in the area who'd served time for rape and robbery. He was

[00:08:12] described as having a hook instead of a right hand. The couple became frightened and drove away.

[00:08:18] When the boy took his girl home he went around to open the door for her then he saw a hook

[00:08:24] on the handle of the door. I will never park to make out as long as I live. I hope this

[00:08:31] does the same for other kids. Jeanette, I think that's a pretty common one. It's like that where

[00:08:37] like the hook is embedded in the side of the car or sometimes the killer is riding on the roof of

[00:08:42] the car which is a little weird. Yeah he's like on there and they like drive away and he falls

[00:08:49] off you know they get away. You know there's a bunch of different versions of it which I think

[00:08:53] is hilarious. There's so many different versions to try and keep horny teenagers from necking quote

[00:09:01] unquote because obviously this is like a moral tale. It's everyone's premarital sex warning like

[00:09:09] don't there's gonna be a murderer if you go and you sleep with someone if you have sex in your

[00:09:14] car what if it was actually started by the auto industry? I was thinking of the abstinence

[00:09:20] coalition or something like. Oh it's definitely that. There's definitely the moral brigade that's

[00:09:25] trying to control people especially teenagers. Well if it sounded effective I would have been

[00:09:30] creeped out. Yeah it would make you go to a lover's lane where there's a bunch of people which is

[00:09:35] weird too. It's also weird when there's a bunch of cars that are steamy yeah or do you

[00:09:44] but you know once those car windows get steamy no one can see in so

[00:09:47] you know it all works out. But I like this interpretation that this American folklorist

[00:09:52] Bill Ellis he interprets the maniac in the hook as a moral custodian who interrupts sexual experimentation

[00:10:00] of a young couple. He sees the hook man's disability as his own lack of sexuality and

[00:10:06] then the threat of the hook man is not the normal sex drive of teenagers but the abnormal

[00:10:12] drive of adults trying to keep them apart which I kind of like that. I like that like twist.

[00:10:19] But this begs the question of the story started circulating in the 50s where did it come from

[00:10:25] is there any truth to it? And so Snopes writer David Mickelson has speculated that the legend

[00:10:32] might have roots in the real life lover's lane murder that took place in 1946 which has become

[00:10:39] known as the Texarkana Moonlight Murders. In 1946 in the town of Texarkana which sits nestled between

[00:10:52] Texas and Arkansas which I just I don't know why it's funny when you look at the word Arkansas it

[00:10:58] looks like Arkansas so like it's not that it's Arkansas. I used to say like that all the time

[00:11:05] until somebody corrected me. Our Kansas also used to say accessories like accessories. Tarot,

[00:11:12] don't forget tarot. Embarrassing. Anyway a young couple were enjoying their night. They had just

[00:11:19] been to watch a movie together and they had just taken a drive to what was locally known as a

[00:11:23] lover's lane where they were sitting in the car enjoying each other's company. Jimmy Hollis

[00:11:31] was sitting in the driver's seat. It was dark out but the lane was only a couple hundred yards from

[00:11:36] the last row of houses so it wasn't too secluded for him to be like nervous as the night went on.

[00:11:44] But at 11 45 p.m there was a tap on the driver's side window and he was blinded for a moment by

[00:11:50] a flashlight outside of the car a man wearing what looked like a pillowcase with two round

[00:11:58] holes cut out in the eyes and another around the mouth. Jimmy not afraid was sure it was just a prank

[00:12:05] you know with all the 1940s bravado and sweetness of like how could this be anything else other than

[00:12:11] a prank but then the guy pulled a gun and it was clear that this was not a prank. The man ordered

[00:12:18] Jimmy and his girlfriend Mary Jean Larry out of the car. Mary Jean was only 19 at the time so

[00:12:24] that's pretty fucking scary. Then the man ordered Jimmy to quote take off his goddamn bridges which

[00:12:31] is his pants which Jimmy did then the man whipped his gun and hit Jimmy twice in the head.

[00:12:38] The sound of him hitting Jimmy was so loud that Mary Jean thought Jimmy had been shot

[00:12:44] but it was actually the sound of Jimmy's skull fracturing. So when Jimmy hit the ground

[00:12:51] she kicked into overdrive and was like trying to do anything to not get them both killed.

[00:12:56] So she reached for Jimmy's wallet grabbed the wallet and showed the man that they didn't have

[00:13:00] any money. We'll just leave us alone we don't have any money but the man hit her and she went

[00:13:06] down but then he ordered her to stand up and start running so Mary Jean tried to make it to

[00:13:14] a nearby ditch but he shouted at her and she started running down the road. She didn't know

[00:13:19] what else to do until she saw a parked car and she started racing towards it thinking it would be

[00:13:26] someone she could ask for help but she got there and no one was in that car

[00:13:30] and that was when the man caught up to her and he hit her in the head. Speculation that there

[00:13:35] might have been like a sexual assault as well but she was able to get free from him and then

[00:13:41] she got up and ran to the row of houses which were now 800 yards away because she'd run

[00:13:46] in the opposite direction before but she got to a house banged on the door woke up the people inside

[00:13:53] and they called the police. The police showed up about a half an hour later and the guy in the

[00:13:58] wearing the pillowcase was gone. Jimmy and Mary Jean were both taken to the hospital

[00:14:03] and gave their statements. They both could agree the man was about six foot tall

[00:14:08] but they couldn't agree on his appearance. Mary Jean during her assault said that

[00:14:15] she'd seen under the pillowcase and that it was like a light-skinned African American but Jimmy

[00:14:21] said that it had been a white tan pillowcase. Yeah, a white tan pillowcase. No, a white tan man in

[00:14:30] his 30s and so with the differing statements the police started to doubt Mary Jean's description

[00:14:35] of the perpetrator because of course and actually began pressuring Mary Jean and Jimmy for

[00:14:42] more information thinking they'd known the identity of the man keeping it from the police.

[00:14:47] Why would you make that up? Like that's terrifying but then the pillowcase guy struck again. Oh no.

[00:14:55] And on the 24th of March 1946 just a month after the first attack the bodies of Richard

[00:15:01] Griffith who was 29 and his girlfriend of just six weeks a 17 year old there's a lot of problems

[00:15:08] here. A 17 year old named Polly Ann Moore were found dead in Richard's car. They were spotted on

[00:15:14] another lover's lane and they were lying inside the car and the motorists at first that discovered

[00:15:20] them thought they were asleep but they'd both been shot in the back of the head. But it was clear

[00:15:26] that they had been attacked outside of the car first and then put back in the car. And then

[00:15:32] only a few weeks later on April 14th the bodies of Betty Jo Butcher was only 15 Paul Martin was

[00:15:38] only 17 and their bodies were discovered. They found Paul's body at about six in the morning and then

[00:15:46] they found Betty Jo's body about three and a half miles away from Paul's under a tree both

[00:15:54] have been shot by the same caliber of gun and in the second attack the police were very

[00:15:58] clear that they had put up a fight like it had been an obvious like they'd fought their attacker.

[00:16:04] And then the third and final attack attributed to this person I don't know this one's like a little

[00:16:09] off kilter like it doesn't seem like it's the same but they say it's the same person.

[00:16:15] It happened 10 miles away from Texarkana where it said that the same attack was committed by

[00:16:21] the same perpetrator it's very different because it took place in a house this guy named

[00:16:26] Virgil Starks was sitting at home reading the newspaper and was shot twice in the back of the

[00:16:30] head through the window. His wife Katie came to see what was wrong she saw that Virgil

[00:16:37] was slumped down realized he was dead she went to phone the cops and she was shot in the face

[00:16:43] but she lived she was able to get to a neighbor's house and call the police

[00:16:47] and was like getting surgery on her face at the hospital and giving her statement to the police

[00:16:53] at the same time so which is crazy. Anyway at this point Texarkana is in in a state of panic

[00:17:02] shops had run out of guns ammunition people were afraid to go out after dark some people especially

[00:17:09] teenagers started setting up traps to try and catch the Phantom Killer but these teenagers

[00:17:16] weren't the only ones setting up traps hoping to catch the Phantom Killer

[00:17:19] some policemen were using teenagers themselves asking them to park cars and wait to see if

[00:17:25] the killer would approach them while police hid nearby. Some policemen actually would wait in

[00:17:31] their cars themselves with their wives or girlfriends or sometimes just a mannequin.

[00:17:38] That's sad it's like the single police officer is like oh but all of this just ended up with

[00:17:44] more chaos because like approaching people's houses the police would have to turn on their sirens

[00:17:49] and wait in people's driveways to avoid getting shot themselves visual anti-teenagers

[00:17:54] shot at patrol. Just shoot anybody. Yeah this teenager shot an Arkansas state trooper when he

[00:17:59] approached the car another time the police had to shoot out the tires of a car that had been

[00:18:04] following a bus because people thought it was suspicious but it turned out to be a high school

[00:18:10] student who had just been tailing the bus because he saw someone suspicious get out of a

[00:18:15] private car and get on the bus. I mean and also teenagers taking this into their own hands is

[00:18:23] pretty bad. I can imagine that though it's like hey let's go catch them and then it's like a

[00:18:26] cold hangout activity. Yeah it's definitely like oh we're gonna go drive around and look for the

[00:18:32] killer you could just like picture them in their 1940s cars driving around cruising around looking

[00:18:38] for this killer in a pillowcase which is a terrifying image. Yeah wow. But with all the panic

[00:18:47] all over town the investigators' efforts to find what became known as the Phantom Killer

[00:18:52] remained just that a phantom. Spoiler alert they never arrested anybody for this. Wow. But

[00:18:59] some investigators believe it was a local car thief named Yule Sweeney who was arrested for

[00:19:05] car theft or something like that but in July of that year Yule's wife admitted that he was the

[00:19:12] Phantom Killer and was able to give in great detail stories about the murder but then her

[00:19:19] story kept changing and she eventually recanted. But the police were actually able to verify

[00:19:24] some of her details but they didn't have enough to prosecute him but he went to jail

[00:19:30] for car theft and counterfeiting and other crimes but many believe that his wife recanting

[00:19:36] was because she was afraid of him. It is widely presumed now that he was in stories about the

[00:19:44] case but to this day the case remains unsolved which creates the perfect start to an epic

[00:19:52] urban legend. It makes sense it happened a little bit before enough like enough time for it to

[00:19:59] really get the gossip train going and to really like change it you know like just enough to change

[00:20:05] it. It's also inspired a film called The Town That Dreaded Sundown which came out in 1976 which

[00:20:11] sounds kind of good and I'd like to see it. The film actually might have become the basis for a

[00:20:17] lot of the subsequent myths and folklore around the murders later but yeah it's pretty crazy

[00:20:22] What if it was a woman? What if it was the wife?

[00:20:25] It might have been the wife. Depending on your size she could have been a big woman we don't know

[00:20:31] but taking on a couple is tough that would be tough alone as a woman but assassinating people

[00:20:38] through a window maybe that's the one where I'm just like how did they attribute this

[00:20:44] to this? I don't understand. This is a terrible way to die like you're watching TV

[00:20:48] and then I understand why there might be some controversy about that one in particular because

[00:20:54] it's like it really doesn't seem related at all but maybe I'm not an investigator.

[00:21:01] Because I like urban legends and I think it's a cool thing to like try to find the source of them

[00:21:05] and this one makes sense this is like oh it's around that time period.

[00:21:09] Yup. Lovers lane hey don't go do that something's gonna happen then all the craze

[00:21:14] kind of dies down and then it's like hmm you know I heard this story about this thing that happened

[00:21:20] and then you add the hook. You literally add the hook. Yeah you add the hook to the story yeah

[00:21:25] it just makes the story a lot better. And you were hooked so. I stayed to the end it works

[00:21:30] so did you guys so it worked. Anyway what are we gonna talk about next week Edwin? I don't

[00:21:36] know I think it'll be a surprise. Scary mystery surprises hosted by Michelle Newman and

[00:21:44] Edwin Cobarubias. This podcast was edited and sound designed by Sarah Voorhees Wendell of VW Sound.