We’re back with another edition of Urban Legend: Fact or Fiction. In this chapter, we take a deep dive into one seriously old-school legend, The Hook Hand Killer. So turn off your radio and buckle up for this ride.
The Story
In 1950 a teenage girl named Peggy was getting ready for a date with her steady boyfriend, Bobby. As she was getting all dolled up, a rather disturbing news flash came on the radio. Apparently, a mass murderer had escaped from the local mental hospital. Residents were being urged to stay inside and keep an eye out for a man whose right hand had been replaced by a metal hook. If spotted they were told to call the police immediately, he was considered armed and extremely dangerous.
While the broadcast caused Peggy some distress. It wasn’t enough to stop her from meeting up with Bobby and another couple for a drive-in movie. All four teens decided that being in a crowded area would keep them safe. Not to mention bad things hardly ever happen in a small town like theirs. After the movie, Bobby dropped the other couple off at their respective homes, so he and Peggy could head off to Lover’s Lane. Once they got to the secluded makeout spot they put some romantic music on and began to do what teenagers do.
That was until another bulletin came on the radio about the hook-handed maniac. Peggy was starting to get really creeped out, but Bobby kept reassuring her that they would be fine. As soon as she relented and went back to their makeout session she felt a thud on her door. A noise that launched her into absolute hysterics as she pleaded with Bobby to take her home. Frustrated with both her outburst, and the fact he clearly wasn’t getting laid tonight Bobby relented and tore off to drive her home.
The car ride was filled with a stony silence between the young couple, who were both fuming. Once Bobby pulled up to Peggy’s house he made it clear he would not be opening the door for her, as a childish punishment for her behavior. She figured two could play this game and she silently got out of the car. As she turned to slam the door with her full force she instead stopped and turned white before passing out. Bobby immediately jumped out to help her. That’s when he saw it, a blood-soaked hook stuck in the car’s door handle.
History
While this legend started sometime around 1950, the first known publication occurred November 8, 1960, when the tale was reprinted in the “Dear Abby” advice column. It read:
Dear Abby: If you are interested in teenagers, you will print this story. 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 music was interrupted by an announcer who said there was an escaped convict in the area who had served time for rape and robbery. He was described as having a hook instead of a right hand. The couple become frightened and drove away. When the boy took his girl home, he went around to open the car door for her. Then he saw—a hook on the door handle! I will never park to make out as long as I live. I hope this does the same for other kids.
—Jeanette
[1,3]
But by 1960, this urban legend, and its variants, were already well-worn and starting to work their way away from the campfire, and into pop culture.
Variants
Like most urban legends, this one has plenty of different versions. In one the couple are driving down a dark country road to the movie when they hear the thud. They decide not to risk stopping, and speed along to their destination. Once they arrive they discover the bloody mess on the passenger side door. While the version we told above requires some suspension of disbelief, like the well-timed warnings on the radio, or the mass murderer trying to open a door with a hook. This one is less told because it’s even harder to buy. Considering the couple’s would-be attacker would have to be able to keep up with a car on the road, by running through the woods at night.
Another variant of this version is slightly more believable because it has the couple unexpectedly stop. Either because they ran out of gas, got a flat tire, or because the man has to relieve himself and wanders off for privacy. Whatever the reason, his girlfriend is left alone in the car where she hears the warning about the escaped killer on the radio, often for the first time, unlike the version above. After waiting for a while she begins to hear a thump on the roof. After some time she works up the nerve to investigate the sound. When she gets out of the car she is met with the grizzly sight of the hook-handed man sitting on the roof, banging her boyfriend’s severed head against it.
This version has even spun off further to have her significant other’s dead body being suspended by a rope above the car. The thudding is either his blood dripping or his hands/feet scratching the roof. This particular telling abandons the hook all together but is clearly still based heavily on this legend. The film “Urban Legend” used this version with the added twist of the woman’s date still being alive while suspended by the neck above the roof, by a rope attached to the car. Her driving off in anger at him being gone for so long is what tightens the noose enough to end his life.
The basic elements of this tale remain roughly the same though, a young couple goes to a secluded area and is menaced by some kind of escaped killer the radio warned them about. Aside from the aforementioned exception they always have a hook for a hand.
Swedish folklorist Bengt af Klintberg explains that this story is an example of “a conflict between representatives of normal people who follow the rules of society and those who are not normal, who deviate and threaten the normal group.” [2] Clearly, the hook hand killer is the deviant here, in most iterations of this legend, the couple is also engaging in “deviant” behavior. While it should come as a shock to no one that teens often engage in physical displays of affection, up to and including pre-marital sex. This tale is normally used as a warning against such a thing.
Folklorist Bill Ellis interprets the killer as a moral custodian who interrupts the sexual exploits of the young couple. Believing that the hand being replaced by a hook represents “his own lack of sexuality” and “the threat of the Hookman is not the normal sex drive of teenagers, but the abnormal drive of some adults to keep them apart.” [2] This would also explain why he would be hanging out at Lover’s Lane, where that kind of behavior from teens is expected.
Alan Dundes takes this idea a step further with a more Freudian interpretation, where the hook is a phallic symbol, and its amputation is a symbolic castration. [1] This is why the boyfriend being so aggressive about them staying, then speeding off is an important detail. Without his outburst and angry driving, since he is also mad about being denied sex, the hook wouldn’t have been ripped from the killer’s arm. Talk about cautious interruptus.
The girlfriend denying him sex due to her fears about the escaped man can also be seen as her being afraid of the possible consequences of sex itself. Had she not stuck to her guns on saying “no” the couple would have undoubtedly been killed. Reinforcing the gender stereotypes that men are only after one thing and ladies need to apply the breaks. Even if the boyfriend gets mad, eventually he will be grateful that she insisted on not going all the way/leaving. The hook in this case becomes a bit of an “I told you so” when it comes to danger.
Pop Culture
This is another instance where the tale is so steeped in pop culture that a comprehensive list is impossible. But here are some noteworthy examples of the tale of the hook hand killer in the media:
- 1947 “Dick Tracy’s Dilemma”- while this is debatable given the year it was released, it has Dick Tracy pursuing a killer with a hook for a hand.
- 1972 “Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!” – this novel by M.E. Kerr tells the version of this story where the sexual frustration is removed.
- 1976 and 2014 “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” – this horror film and its remake tell the story of a string of murders at Lover’s Lane. These films being included will be explained in-depth below.
- 1979 “Meatballs” – Bill Murray tells the legend to campers around a fire.
- 1980 “He Knows You’re Alone” – opens on a film within a film scene, where a young couple is attacked by a killer while they are in a parked car.
- 1981 “Final Exam” – also opens with a scene where a couple is attacked in a parked car. Later on in the film, a student is murdered in a locker room with a hook.
- 1981 “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” – author Alvin Schwartz includes a version of this story in his children’s horror anthology series.
- 1986 “Night of The Creeps” – has a black and white scene that takes place in the 1950s where a couple is killed while parked on Lover’s Lane.
- 1986 “Designing Women” – the “The Slumber Party” episode references this urban legend.
- 1987 “Adventures in Babysitting” – has a scene where a group of teens/kids’ car breaks down with a flat tire. They are approached and clearly afraid of a man who stops to help and has a hook for a hand. This is one of the few iterations where the hook-handed man was harmless.
- 1992 and 2021 “Candyman” – both the original film and its remake feature a killer with a hook for a hand.
- 1997 “Campfire Tales” – this anthology horror film tells the tale in the opening story.
- 1997 “I Know What You Did Last Summer” – is probably one of the best-known versions of this story in pop culture. Not only does the killer stalking teens in a sleepy seaside town have a hook for a hand. The legend is also told at the beginning of the film around a campfire.
- 1998 “Urban Legend”
- 1998 “Millennium” – the 14th episode of season 2 titled, “The Pest House” opens with a murder similar to the urban legend.
- 1999 “Lovers Lane” – a slasher film where the killer murders teenagers at a lovers’ lane with a hook.
- 2002 “SpongeBob SquarePants” – the 16th episode of season 2 titled, “Graveyard Shift/Krusty Love,” tells the story of the “hash-slinging slasher.” An obvious parody of the story with the killer’s hand being replaced by a spatula instead of a hook.
- 2005 “Supernatural” – the 7th episode of season 1 titled, “Hook Man” revolves around a version of this story.
- 2007 “Shrek the Halls” – a character tells his girlfriend the urban legend.
- 2011 “Community” – the 5th episode of season 3 titled, “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps” heavily references this and other urban legends. Even mocking the conveniently timed warning on the radio.
The hook hand killer also became a bit of a meme when a 4chan user told a version of the tale in broken English. With the conclusion reading “man door hand hook car door.” Many classic urban legends have been given this kind of comical rewriting.
Is it Real?
Many scholars have come to believe the legend of the hook hand killer is loosely based on a string of infamous murder cases that took place in Texarkana in 1946. Often referred to as the Moonlight Murders, it was a spree of four unsolved murders taking place in the late winter and spring. A serial killer known as the Phantom of Texarkana, Phantom Killer, or Phantom Slayer attacked eight people over a period of ten weeks. Unfortunately, five of their victims did pass away. The Phantom Slayer targeted male-female pairs in remote locations. The first three attacks took place on Lover’s Lane or similarly desolate roads.
But in these cases, the killer used a .32 and .22 caliber gun, not a hook. These crimes became the basis for the 1976 horror film “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” and its 2011 remake. Though, in those films, teens are killed on Lover’s Lane in several bizarre ways.
So this legend is (kind of):
Print Sources Used:
1. Brunvand, J. H. (1989). In The vanishing hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings (pp. 50–51). essay, W.W. Norton &; Company.
2. Brunvand, J. H. (2012). In Encyclopedia of Urban Legends (pp. 199–201). essay, ABC-CLIO.
3. W. W. Norton & Company. (2014). In Too Good to be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends (pp. 94–95). essay.
