We’re back with another edition of Urban Legend: Fact or Fiction. With the holidays upon us, we’ll be taking a look at the tale of “The Ankle Slasher.” So stay inside and avoid malls while we dissect this bloody story.
The Story
WARNING! AVOID THE CLOVERDALE MALL!
Monsters are attacking vulnerable women at the mall, and the media is completely ignoring it! Creeps are hiding under women’s cars during the holiday season. They wait until these innocent people come back from shopping, laden down with bags, and SLASH THEIR ANKLES!
Once they fall, these guys take their purse, bags, car, or may do something even worse!
Please be careful this holiday season. Always look under your car as you approach it, travel in pairs, and park in well-lit areas as close to the stores as possible. Please pass this on to every woman you know. IT COULD SAVE A LIFE!!!!!
Themes & Variants
In every iteration of this urban legend, the victim is a woman, and the perpetrator is a male. As the title implies, these men use either a razor or a knife to slash the ankles of their victims after hiding under their cars. A needle or pin shows up every once and again to carry out the attack.
While their gender stays static, the villain’s motives can change. In most versions, it’s either to steal a purse/car, or to sexually assault someone. Some versions specify that the sexual assault happens under the car itself.
Several versions of the Ankle Slasher urban legend can be found as far back as the 1950s. However, in the 1990s, a gang initiation was thrown in as a possible motive, like the previously covered “Lights Out” urban legend.
In these cases, the goal is to make the woman lean over and grab the injury. Once her hand is in view, they attempt to slice a finger off. A variant of this version even makes it a contest; the bigger the body part you slice off, the higher your rank in the gang. These also change the location to a “well-lit gas station” as a rule, adding some “Killer in the Backseat” flair.
All other versions seemingly keep this to malls/shopping centers. Like most legends, its location shifts to whatever mecca of capitalism is nearby to keep the terror in the backyard of the listener. Normally, the lack of local media coverage is blamed on a cover-up by the mall. Sometimes these big, greedy mall managers pay the victims for their silence with $500 gift cards. (And they refuse to close the beaches on the 4th of July weekend due to an active shark.)
Pop Culture
1998 – “Urban Legend” – re-enacts this tale when our killer slices the ankle of Dean Adams before brutally killing him.
2012 – “Maniac” – Frank lurks under a car to slash Jessica’s ankle with a knife, before stabbing her to death.
While there are a lot of great ankle-slashing/hobbling scenes in films, these were the only two we found that had the killer hiding under a car to attack.
Is it Real?
No, as close as this ever got to real was Jesse M. Johnson of Nebraska, who was arrested in 2016 for hiding under cars to look at and touch women’s feet. Still creepy and wildly inappropriate, but a lot less violent and bloody than this tale suggests.
During the Christmas season in 1989, police in Tacoma, Washington, had to set up field stations near the mall. Not because anyone was attacked, but because the panic from this legend was so widespread.
Police in Joliet, Illinois, established a hotline in 1991 just for reports of ankle slashings. Less than a week after its launch, the department received over 600 calls. Unsurprisingly, not a single report was proven to be real.
”I get so ticked off hearing it,” said Sgt. Dan Hoffman of the neighboring town of Aurora. ”It was rampant around town.”
The problem with this urban legend, like the previously discussed “Killer in the Backseat,” is that it’s hard to kill because it’s good advice. Giving your car a thorough check before driving it anywhere is always a good idea. Just because there isn’t a killer in the back seat or under the car, doesn’t mean there can’t be other issues like an obstruction or a flat tire.
There is also always the looming threat of life imitating fiction, and this becoming true, given how easy this crime theoretically is to commit. But for now:
Print Sources Used:
- Brunvand, J. H. (2012). The Slasher Under The Car. In Encyclopedia of Urban Legends (pp. 388-389). essay, ABC-CLIO.
- Brunvand, J. H. (2014). The Slasher Under The Car. In Too Good to be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends (pp. 105-106). essay, W.W. Norton & Company.
