Killer in the Backseat

Author: Elizabeth King

This Can of Mystery may have captured your attention due to its terrifying title. The Killer in the Backseat is a very well-known and chilling urban legend. As I was doing research on this tale, I even had my hair stick up on the back of my neck. The tale goes like this: In the Beginning, in 1967, a woman who is driving and she was being followed by a weird car. The mysterious car flashes the high beams, gets super close to her and sometimes even slams the car into her vehicle. This on its own sounds absolutely horrific but it gets worse. She realizes that the driver was trying to warn her that there was a strange man hiding in her back seat! She decides that she just needs to keep on driving as the man behind her kept screaming “Lock your doors and call the cops!”

Thats when she realizes that the man behind her was helping her. Each time the man sat up to get to the woman, the man behind used the high beams to scare the killer in the womans car which causes him to duck down. So, the man who was ramming her car was not the killer and he was trying to warn the lady. Though out the years plenty of variations of the tale as said in this article if you would like to read more. The articles tells another story with the same idea as the original.

I read up on a true story may have been the inspiration for this urban legend and this honestly made the legend more scary. It was based off an incident in 1964 in New York City. A escaped killer hid in a backseat of a car. But, the car ended up belonging to an police officer who ended up killing the man hiding in the backseat. Which just sounds like bad luck on the killers side. The police officer ended up shooting him and that was the end of it. There are obviously some differences between the two stories but they also have the same ideas. I just found it interesting that it is based off of an actual event. The Killer in the Backseat is one of those tales that sounds realistic enough that it gives you a heavy feeling. I quite enjoyed tale about this story and I hope you have as well. Always remember to check your backseat.

Works Cited:

Brunvand, Jan Harold. “TALE OF BACKSEAT KILLER IS SIMILAR TO NEWS STORIES.” Deseret News, 13 Dec.1991.

“History/Origin.” The Killer in the Backseat: An Urban Legend, killerinthebackseat.weebly.com/historyorigin.html.

Laws, Katherine. The Killer in the Backseat, 22 Oct. 2012, canofmystery.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-killer-in-backseat.html.

Maykr, Khan. “The Killer In the Backseat.” Villains Wiki, 2011, villains.fandom.com/wiki/The_Killer_In_the_Backseat.

Schlosser, S.E. “ Urban Legends.” Urban Legends at Americanfolklore.net, 2002, americanfolklore.net/folklore/urban-legends/.

Links for further research:
The Killer in the Backseat
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/backseat.asp
Articles of different places from which the urban legends “The Killer in the Backseat” was founded.

American Folklore
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/urban-legends/
A website that contains all kinds of urban legends and different types of folklore.

5 Ridiculous Origins of Famous Urban Legends
http://www.cracked.com/article_19800_5-ridiculous-origins-famous-urban-legends.html
More Information of the origins of different Urban Legends and American Folklore.

Cry Baby Bridge

Carolyn Padgett

Urban Legends  have been around for many centuries. Most people think that urban legends can only be scary stories, but truth is, urban legends can be anything from funny to sad or just plain weird (S.E. Schlosser). However, the one thing that they have in common is the fact that they all have a little bit of fiction and mystery in them. Since urban legends have been around for so long, each one has different versions somewhere out in the world. It’s hard to tell which stories are true and which stories are not. It’s up to the audience to figure out which version is the most believable. For instance, Cry Baby Bridge.

Cry Baby Bridge is an urban legend that many believe originated in Ohio (Cry Baby Bridge Tour).  Eventually, the legend spread into many different states, and it became complicated to tell which story was actually true. No one even knows where it started at in Ohio because there are nearly 24 different cry baby bridges in Ohio alone (Cry Baby Bridge Tour).  All of the stories that have been created revolve around a mother and her baby. It really leaves you wondering which story is true and which story is not. Going into further research, all that is on the internet is the many different stories that have been created all across the United States.

In Columbus, Georgia, it is said that a farmer and his wife just had their newborn baby (Roberto). The farmer did not want the baby, so he talked to the doctor and asked him to get rid of it (Roberto). The doctor agreed and told the mother that the baby did not make it (Roberto). Later on that day, he took the baby to a nearby bridge and threw it over into the creek where the baby quickly drowned without the mother ever knowing what happened (Roberto). They say that if you go to this bridge, park dead in the center, sprinkle some baby powder around your car, and get on top of it, you will soon hear the baby’s helpless cries (Roberto). When you get off the top of your car, you will see the baby’s footprints in the baby powder (Roberto).
 
There is also another story told in Woodbridge, New Jersey about a farmer and his wife (Abbey). When they had their baby, they loved it very much (Abbey). However, after a while, the farmer grew jealous that the wife paid more attention to the baby than to him (Abbey). One night, after a long night of the baby’s cries, he grabbed it out of its crib, took it to the creek, and threw it over the bridge (Abbey). He then went back and killed the mother (Abbey). Rumor has it that if you go to the bridge, you will hear the baby’s miserable cries, and the mother will push your car off of the bridge (Abbey).
There are many more stories on Cry Baby Bridge. Though, no one will really be able to tell the true legend, it will always live throughout the many stories that have been spread from state to state. There may be some truth in all of the creative mix of stories, but where exactly did it all start?

Works Cited:
Abbey. “Cry Baby Bridge Ghost Story”. Angels and Ghosts, Charles, Louis. N.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 
“Crybaby Bridge Tour”. Dead Ohio. N.p., N.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015. 

Dalemccartney. “Cry Baby Bridge, Egypt Rd.” Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 
Roberto. “Cry Baby Bridge in Columbus Ga”. Read-legends-and-myths.com SBI!, N.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.
 
S.E. Schlosser. “Urban Legends”. Americanfolklore. S.E. Schlosser, 13 Dec. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 
Shane. “Cry Baby Bridge”. Your Ghost Stories. N.p., Mar. 28, 2007. Web. Oct. 8, 2015.
 
Further Research:
Your Ghost Stories
www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?=4058. This source is helpful because it helps see what other stories about Cry Baby Bridge are out there. In this case, it’s about Cry Baby Bridge in Mississippi.
 
About Entertainment
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/tp/top10scariest.html. This site is helpful because it shows 25 other scary urban legends that the viewers may be interest in.
 
Love to Know
http://paranormal.lovetoknow.com/Really_Scary_Urban_Legends. This website is useful for further research on scary urban legends.

Tags: urban legends, scary, crybaby bridge, mystery, mother and baby.