An Urban Legend Memory: The Hook

I was quite young when I heard this one for the first time. There was a group of us camping and one of the older gentlemen decided that he needed to tell us a story he claimed was true. He said that not too long ago in the area where we were camping, there had been reports all day about an escape murderer from the state insane asylum. This murderer had been described with having a hook where his right arm once was and they were calling him the Hook Man. Everyone in the area was warned to keep a lookout and when he was spotted to report his whereabouts to the authorities immediately. A teenage boy and his date were parked in the dark and desolate area for a little love making. He turned on the radio for some romantic music when an announcer chimed in to report the warning about the escaped murder and that he was in the area they were parked. The girl became increasingly scared and wanted to leave. The boy felt all macho, locked all the doors telling her that they would be just fine, and tried kissing her again. She became more frightened, arguing with the boy, when the car moved a bit as if someone or something was outside and they heard a scratching sound. Frustrated and a wee bit scared, the boy put the car in gear and flew out of there. When they arrived at the girl’s home, she got out of the car and as she began to shut the door, he heard her scream loudly. He ran around to her side of the car and hanging on the door handle was a bloody hook.

I can’t tell you how scared this story made me. The jerk told us that we were camping in the same area and that they never caught the man. Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep that night and was glad we left for home the next day.

I have many memories of certain Urban Legends, but for some reason this one really scared me. I first heard this story when the Zodiac killer was on a murder spree in California in the late 1960's, so the possibility of the hook man killer was quite real.

--Julie--