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Vanishing hitchhiker

For the film, seeThe Vanishing Hitchhiker (film).

Thevanishing hitchhiker(or variations such as theghostly hitchhiker,disappearing hitchhiker,phantom hitchhiker) is anurban legendin which people travelling by vehicle, meet with or are accompanied by ahitchhikerwho subsequently vanishes without explanation, often from a moving vehicle.[1]

Public knowledge of the story expanded greatly with the 1981 publication ofJan Harold Brunvand's non-fiction bookThe Vanishing Hitchhiker.[2][3]In his book, Brunvand suggests that the story ofThe Vanishing Hitchhikercan be traced as far back as the 1870s. "[4]Similar stories have been reported for centuries across the world in places like England, Ethiopia, Korea, France, South Africa, Tsarist Russia and in America among Chinese Americans, Mormons and Ozark mountaineers.[5]

What was probably thefirst vanishing hitchhikerlegend can be found in the 400-year-old manuscriptOm the tekn och widunder som föregingo thet liturgiske owäsendet,which translates approximately as "About the signs and wonders that preceded the liturgical event".The author was Joen Petri Klint, apriestindiocese of Linköping,Sweden,and diligent collector ofomens.

Variations

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A common variation of the above involves the vanishinghitchhikerdeparting as would a normal passenger, having left some item in thevehicle,or having borrowed a garment for protection against the cold.[6]The vanishing hitchhiker may also leave some form of information that encourages themotoristto make subsequent contact.

In such accounts of the legend, the garment borrowed is often found draped over agravestonein a localcemetery.[6]In this and other versions of theurban legend,the unsuspecting motorist makes contact with the family of adeceasedperson using the information the hitchhiker left behind and finds that the family's description of the deceased matches the passenger the motorist picked up and also finds that they were killed in some unexpected way (usually acar accident) and that the driver's encounter with the vanishing hitchhiker occurred on the anniversary of their death.

Other variations reverse this scenario, in that the hitchhiker meets a driver; the hitchhiker later learns that the driver is actually anapparitionof a person who died earlier.[6]The song "Phantom 309"is an example.

Not all vanishing hitchhiker legends involveghosts.One popular variant inHawaiiinvolves the goddessPele,travelling the roads incognito and rewarding kind travellers; other variants include hitchhikers who utterprophecies(typically of pendingcatastrophesor other evil events) before vanishing.

There is a similar story which is about two travellers sitting next to each other on atrain(normally a man and a woman). One of them is reading a book and the other person asks what the book is about, and the first person says that it's aboutghosts.They then have a conversation about ghosts, and the second person asks the first if the latter believes in ghosts or has ever seen one, to which the first person claims never to have seen or believed in ghosts at all. The second person replies that this is doubtful, and vanishes. This was the version used in theScary Stories to Tell in the Darkbook series.

Classifications

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Beardsley and Hankey

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The first proper study of the story of the vanishing hitchhiker was undertaken in 1942–43 byAmericanfolkloristsRichard Beardsley and Rosalie Hankey, who collected as many accounts as they could and attempted to analyze them.[7][8]

The Beardsley-Hankey survey elicited 79 written accounts of encounters with vanishing hitchhikers, drawn from across the United States.[7][8]They found: "Four distinctly different versions, distinguishable because of obvious differences in development and essence." These are described as:

  • A.Stories where the hitchhiker gives an address through which the motorist learns he has just given a lift to a ghost.
    • 49 of the Beardsley-Hankey samples fell into this category, with responses from 16 states of the United States.
  • B.Stories where the hitchhiker is an old woman who prophesies disaster or the end of World War II; subsequent inquiries likewise reveal her to be deceased.
    • Nine of the samples fit this description, and eight of these came from the vicinity ofChicago.Beardsley and Hankey felt that this indicated a local origin, which they dated to approximately 1933: two of the version B hitchhikers in this sample foretold disaster at theCentury of ProgressExposition and another foresaw calamity "at theWorld's Fair".The strict topicality of these unsuccessful forecasts did not appear to thwart the appearance of further Version 'B' hitch-hikers, one of whom warned thatNortherly Island,inLake Michigan,would soon be submerged (this has not yet occurred).
  • C.Stories where a girl is met at some place of entertainment,e.g.,dance, instead of on the road; she leaves some token (often the overcoat she borrowed from the motorist) on her grave by way of corroborating the experience and her identity.
    • The uniformity amongst separate accounts of this variant led Beardsley and Hankey to strongly doubt its folkloric authenticity.
  • D.Stories where the hitchhiker is later identified as a local divinity.

Beardsley and Hankey were particularly interested to note one instance (location:Kingston, New York,1941) in which the vanishing hitchhiker was subsequently identified as the lateMother Cabrini,founder of the local Sacred Heart Orphanage, who wasbeatifiedfor her work. The authors felt that this was a case of Version 'B' glimpsed in transition to Version 'D'.

Beardsley and Hankey concluded that Version 'A' was closest to the original form of the story, containing the essential elements of the legend. Version 'B' and 'D', they believed, were localized variations, while 'C' was supposed to have started life as a separate ghost story which at some stage became conflated with the original vanishing hitchhiker story (Version 'A').

One of their conclusions certainly seems reflected in the continuation of vanishing hitchhiker stories: The hitchhiker is, in the majority of cases, female and the lift-giver male. Beardsley and Hankey's sample contained 47 young female apparitions, 14 old lady apparitions, and 14 more of an indeterminate sort.

Baughman

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Ernest W. Baughman'sType- and Motif-Index of the Folk Tales of England and North America(1966) delineates the basic vanishing hitchhiker as follows:

Ghost of young woman asks for ride in automobile, disappears from closed car without the driver's knowledge, after giving him an address to which she wishes to be taken. The driver asks person at the address about the rider, finds she has been dead for some time. (Often the driver finds that the ghost has made similar attempts to return, usually on the anniversary of death in automobile accident. Often, too, the ghost leaves some item such as a scarf or traveling bag in the car.)[9]

Baughman's classification system grades this basic story as motif E332.3.3.1.

Subcategories include:

  • E332.3.3.1(a) for vanishing hitchhikers who reappear on anniversaries;
  • E332.3.3.1(b) for vanishing hitchhikers who leave items in vehicles, unless the item is in a pool of water in which case it is E332.3.3.1(c);
  • E332.3.3.1(d) is for accounts of sinister old ladies who prophesy disasters;
  • E332.3.3.1(e) contains accounts of phantoms who are apparently sufficiently solid to engage in activities such as eating or drinking during their journey;
  • E332.3.3.1(f) is for phantom parents who want to be taken to the sickbed of their dying son;
  • E332.3.3.1(g) is for hitchhikers simply requesting a lift home;
  • E332.3.3.1(h-j) are a category reserved exclusively for vanishing nuns (a surprisingly common variant), some of whom foretell the future.

Here, the phenomenon blends into religious encounters, with the next and last vanishing hitchhiker classification – E332.3.3.2 – being for encounters with divinities who take to the road as hitchhikers. The legend ofSaint Christopheris considered one of these, and the story ofPhilip the Evangelistbeing transported by God after encountering the Ethiopian on the road (Acts8:26–39) is sometimes similarly interpreted.[10]

The first vanishing hitchhiker legend

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The author was Joen Petri Klint, apriestindiocese of Linköping,Sweden,and diligent collector ofomens.

In February 1602 apriestand twofarmerswere on their way home from theCandelmassmarket inVästergötland.Amaidasked to go along. At aninnthey got off to get a bite to eat, and the maid wanted something to drink, a jug of beer (a common beverage). The first time theinnkeeperfetched beer, the jug was filled withmalt,second timeacorns,and finallyblood.They were then horrified. The maid explained that this year will yield muchgrain;plenty offruiton the trees; butwarandpestilence.Then she disappeared into thinair.

The incident contains all the hallmarks of a "vanishing hitchhiker". It fits well with Beardsley's and Hankey's B and C categories (when the hitchhiker disappeared after making aprediction). The beer's transformations match Baughman's category E332.3.3.1(b), when the maid left behind seed, acorns and blood, and category E332.3.3.1(d) when she predicted the future (however, Klint does not mention whether the prophecy was correct), as well as category E332.3.3.1(e) because she wanted something to drink, and E332.3.3.1(g) because she was on her way home.

Skeptical reception

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Paranormal researcher Michael Goss in his bookThe Evidence for Phantom Hitch-Hikersdiscovered that many reports of vanishing hitchhikers turn out be based onfolkloreandhearsaystories. Goss also examined some cases and attributed them tohallucinationof the experiencer.[11]According to Goss most of the stories are "fabricated, folklore creations retold in new settings."[6]

SkepticJoe Nickell,who investigated two alleged cases, concluded that there is no reliable evidence for vanishing hitchhikers. Historical examples have their origin in folklore tales andurban legends.Modern cases often involve conflicting accounts that may well be the result ofexaggeration,illusionorhoaxing.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^Bennett, Gillian (1998). "The Vanishing Hitchhiker at Fifty-Five".Western Folklore.57(1):1–17.doi:10.2307/1500246.JSTOR1500246.
  2. ^Langlois, Janet L. (July–September 1983). "The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings by Jan Harold Brunvand".The Journal of American Folklore.96(381):356–357.doi:10.2307/540959.JSTOR540959.
  3. ^Ellis, Bill (1994). ""The Hook" Reconsidered: Problems in Classifying and Interpreting Adolescent Horror Legends ".Folklore.105(1–2):61–75.doi:10.1080/0015587x.1994.9715874.JSTOR1260630.
  4. ^Fine, Gary Alan (April 1982). "The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings by Jan Harold Brunvand".Western Folklore.41(2):156–157.doi:10.2307/1499791.JSTOR1499791.
  5. ^Johnson, John William (2007)."The Vanishing Hitchhiker in Africa".Research in African Literatures.38(3):24–33.doi:10.2979/RAL.2007.38.3.24.JSTOR20109494.
  6. ^abcdeNickell, Joe. (2007).Adventures in Paranormal Investigation.University of Kentucky Press. pp. 74–82.ISBN978-0-8131-2467-4
  7. ^abBeardsley, Richard K.; Hankey, Rosalie (October 1942). "The Vanishing Hitchhiker".California Folklore Quarterly.1(4):303–335.doi:10.2307/1495600.JSTOR1495600.
  8. ^abBeardsley, Richard K.; Hankey, Rosalie (January 1943). "A History of the Vanishing Hitchhiker".California Folklore Quarterly.2(1):13–25.doi:10.2307/1495651.JSTOR1495651.
  9. ^Baughman, Ernest W. (1966).Type and Motif-Index of the Folktales of England and North America.Indiana University. p. 148
  10. ^Wechner, Bernd "Hitch-hiking in theBible".Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  11. ^Schmetzke, Angelika (1988). "The Evidence for Phantom Hitch-Hikersby Michael Goss ". Review.Folklore.99(2): 265.doi:10.1080/0015587X.1988.9716449.

Further reading

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  • Bielski, Ursula. (1997).Chicago Haunts: Ghostlore of the Windy City.Chicago: Lake Claremont Press.
  • Brunvand, Jan Harold. (1981).The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings.New York: Norton.ISBN0-393-95169-3
  • Cohen, Daniel. (1966).The Phantom Hitchhiker: and Other Ghost Mysteries.Scholastic.
  • Goss, Michael. (1984).The Evidence for Phantom Hitch-Hikers.Wellingborough, UK: Aquarian Press.ISBN0-85030-376-1
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