I first stumbled across the 'Slender Man' urban legend round about 2010, when a version of this picture was circulating the Internet. I didn't think much about the image ....
.... A creepy enough image I guess, but explainable with shadows, background trees and foreshortening, photo editing etc.
I actually started researching it at the time, tracking it back to a website called SomethingAwful.com, where using the pseudonym “Victor Surge” (a contributor later identified as Eric Knudsen), posted up two faked photographs, purportedly from the mid-1980s, showing a tall, sinister figure lurking behind groups of children. He attached some vague text suggesting 14 young people and the photographer had gone missing since the photo's were taken, and the tale took off in directions no one could have guessed.
I had some idea of writing a post on it (photo editing was an interest of mine at the time), but lost all the background I had gathered when my laptop crashed for good, and I forgot all about it until 2014, when I compiled most of this post. Even then, I doubt I would have ever recalled my early interest, until the Slender Man again made the world news, when two little girls aged 12, stabbed and attempted to kill another little 12 year old girl, in order to please the 'Slender Man' ....
This was because apparently in the intervening years since my original interest, the image had spawned a myth that had been gathering pace in those dark corners of the web that parents, and indeed adults generally, rarely see. Generated via the code of the playground, the 'Slender Man' has passed into two children's imaginations and nightmares, and rather like the 'Boogie' or 'Bogeyman', of my pre-internet early childhood (who I was assured would come and 'get me', if I didn't do this or that), he had taken a firm grip in their imaginations.
.... indeed so great was their belief in this being, that when they were captured, they were walking near a local highway on their way to the Slender Man's mansion, which they believed was situated in Wisconsin's Nicolet National Forest, where they hoped to become 'his proxies'. One of the girls was deemed incompetent to stand trial by doctors at the time. Their victim, Payton Leutner, eventually recovered from the multiple wounds, after she crawled for help after the attack.
There was also another, later Slender Man incident, when a mother who was stabbed by her daughter in a second incident in Ohio, also blamed the attack on an obsession with the Slender Man by her daughter.
Amazingly, it wasn't until December 2017, that Anissa Weier was finally sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric institution, but even then, sentencing for Morgan Geyser was withheld until February 2018 ... when she got 40 years in a mental institution. It was that news, which allowed me to finally finish this post, which was eight years in the writing.
Of course the 'Slender Man' is a fictional character boys and girls, created for a web site spoof on a new 'scary character' (like Freddie Krueger, or the hockey slasher Jason X), sustained by web forums like 'Creepypasta' ... where the girls apparently first came across the Slender Man image.
Even by the time I first came across it in 2010, the stories surrounding the picture were already suggesting that it was real .... which was of course the whole point of both the Boogie man and the Slender Man. Scary, but also obviously not real ... however the Internet has a way of polishing up these urban myths, and gives them a lustre that the Bogeyman never had in my day. Susceptible children and adults, can easily be led to believe that they are based upon real characters.
Like all urban myths, the Slender Man has been added to, and embellished and is no longer in the control of the web sites that spawned it .... and the original creator Eric Knudsen issued a statement saying: "I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act."
Sadly, in a strange aside from the main topic - possibly the true horror of this story is that this being the US, and 'Obama care' not withstanding, the parents of the stabbed little girl, reportedly had to post a request on a fund raising website, (which raised about $22,000 (£13,000) in less than a day), to meet both her legal and medical bills.
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| One Of The Two Pictures That Started The Myth |
.... A creepy enough image I guess, but explainable with shadows, background trees and foreshortening, photo editing etc.
I actually started researching it at the time, tracking it back to a website called SomethingAwful.com, where using the pseudonym “Victor Surge” (a contributor later identified as Eric Knudsen), posted up two faked photographs, purportedly from the mid-1980s, showing a tall, sinister figure lurking behind groups of children. He attached some vague text suggesting 14 young people and the photographer had gone missing since the photo's were taken, and the tale took off in directions no one could have guessed.
I had some idea of writing a post on it (photo editing was an interest of mine at the time), but lost all the background I had gathered when my laptop crashed for good, and I forgot all about it until 2014, when I compiled most of this post. Even then, I doubt I would have ever recalled my early interest, until the Slender Man again made the world news, when two little girls aged 12, stabbed and attempted to kill another little 12 year old girl, in order to please the 'Slender Man' ....
This was because apparently in the intervening years since my original interest, the image had spawned a myth that had been gathering pace in those dark corners of the web that parents, and indeed adults generally, rarely see. Generated via the code of the playground, the 'Slender Man' has passed into two children's imaginations and nightmares, and rather like the 'Boogie' or 'Bogeyman', of my pre-internet early childhood (who I was assured would come and 'get me', if I didn't do this or that), he had taken a firm grip in their imaginations.
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| Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier - Acolytes Of The Slender Man |
.... indeed so great was their belief in this being, that when they were captured, they were walking near a local highway on their way to the Slender Man's mansion, which they believed was situated in Wisconsin's Nicolet National Forest, where they hoped to become 'his proxies'. One of the girls was deemed incompetent to stand trial by doctors at the time. Their victim, Payton Leutner, eventually recovered from the multiple wounds, after she crawled for help after the attack.
There was also another, later Slender Man incident, when a mother who was stabbed by her daughter in a second incident in Ohio, also blamed the attack on an obsession with the Slender Man by her daughter.
Amazingly, it wasn't until December 2017, that Anissa Weier was finally sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric institution, but even then, sentencing for Morgan Geyser was withheld until February 2018 ... when she got 40 years in a mental institution. It was that news, which allowed me to finally finish this post, which was eight years in the writing.
Of course the 'Slender Man' is a fictional character boys and girls, created for a web site spoof on a new 'scary character' (like Freddie Krueger, or the hockey slasher Jason X), sustained by web forums like 'Creepypasta' ... where the girls apparently first came across the Slender Man image.
Even by the time I first came across it in 2010, the stories surrounding the picture were already suggesting that it was real .... which was of course the whole point of both the Boogie man and the Slender Man. Scary, but also obviously not real ... however the Internet has a way of polishing up these urban myths, and gives them a lustre that the Bogeyman never had in my day. Susceptible children and adults, can easily be led to believe that they are based upon real characters.
 |
| Hollywood Legends, Freddie Krueger, Michael Myers, Pin Head, Jason Voorhees - Not As Powerful As The Slender Man |
Like all urban myths, the Slender Man has been added to, and embellished and is no longer in the control of the web sites that spawned it .... and the original creator Eric Knudsen issued a statement saying: "I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act."
 |
| Slender Man Legend Grows ... |
Sadly, in a strange aside from the main topic - possibly the true horror of this story is that this being the US, and 'Obama care' not withstanding, the parents of the stabbed little girl, reportedly had to post a request on a fund raising website, (which raised about $22,000 (£13,000) in less than a day), to meet both her legal and medical bills.
They still needed to find about $250,000 in total for the final legal and medical costs when last I checked back then ... the richest country in the world ... and a child's parent having to fund raise to allow her to be treated after a criminal attack.
Update: In June 2021 a Wisconsin judge ordered the conditional release of Anissa Weir (then aged 19), after serving just three and a half years of her 25 year sentence, despite prosecution claims that she was still dangerous.
Weir was now claiming that she would never let herself "become a weapon again." ... which will no doubt be a relief to anyone for whom she babysits in the future! She will be closely monitored until the age of 37 .... Her partner in crime, Morgan Geyser remains locked up.
It's enough to create a vague story with an even vaguer character for some people to pick it up and run with it. That's why myths and legends fascinate us, the lack of real evidence allows a personal interpretation which can be more appealing than reality.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have to say this is a rather bizarre example of that idea as its children who have run with it. A bit like saying 'Candy Man,Candy Man,Candy Man' three times outloud bringing a bogey man.
DeleteUrban myths can be very disturbing. It's been shown that some children's playground game go back millennia. So perhaps it's not a surprise that new ones appear now and again. The internet allows them to arise from nowhere.
ReplyDeleteIn Edinburgh the story goes that a few hundred years ago, some secret tunnels were discovered under Edinburgh Castle, supposedly leading to other parts of the city, including Holyrood House. A young bagpiper was instructed to march down one of the tunnels playing his pipes loudly so that his progress could be tracked from above.
DeleteAbout halfway down the Royal Mile, the bagpipes abruptly stopped and (despite the efforts of search parties) the piper was never seen again. Allegedly his ghostly piping can still be heard to this day.
However in some versions of this story the bagpiper is a drummer boy and that’s why its probably just a creepy urban legend.
Every town in the UK has its own urban myths. Sadly I think the Internet has homogenised them into stories like the Slender Man. We are in danger of losing our regional myth identity.
DeleteFolklorists beware.
Thanks for the comments. Yes every town has some sort of myths ... even good old Blackpool and its pleasure beach.
DeleteIn 1936 the Blackpool Pleasure park opened its spooky ride but the name later changed to Ghost Train, and seemingly was the first one to do so. A dedicated member of staff was known as Cloggy, he tended the ride meticulously and seemingly passed away from some dire illness. Cloggy appears to have been so dedicated that he continued with his passion after his death.
Ride visitors spoke about having been touched on the ride, complaints about this and being grabbed by invisible hands were made and passengers were informed that this was not a part of the ride. On one occasion it was noted that maintenance were repairing the ride and had heard strange sounds. They had heard groans and mystery footsteps. They came to the time to shut down, and as per the procedure they turned off the electrics. When this happened and they headed off they noticed that a skull was still illuminated on the top of the building.
It's being reported that Aaron Campbell the 16 year old evil killer of six year old Alesha MacPhail is obsessed with the Slender Man mythology.
ReplyDeleteThanks for he comment. Its strange how even invented myths have a power over some. Here's a link to one of the reports of this fixation.
Delete