Creepy Urban Legends About Hitchhikers

#1 The Girl in the Box

If there were ever a story to prevent you from hitchhiking, it would be the story of Colleen Stan, the girl in the box.

In May 1977, 20-year-old Colleen was hitchhiking from Eugene, OR to Westwood, CA. About 100 miles north of her destination, she accepted a ride from Cameron Hooker, 23, and his young wife, Janice, 19. The couple had a baby, which made Stan think she could trust them. Soon, however, Hooker pulled a knife on Stan and it became clear she would be his prisoner.

For seven years, Hooker kept Stan as his slave. He tortured and raped her, and forced her to sleep in a box underneath their bed. He would put her head in a 20-pound wooden box, out of which she could not see. He also forced her to sign a contract stating that she was his slave. Stan became convinced that the contract was real and passed up multiple opportunities to escape out of fear. (Hooker's attorney would try to use this to his client's advantage, but to no avail.)

Finally, Janice helped her escape. Stan told no one what had happened to her, but Janice eventually went to police and confessed to her and her husband's crimes, including another incident in which Hooker tried to kidnap a 19-year-old female hitchhiker, but ended up murdering her. Hooker was sentenced to 104 years in prison.

#2 No One Believed a Teenage Girl's Story

In the book The Serial Killers by Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman, they write about a young girl who went to the police with a story too brutal to believe.

In July 1973, a 15-year-old runaway went to police in Florida and told them a man had picked up her and her boyfriend as they were hitchhiking. She said he first forced the teens to engage in sex acts at gunpoint while he photographed them, then murdered the boyfriend and kept the girl captive in a DIY torture chamber for about a day before releasing her. Police did not believe the girl's story and sent her home.

Days later, a neighbor reported that a man had been sitting his garden for multiple days without moving. Police found the man had killed himself by drinking poison, and discovered the boyfriend's body as well as the torture chamber the girl had told them about in his home. They also found a journal entry in which the man said that after committing the crimes he had fantasized about, he felt the satisfaction he derived wasn't worth it, and life was meaningless.

#3 An Encounter with an Infamous Serial Killer

In the subreddit /r/letsnotmeet, users discuss encounters with creepy people they'd rather not meet or run into again.

One such story happened to the poster's uncle. The uncle was a student at the University of Chicago in the 1970s who frequently hitchhiked from school to his home in Lincoln Park. On one occasion, he got in a car with a guy who seemed pretty normal at first but soon began driving in the wrong direction. When he told the man they were headed the wrong way, the man put his hand on the student's leg and said, "No, son, you're coming with me." The poster's uncle ended up unlocking his door in a patch of traffic and fleeing the car.

Two years later, the uncle was watching the news and saw the man on TV. It turned out he was infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

There's no real way to prove that this story ever really happened, and it seems to have circulated the Internet a lot. But Gacy was a prolific killer who was active in Cook County, IL between 1972 and 1978, killing over 30 young men and boys.

#4 The Pendergast Murders

In October of 1958, Carl Alfred Eder, then 16 years old, was hitchhiking in El Cajon, CA. Eder was homeless, and a kindly man named Thomas Pendergast took mercy on him. He picked Eder up and said he could stay with him and his family until he found work.

Six weeks later, Pendergast returned home to find his wife, Lois, and their four young children all dead. Eder would later tell investigators he became angry because the Pendergasts's 4-year-old daughter was irritating him. He shot Lois before stabbing all four children. Eder escaped from prison in 1974, at age 32, and has never been found.

#5 The Murder of Phillip Fraser

In June 1988, Phillip Fraser, 25, was headed from Anchorage, AK to Evergreen College in Washington, where he planned to enroll as a pre-med student. A Canadian mountie remembered Fraser crossing the border, as he had two handguns on him which he declared, but was unable to take with him into Canada.

The following day, a Canadian cafe owner and his daughter encountered very odd hitchhiker who was dropped off at the cafe. They both got a bad vibe from the guy and were anxious to see him leave. Shortly after the hitchhiker arrived, Fraser showed up and began looking for something in his car outside. The cafe owner said the hitchhiker asked Fraser for a ride. At first, Fraser said no but then relented, and the pair left.

Several hours later, Eddie and Pauline Olson encountered the hitchhiker. This time, he had a car, but was having trouble with it, so the Olsons told the hitchhiker he could crash at their place. He told them that his name was Phillip Fraser.

The car trouble turned out to be a broken fan belt, which they were able to fix. The hitchhiker offered to sell the car for a plane ticket, but Eddie Olson said no so the hitchhiker simply drove off instead. About 300 miles from the Olson homestead, Fraser's abandoned car was found. It appeared to have been set on fire. Fraser's body was found on a gravel road six weeks later. The hitchhiker has never been found.

#6 Edmund Kemper, the 'Co-Ed' Killer

Edmund Kemper is one of America's most notorious serial killers. Also known as the "Co-Ed Killer," Kemper used his mother's UCSC faculty sticker to lure young, female college students in the Santa Cruz area into his car and to gain access to the campus. He exclusively targeted hitchhikers, killing six of them, in the 1970s. His killing career ended after he murdered his mother and her best friend, then called the police to tell him what he'd done.

Kemper had a troubled childhood and murdered his grandparents at a young age. After he was released at age 21, he began working for the California Highway Department. He noticed a large number of women hitchhiking and soon began picking them up. He later said he had probably picked up and released about 150 women before he started killing.

#7 Resurrection Mary

Resurrection Mary is a particularly notable example of the vanishing hitchhiker. Many people have reported seeing her in Justice, IL, a town outside of Chicago.

Those who have seen her have mostly been men. They report seeing a young, blonde hitchhiker in a white dress standing on Archer Avenue between Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery. Her attire indicates she'd been attending some kind of party or dance. Mary is quiet during the drive and will ask to get out of the car near the cemetery. When she exits, she will disappear in the cemetery or simply vanish from the car.

One rumor is that this Mary had gone to a party at the Ballroom with her boyfriend. The two got into a fight and she stormed off but was fatally struck by a car on Archer Avenue. The driver took off and was never caught, and Mary was later buried in the cemetery. Some have attempted to attach the Mary story to two women who are buried in the cemetery.

#8 A Note and $100

A woman tells a story about how, at age 17, she was picked up by a strange man while hitchhiking. It was an encounter that would turn her off from the practice forever.

It was a snowy night in an unidentified area. The man in question seemed fine, if quiet, at first. At one point, however, they came upon a hazard on the road and the woman yelled, "Watch out!" The man then yelled back that she should never, ever scream at him.

He then ignored her requests to let her out of the car and drove quickly while muttering to himself about how he'd told her before not to yell at him. Keep in mind, they'd only just met. Finally, he pulled into a gas station and let her out. He then pulled back up and returned her hat, which she'd left in her haste to get out of the truck. Inside, she discovered a $100 bill and a note telling her she shouldn't hitchhike anymore.