March 2, 2024 • 25 mins
Lexi talks about the urban legend surrounding the Bunny Man.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/bunny-manhttps://www.insidenova.com/headlines/bunny-man-bridge-fact-or-fiction-the-truth-behind-the-chilling-legend/article_a27c7000-dca4-11e8-ad84-af51d935cbcb.htmlhttps://wamu.org/story/17/10/31/true-story-bunnyman-northern-virginias-gruesome-urban-legend/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/bunny-manhttps://www.insidenova.com/headlines/bunny-man-bridge-fact-or-fiction-the-truth-behind-the-chilling-legend/article_a27c7000-dca4-11e8-ad84-af51d935cbcb.htmlhttps://wamu.org/story/17/10/31/true-story-bunnyman-northern-virginias-gruesome-urban-legend/
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Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
This podcast discusses true crime, whichmay tell violence, and other material intended
for mature audience. Listener discretion isadvised. Hey, it's Kayla and it's
Lexi and it's Lexi Day. Sowhat you got it is? So today,
if any of our listeners are fromthe northern region of Virginia and the
United States, you're probably going torecognize this one instantly. This is,
(00:35):
for atents and purposes, Virginia's Mothman. I'm going to be talking about the
bunny Man of Fairfax County, Virginia. You're close enough to Virginia, you're
in West Virginia, so you heardof this one, I think. So
this one is actually it's one ofmy favorites. I've been thinking about covering
(00:56):
it for the longest time because itwas in like an audiobook or podcast or
something that I was listening to thelast time, I was like taking a
long solo road trip. I couldnot tell you when that was. Probably
actually, you know what it was. It was probably when I was on
my way home from the scene Wuenconcert last year. That's probably when it
was. Oh gosh, it's beenalmost the whole year since that. I
(01:19):
know. I was supposed to seeher. I was supposed to see her
again in November and I got COVID. I was rocking out from my couch.
She tours all the time. I'mjust like fingers crossed that she's going
to tour again soon and I'll getto see her, like maybe not during
Peak six season, because I alsomissed and missed an Ashnico concert for another
(01:42):
illness. Yeah, I missed theAshniko concert because I worked SHEDD in Pittsburgh
on a Tuesday. Yeah yeah,I'm says. I know, like I'm
seeing fall Out Boy and Jimmy Worldon a Wednesday, which actually works out
for me because I have a weirdwork schedule, so like I don't work
Wednesday. But for anyone else it'slike who what you know? What person
(02:04):
our age is going to a concerton Wednesday? Like that's that's his cool
night? How did we get here? Back to the I don't know how
I manage should bring fall Out Boyinto this anyway. So the legend of
the Bunny Man and the Bunny ManBridge seems to be part myth, part
truth. So I'm gonna break thoseboth down for you. I'm gonna start
(02:27):
with the fun part today, I'mgonna start with the legend. So on
an Internet forum in nineteen ninety nine, a man named Timothy Forbes chronicled an
extensive legend that outlined the bunny Manand his infamous bridge, which is a
bridge supporting the Colchester Overpass in Fairfax, Virginia, in Fairfax County, Virginia.
So this is a brief synopsis ofthe legend. I'm not gonna go
(02:52):
into the whole thing that Forbes does. It's much more thorough. I'm pretty
sure that you can find the originalpost out there. It should not be
difficult. It's very, very infamouslegend at this point, so the legend
goes on to say that there wasa vehicle transporting criminals to an insane asylum
that crashed on its way to thestate hospital in nineteen oh four. This
caused the convicts to escape and allwere recovered except for two, Marcus Wollster
(03:15):
and Douglas Griffin. The hunt continuedby police for Walster and Griffin, where
a trail of dismembered and or halfeaten rabbits were found strewn about near the
bridge and in the surrounding woods.Some versions of the legend state that the
bodies of the rabbits were even hungunder the overpass itself. How do you
(03:37):
catch that many rabbits like without traps? That's I don't want to sound it's
impressive, but that's impressive. Imean it is. My only thing is
That's why I thought. I waslike, Oh, they're just trapping them,
Like I don't know, maybe hejust like mcguiverd a trap out of
something he found in the woods,because otherwise it's not like he's just chasing
(03:58):
them down on foot like the rabbitLike obviously once you have them, they're
not very tough, but like they'rehard catch. Yeah, oh man,
Like we've both worked with rabbits,Like they're zippy little guys. Yeah they
are. So. I learned recentlyspeaking of zippy little animals, that our
hospital has two separate codes for aloose cat and a loose dog. And
(04:19):
I was like, what if wework with non traditional species, like not
long ago we had someone to bringin a pigeon, Like what if a
pigeon gets out? Do we havelike do we have like a bird loosen
building code? Do we have likeferret or rat loosen building code? We
don't have codes for a stuff isloose in the ability, we probably should
(04:40):
because I highly recommend it because thenyou could just shout it over the walkie
and like then you know it doesn'tfreak out everyone else. Yeah, because
we have like a couple dogs havebroken out of our runs, like they
just figured out how to unclip itfrom the inside, had a bust open.
We had like the slowest most elderlydocs and just sort of slowly want
(05:00):
out of its bottom cage once likeit just it didn't latch properly or the
dog like push it open somehow,and then it was like the slowest most
geriatric escapee you can possibly picture.It's like, should I be out here?
No? Were like how did youget in the treatment area? Put
you back? So yeah, howthis guy got all these rabbits is beyond
(05:21):
me. So. Wollster's body waseventually found under the overpass clutching a handmade
hatchet with no clear cause of death. So was he like AX throwing?
Like? Was he was he nottrapping the rabbits? Was he just like
woo? That's also impressive because theyare fast. I've done X throwing.
(05:43):
I don't think my aim is goodenough to hit like a rabbit from twenty
feet away or something. No,So a year later, after the discovery
of Wolster's body, who in thisversion of legend, Griffin's body was never
found. A year later, agroup of teens were out late one night
drinking under the Colchester Overpass when abright flash was reported to have appeared and
the teens were all found hanging underthe bridge, having been disemboweled the next
(06:06):
day, Oh right, with noleads on the killer. So then the
next year, the same thing wassaid to happen to another sixteenagers at midnight
on Halloween who were drinking under thebridge, and hence the legend was born.
People started to steer clear of thatoverpass. But it is said that
every few decades a new group ofpeople tries out the legend, only to
(06:27):
find themselves experiencing the same fate.So a couple things. One the first
part of this in nineteen oh four. I don't know if you've ever seen
a movie based on a comic seriescalled Trick or Treat. I highly recommend
it. It's one of my favorites. I've seen it like five times.
But there's a scene that's very similarto like bus crashes, crazy, dangerous
(06:49):
people escape, and that's immediately whatI thought of. I was like,
oh, this is like that thatone subplot and trick or treat, And
I think the comic would have beenaround in nineteen nine, so I have
to wonder if it was partially andif that partially inspired the Buddy Man legend.
I know the movie came out liketwo thousand and seven or something like
that, but I think the comicis older. I have to look it
up. And how do they knowthat the teens saw a flash of bright
(07:13):
light if all of them were laterfound disinboweled, Like that's my first thing.
It's like, how do you knowthere was a bright light and then
suddenly poof all the teenagers were hangingLike was there just a bystander just watching
this take place? You know,maybe like someone who's just staring at a
group of teenagers drinking under a bridge, like that's not weird. I think
we need to ask them more,like less questions about the teenagers, more
(07:36):
questions like what were you doing ata bridge at midnight in Halloween staring at
a group of adolescents, Like you'dbe suspect number one? And like the
version of the story. It's like, oh, one of the teenagers reported
a flash of light, right,Like how did they report the flash of
bright light if they were dead?Right? Like did the psychic? Is
it like an eye zombie situation?Like what's going on here? So those
(07:59):
are my immediate systems that kind ofkilled the legend for me. It turns
out there's zero record of any ofthese events occurring. No Walster, no
Griffin existed, no group of teensfound hanging into some bowelt under the bridge,
and no trail of rabbits were everfound near the cold Chest or overpass.
This version of the legend seems tobe a work of fiction by Forbes,
based loosely on a few bizarre incidentsreported in the seventies. But it
(08:22):
got so popular. This legend gotso popular that we now have like an
official bunny Man historian that I'm goingto get into later in the episode.
Imagine, like that's your title,Like you were like bunny Man guy.
Yeah, I know guy, thebunny Man guy, right right, you
guys, I got a ro killguy. I got a bunny man guy.
(08:43):
I got a not dear guy.I said something. I said something
today to my fiance and she misheardme where we were closing the We were
closing the blinds in the windows,and I made a joke about, oh,
we don't want the lawncare people tosee us, because sometimes people will
(09:03):
come through, like the the mainareas of the development and like service the
lawns or whatever. And she thoughtthat, I said, and mind you,
the house backs up to the woods, and she thought that. I
said, oh, we don't wantthe long haired people to see us,
And she was like, who thefuck are the long haired people that you've
seen in our backyard. She's like, I assumed it was one of your
(09:24):
cryptids. She was like, Ididn't even stop to think. She's like,
I just I just guessed it was, you know, one of your
things. When are your spooky littlefellas. It's like, no, sweete
lawn care. And then I waslike, long haired people, that's just
like regular people, like not merecard. Yeah, like there's just hippies
in the backyard. We should gotake care of that. Who oh,
(09:50):
no, my milkshakes. They broughtthe boys. Okay, so the less
exciting, although on a they stillpretty creepy. Bunny man sightings seemed to
originate in the seventies when on Octobernineteenth, an Air Force cadet named Robert
Bennett was out with his fiance lateone night, around midnight, driving around
(10:11):
Burke, Virginia, when coming homefrom a football game, and then driving
around to visit I believe one oftheir family members. I did not write
down whose uncle it was. It'seither Bennett's uncle or his fiancee's uncle.
The pair was parked on Guinea Road, near a up and coming development when
they saw something in the rear viewmirror in the field behind them. The
two heard a crash as a hatchetflew through one of the car windows.
(10:33):
Allegedly, the man shouted the twoaround private property and the two sped away.
Bennett reported to police later that nightthat the man they saw seemed to
be wearing a white bunny suit withlong ears, but Bennet's fiance I thought
the man was wearing a white punted, white pointed hood like that of KKK
robes So A few days later,on October twenty ninth, a security guard
(10:56):
named Paul Phillips stumbled upon a manwearing a white rabbit costume doom on the
porch of a home that was underconstruction. The man threatened Phillips by saying
if he came any closer, hewould chop off his head, and began
hacking at one of the porch postswith a hatchet. Phillips went to retrieve
his gun from his post, butwhen he returned to the area, the
man was nowhere to be seen.News of these incidents spread rapidly throughout Fairfax,
(11:18):
Virginia, leading to over fifty reportsof the Bunnyman sightings to police in
the following weeks. Reminiscent of Mothman. Honestly, and the best description we
have is from fall Phillips, whodescribes a white man in his late teens
early twenties, roughly two hundred poundsand under six foot. This man was
never caught or reprehended, reprimanded,reprehended. I don't think that's a word.
(11:41):
I think I made that up.I don't think it is either.
I think I think I tried tosay apprehended and reprimanded. It's not like
really convincing when it came out,So I was like, that's a word,
and then I had to think ofthat, say it like confidently,
and it's fine. Exactly exactly whatdoes someone say to me the day where
it was just completely wrong and Iwas like, do you mean this?
(12:03):
It's remind me that scene in Dragracewhere she said something about I just you
know, I just want to conversate, and then the theother queen was like,
it's converse. She's like, whatjust say talk. So a historian
that specialized in uncovering the truth ofthe Bunny Man Bridge named Ryan Conley.
(12:24):
He's our hero of the story.Also found a gruesome case of a man
who was found guilty of murdering hiswife an eight month old daughter and burying
them in a shallow grave in Fairfax, Virginia in nineteen forty nine. This
man was arrested shortly after the discoveryof the bodies, sent to a mental
institution after being arrested and convicted.This is believed to be the origin story
(12:46):
of Griffin, the asylum escapee aspectof the legend. So who was the
Bunny Man? We don't know,Like, at the end of the day,
we don't know who this guy wasthat we saw just in a rabbit
costume and an axe terrorizing people.That's so scary. I hate the combination
of bunny costume acts like like youknow how being naked with shoes on is
(13:09):
somehow like way worse and way morevulnerable and way more naked than just regular
naked like rabbit costume with an ax. I'm right though, like like you're
thinking about it and you're like,yeah, naked with shoes on is horrible,
Like like rabbit costume with an axeis so much worse than just regular
ax axes the naked with shoes on. So that's there's actually a dead by
(13:35):
Daylight character. It's a woman.She wears like a bunny hat if she
throws an ax not I think aboutit. No way, It's got to
be based on this. It's gotto be based on this. It probably
is inspired Louise Belcher as the character. Basically, yeah, so it's to
(13:56):
this day, the identity of thebunny Man is officially unsolved. Apparently,
the housing community being built near thewoods in King's Park, which is where
both of these sightings occurred, hada few secluded homesteads in the nearby area
where people living there may have beenunhappy with the housing development and were attempting
to frighten people away from the areaor scare people away from living in it.
(14:16):
So it suspected it may have beenone of the people living in the
homesteads, maybe teenagers messing with them. Who knows. But you know how
people are, I mean you likeyou may both come from relatively rural areas.
We know how it is when housingdevelopments pop up in previously not populated
areas, there's always some jimbob withlike a massive problem with it, you
know, because they don't want tobe around people. Yeah, that's why
(14:37):
they live in you know, inthe middle of nowhere, Virginia. So
this one seems pausible to me.Another theory is that no one in a
bunny suit ever existed at all.It's that someone was wearing a white hood
or hat, was mistakenly thought tobe wearing a rabbit costume, or that
the story became twisted in some waythat the bunny ears or suit evolved.
(14:58):
And that's stuck simply because it's morebaffling than just like man in white hoodie,
you know, crazy guy with acts. You know. Second, you're
like crazy guy with acts, buta bunny suit. Pepa, Like there's
a bunny suit I'm in. Yeah, yeah, like crazy guy with acts.
That's like a regular floor to headlinebut you throw a bunny suit on
there, right now you have anAmerican cryptid. Yeah. So this legend
(15:24):
exploded in the two thousands, andapparently in twenty eleven police had to start
doing patrols in the area and endedhaving to reroute curious onlookers and teens from
clogging up traffic on the road ofupwards two hundred people just that night in
Halloween alone, because so many peoplewere trying to go to the Bunnyman Bridge.
He can't kill all of you,Like, it's just it's like it's
(15:46):
like storming Area fifty one. Likethat's the vibe I get, you know,
like, can't get all of them. Actually, I'm so I'm speaking
so real. I think Storming Areafifty one went so perfectly, you know,
because no one actually tried anything incrediblystupid and so there was no tragedy
that resulted, but they like stillhad to cover it in the news because
(16:06):
so many people showed up with stupidsigns that just said like give me my
alien. Oh man. It broughtthe world together in a way that I
hadn't seen since Pokemon Go got dropped. We need another Area fifty I almost
forgot every fifty one was rated.I should cover that, I really should
cover that. I still remember watchingthe news broadcast and it's like the the
(16:30):
reporter in the front and someone justgnarted a running past that. That was
so good. What a time.So the Colchester Overpass is considered by some
to be one of the creepiest placesin the US, and even though Conley
has thoroughly debunked the supernatural and morefrightening aspects of the legend, it remains
(16:52):
popularly believed that the Bunnyman and hisbridge exist as a force of supernatural evil
to this day. So that iswhat I wanted to give you guys,
Unsolved mystery urban legends cryptid. Idon't really know what you call it,
but I've been dying to cover thebunny Man Bridge for a really long time.
I did think it was going tobe more involved, because Forbes's original
legend is involved, but I didn'twant to give you guys a ton of
(17:15):
fluff. I you know, Idon't have Forbes's original post in the show
notes, but maybe I can trackit down it track it down, my
goodness, to put it in thetag it down, Dan tam go,
damtam go. Track it down toWestern Virginia, Northern virgin Where am I
(17:36):
again? Northern Virginia. Even mydog groaned, I don't know anything.
Like that's enough, she went,uh, I'm sorry, Luna so upset.
Oh, and that is what Ihave for you guys today. Something
was a fun one. It wasa short one. I was I was
(17:59):
hoping this won't be little bit longer. But you know what, the urban
legend ones are usually short and sweetbecause in the age of information, the
age of the Internet, they're reallyeasy to find legends, and they're really
easy to debunk those legends. ButI don't know, Maybe I should,
Maybe I should get back on TikTokand look for like what are the TikTok
people getting into, because I feellike my last super long urban legend was
(18:19):
when I covered the not Deer,which was like born on TikTok. There's
a lot on TikTok, Like Ifollow a couple pages. I just occasionally
say things whenever, like I needanything, crym did never it calls for
one? Do you follow that morgpage? I think it's her user is
like Morg's morg as, Like hername is Morgan and she just talks about
(18:41):
like living on a homestead the middleof Appalachia and like the shit that she
sees. If I can find herpage, I'll send it to you,
because there's some really cool stuff thatshe that she documents and she talks about.
And it's not even like an argit's just sort of the equivalent of
someone living in like a haunted housethat just occasionally talks about like, oh
know, the ghost did stuff again, Like how like how mister Curtis just
(19:03):
occasionally messed with you guys. Likethat's kind of the equivalent. Oh okay,
yeah, but that's great. Alot of people on my on my
Twitter feed have been talking about like, oh are you guys? Are you
guys on like Appalachian crypti TikTok,And I was like, yay, it's
coming out through social media. Whonu get like these like AI created like
(19:30):
cryptids talking about their own stories andstuff, and they're kind of creepy.
Why cryptids talking about their own stories? Yeah? No, we need to
put AI back. We need toput it back. M Nope, don't
like it. Hey, I isgetting out of control these last couple of
months. I feel like I feellike it's like busting out of the art.
(19:52):
Is so bad. It's so likeit's so awful in the sense of
like for the longest time, likenow I feel like when I look at
cool are, I have to likelook at it real hard because there's a
part of me it's like is thisAI, Like is this is this ripping
off of another artist? Is thisAI? Like? I like, first
thing, I go for the hands, like I see art I really like,
and I'm like, let me lookat the hands, you know,
because it's just gotten so out ofcontrol. And have you seen those celebrity
(20:14):
ads where it's like Selena Gomez isgiving away a free laptop or something like
that, and it's it's a deepfake, Like it is an AI deep
fake of celebrities to scam people intothinking that they're gonna get a laptop from
Selena Gomez or something. No,I haven't seen those. They're unsettling.
I've encountered like one or two inthe wild, and it's it's unsettling because
(20:37):
you're kind of like, why wouldX celebrity be doing this? And then
you like look at it long andyou're like, what's wrong with them?
And then then then you realize itlike doesn't sound right. It's almost like
Uncanny Valley, like the way peopledescribe skin walkers, Like that's what AI
deep fakes are like to me,where I'm like, something's not right here,
Yeah, every so ought to LikeI'll see a TikTok that says AI
(21:00):
generated video and I'm like, soare there AI like TikTok accounts? Now
that's right? Is that a thingI and I love? And the thing
is too is like there's two sidesof AI, Like I see this these
information about AI. That's like,oh AI recently discovered a way to like
catch cancer before it starts and likefourteen different types of breast cancers or something,
you know, so preventive measures canbe taken. I'm like, wow,
(21:22):
that's amazing. That's really going torevolutionize like preventive medicine. And then
I see like celebrity deep fakes orthe case of that girl who had it
was like that fourteen year old girlwho committed suicide because her like a whole
bunch of boys were making like AIexplicit imagery of her and just like spreading
it around the school. I didn'tknow that. I heard about the well
(21:44):
and they did that with Taylor Swift, I did see, Yeah, I
did see what was going down withTaylor Swift because I know people were talking
about how much they hoped that TaylorSwift's legal team would take action because then
it would set such a major precedentfor like when it was happening to common
people, because like it is soyeah. It's one of those things where
like when I hear about AI andit's using like technology medicine, I'm like,
(22:06):
this is so cool, and thenI see that and I'm like,
this is terrifying. This is Dystopians. Send the meteor. I need another
meteor shower, just reset, justspecifically take out like AI. Maybe lower
the housing prices when you come down. It would be nice. All right.
(22:30):
So there's your combination Bunny Man andthe Horrors of AI episode. It's
a nice break from whatever hell Ia leashed last week and next week exactly.
Oh yeah, in next week.So I give you guys a little
break. No one died in Mind, at least not for real, like
people fake died in mine, peoplerumor died in mine. No, actually
(22:55):
I did cover an actual murder.I'm so sorry. I will also give
you guys fluff week my treat,but yeah, you guys can find more
of us. We are now onYouTube. We have finally got this recording
thing to work. It's exciting,it's awesome. We're on YouTube, we
are on Twitter and theory. Weare on TikTok, we are on Instagram.
(23:21):
We have a Patreon, which isprobably the best way to get access
to it's ad free content, bonuscontent. You guys get to vote on
episodes. You guys did not votelast time, so you've just given me
free range to do whatever I want. And boy did I take advantage of
that. And our patrons are goingto find out and kalas she doesn't know
what it is yet. Yeah,no, So we're about to record it
(23:42):
today. So if you guys wantto know what it is, you should
like go to Patreon and join.It's just like a half hour of me
like breathing into the microphone. Ioccasionally like sniffle. Oh, somebody,
somebody finally did vote, but itlooks like they voted too late. They
(24:03):
chose cults. Oh I'm sorry.Oh no, Unfortunately, you guys are
getting you guys are not getting cold. I was close. It was another
c I guess the other there's cultscryptids. Uh, conspiracies, com murder,
commit murder, crime crime, crymurder. They just be letting anybody
(24:37):
have a podcast. Literally, anybodycan do this. Don't really like you
guys could just do this if youwant. It's nothing stopping you. You
don't need to be a professional.Oh man, all right, that was
actually wicked. Mhm, that washappily wicked. Happy Easter, O crap
(25:15):
Easter is coming up. Oh
This podcast discusses true crime, whichmay tell violence, and other material intended
for mature audience. Listener discretion isadvised. Hey, it's Kayla and it's
Lexi and it's Lexi Day. Sowhat you got it is? So today,
if any of our listeners are fromthe northern region of Virginia and the
United States, you're probably going torecognize this one instantly. This is,
(00:35):
for atents and purposes, Virginia's Mothman. I'm going to be talking about the
bunny Man of Fairfax County, Virginia. You're close enough to Virginia, you're
in West Virginia, so you heardof this one, I think. So
this one is actually it's one ofmy favorites. I've been thinking about covering
(00:56):
it for the longest time because itwas in like an audiobook or podcast or
something that I was listening to thelast time, I was like taking a
long solo road trip. I couldnot tell you when that was. Probably
actually, you know what it was. It was probably when I was on
my way home from the scene Wuenconcert last year. That's probably when it
was. Oh gosh, it's beenalmost the whole year since that. I
(01:19):
know. I was supposed to seeher. I was supposed to see her
again in November and I got COVID. I was rocking out from my couch.
She tours all the time. I'mjust like fingers crossed that she's going
to tour again soon and I'll getto see her, like maybe not during
Peak six season, because I alsomissed and missed an Ashnico concert for another
(01:42):
illness. Yeah, I missed theAshniko concert because I worked SHEDD in Pittsburgh
on a Tuesday. Yeah yeah,I'm says. I know, like I'm
seeing fall Out Boy and Jimmy Worldon a Wednesday, which actually works out
for me because I have a weirdwork schedule, so like I don't work
Wednesday. But for anyone else it'slike who what you know? What person
(02:04):
our age is going to a concerton Wednesday? Like that's that's his cool
night? How did we get here? Back to the I don't know how
I manage should bring fall Out Boyinto this anyway. So the legend of
the Bunny Man and the Bunny ManBridge seems to be part myth, part
truth. So I'm gonna break thoseboth down for you. I'm gonna start
(02:27):
with the fun part today, I'mgonna start with the legend. So on
an Internet forum in nineteen ninety nine, a man named Timothy Forbes chronicled an
extensive legend that outlined the bunny Manand his infamous bridge, which is a
bridge supporting the Colchester Overpass in Fairfax, Virginia, in Fairfax County, Virginia.
So this is a brief synopsis ofthe legend. I'm not gonna go
(02:52):
into the whole thing that Forbes does. It's much more thorough. I'm pretty
sure that you can find the originalpost out there. It should not be
difficult. It's very, very infamouslegend at this point, so the legend
goes on to say that there wasa vehicle transporting criminals to an insane asylum
that crashed on its way to thestate hospital in nineteen oh four. This
caused the convicts to escape and allwere recovered except for two, Marcus Wollster
(03:15):
and Douglas Griffin. The hunt continuedby police for Walster and Griffin, where
a trail of dismembered and or halfeaten rabbits were found strewn about near the
bridge and in the surrounding woods.Some versions of the legend state that the
bodies of the rabbits were even hungunder the overpass itself. How do you
(03:37):
catch that many rabbits like without traps? That's I don't want to sound it's
impressive, but that's impressive. Imean it is. My only thing is
That's why I thought. I waslike, Oh, they're just trapping them,
Like I don't know, maybe hejust like mcguiverd a trap out of
something he found in the woods,because otherwise it's not like he's just chasing
(03:58):
them down on foot like the rabbitLike obviously once you have them, they're
not very tough, but like they'rehard catch. Yeah, oh man,
Like we've both worked with rabbits,Like they're zippy little guys. Yeah they
are. So. I learned recentlyspeaking of zippy little animals, that our
hospital has two separate codes for aloose cat and a loose dog. And
(04:19):
I was like, what if wework with non traditional species, like not
long ago we had someone to bringin a pigeon, Like what if a
pigeon gets out? Do we havelike do we have like a bird loosen
building code? Do we have likeferret or rat loosen building code? We
don't have codes for a stuff isloose in the ability, we probably should
(04:40):
because I highly recommend it because thenyou could just shout it over the walkie
and like then you know it doesn'tfreak out everyone else. Yeah, because
we have like a couple dogs havebroken out of our runs, like they
just figured out how to unclip itfrom the inside, had a bust open.
We had like the slowest most elderlydocs and just sort of slowly want
(05:00):
out of its bottom cage once likeit just it didn't latch properly or the
dog like push it open somehow,and then it was like the slowest most
geriatric escapee you can possibly picture.It's like, should I be out here?
No? Were like how did youget in the treatment area? Put
you back? So yeah, howthis guy got all these rabbits is beyond
(05:21):
me. So. Wollster's body waseventually found under the overpass clutching a handmade
hatchet with no clear cause of death. So was he like AX throwing?
Like? Was he was he nottrapping the rabbits? Was he just like
woo? That's also impressive because theyare fast. I've done X throwing.
(05:43):
I don't think my aim is goodenough to hit like a rabbit from twenty
feet away or something. No,So a year later, after the discovery
of Wolster's body, who in thisversion of legend, Griffin's body was never
found. A year later, agroup of teens were out late one night
drinking under the Colchester Overpass when abright flash was reported to have appeared and
the teens were all found hanging underthe bridge, having been disemboweled the next
(06:06):
day, Oh right, with noleads on the killer. So then the
next year, the same thing wassaid to happen to another sixteenagers at midnight
on Halloween who were drinking under thebridge, and hence the legend was born.
People started to steer clear of thatoverpass. But it is said that
every few decades a new group ofpeople tries out the legend, only to
(06:27):
find themselves experiencing the same fate.So a couple things. One the first
part of this in nineteen oh four. I don't know if you've ever seen
a movie based on a comic seriescalled Trick or Treat. I highly recommend
it. It's one of my favorites. I've seen it like five times.
But there's a scene that's very similarto like bus crashes, crazy, dangerous
(06:49):
people escape, and that's immediately whatI thought of. I was like,
oh, this is like that thatone subplot and trick or treat, And
I think the comic would have beenaround in nineteen nine, so I have
to wonder if it was partially andif that partially inspired the Buddy Man legend.
I know the movie came out liketwo thousand and seven or something like
that, but I think the comicis older. I have to look it
up. And how do they knowthat the teens saw a flash of bright
(07:13):
light if all of them were laterfound disinboweled, Like that's my first thing.
It's like, how do you knowthere was a bright light and then
suddenly poof all the teenagers were hangingLike was there just a bystander just watching
this take place? You know,maybe like someone who's just staring at a
group of teenagers drinking under a bridge, like that's not weird. I think
we need to ask them more,like less questions about the teenagers, more
(07:36):
questions like what were you doing ata bridge at midnight in Halloween staring at
a group of adolescents, Like you'dbe suspect number one? And like the
version of the story. It's like, oh, one of the teenagers reported
a flash of light, right,Like how did they report the flash of
bright light if they were dead?Right? Like did the psychic? Is
it like an eye zombie situation?Like what's going on here? So those
(07:59):
are my immediate systems that kind ofkilled the legend for me. It turns
out there's zero record of any ofthese events occurring. No Walster, no
Griffin existed, no group of teensfound hanging into some bowelt under the bridge,
and no trail of rabbits were everfound near the cold Chest or overpass.
This version of the legend seems tobe a work of fiction by Forbes,
based loosely on a few bizarre incidentsreported in the seventies. But it
(08:22):
got so popular. This legend gotso popular that we now have like an
official bunny Man historian that I'm goingto get into later in the episode.
Imagine, like that's your title,Like you were like bunny Man guy.
Yeah, I know guy, thebunny Man guy, right right, you
guys, I got a ro killguy. I got a bunny man guy.
(08:43):
I got a not dear guy.I said something. I said something
today to my fiance and she misheardme where we were closing the We were
closing the blinds in the windows,and I made a joke about, oh,
we don't want the lawncare people tosee us, because sometimes people will
(09:03):
come through, like the the mainareas of the development and like service the
lawns or whatever. And she thoughtthat, I said, and mind you,
the house backs up to the woods, and she thought that. I
said, oh, we don't wantthe long haired people to see us,
And she was like, who thefuck are the long haired people that you've
seen in our backyard. She's like, I assumed it was one of your
(09:24):
cryptids. She was like, Ididn't even stop to think. She's like,
I just I just guessed it was, you know, one of your
things. When are your spooky littlefellas. It's like, no, sweete
lawn care. And then I waslike, long haired people, that's just
like regular people, like not merecard. Yeah, like there's just hippies
in the backyard. We should gotake care of that. Who oh,
(09:50):
no, my milkshakes. They broughtthe boys. Okay, so the less
exciting, although on a they stillpretty creepy. Bunny man sightings seemed to
originate in the seventies when on Octobernineteenth, an Air Force cadet named Robert
Bennett was out with his fiance lateone night, around midnight, driving around
(10:11):
Burke, Virginia, when coming homefrom a football game, and then driving
around to visit I believe one oftheir family members. I did not write
down whose uncle it was. It'seither Bennett's uncle or his fiancee's uncle.
The pair was parked on Guinea Road, near a up and coming development when
they saw something in the rear viewmirror in the field behind them. The
two heard a crash as a hatchetflew through one of the car windows.
(10:33):
Allegedly, the man shouted the twoaround private property and the two sped away.
Bennett reported to police later that nightthat the man they saw seemed to
be wearing a white bunny suit withlong ears, but Bennet's fiance I thought
the man was wearing a white punted, white pointed hood like that of KKK
robes So A few days later,on October twenty ninth, a security guard
(10:56):
named Paul Phillips stumbled upon a manwearing a white rabbit costume doom on the
porch of a home that was underconstruction. The man threatened Phillips by saying
if he came any closer, hewould chop off his head, and began
hacking at one of the porch postswith a hatchet. Phillips went to retrieve
his gun from his post, butwhen he returned to the area, the
man was nowhere to be seen.News of these incidents spread rapidly throughout Fairfax,
(11:18):
Virginia, leading to over fifty reportsof the Bunnyman sightings to police in
the following weeks. Reminiscent of Mothman. Honestly, and the best description we
have is from fall Phillips, whodescribes a white man in his late teens
early twenties, roughly two hundred poundsand under six foot. This man was
never caught or reprehended, reprimanded,reprehended. I don't think that's a word.
(11:41):
I think I made that up.I don't think it is either.
I think I think I tried tosay apprehended and reprimanded. It's not like
really convincing when it came out,So I was like, that's a word,
and then I had to think ofthat, say it like confidently,
and it's fine. Exactly exactly whatdoes someone say to me the day where
it was just completely wrong and Iwas like, do you mean this?
(12:03):
It's remind me that scene in Dragracewhere she said something about I just you
know, I just want to conversate, and then the theother queen was like,
it's converse. She's like, whatjust say talk. So a historian
that specialized in uncovering the truth ofthe Bunny Man Bridge named Ryan Conley.
(12:24):
He's our hero of the story.Also found a gruesome case of a man
who was found guilty of murdering hiswife an eight month old daughter and burying
them in a shallow grave in Fairfax, Virginia in nineteen forty nine. This
man was arrested shortly after the discoveryof the bodies, sent to a mental
institution after being arrested and convicted.This is believed to be the origin story
(12:46):
of Griffin, the asylum escapee aspectof the legend. So who was the
Bunny Man? We don't know,Like, at the end of the day,
we don't know who this guy wasthat we saw just in a rabbit
costume and an axe terrorizing people.That's so scary. I hate the combination
of bunny costume acts like like youknow how being naked with shoes on is
(13:09):
somehow like way worse and way morevulnerable and way more naked than just regular
naked like rabbit costume with an ax. I'm right though, like like you're
thinking about it and you're like,yeah, naked with shoes on is horrible,
Like like rabbit costume with an axeis so much worse than just regular
ax axes the naked with shoes on. So that's there's actually a dead by
(13:35):
Daylight character. It's a woman.She wears like a bunny hat if she
throws an ax not I think aboutit. No way, It's got to
be based on this. It's gotto be based on this. It probably
is inspired Louise Belcher as the character. Basically, yeah, so it's to
(13:56):
this day, the identity of thebunny Man is officially unsolved. Apparently,
the housing community being built near thewoods in King's Park, which is where
both of these sightings occurred, hada few secluded homesteads in the nearby area
where people living there may have beenunhappy with the housing development and were attempting
to frighten people away from the areaor scare people away from living in it.
(14:16):
So it suspected it may have beenone of the people living in the
homesteads, maybe teenagers messing with them. Who knows. But you know how
people are, I mean you likeyou may both come from relatively rural areas.
We know how it is when housingdevelopments pop up in previously not populated
areas, there's always some jimbob withlike a massive problem with it, you
know, because they don't want tobe around people. Yeah, that's why
(14:37):
they live in you know, inthe middle of nowhere, Virginia. So
this one seems pausible to me.Another theory is that no one in a
bunny suit ever existed at all.It's that someone was wearing a white hood
or hat, was mistakenly thought tobe wearing a rabbit costume, or that
the story became twisted in some waythat the bunny ears or suit evolved.
(14:58):
And that's stuck simply because it's morebaffling than just like man in white hoodie,
you know, crazy guy with acts. You know. Second, you're
like crazy guy with acts, buta bunny suit. Pepa, Like there's
a bunny suit I'm in. Yeah, yeah, like crazy guy with acts.
That's like a regular floor to headlinebut you throw a bunny suit on
there, right now you have anAmerican cryptid. Yeah. So this legend
(15:24):
exploded in the two thousands, andapparently in twenty eleven police had to start
doing patrols in the area and endedhaving to reroute curious onlookers and teens from
clogging up traffic on the road ofupwards two hundred people just that night in
Halloween alone, because so many peoplewere trying to go to the Bunnyman Bridge.
He can't kill all of you,Like, it's just it's like it's
(15:46):
like storming Area fifty one. Likethat's the vibe I get, you know,
like, can't get all of them. Actually, I'm so I'm speaking
so real. I think Storming Areafifty one went so perfectly, you know,
because no one actually tried anything incrediblystupid and so there was no tragedy
that resulted, but they like stillhad to cover it in the news because
(16:06):
so many people showed up with stupidsigns that just said like give me my
alien. Oh man. It broughtthe world together in a way that I
hadn't seen since Pokemon Go got dropped. We need another Area fifty I almost
forgot every fifty one was rated.I should cover that, I really should
cover that. I still remember watchingthe news broadcast and it's like the the
(16:30):
reporter in the front and someone justgnarted a running past that. That was
so good. What a time.So the Colchester Overpass is considered by some
to be one of the creepiest placesin the US, and even though Conley
has thoroughly debunked the supernatural and morefrightening aspects of the legend, it remains
(16:52):
popularly believed that the Bunnyman and hisbridge exist as a force of supernatural evil
to this day. So that iswhat I wanted to give you guys,
Unsolved mystery urban legends cryptid. Idon't really know what you call it,
but I've been dying to cover thebunny Man Bridge for a really long time.
I did think it was going tobe more involved, because Forbes's original
legend is involved, but I didn'twant to give you guys a ton of
(17:15):
fluff. I you know, Idon't have Forbes's original post in the show
notes, but maybe I can trackit down it track it down, my
goodness, to put it in thetag it down, Dan tam go,
damtam go. Track it down toWestern Virginia, Northern virgin Where am I
(17:36):
again? Northern Virginia. Even mydog groaned, I don't know anything.
Like that's enough, she went,uh, I'm sorry, Luna so upset.
Oh, and that is what Ihave for you guys today. Something
was a fun one. It wasa short one. I was I was
(17:59):
hoping this won't be little bit longer. But you know what, the urban
legend ones are usually short and sweetbecause in the age of information, the
age of the Internet, they're reallyeasy to find legends, and they're really
easy to debunk those legends. ButI don't know, Maybe I should,
Maybe I should get back on TikTokand look for like what are the TikTok
people getting into, because I feellike my last super long urban legend was
(18:19):
when I covered the not Deer,which was like born on TikTok. There's
a lot on TikTok, Like Ifollow a couple pages. I just occasionally
say things whenever, like I needanything, crym did never it calls for
one? Do you follow that morgpage? I think it's her user is
like Morg's morg as, Like hername is Morgan and she just talks about
(18:41):
like living on a homestead the middleof Appalachia and like the shit that she
sees. If I can find herpage, I'll send it to you,
because there's some really cool stuff thatshe that she documents and she talks about.
And it's not even like an argit's just sort of the equivalent of
someone living in like a haunted housethat just occasionally talks about like, oh
know, the ghost did stuff again, Like how like how mister Curtis just
(19:03):
occasionally messed with you guys. Likethat's kind of the equivalent. Oh okay,
yeah, but that's great. Alot of people on my on my
Twitter feed have been talking about like, oh are you guys? Are you
guys on like Appalachian crypti TikTok,And I was like, yay, it's
coming out through social media. Whonu get like these like AI created like
(19:30):
cryptids talking about their own stories andstuff, and they're kind of creepy.
Why cryptids talking about their own stories? Yeah? No, we need to
put AI back. We need toput it back. M Nope, don't
like it. Hey, I isgetting out of control these last couple of
months. I feel like I feellike it's like busting out of the art.
(19:52):
Is so bad. It's so likeit's so awful in the sense of
like for the longest time, likenow I feel like when I look at
cool are, I have to likelook at it real hard because there's a
part of me it's like is thisAI, Like is this is this ripping
off of another artist? Is thisAI? Like? I like, first
thing, I go for the hands, like I see art I really like,
and I'm like, let me lookat the hands, you know,
because it's just gotten so out ofcontrol. And have you seen those celebrity
(20:14):
ads where it's like Selena Gomez isgiving away a free laptop or something like
that, and it's it's a deepfake, Like it is an AI deep
fake of celebrities to scam people intothinking that they're gonna get a laptop from
Selena Gomez or something. No,I haven't seen those. They're unsettling.
I've encountered like one or two inthe wild, and it's it's unsettling because
(20:37):
you're kind of like, why wouldX celebrity be doing this? And then
you like look at it long andyou're like, what's wrong with them?
And then then then you realize itlike doesn't sound right. It's almost like
Uncanny Valley, like the way peopledescribe skin walkers, Like that's what AI
deep fakes are like to me,where I'm like, something's not right here,
Yeah, every so ought to LikeI'll see a TikTok that says AI
(21:00):
generated video and I'm like, soare there AI like TikTok accounts? Now
that's right? Is that a thingI and I love? And the thing
is too is like there's two sidesof AI, Like I see this these
information about AI. That's like,oh AI recently discovered a way to like
catch cancer before it starts and likefourteen different types of breast cancers or something,
you know, so preventive measures canbe taken. I'm like, wow,
(21:22):
that's amazing. That's really going torevolutionize like preventive medicine. And then
I see like celebrity deep fakes orthe case of that girl who had it
was like that fourteen year old girlwho committed suicide because her like a whole
bunch of boys were making like AIexplicit imagery of her and just like spreading
it around the school. I didn'tknow that. I heard about the well
(21:44):
and they did that with Taylor Swift, I did see, Yeah, I
did see what was going down withTaylor Swift because I know people were talking
about how much they hoped that TaylorSwift's legal team would take action because then
it would set such a major precedentfor like when it was happening to common
people, because like it is soyeah. It's one of those things where
like when I hear about AI andit's using like technology medicine, I'm like,
(22:06):
this is so cool, and thenI see that and I'm like,
this is terrifying. This is Dystopians. Send the meteor. I need another
meteor shower, just reset, justspecifically take out like AI. Maybe lower
the housing prices when you come down. It would be nice. All right.
(22:30):
So there's your combination Bunny Man andthe Horrors of AI episode. It's
a nice break from whatever hell Ia leashed last week and next week exactly.
Oh yeah, in next week.So I give you guys a little
break. No one died in Mind, at least not for real, like
people fake died in mine, peoplerumor died in mine. No, actually
(22:55):
I did cover an actual murder.I'm so sorry. I will also give
you guys fluff week my treat,but yeah, you guys can find more
of us. We are now onYouTube. We have finally got this recording
thing to work. It's exciting,it's awesome. We're on YouTube, we
are on Twitter and theory. Weare on TikTok, we are on Instagram.
(23:21):
We have a Patreon, which isprobably the best way to get access
to it's ad free content, bonuscontent. You guys get to vote on
episodes. You guys did not votelast time, so you've just given me
free range to do whatever I want. And boy did I take advantage of
that. And our patrons are goingto find out and kalas she doesn't know
what it is yet. Yeah,no, So we're about to record it
(23:42):
today. So if you guys wantto know what it is, you should
like go to Patreon and join.It's just like a half hour of me
like breathing into the microphone. Ioccasionally like sniffle. Oh, somebody,
somebody finally did vote, but itlooks like they voted too late. They
(24:03):
chose cults. Oh I'm sorry.Oh no, Unfortunately, you guys are
getting you guys are not getting cold. I was close. It was another
c I guess the other there's cultscryptids. Uh, conspiracies, com murder,
commit murder, crime crime, crymurder. They just be letting anybody
(24:37):
have a podcast. Literally, anybodycan do this. Don't really like you
guys could just do this if youwant. It's nothing stopping you. You
don't need to be a professional.Oh man, all right, that was
actually wicked. Mhm, that washappily wicked. Happy Easter, O crap
(25:15):
Easter is coming up. Oh
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