March 29, 2024 • 6 mins
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In honor of the Easter Bunny. I have a terrifying urban legend of the Bunny Man. Run. Hide. Scream. Repeat.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Man
https://wamu.org/story/17/10/31/true-story-bunnyman-northern-virginias-gruesome-urban-legend/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker A (00:09):
Hello, my spooky friends.
This is your host, John of Nightland Frights.
And in honor of the Easter Bunny, I thought Iwould tell you a more terrifying tale of the
urban legend, the bunny man.
So sit back, be scared, and enjoy the tale of
(00:32):
the bunny man.
Speaker B (00:34):
The Bunny man is an urban legend that originated from two incidents in Fairfax
County, Virginia in 1970, but has been spreadthroughout the Washington, DC and Maryland
areas.
The legend has many variations.
Most involve a man wearing a rabbit costumewho attacks people with an axe or hatchet.
Most of the stories occur around ColchesterOverpass, a southern railway overpass spanning
(00:59):
Colchester Road near Clifton, Virginia.
Sometimes referred to as Bunny Man Bridge.
Versions of the legend vary in the Bunny man'sname, motives, weapons, victims, description
of the bunny costume, or lack thereof, andsometimes even his possible death.
In some accounts, victims bodies aremutilated, and in some variations, the bunny
(01:22):
man's ghost or aging Specter is said to comeout of his place of death each year on
Halloween.
To commemorate his death, Fairfax County
Public Library historian archivist Brian A.
Conley extensively researched the bunny man
legend.
He has located two incidents of a man in a
(01:42):
rabbit costume threatening people with an axe.
The vandalism reports occurred ten days apart
in 1970 in Burke, Virginia.
The first incident was reported on the evening
of October 19, 1970, by US Air Force Academycadet Robert Bennett and his fiance, who were
visiting relatives on Guinea Road in Burke.
(02:04):
Around midnight, while returning from a
football game, they reportedly parked theircar in a field on Guinea Road to visit an
uncle who lived across the street from wherethe car was parked.
As they sat in the front seat with the motorrunning, they noticed something moving outside
the rear window.
Moments later, the front passenger window was
(02:24):
smashed and there was a white clad figurestanding near the broken window.
Bennett turned the car around while the manscreamed at them about trespassing, saying,
you're on private property and I have your tagnumber.
As they drove down the road, the couplediscovered a hatchet on the car floor.
When the police requested a description of theman, Bennett insisted he was wearing a white
(02:48):
suit with long bunny ears.
However, Bennett's fiance contested their
assailant did not have bunny ears on his head,but was wearing a white caporet of some sort.
They both remembered seeing his face clearly,but in the darkness they could not determine
his race.
The police returned the hatchet to Bennett
after examination.
(03:09):
The second reported sighting occurred on the
evening of October 29, 1970, when constructionsecurity guard Paul Phillips approached a man
standing on the porch of an unfinished home inKings park, west on Guinea Road.
Phillips said the man was wearing a gray,black and white bunny costume and was about 20
(03:30):
years old, 5ft eight inches tall and weighedabout 175 pounds.
The man began chopping at a porch post with along handled ax.
You are trespassing.
If you come any closer, I'll chop off your
head.
The Fairfax county police opened
investigations into both incidents, but bothwere eventually closed for lack of evidence.
(03:53):
In the weeks following the incidents, morethan 50 people contacted the police claiming
to have seen the bunny man.
Several newspapers, including the Washington
Post, reported that the Bunny man had eaten amans runaway cat.
The Post articles that mentioned this incidentwere man in Bunny suit sot in Fairfax October
(04:15):
22, 1970 the rabbit reappears October 31, 1970Bunny man November 4, 1970 Bunny reports are
multiplying.
November 6, 1970 Bunny man strikes again
November 1, 1970 in 1973, Patricia Johnson, astudent at the University of Maryland, College
(04:40):
park, submitted a research paper thatchronicled precisely 54 variations on the two
incidents.
Many maintain the basic plot in some shape or
form but vary in details like location andspecific events.
A handful even mention the Bunny mancommitting murders, a detail at odds with the
two documented sightings.
(05:02):
Conley cites this as evidence of how the
original Bunnyman story had mutated throughvarious retellings and that the story would be
taken to new heights during the early days ofthe Internet.
Connolly further stated that the most widelycirculated version of the story was posted to
the website Castle of Spirits in 1999.
(05:23):
In it, user Timothy J. Forbes claimed the
Bunny man was a convict named Douglas J.
Griffin, who escaped while being transported
to a new facility in 1904.
The story proceeds to chronicle a series of
grisly, almost supernatural murders committedat Bunny Man Bridge, most occurring decades
before the officially documented sightings.
(05:46):
According to Conley, all of the specifics
given in the Forbes version are false.
Not only did the stated murders never happen,
but key institutions mentioned, such as theold Clifton Library, allegedly the source of
the author's information, never existed in thefirst place.
While it's fun debunking the Bunny man legend,Conley says, it's even more fun to believe it.
Hello, my spooky friends.
This is your host, John of Nightland Frights.
And in honor of the Easter Bunny, I thought Iwould tell you a more terrifying tale of the
urban legend, the bunny man.
So sit back, be scared, and enjoy the tale of
(00:32):
the bunny man.
Speaker B (00:34):
The Bunny man is an urban legend that originated from two incidents in Fairfax
County, Virginia in 1970, but has been spreadthroughout the Washington, DC and Maryland
areas.
The legend has many variations.
Most involve a man wearing a rabbit costumewho attacks people with an axe or hatchet.
Most of the stories occur around ColchesterOverpass, a southern railway overpass spanning
(00:59):
Colchester Road near Clifton, Virginia.
Sometimes referred to as Bunny Man Bridge.
Versions of the legend vary in the Bunny man'sname, motives, weapons, victims, description
of the bunny costume, or lack thereof, andsometimes even his possible death.
In some accounts, victims bodies aremutilated, and in some variations, the bunny
(01:22):
man's ghost or aging Specter is said to comeout of his place of death each year on
Halloween.
To commemorate his death, Fairfax County
Public Library historian archivist Brian A.
Conley extensively researched the bunny man
legend.
He has located two incidents of a man in a
(01:42):
rabbit costume threatening people with an axe.
The vandalism reports occurred ten days apart
in 1970 in Burke, Virginia.
The first incident was reported on the evening
of October 19, 1970, by US Air Force Academycadet Robert Bennett and his fiance, who were
visiting relatives on Guinea Road in Burke.
(02:04):
Around midnight, while returning from a
football game, they reportedly parked theircar in a field on Guinea Road to visit an
uncle who lived across the street from wherethe car was parked.
As they sat in the front seat with the motorrunning, they noticed something moving outside
the rear window.
Moments later, the front passenger window was
(02:24):
smashed and there was a white clad figurestanding near the broken window.
Bennett turned the car around while the manscreamed at them about trespassing, saying,
you're on private property and I have your tagnumber.
As they drove down the road, the couplediscovered a hatchet on the car floor.
When the police requested a description of theman, Bennett insisted he was wearing a white
(02:48):
suit with long bunny ears.
However, Bennett's fiance contested their
assailant did not have bunny ears on his head,but was wearing a white caporet of some sort.
They both remembered seeing his face clearly,but in the darkness they could not determine
his race.
The police returned the hatchet to Bennett
after examination.
(03:09):
The second reported sighting occurred on the
evening of October 29, 1970, when constructionsecurity guard Paul Phillips approached a man
standing on the porch of an unfinished home inKings park, west on Guinea Road.
Phillips said the man was wearing a gray,black and white bunny costume and was about 20
(03:30):
years old, 5ft eight inches tall and weighedabout 175 pounds.
The man began chopping at a porch post with along handled ax.
You are trespassing.
If you come any closer, I'll chop off your
head.
The Fairfax county police opened
investigations into both incidents, but bothwere eventually closed for lack of evidence.
(03:53):
In the weeks following the incidents, morethan 50 people contacted the police claiming
to have seen the bunny man.
Several newspapers, including the Washington
Post, reported that the Bunny man had eaten amans runaway cat.
The Post articles that mentioned this incidentwere man in Bunny suit sot in Fairfax October
(04:15):
22, 1970 the rabbit reappears October 31, 1970Bunny man November 4, 1970 Bunny reports are
multiplying.
November 6, 1970 Bunny man strikes again
November 1, 1970 in 1973, Patricia Johnson, astudent at the University of Maryland, College
(04:40):
park, submitted a research paper thatchronicled precisely 54 variations on the two
incidents.
Many maintain the basic plot in some shape or
form but vary in details like location andspecific events.
A handful even mention the Bunny mancommitting murders, a detail at odds with the
two documented sightings.
(05:02):
Conley cites this as evidence of how the
original Bunnyman story had mutated throughvarious retellings and that the story would be
taken to new heights during the early days ofthe Internet.
Connolly further stated that the most widelycirculated version of the story was posted to
the website Castle of Spirits in 1999.
(05:23):
In it, user Timothy J. Forbes claimed the
Bunny man was a convict named Douglas J.
Griffin, who escaped while being transported
to a new facility in 1904.
The story proceeds to chronicle a series of
grisly, almost supernatural murders committedat Bunny Man Bridge, most occurring decades
before the officially documented sightings.
(05:46):
According to Conley, all of the specifics
given in the Forbes version are false.
Not only did the stated murders never happen,
but key institutions mentioned, such as theold Clifton Library, allegedly the source of
the author's information, never existed in thefirst place.
While it's fun debunking the Bunny man legend,Conley says, it's even more fun to believe it.
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