Killer in the backseat

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The killer in the backseat (also known as High Beams) is an urban legend from the United States and United Kingdom. [1] It was first noted by folklorist Carlos Drake in 1968 in texts collected by Indiana University students. [2]

Contents

Legend

The legend involves a woman who is driving and being followed by a car or truck. The mysterious pursuer flashes his high beams, tailgates her, and sometimes even rams her vehicle. When she finally makes it home, she realizes that the driver was trying to warn her that there was a man (a murderer, or escaped mental patient) hiding in her back seat. Each time the man sat up to attack her, the driver behind had used his high beams to scare the killer, causing him to duck back down. [3]

In some versions, the woman stops for gas, and the attendant asks her to come inside to sort out a problem with her credit card. Inside the station, he asks if she knows there's a man in her back seat. (An example of this rendition can be seen in the 1998 episode of Millennium , "The Pest House".) In another, she sees a doll on the road in the moors, stops, and then the man gets in the back.

Origin

The story has been identified as circulating at least as early as the late 1960s, and may have gained more widespread recognition after appearing in a letter to advice columnist Ann Landers in 1982. [4] It has been speculated, including by Snopes founder David Mikkelson, that the legend may have been inspired by a vaguely similar case which took place in 1964, in which an escaped murderer hid in the backseat of a car, only to end up shot by the car's owner, a police detective. [4] Other somewhat similar, though not identical, cases have since been noted, including by folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand. [5]

Interpretations

The story is often told with a moral. The attendant is often a lumberjack, a trucker, or a scary-looking man: someone the driver mistrusts without reason. She assumes it is the attendant who wants to do her harm, when in reality it is he who saves her life. [6]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Brunvand, Jan Harold (2012). Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, Updated and Expanded Edition. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 361. ISBN   978-1-59884-720-8. Although other car-crime legends are well known abroad, 'The Killer in the Backseat' does not seem to have taken root very strongly outside North America.
  2. ↑ Drake, Carlos. "The Killer in the Backseat." Indiana Folklore 1 (1968), 107-109.
  3. ↑ Bronner, Simon J. (1988). American Children's Folklore . Little Rock: August House Publishers. p.  149. ISBN   978-08748-306-8-2. ... Suddenly, I realized what was happening and did the first thing I could think of. I flashed my brights to warn her. I saw the figure quickly disappear. I followed the car home and flashed my brights each time I saw the figure. After she ran in the house, I told her to call the police...
  4. 1 2 Mikkelson, David (26 September 2000). "The Killer in the Backseat: A crazed killer is discovered hiding in the back seat of woman's car at a gas station". snopes.com. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  5. ↑ Brunvand, Jan Harold (13 December 1991). "TALE OF BACKSEAT KILLER IS SIMILAR TO NEWS STORIES". desertnews.com. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  6. ↑ Barden, Thomas E. (1991). Virginia Folk Legends . Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia. p.  324. ISBN   978-08139-133-5-3. The story structure of a suspected harmer turning out to be a savior appears in such modern legends as that of the truck driver following a woman home flashing his lights. For interpretations of this legend, see Carlos Drake ... and Xenia E. Cord, 'Further Notes on the Assailant in the Back Seat'...
  7. ↑ Dietsch, T.J. (30 October 2015). "11 of the scariest stories to tell in the dark". geek.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019. Another widespread urban legend from the 80s and 90s, "High Beams" follows the misadventures of a young woman who seems to be in danger from the man driving the truck behind her car.
  8. ↑ Brunvand, Jan Harold (2012). Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 361. ISBN   978-1-59884-720-8. 'The Killer in the Backseat' provided the initial scare in the 1998 film Urban Legend. (In the film, however, the assailant does actually kill the driver.) David Letterman's telling of the legend as he heard it growing up in Indianapolis is included in my book Too Good To Be True...
  9. ↑ Handlen, Zack (June 25, 2011). "The X-Files: "The Red And The Black" / Millennium: "The Pest House"". The A.V. Club . Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  10. ↑ Renwick, David (1 March 2003). "The Coonskin Cap". BBC. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  11. ↑ McClure, Kelly (2022-08-04). "American Horror Stories Recap: Bury the Bodies". Vulture. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
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