"The UnXplained" Mysterious Urban Legends

1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:06,000 A bloodsucking vampire haunting a decaying cemetery, 2 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:11,160 creepy clowns abducting children into the woods, 3 00:00:11,330 --> 00:00:16,080 and a video game so dangerous, it could kill you. 4 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:20,450 Have you ever been warned about conjuring an angry spirit 5 00:00:20,620 --> 00:00:23,040 by repeating the words "bloody Mary" 6 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:25,000 in front of a mirror? 7 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:29,500 Or maybe you've considered the possibility of a giant beast 8 00:00:29,660 --> 00:00:31,330 named big foot. 9 00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:35,450 These are just a few examples of modern mythology 10 00:00:35,620 --> 00:00:38,080 called "urban legends." 11 00:00:38,250 --> 00:00:41,330 For centuries, humans have told extraordinary tales 12 00:00:41,450 --> 00:00:45,950 of mystical creatures and supernatural events. 13 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:49,500 And today we continue the tradition 14 00:00:49,660 --> 00:00:53,330 by sharing stories of things like creepy encounters 15 00:00:53,500 --> 00:00:59,790 and cursed objects and inhuman entities. 16 00:00:59,950 --> 00:01:04,660 Where do these urban legends come from, 17 00:01:04,830 --> 00:01:06,540 and could they be true? 18 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:11,370 Well, that is what we'll try and find out. 19 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:19,074 20 00:01:25,870 --> 00:01:28,830 It is said that aspects of what make us human 21 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:31,830 are the capacity for abstract thought, 22 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,160 moral reasoning, and creative expression, 23 00:01:35,290 --> 00:01:38,700 which may explain our habit of sharing outrageous stories 24 00:01:38,870 --> 00:01:42,790 that make us question the nature of reality itself. 25 00:01:43,830 --> 00:01:47,620 Might the legendary big foot wander the pacific northwest? 26 00:01:48,870 --> 00:01:53,580 Could area 51 be hiding extraterrestrial secrets? 27 00:01:53,700 --> 00:01:58,450 Or are there places where you can really stumble upon 28 00:01:58,620 --> 00:02:01,160 a portal to hell? 29 00:02:02,660 --> 00:02:04,660 These are but a few of the countless questions 30 00:02:04,870 --> 00:02:10,290 raised by the thrilling tales we call urban legends. 31 00:02:10,450 --> 00:02:13,000 An urban legend is a modern folktale. 32 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:14,870 And we tell them for the reasons 33 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:16,476 that people have always told folktales. 34 00:02:16,500 --> 00:02:18,830 They are there to entertain. 35 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:21,160 They are there to horrify us. 36 00:02:21,370 --> 00:02:24,870 A good urban legend is based on being plausible 37 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:26,290 or nearly plausible 38 00:02:26,500 --> 00:02:29,410 but also very unexpected and-and unusual. 39 00:02:29,580 --> 00:02:31,450 And the best ones tend to work 40 00:02:31,620 --> 00:02:33,950 because they're not something that can be easily verified. 41 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:35,910 I think that's part of the appeal. 42 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:37,580 We are attracted to the mystery. 43 00:02:38,620 --> 00:02:40,160 Urban legends come out of nowhere 44 00:02:40,370 --> 00:02:42,000 and spread very, very quickly. 45 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:44,830 A lot of these legends are about scary things. 46 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:49,200 Monsters, ghosts, horrible things that could go wrong. 47 00:02:49,370 --> 00:02:51,830 People are expressing their fears. 48 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:53,830 So there could be somebody saying 49 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,950 they saw something strange in a particular area, 50 00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:58,680 and then these stories become repeated, 51 00:02:58,830 --> 00:03:00,250 sometimes embellished, 52 00:03:00,410 --> 00:03:02,910 often times kind of made more and more compelling 53 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:04,870 as time goes on. 54 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:09,450 The real heyday of urban legends was the 1970s and the 1980s. 55 00:03:09,620 --> 00:03:11,750 The legends circulating at that time 56 00:03:11,910 --> 00:03:15,540 were stories like the vanishing hitchhiker, 57 00:03:15,700 --> 00:03:18,330 which is about the motorist who drives past a young woman 58 00:03:18,540 --> 00:03:22,620 on the side of the road and she asks for a ride. 59 00:03:22,790 --> 00:03:24,950 And when he gets to the destination, she's gone. 60 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:27,620 Usually, he finds out that a young woman died 61 00:03:27,790 --> 00:03:30,750 at that exact curve in the road some years before 62 00:03:30,950 --> 00:03:33,660 and this happens regularly. 63 00:03:33,870 --> 00:03:36,250 When I think of urban legends, I definitely think about 64 00:03:36,370 --> 00:03:39,040 the story of the teenage couple making out in the car 65 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:40,636 and then, you know, being accosted by someone 66 00:03:40,660 --> 00:03:43,330 with a hook hand and murdering them. 67 00:03:44,450 --> 00:03:47,000 There will always be legends we can't fully explain. 68 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,120 I think that part of human curiosity 69 00:03:49,290 --> 00:03:51,000 is that we want to believe in the unknown. 70 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:55,330 While some urban legends seem too far-fetched to be true, 71 00:03:55,450 --> 00:03:59,290 there are, in fact, stories whose origins 72 00:03:59,450 --> 00:04:02,000 are shockingly real. 73 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:03,516 Urban legends could be 74 00:04:03,540 --> 00:04:05,250 based on some sort of true event, 75 00:04:05,410 --> 00:04:07,500 and it got, perhaps, exaggerated, 76 00:04:07,660 --> 00:04:09,700 or the names and places were changed. 77 00:04:09,870 --> 00:04:14,160 One example is that there are urban legends about alligators 78 00:04:14,370 --> 00:04:16,370 that have gotten flushed down the toilet as babies 79 00:04:16,450 --> 00:04:20,540 and now live in the sewers and eat sewer workers. 80 00:04:20,750 --> 00:04:23,160 Alligators living in the sewers. 81 00:04:23,330 --> 00:04:25,290 Now, that urban legend caught fire 82 00:04:25,450 --> 00:04:28,830 because people really were bringing home baby alligators. 83 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:30,370 So it evolves from there. 84 00:04:30,580 --> 00:04:31,976 You start to think, "well, if that happens, 85 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:33,120 then this can happen." 86 00:04:33,290 --> 00:04:36,000 So a baby alligator suddenly becomes 87 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:37,910 a giant killer out in the sewers. 88 00:04:39,950 --> 00:04:41,500 The fun thing about urban legends 89 00:04:41,660 --> 00:04:43,750 is they often overlap with reality. 90 00:04:43,910 --> 00:04:47,160 Maybe worries about pollution or government testing 91 00:04:47,370 --> 00:04:49,120 could be expressed in contemporary legends 92 00:04:49,250 --> 00:04:51,000 about mutant creatures that have 93 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:52,750 grown up around these testing sites. 94 00:04:52,950 --> 00:04:56,000 We know that radiation does cause mutations. 95 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:57,660 We've seen this with chernobyl. 96 00:04:57,870 --> 00:05:01,000 These are real concerns on real contemporary issues 97 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,540 that people express very often in these narrative forms. 98 00:05:06,620 --> 00:05:09,000 Are urban legends just modern-day fairy tales 99 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,330 meant to entertain the human psyche? 100 00:05:11,540 --> 00:05:13,870 Or could they be a kind of warning 101 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:17,540 to protect us from the strange and unknown world around us? 102 00:05:17,700 --> 00:05:21,830 Perhaps the answer lies with one seemingly impossible tale 103 00:05:21,950 --> 00:05:27,660 about how a human being can suddenly erupt into flames. 104 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,500 Spontaneous human combustion is the urban legend 105 00:05:32,700 --> 00:05:35,370 that through some chemical reaction, 106 00:05:35,540 --> 00:05:39,250 the human body will spontaneously burst into flames, 107 00:05:39,370 --> 00:05:42,620 leaving the person nothing more than a mound of ash. 108 00:05:42,830 --> 00:05:47,040 The belief that you can spontaneously com bust 109 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:49,370 goes back hundreds of years. 110 00:05:49,540 --> 00:05:52,700 In the 1800s, some of the most popular writers 111 00:05:52,870 --> 00:05:55,950 talked about spontaneous human combustion. 112 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,950 Charles dickens, Mark twain, Herman melville, 113 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,846 they all depicted spontaneous human combustion 114 00:06:03,870 --> 00:06:05,250 in their writings. 115 00:06:05,410 --> 00:06:07,290 We have to wonder, what is it 116 00:06:07,450 --> 00:06:09,500 about spontaneous human combustion 117 00:06:09,620 --> 00:06:12,200 that has made it such an enduring legend 118 00:06:12,370 --> 00:06:15,580 over these centuries? 119 00:06:21,580 --> 00:06:23,160 Authorities rush to the home 120 00:06:23,370 --> 00:06:26,950 of 76-year-old retiree Michael faherty. 121 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,620 Once inside, they're faced with a tragic scene. 122 00:06:30,790 --> 00:06:35,540 Please be advised, some images may be disturbing. 123 00:06:35,700 --> 00:06:39,330 Inside Mr. Faherty's home, 124 00:06:39,540 --> 00:06:41,580 it was said that his body was burned badly, 125 00:06:41,700 --> 00:06:44,950 as was the ceiling above him and the floor beneath him. 126 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,370 Accelerants were searched for, 127 00:06:47,540 --> 00:06:49,700 thinking this might be a case of arson. 128 00:06:49,870 --> 00:06:52,540 Accelerants were not found, so that was ruled out. 129 00:06:52,700 --> 00:06:57,000 The medical examiner was Dr. Mcloughlin. 130 00:06:57,160 --> 00:06:59,290 After nine months of investigating the case, 131 00:06:59,450 --> 00:07:02,250 he declared it to be, remarkably, 132 00:07:02,370 --> 00:07:05,080 death by spontaneous human combustion. 133 00:07:06,290 --> 00:07:07,700 What the first responders found 134 00:07:07,870 --> 00:07:10,120 in answering the call at the faherty residence 135 00:07:10,290 --> 00:07:14,700 was a mystery then and remains a mystery to this day. 136 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:18,080 The coroner decides that this spark 137 00:07:18,250 --> 00:07:20,120 has come from within the body. 138 00:07:20,250 --> 00:07:22,000 It couldn't be from anything else. 139 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:24,290 It has to have come from within. 140 00:07:24,500 --> 00:07:25,846 We'd like to think that if there's a fire, 141 00:07:25,870 --> 00:07:27,190 there's a way for us to get away, 142 00:07:27,370 --> 00:07:29,450 but the idea that the fire is in us, 143 00:07:29,580 --> 00:07:31,910 that is really kind of scary, I think, to everyone. 144 00:07:32,910 --> 00:07:34,290 The thought that a human being 145 00:07:34,450 --> 00:07:38,830 can mysteriously burst into flames is truly alarming. 146 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,330 But what could have led this coroner 147 00:07:41,450 --> 00:07:44,200 to deliver such a bizarre diagnosis? 148 00:07:44,370 --> 00:07:46,950 Well, as with many urban legends, 149 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:52,080 this strange event seems to have happened more than once. 150 00:07:53,500 --> 00:07:56,620 One of the better-known cases of spontaneous human combustion 151 00:07:56,790 --> 00:08:01,200 occurred to Mary Hardy reeser in July 1951. 152 00:08:02,250 --> 00:08:05,700 Photos show two firemen shoveling up her ashen remains. 153 00:08:05,870 --> 00:08:09,500 The entire pile of ash weighed about eight pounds, 154 00:08:09,700 --> 00:08:12,660 a remarkable weight reduction overnight. 155 00:08:12,870 --> 00:08:15,660 More remarkable was the lack of fire and heat damage 156 00:08:15,870 --> 00:08:19,160 to surrounding materials, including daybed linen 157 00:08:19,370 --> 00:08:21,660 only a few feet from the fire scene. 158 00:08:21,870 --> 00:08:24,500 This mystified the local St. Petersburg police 159 00:08:24,660 --> 00:08:26,370 and fire departments. 160 00:08:26,540 --> 00:08:29,250 So mystifying that the police department 161 00:08:29,410 --> 00:08:32,660 kept this an open file that is unsolved. 162 00:08:32,830 --> 00:08:34,540 That's how extreme this fire scene was 163 00:08:34,700 --> 00:08:36,540 in trying to explain it. 164 00:08:36,750 --> 00:08:39,410 Remarkably, over the last three centuries, 165 00:08:39,620 --> 00:08:41,620 there have been around 200 reports 166 00:08:41,750 --> 00:08:44,750 of people allegedly bursting into flames. 167 00:08:46,830 --> 00:08:49,056 And until we can properly understand this medical mystery, 168 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,700 spontaneous human combustion will remain 169 00:08:52,870 --> 00:08:56,910 an urban legend that continues to smolder. 170 00:08:58,700 --> 00:09:00,306 The existence of the legend I don't think 171 00:09:00,330 --> 00:09:02,000 is a mystery at all. 172 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:06,830 Spontaneous human combustion has been consistently reported 173 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:10,120 time and again in different literary means, 174 00:09:10,290 --> 00:09:13,500 reported by doctors, reported by police officers. 175 00:09:13,700 --> 00:09:16,000 These are authoritative accounts. 176 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:19,950 And it really puts spontaneous human combustion 177 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:21,330 into the category 178 00:09:21,540 --> 00:09:26,160 of a weird thing that keeps happening. 179 00:09:26,370 --> 00:09:29,870 How many times do we need to see a human body 180 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:34,250 disintegrate into ash to wonder what's going on here? 181 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:44,660 This sprawling victorian-era graveyard 182 00:09:44,830 --> 00:09:49,120 is the final resting place of around 170,000 people. 183 00:09:49,290 --> 00:09:52,330 It was first consecrated in 1839 184 00:09:52,540 --> 00:09:57,080 as part of a plan to create seven new cemeteries in London. 185 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:02,620 Its age and unique design create an otherworldly space 186 00:10:02,790 --> 00:10:06,910 where the living and the dead come to meet. 187 00:10:07,870 --> 00:10:09,660 Highgate cemetery was first laid out 188 00:10:09,830 --> 00:10:12,500 in the mid-19th century. 189 00:10:12,700 --> 00:10:16,950 There's avenues and there's circles 190 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:21,660 and there's winding paths, and you can get very lost there. 191 00:10:21,830 --> 00:10:24,120 It's a very creepy place 192 00:10:24,290 --> 00:10:27,450 because the victorians were obsessed with death, 193 00:10:27,620 --> 00:10:31,450 and they loved creating necropolises, 194 00:10:31,620 --> 00:10:33,500 and that was one of them. 195 00:10:33,700 --> 00:10:35,910 So there's so many kind of spooky, dark, 196 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:40,370 moss-covered columns and tombs. 197 00:10:40,540 --> 00:10:42,200 You always do feel 198 00:10:42,370 --> 00:10:45,120 that there's just something lurking around the corner 199 00:10:45,250 --> 00:10:49,500 if not behind a headstone... waiting to jump out at you. 200 00:10:50,540 --> 00:10:53,160 While highgate's victorian monuments to the dead 201 00:10:53,290 --> 00:10:55,200 create a spooky impression, 202 00:10:55,410 --> 00:10:58,450 the cemetery is perhaps most famous for being the home 203 00:10:58,580 --> 00:11:01,726 of a monstrous urban legend. 204 00:11:01,750 --> 00:11:04,830 It is said that this old graveyard 205 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:08,200 is the haven of a bloodthirsty creature 206 00:11:08,370 --> 00:11:12,120 known as the high gate vampire. 207 00:11:12,290 --> 00:11:16,250 In 1970, there were rumors that circulated 208 00:11:16,410 --> 00:11:20,120 that a vampire had been seen in the cemetery. 209 00:11:20,250 --> 00:11:23,000 The high gate vampire story happens at a time 210 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:28,160 when there's a lot of interest in the occult, in horror. 211 00:11:28,330 --> 00:11:31,750 You've got the hammer horror films in the cinemas, 212 00:11:31,910 --> 00:11:34,000 there's the Dracula series with Christopher Lee 213 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:36,000 playing the vampire. 214 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:40,500 And, really, that kind of feeds into the public consciousness. 215 00:11:40,660 --> 00:11:43,750 But I defy you to go to high gate cemetery 216 00:11:43,910 --> 00:11:47,000 and not feel a sense of fear. 217 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:49,120 If there's gonna be a vampire anywhere, 218 00:11:49,250 --> 00:11:51,080 it's gonna be in high gate cemetery. 219 00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:53,200 The vampire tradition, 220 00:11:53,330 --> 00:11:55,910 it's a very old tradition in Europe. 221 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,910 Now, the traditional vampire was a loathsome, repelling creature, 222 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:02,500 someone who is so evil and rotten in their soul 223 00:12:02,700 --> 00:12:04,700 that when they die and you Bury them, 224 00:12:04,870 --> 00:12:06,660 their soul is not gonna leave that body. 225 00:12:06,790 --> 00:12:09,500 Their soul is gonna get up with that body 226 00:12:09,700 --> 00:12:11,660 and then go terrorize the local communities. 227 00:12:11,870 --> 00:12:13,660 They drink people's blood. 228 00:12:13,870 --> 00:12:16,910 A high gate vampire is a-a combination of things 229 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:21,410 that emerged around the late 1960s and, 1970, 230 00:12:21,580 --> 00:12:22,950 around high gate cemetery. 231 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:24,870 There are accounts of an evil presence 232 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:27,370 that people have claimed to have seen, 233 00:12:27,540 --> 00:12:30,330 and you've got a real sort of panic on your hands. 234 00:12:30,540 --> 00:12:35,120 Could a vampire really be terrorizing high gate cemetery? 235 00:12:35,290 --> 00:12:39,330 What would cause people to even consider such a claim? 236 00:12:40,370 --> 00:12:43,790 In 1969, there had been some pretty serious vandalism 237 00:12:43,950 --> 00:12:46,790 and grave desecrations going on in high gate. 238 00:12:46,950 --> 00:12:49,580 It was not uncommon to find bodies that had been 239 00:12:49,750 --> 00:12:52,450 dragged out of their coffins and left lying in the path. 240 00:12:52,660 --> 00:12:54,950 You have rumors of satanism. 241 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,660 David farrant ran a group called 242 00:12:57,870 --> 00:13:00,500 the British psychic and occult society. 243 00:13:00,660 --> 00:13:04,580 So, he was interested in all kinds of supernatural topics. 244 00:13:04,750 --> 00:13:08,250 So, David farrant decided to do a sort of investigation. 245 00:13:08,410 --> 00:13:11,410 He did an all-night vigil in the cemetery. 246 00:13:12,370 --> 00:13:14,010 And he said that while he was doing this, 247 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:17,870 he saw a dark figure moving across the cemetery. 248 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:19,750 It was about seven feet tall. 249 00:13:19,910 --> 00:13:22,000 And when this sort of shadowy figure looked at him, 250 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:25,250 he was hypnotized by its eyes. 251 00:13:25,410 --> 00:13:27,000 He felt paralyzed. 252 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:29,200 So, after having this encounter, 253 00:13:29,370 --> 00:13:31,750 he eventually wrote the local newspaper. 254 00:13:31,910 --> 00:13:34,200 He said, "I have seen this mysterious specter 255 00:13:34,410 --> 00:13:37,330 in high gate cemetery, has anybody else seen this?" 256 00:13:38,540 --> 00:13:40,660 And it turned out, lots of people 257 00:13:40,830 --> 00:13:43,040 had seen strange things in the cemetery, 258 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,330 and all the rumors about a vampire began to accumulate. 259 00:13:47,500 --> 00:13:50,080 There are accounts of these vampires being seven feet tall, 260 00:13:50,250 --> 00:13:52,160 that they have red eyes, 261 00:13:52,290 --> 00:13:55,330 that people are seeing these crypts that have been opened, 262 00:13:55,540 --> 00:13:58,750 and they see these bodies that don't look alive, 263 00:13:58,910 --> 00:14:00,806 they don't look dead, they look somewhere in between. 264 00:14:00,830 --> 00:14:03,500 And so, clearly, something's happening. 265 00:14:06,950 --> 00:14:08,660 Could the tales of frightening encounters 266 00:14:08,870 --> 00:14:11,056 with a red-eyed vampire be the result 267 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:13,040 of an over active imagination, 268 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:17,500 or was there something truly sinister going on 269 00:14:17,660 --> 00:14:19,370 at the century-old cemetery? 270 00:14:20,750 --> 00:14:23,410 In 1970, another brave soul 271 00:14:23,580 --> 00:14:27,660 believed he found the source of the unholy activity 272 00:14:27,790 --> 00:14:30,790 happening at high gate. 273 00:14:30,910 --> 00:14:33,000 Sean Manchester presented himself 274 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:35,080 as a Christian occultist, 275 00:14:35,250 --> 00:14:37,450 much in the style of Dr. Van Helsing 276 00:14:37,620 --> 00:14:39,410 from the Dracula movies. 277 00:14:39,540 --> 00:14:41,160 So, Sean Manchester said, 278 00:14:41,290 --> 00:14:43,290 "I know what's really going on at high gate." 279 00:14:43,450 --> 00:14:46,290 He said it is a king vampire from wallachia. 280 00:14:47,250 --> 00:14:50,620 Wallachia is a principality in what today is Romania 281 00:14:50,830 --> 00:14:52,830 that was once ruled by vlad tepes, 282 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,160 better known as Dracula. 283 00:14:55,330 --> 00:14:58,000 And he said this king vampire was brought here 284 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:00,250 sometime in the 1700s, 285 00:15:00,450 --> 00:15:03,160 and it's dormant beneath the cemetery. 286 00:15:03,330 --> 00:15:05,620 And he also claimed that all of this vandalism 287 00:15:05,790 --> 00:15:07,110 that's occurring in the cemetery, 288 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:09,500 it's this satanic cult, and it's performing 289 00:15:09,620 --> 00:15:12,500 these powerful rituals in the cemetery at night 290 00:15:12,660 --> 00:15:15,580 for the purpose of resurrecting this king vampire. 291 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:21,080 A king vampire being resurrected by a satanic cult? 292 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:23,846 It sounds more like a frightening campfire tale 293 00:15:23,870 --> 00:15:25,160 than the truth. 294 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:32,250 And yet, in march of 1970... on Friday the 13th 295 00:15:32,370 --> 00:15:37,950 this story would become forever engrained in modern folklore. 296 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:40,040 The high gate vampire story 297 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:44,250 escalates once it gets to the national media. 298 00:15:44,450 --> 00:15:46,170 And they broadcast, that there was gonna be 299 00:15:46,330 --> 00:15:47,950 a sort of an exorcism of this thing 300 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:49,620 in high gate cemetery. 301 00:15:49,790 --> 00:15:51,950 On Friday the 13th, of course. 302 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:55,000 And once that's on the news, 303 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:57,540 two hours later, a mob, essentially, forms up. 304 00:15:57,700 --> 00:16:00,120 Highgate cemetery is swamped with amateur vampire hunters. 305 00:16:00,290 --> 00:16:01,556 Apparently, the police are there, 306 00:16:01,580 --> 00:16:02,830 they can't hold them back. 307 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:05,040 They kind of swarm over the gates of the cemetery 308 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:07,620 hunting for this vampire. 309 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,080 It was reported that around 100 people went hunting 310 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:14,790 for the high gate vampire, 311 00:16:14,950 --> 00:16:17,290 but the fabled creature was never found. 312 00:16:17,450 --> 00:16:20,500 And while skeptics are quick to dismiss the idea 313 00:16:20,660 --> 00:16:24,500 of a bloodthirsty demon that roams the cemetery, 314 00:16:24,660 --> 00:16:27,040 like many urban legends, 315 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:31,580 it seems that something strange really was happening. 316 00:16:31,750 --> 00:16:34,580 The question is, what was it? 317 00:16:34,750 --> 00:16:36,540 There were definitely very strange things 318 00:16:36,700 --> 00:16:38,330 going on in high gate, 319 00:16:38,540 --> 00:16:43,120 in addition to vandalism with pseudo-satanic rituals. 320 00:16:43,250 --> 00:16:45,120 One detail that's often ignored 321 00:16:45,290 --> 00:16:47,160 is that there were a lot of dead foxes 322 00:16:47,370 --> 00:16:51,000 found at the cemetery, supposedly drained of blood. 323 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:54,290 We still don't know what killed these foxes. 324 00:16:54,450 --> 00:16:57,000 So, this is often how urban legends form, 325 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:00,500 at the intersection of unexplainable phenomena 326 00:17:00,700 --> 00:17:04,450 and then folklore rushing in to build a story 327 00:17:04,660 --> 00:17:06,540 about that mystery. 328 00:17:07,700 --> 00:17:09,330 Was there really a vampire 329 00:17:09,540 --> 00:17:12,040 prowling the grounds of high gate cemetery? 330 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,080 Or was it a case of mass hysteria? 331 00:17:15,290 --> 00:17:18,080 Perhaps the answer may be found by examining 332 00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:21,160 another famous urban legend 333 00:17:21,290 --> 00:17:26,000 about mysterious figures that lurk in the shadows 334 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:29,580 known as the men in black. 335 00:17:33,870 --> 00:17:37,830 Since the 1940s, both sightings and strange encounters 336 00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:39,950 with unidentified flying objects 337 00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:44,000 have sparked countless urban legends 338 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:48,330 of close encounters with extraterrestrial beings, 339 00:17:48,540 --> 00:17:53,950 civilian abductions and testing on alien spacecraft 340 00:17:54,120 --> 00:17:57,000 and livestock found mutilated 341 00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:00,000 as the result of otherworldly entities. 342 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,330 But one of the most fascinating legends 343 00:18:03,450 --> 00:18:08,290 surrounds the mysterious men in black. 344 00:18:08,450 --> 00:18:10,040 The legend of the men in black 345 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:12,750 is that ever since the dawn of the ufo age 346 00:18:12,950 --> 00:18:17,830 in the late 1940s, ufo witnesses have been silenced, 347 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:19,410 have been threatened 348 00:18:19,620 --> 00:18:22,330 and have even possibly been physically harmed 349 00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:26,830 by the men in black in their pursuit of the truth 350 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:30,160 behind what ufos might be. 351 00:18:30,330 --> 00:18:33,870 These figures are usually considered to be agents 352 00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:36,580 of any number of government agencies, 353 00:18:36,700 --> 00:18:39,830 but there are others who believe that the men in black 354 00:18:39,950 --> 00:18:42,450 might be agents of an organization 355 00:18:42,580 --> 00:18:45,160 that is so deeply hidden within our government 356 00:18:45,330 --> 00:18:47,160 that we don't even know its name. 357 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:51,500 The men in black usually show up after someone's seen a ufo 358 00:18:51,660 --> 00:18:54,330 or seen some sort of strange light in the sky. 359 00:18:54,500 --> 00:18:57,120 They try to dissuade them from talking about the ufo. 360 00:18:57,250 --> 00:18:59,160 Sometimes they take any evidence 361 00:18:59,370 --> 00:19:02,160 that people have of the ufos, 362 00:19:02,290 --> 00:19:06,200 including pieces of it or photographs, 363 00:19:06,370 --> 00:19:10,000 and they strongly encourage them not to talk about them. 364 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:14,950 Is there really a top secret government agency 365 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:16,870 that employs mysterious agents 366 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:20,200 to suppress extraterrestrial secrets? 367 00:19:20,410 --> 00:19:23,120 Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the origin 368 00:19:23,290 --> 00:19:26,450 of this long-standing urban legend, 369 00:19:26,620 --> 00:19:29,410 and the tale of a prominent ufologist 370 00:19:29,580 --> 00:19:33,620 from the 1950s named Albert k. Bender. 371 00:19:34,580 --> 00:19:37,750 Albert k. Bender is really the origin 372 00:19:37,950 --> 00:19:39,580 of the men in black legend. 373 00:19:39,790 --> 00:19:42,200 He worked for the air force during world war ii. 374 00:19:42,370 --> 00:19:45,330 But by the 1950s, he started something 375 00:19:45,540 --> 00:19:49,200 called the international flying saucer bureau, 376 00:19:49,370 --> 00:19:52,700 and it published a newsletter called the space review. 377 00:19:52,870 --> 00:19:55,040 In 1953, in the space review, 378 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,660 he wrote, "I've discovered the secret" 379 00:19:57,830 --> 00:19:59,200 "of the flying saucers. 380 00:19:59,410 --> 00:20:01,450 "I know what the flying saucers really are, 381 00:20:01,620 --> 00:20:03,790 and I'm going to tell the public." 382 00:20:03,950 --> 00:20:05,370 But he never did tell the public. 383 00:20:05,500 --> 00:20:07,500 Instead, he shuttered 384 00:20:07,660 --> 00:20:09,910 the international flying saucer bureau 385 00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:12,410 and stopped investigating ufos. 386 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:17,950 What would compel Albert bender to suddenly go silent? 387 00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:19,410 Well, nearly a decade 388 00:20:19,580 --> 00:20:22,330 after his strange change of heart, in 1962, 389 00:20:22,450 --> 00:20:26,620 bender shared an unsettling explanation in his book 390 00:20:26,790 --> 00:20:31,290 titled flying saucers and the three men. 391 00:20:31,450 --> 00:20:33,450 What bender eventually said was, 392 00:20:33,620 --> 00:20:36,040 "these three men in black came to my house, 393 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:37,726 "and they said, 'we know what you've been doing. 394 00:20:37,750 --> 00:20:39,500 "'You're getting too close to the truth. 395 00:20:39,700 --> 00:20:41,620 "'You need to stop talking about this right now, 396 00:20:41,790 --> 00:20:43,830 or there's going to be serious consequences.'" 397 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:46,160 they acted as if they were from the government. 398 00:20:46,330 --> 00:20:47,750 That they were very frightening. 399 00:20:47,870 --> 00:20:52,500 When the men in black initially contacted him, 400 00:20:52,700 --> 00:20:56,830 bender claimed he felt the temperature in the room drop, 401 00:20:57,040 --> 00:20:59,450 he got an excruciating headache 402 00:20:59,620 --> 00:21:02,000 and heard a voice telling him 403 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:07,450 to not delve any more deeply into the flying saucer mystery. 404 00:21:07,620 --> 00:21:12,540 And it terrified bender so much that he was completely happy 405 00:21:12,700 --> 00:21:15,250 to shut down his flying saucer organization, 406 00:21:15,370 --> 00:21:18,250 and to refuse to talk about the topic, 407 00:21:18,450 --> 00:21:20,660 even to his closest friends. 408 00:21:20,870 --> 00:21:23,700 Did men in black with strange powers 409 00:21:23,870 --> 00:21:27,330 really scare Albert bender into silence? 410 00:21:27,540 --> 00:21:31,000 While skeptics dismiss the claims as pure urban legend, 411 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:32,700 many have wondered, 412 00:21:32,870 --> 00:21:37,540 "why do stories of men in black still persist?" 413 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:41,330 In the summer of 2008, 414 00:21:41,500 --> 00:21:44,250 residents outside of needles, California 415 00:21:44,370 --> 00:21:46,620 saw something shooting through their sky. 416 00:21:46,790 --> 00:21:48,700 It looked like a long cylinder. 417 00:21:48,870 --> 00:21:52,830 It was covered in a turquoise blue flame, 418 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:57,700 and it crashed on the side of the Colorado river. 419 00:21:58,700 --> 00:22:00,950 And in a matter of moments later, 420 00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:04,450 big sky copters came with a crane, 421 00:22:04,620 --> 00:22:07,660 removing whatever debris had crashed there. 422 00:22:09,330 --> 00:22:12,410 The next day, townsfolk noticed 423 00:22:12,580 --> 00:22:16,750 strange, men-in-black-looking government officials in town. 424 00:22:16,870 --> 00:22:20,250 They were intimidating witnesses that it would be 425 00:22:20,410 --> 00:22:22,500 to their best interest if they did not speak 426 00:22:22,620 --> 00:22:24,750 about what they had seen. 427 00:22:24,910 --> 00:22:27,790 The needles crash in 2008 contains many 428 00:22:27,910 --> 00:22:31,500 of modern-day tropes of what we think of men in black. 429 00:22:31,700 --> 00:22:33,660 Who were the strange men 430 00:22:33,870 --> 00:22:37,160 allegedly intimidating residents of needles, California? 431 00:22:37,330 --> 00:22:39,290 Well, according to urban legend, 432 00:22:39,500 --> 00:22:44,080 these mysterious beings might not even be men at all. 433 00:22:45,370 --> 00:22:49,660 There are several things that witnesses have experienced 434 00:22:49,870 --> 00:22:51,830 that have led people to believe that 435 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,830 the men in black could be extraterrestrial in origin. 436 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,290 They act like creatures 437 00:22:57,410 --> 00:23:00,330 who maybe have learned how to behave like humans 438 00:23:00,540 --> 00:23:04,330 from monitoring our mass media. 439 00:23:04,500 --> 00:23:06,830 Are these government officials? 440 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,410 Are they extra-dimensional creatures? 441 00:23:10,580 --> 00:23:12,500 Are they some combination of the above? 442 00:23:12,700 --> 00:23:14,370 We don't know that. 443 00:23:14,580 --> 00:23:16,370 But there's a kernel of truth 444 00:23:16,580 --> 00:23:18,580 at the heart of the men in black legend. 445 00:23:18,700 --> 00:23:20,660 Ever since the beginning 446 00:23:20,830 --> 00:23:24,160 of the flying saucer age in the late 1940s, 447 00:23:24,330 --> 00:23:26,726 there have been persistent reports 448 00:23:26,750 --> 00:23:31,290 of men dressed in black threatening, intimidating, 449 00:23:31,410 --> 00:23:36,160 or otherwise silencing ufo witnesses. 450 00:23:36,330 --> 00:23:39,410 This is a real story. 451 00:23:39,540 --> 00:23:41,660 Are the rumored men in black 452 00:23:41,830 --> 00:23:44,580 covering up the existence of ufos? 453 00:23:44,790 --> 00:23:47,620 And who are they, really? 454 00:23:48,540 --> 00:23:50,870 When it comes to urban legends, the fact is 455 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:54,750 that you can't always trust your eyes and ears. 456 00:23:54,910 --> 00:23:59,750 Like in the case of a rash of creepy clown sightings 457 00:23:59,910 --> 00:24:03,330 that swept the United States in 2016, 458 00:24:03,450 --> 00:24:07,500 before spreading across the entire world. 459 00:24:15,620 --> 00:24:18,000 Authorities are inundated with calls 460 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:19,660 as freaked-out residents 461 00:24:19,830 --> 00:24:23,120 report a strange figure prowling the streets. 462 00:24:23,290 --> 00:24:28,120 And what they describe seeing is a disturbing presence 463 00:24:28,290 --> 00:24:30,700 of a very unusual kind. 464 00:24:31,580 --> 00:24:36,290 On August 1, 2016, people in the green bay area 465 00:24:36,410 --> 00:24:39,000 start seeing this mysterious clown 466 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:41,200 that's haunting the street, seems to be lurking. 467 00:24:41,370 --> 00:24:43,620 And that clown is absolutely terrifying. 468 00:24:44,540 --> 00:24:46,200 It is a white-face clown, 469 00:24:46,370 --> 00:24:48,500 but then you've got smudged, creepy accents 470 00:24:48,660 --> 00:24:50,410 around the eyes and the mouth. 471 00:24:50,580 --> 00:24:53,660 He's holding this bouquet of black balloons. 472 00:24:53,790 --> 00:24:55,660 Suddenly, everyone is talking about this clown 473 00:24:55,870 --> 00:24:59,330 that seems to be haunting the streets of green bay, Wisconsin. 474 00:25:00,370 --> 00:25:03,290 This menacing clown was later revealed to be part 475 00:25:03,450 --> 00:25:05,750 of a marketing stunt for a new horror film. 476 00:25:05,950 --> 00:25:07,660 But it seemed to have sparked 477 00:25:07,870 --> 00:25:09,950 something very strange to happen, 478 00:25:10,120 --> 00:25:14,120 when similar reports of creepy clowns 479 00:25:14,290 --> 00:25:16,080 started popping up everywhere. 480 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,120 Later that month, we were getting reports 481 00:25:18,250 --> 00:25:19,870 from other places. 482 00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:23,910 Greenville, south Carolina, children were reporting clowns 483 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:26,580 at the edge of the woods offering them money 484 00:25:26,750 --> 00:25:29,450 to follow them into the forest. 485 00:25:29,620 --> 00:25:32,330 And that fear, that anxiety catches on, 486 00:25:32,500 --> 00:25:36,250 and thanks to the Internet, it spreads around the world 487 00:25:36,450 --> 00:25:38,700 in a matter of days or even hours. 488 00:25:38,870 --> 00:25:43,516 Now we get images, videos. 489 00:25:43,540 --> 00:25:44,790 Parents are freaking out. 490 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:46,476 Police stations are getting phone calls. 491 00:25:46,500 --> 00:25:47,740 They're hearing about predators 492 00:25:47,790 --> 00:25:49,500 in the environment dressed as clowns. 493 00:25:49,700 --> 00:25:51,500 My god. 494 00:25:51,660 --> 00:25:52,950 And people tried to figure out 495 00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:55,160 whether that's a real, genuine threat, 496 00:25:55,290 --> 00:25:59,080 or whether that's someone setting up an elaborate hoax. 497 00:26:00,330 --> 00:26:01,500 The creepy clown craze 498 00:26:01,700 --> 00:26:03,750 of 2016 was this remarkable moment 499 00:26:03,870 --> 00:26:05,830 in pop culture history. 500 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:07,500 At last count, 501 00:26:07,700 --> 00:26:09,726 19 different countries had their own clown sightings 502 00:26:09,750 --> 00:26:11,750 within that period. 503 00:26:11,910 --> 00:26:14,910 It bears all those earmarks of really good folklore, 504 00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,580 really good urban legend, because this taps 505 00:26:17,750 --> 00:26:19,426 into that same existing fear about traveling 506 00:26:19,450 --> 00:26:22,500 into the woods by yourself, and protecting children. 507 00:26:22,660 --> 00:26:25,750 But now it's got this extra level of absurdity, 508 00:26:25,910 --> 00:26:28,790 level of creepiness, with a clown being the threat 509 00:26:28,950 --> 00:26:31,040 that's emerging from the woods for the kids. 510 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,330 Is there any truth to the urban legend 511 00:26:34,540 --> 00:26:36,040 that there are dangerous madmen 512 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,580 in clown costumes seeking to harm our children? 513 00:26:39,700 --> 00:26:42,790 While it sounds like the stuff of nightmares, 514 00:26:42,910 --> 00:26:47,830 reports of sightings of creepy clowns awoke a mass hysteria. 515 00:26:47,950 --> 00:26:49,620 My god. 516 00:26:49,750 --> 00:26:51,750 What's even more bizarre about this whole thing is 517 00:26:51,790 --> 00:26:54,870 that it's not even the first scary clown craze to happen. 518 00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:59,040 Going all the way back to 1981, in the Boston area 519 00:26:59,250 --> 00:27:03,040 this is the first time we really see a widespread clown sighting. 520 00:27:03,250 --> 00:27:05,200 Children are saying that they saw a clown 521 00:27:05,370 --> 00:27:07,950 approach them in a Van, and then immediately disappear 522 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,830 before any kind of police could make it to the scene on time. 523 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,700 And it's important to note that no clown ever was found 524 00:27:14,910 --> 00:27:17,000 at this particular clown hunt. 525 00:27:20,250 --> 00:27:23,160 In 1981, reports of creepy clowns also appeared 526 00:27:23,370 --> 00:27:27,080 in Omaha, Kansas City, Denver, Providence and Pittsburgh, 527 00:27:27,250 --> 00:27:30,080 but thankfully, there was no real evidence 528 00:27:30,250 --> 00:27:33,000 that clowns were abducting children. 529 00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:37,040 But based on the sheer terror that these reports inspired, 530 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,660 it begs the question, 531 00:27:39,870 --> 00:27:44,660 "how have we become so afraid of clowns?" 532 00:27:46,620 --> 00:27:51,040 Nothing in modern pop culture has changed more than clowns. 533 00:27:52,620 --> 00:27:55,290 In the 1800s, with the height of the circus, 534 00:27:55,410 --> 00:27:58,250 the clowns were the most popular performers. 535 00:27:58,410 --> 00:28:00,250 They were the a-list celebrities. 536 00:28:00,410 --> 00:28:04,580 They were the ones that everyone went to the circus to see. 537 00:28:04,790 --> 00:28:06,620 They entertained us, made us laugh. 538 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:14,200 But today, pop culture has portrayed clowns 539 00:28:14,370 --> 00:28:18,700 as evil beings, from penny wise in Stephen King's it, 540 00:28:18,870 --> 00:28:21,910 to killer klowns from outer space, 541 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:26,000 to Batman's Nemesis, the joker. 542 00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,410 They have painted them as things that are sinister, 543 00:28:29,580 --> 00:28:31,660 creepy, and possibly deadly. 544 00:28:33,540 --> 00:28:35,176 While evil clowns have certainly become part 545 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:37,250 of the popular culture, tragically, 546 00:28:37,370 --> 00:28:41,700 the urban legend became all too real in the 1970s, 547 00:28:41,910 --> 00:28:45,950 with a serial killer named John Wayne gacy. 548 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:49,830 John Wayne gacy is one of the most infamous 549 00:28:49,950 --> 00:28:52,500 serial killers in American history. 550 00:28:52,700 --> 00:28:56,000 He murdered many teen or very young boys. 551 00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,790 Would lure them back to his home and then murder them 552 00:28:58,950 --> 00:29:01,160 and Bury them under his house. 553 00:29:01,370 --> 00:29:04,580 And when he's arrested, it kind of comes to light 554 00:29:04,750 --> 00:29:06,550 that he also happened to moonlight as a clown 555 00:29:06,660 --> 00:29:08,160 for local hospitals. 556 00:29:08,330 --> 00:29:12,000 John Wayne gacy was a serial killer 557 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:15,370 who had a persona called "pogo the clown." 558 00:29:15,540 --> 00:29:19,040 So, this really cemented into the American consciousness 559 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,000 that there really is such a thing as a killer clown, 560 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:24,580 and that people who dress as clowns 561 00:29:24,700 --> 00:29:26,660 they may only be performing as a clown 562 00:29:26,870 --> 00:29:30,160 so that they can have access to children. 563 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:34,160 - John Wayne gacy's alter ego... - pogo the clown 564 00:29:34,330 --> 00:29:35,950 is a grim reminder 565 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,620 that a dangerous madman could be hiding 566 00:29:38,790 --> 00:29:40,910 under a layer of grease paint. 567 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,830 One of the things that always lingers for me 568 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,620 with the creepy clown craze was, 569 00:29:48,790 --> 00:29:52,290 who were the actual clowns? 570 00:29:53,330 --> 00:29:55,790 The people standing outside elementary schools, 571 00:29:55,950 --> 00:29:58,160 standing under streetlights at night. 572 00:29:58,290 --> 00:30:00,830 We never got the follow-up stories. 573 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,790 And that tells us something about the creepy clown craze. 574 00:30:04,950 --> 00:30:06,660 We weren't looking for answers. 575 00:30:06,790 --> 00:30:08,330 We were looking to be scared. 576 00:30:10,540 --> 00:30:13,660 Is it possible that we're in for another wave 577 00:30:13,870 --> 00:30:17,750 of creepy clown sightings in the future? 578 00:30:17,910 --> 00:30:21,500 Or is the phenomenon just an elaborate hoax? 579 00:30:21,660 --> 00:30:23,040 Perhaps time will tell. 580 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,750 However, there is another urban legend 581 00:30:26,870 --> 00:30:30,620 that's been a mystery for more than 185 years. 582 00:30:30,750 --> 00:30:33,000 It's the story of a demonic entity 583 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:39,450 that terrorized London known as... Spring-heeled Jack. 584 00:30:48,750 --> 00:30:53,000 Around 9:00 P.M., an 18-year-old Jane alsop, 585 00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:56,080 a young woman born into victorian high society, 586 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,830 hears a rattle outside her front door. 587 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,700 She looks outside and sees a mysterious figure 588 00:31:04,870 --> 00:31:07,500 who identifies himself as a policeman 589 00:31:07,660 --> 00:31:10,000 and asks her for assistance. 590 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:14,000 Believing him, she opens her door. 591 00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:17,410 And very soon, she'll wish she hadn't. 592 00:31:19,410 --> 00:31:21,556 He's kind of wrapped in this cloak, 593 00:31:21,580 --> 00:31:22,790 and he says he's a policeman. 594 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,500 And he throws off his cloak. 595 00:31:25,700 --> 00:31:29,330 And then, she kind of suddenly sees he's got this strange face, 596 00:31:29,540 --> 00:31:31,660 with these big, red eyes. 597 00:31:31,870 --> 00:31:33,830 He looks very sort of inhuman. 598 00:31:33,950 --> 00:31:36,200 And then, she realizes he's also got claws. 599 00:31:36,370 --> 00:31:40,120 And he blows this sort of a ball of flame in her face. 600 00:31:40,250 --> 00:31:42,120 Kind of describes it as a blue-white flame. 601 00:31:42,290 --> 00:31:44,870 And then, he lurches at her, he starts to attack her. 602 00:31:46,540 --> 00:31:49,870 This man began to claw at her face, her neck, 603 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:51,750 her arms and her dress. 604 00:31:51,910 --> 00:31:53,790 She was screaming and struggling, 605 00:31:53,950 --> 00:31:55,500 and luckily, her sister heard her. 606 00:31:55,660 --> 00:31:59,330 Jane was actually being dragged out of the home. 607 00:31:59,500 --> 00:32:00,790 Her sister, fortunately, 608 00:32:00,950 --> 00:32:02,950 was able to get her back inside, 609 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:07,040 but not before Jane's dress was almost completely torn off. 610 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:11,870 Who or what attacked Jane alsop? 611 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,870 Her attack made headlines all over London, 612 00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:17,000 and a wave of terror flooded the city. 613 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,250 Because this was not the first woman 614 00:32:19,410 --> 00:32:22,540 said to have been attacked by a shadowy figure 615 00:32:22,750 --> 00:32:28,540 that is known in urban legend as spring-heeled Jack. 616 00:32:28,700 --> 00:32:30,500 In the 1830s, 617 00:32:30,620 --> 00:32:34,750 this curious story emerges in the newspapers 618 00:32:34,870 --> 00:32:37,830 that there is an attacker 619 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,620 on the dark, foggy streets of London, 620 00:32:40,750 --> 00:32:43,410 called "spring-heeled Jack," 621 00:32:43,580 --> 00:32:46,830 who has eyes that are like balls of fire, 622 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,000 who has claw-like hands, 623 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:54,000 who wears this skintight black costume, 624 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,830 and who can jump enormous heights. 625 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,830 So spring-heeled Jack is a type of urban legend 626 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,056 that's sometimes called "a phantom attacker." 627 00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:07,160 So, in phantom attacker stories, 628 00:33:07,290 --> 00:33:09,000 there is someone who is attacking people, 629 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:11,040 but it's not killing someone. 630 00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,700 About 50 years after spring-heeled Jack, 631 00:33:14,870 --> 00:33:17,500 we have the Jack the ripper murders. 632 00:33:17,620 --> 00:33:20,410 Jack the ripper is not a phantom attacker. 633 00:33:20,540 --> 00:33:23,790 He's an unidentified serial killer. 634 00:33:23,950 --> 00:33:26,580 But there are similarities with the panic 635 00:33:26,700 --> 00:33:30,000 over spring-heeled Jack in that we have someone who is 636 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:33,540 stalking the streets at night, attacking women, 637 00:33:33,700 --> 00:33:37,040 who nobody seems able to identify or catch. 638 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:42,160 While Jack the ripper was a very real killer in 1888, 639 00:33:42,370 --> 00:33:44,200 the urban legend of a phantom attacker 640 00:33:44,370 --> 00:33:49,370 with superhuman abilities does sound a bit hard to believe. 641 00:33:49,580 --> 00:33:54,160 But incredibly, after reports of spring-heeled Jack 642 00:33:54,290 --> 00:33:59,700 started appearing in the 1830s, they continued... 643 00:33:59,830 --> 00:34:02,080 For decades. 644 00:34:02,290 --> 00:34:05,160 Spring-heeled Jack sightings lasted a very long time. 645 00:34:05,330 --> 00:34:07,500 They dip in the sort of late '50s 646 00:34:07,660 --> 00:34:09,370 into the early 1860s. 647 00:34:09,540 --> 00:34:12,500 He then gets reimagined as this penny dreadful character. 648 00:34:12,620 --> 00:34:18,120 Penny dreadfuls were cheap publications in serialized form. 649 00:34:18,250 --> 00:34:20,290 And this seems to sort of reignite a lot 650 00:34:20,450 --> 00:34:22,040 of the folkloric tales again. 651 00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,540 And then, he's seen in wales. 652 00:34:24,700 --> 00:34:27,160 He's seen up in Scotland. 653 00:34:27,330 --> 00:34:30,120 There's a sighting in liver pool in 1904. 654 00:34:30,250 --> 00:34:33,540 In sheffield, he was known to be around the region 655 00:34:33,700 --> 00:34:34,950 until the first world war. 656 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:36,540 So, you've got a character 657 00:34:36,700 --> 00:34:38,620 that if it is the same individual, 658 00:34:38,750 --> 00:34:42,080 is coming up for at least 100 years since he first appeared. 659 00:34:42,290 --> 00:34:44,620 Was there really a fire-breathing superhuman 660 00:34:44,790 --> 00:34:49,120 with claws, preying on women for 100 years? 661 00:34:49,290 --> 00:34:51,120 Well, some experts believe that details 662 00:34:51,290 --> 00:34:53,660 of this mysterious attacker were embellished, 663 00:34:53,870 --> 00:34:56,330 like many good urban legends. 664 00:34:57,870 --> 00:34:59,870 And some suggest 665 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:03,500 this monster served as a cautionary tale 666 00:35:03,660 --> 00:35:08,250 for victorian women living in 19th-century London. 667 00:35:09,950 --> 00:35:11,660 The time period in which 668 00:35:11,830 --> 00:35:15,726 spring-heeled Jack emerged was the 1830s. 669 00:35:15,750 --> 00:35:18,410 So, we're pretty much smack in the middle 670 00:35:18,580 --> 00:35:20,330 of the industrial revolution at this point. 671 00:35:20,500 --> 00:35:23,000 Industrialization changed a lot. 672 00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:24,500 It moved people out 673 00:35:24,660 --> 00:35:27,700 from pastoral spaces into urban spaces. 674 00:35:27,870 --> 00:35:29,370 It created a lot of congestion, 675 00:35:29,500 --> 00:35:31,080 people living on top of each other 676 00:35:31,250 --> 00:35:33,500 in sometimes rough conditions. 677 00:35:33,660 --> 00:35:38,370 And the story that we see is of this bizarre criminal, 678 00:35:38,500 --> 00:35:42,290 targeting women specifically in this urban setting, 679 00:35:42,450 --> 00:35:44,370 and in so many ways, 680 00:35:44,540 --> 00:35:47,830 this is just really quintessentially 681 00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:50,950 the fear of the unknown stranger. 682 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:53,250 So, this is clearly a concept 683 00:35:53,410 --> 00:35:57,500 that women are often in danger of predatory creatures, 684 00:35:57,660 --> 00:35:59,886 whether they be human beings or not. 685 00:35:59,910 --> 00:36:03,000 Spring-heeled Jack does speak to some of that violence 686 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:05,540 towards women in the victorian period. 687 00:36:05,700 --> 00:36:07,380 It's almost kind of reinforcing the notion 688 00:36:07,500 --> 00:36:09,830 that women should just be sitting at home, 689 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:12,660 and the public sphere is kind of the masculine sphere. 690 00:36:12,790 --> 00:36:14,386 But it was something that was often spoken about 691 00:36:14,410 --> 00:36:16,250 in this time period. 692 00:36:16,410 --> 00:36:19,160 And so, there is a sort of a controlling element to this. 693 00:36:19,330 --> 00:36:21,450 Was spring-heeled Jack invented 694 00:36:21,620 --> 00:36:24,176 to keep 19th-century women at home? 695 00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:25,790 It's certainly possible. 696 00:36:25,950 --> 00:36:27,410 But if that's true, 697 00:36:27,580 --> 00:36:31,700 then why has this story reemerged in the modern age? 698 00:36:38,370 --> 00:36:41,290 A family is taking a taxi ride through town, 699 00:36:41,500 --> 00:36:44,120 and suddenly, they witness something 700 00:36:44,330 --> 00:36:46,500 that's impossible to explain. 701 00:36:47,830 --> 00:36:51,080 They see a figure jump over a highway divider, 702 00:36:51,290 --> 00:36:53,660 run across two lanes of traffic, 703 00:36:53,870 --> 00:36:57,660 and then somehow leap up a 15-foot embankment, 704 00:36:57,870 --> 00:37:00,080 all within the span of about two seconds. 705 00:37:00,250 --> 00:37:02,580 On top of this, they said, 706 00:37:02,750 --> 00:37:06,410 whoever this was had no facial features. 707 00:37:06,580 --> 00:37:08,016 So, this is a really strange encounter, 708 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:09,750 and it sounds a lot like 709 00:37:09,910 --> 00:37:13,000 the original spring-heeled Jack sightings from the 1800s. 710 00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:15,120 Has spring-heeled Jack returned 711 00:37:15,290 --> 00:37:18,200 to begin a new reign of terror? 712 00:37:18,410 --> 00:37:20,870 Only time will tell. 713 00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,080 But there is another urban legend of a different kind 714 00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:27,500 that started in American arcades, 715 00:37:27,660 --> 00:37:33,540 about a game said to possess mind-altering powers. 716 00:37:41,410 --> 00:37:44,200 The video game revolution takes over america, 717 00:37:44,370 --> 00:37:47,080 and gamers flock to arcades throughout the city. 718 00:37:47,250 --> 00:37:49,160 And it's said that there is one 719 00:37:49,370 --> 00:37:52,000 legendary game that people are lining up to play. 720 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:55,660 The only problem is, it might cost you your life. 721 00:37:55,870 --> 00:38:00,620 It's called... Polybius. 722 00:38:00,790 --> 00:38:02,500 So, the polybius urban legend is 723 00:38:02,660 --> 00:38:05,410 that there was this game console that was 724 00:38:05,580 --> 00:38:07,290 placed in certain arcades. 725 00:38:07,500 --> 00:38:09,830 People would play it, and it was supposedly 726 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,000 either controlling their mind, 727 00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:13,830 or in some cases, we also hear 728 00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:16,700 that people were having headaches or seizures. 729 00:38:16,870 --> 00:38:19,500 It was causing them to have some sort 730 00:38:19,620 --> 00:38:22,160 of medical condition because of the game itself. 731 00:38:22,370 --> 00:38:24,040 Kids are getting into fights. 732 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:25,700 They're becoming aggressive. 733 00:38:25,870 --> 00:38:27,160 Some of them are dying. 734 00:38:27,370 --> 00:38:29,080 And where these games were installed, 735 00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:32,580 men in black suits would come and tinker with these games. 736 00:38:32,790 --> 00:38:34,510 And it's believed that these were some type 737 00:38:34,620 --> 00:38:37,330 of government agents that were altering the equipment 738 00:38:37,500 --> 00:38:39,056 in order to see what effects that polybius would have 739 00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:40,660 on the people playing it. 740 00:38:40,830 --> 00:38:44,120 But the thing is, there's no actual evidence that it existed. 741 00:38:45,290 --> 00:38:46,750 If there's no proof of polybius, 742 00:38:46,870 --> 00:38:49,660 then where did this urban legend come from? 743 00:38:49,790 --> 00:38:53,290 The only known evidence of its existence can be found 744 00:38:53,450 --> 00:38:55,660 where many modern urban legends are born 745 00:38:55,830 --> 00:38:57,830 the Internet. 746 00:38:58,000 --> 00:38:59,660 Polybius 747 00:38:59,830 --> 00:39:04,290 really comes down to a single website in 1998 748 00:39:04,410 --> 00:39:05,620 the coinop website 749 00:39:05,790 --> 00:39:09,830 that discussed different arcade games from the 1980s 750 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:14,160 that has an entry for this game, polybius. 751 00:39:14,290 --> 00:39:16,660 So, whether that website grew out 752 00:39:16,870 --> 00:39:18,830 of people's memories of the game, or whether 753 00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:22,660 that website created people's memories of the game, 754 00:39:22,830 --> 00:39:25,830 that was really the linchpin 755 00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:29,790 that leads to the entire legend catching on as it did. 756 00:39:29,910 --> 00:39:33,950 Is the story of polybius a complete fabrication, 757 00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,870 or could there be some truth to a dangerous video game? 758 00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:42,160 Well, perhaps the newfound form of entertainment in the 1980s 759 00:39:42,330 --> 00:39:47,410 really did warrant some caution and even fear. 760 00:39:48,750 --> 00:39:50,950 The arcade phenomenon was a new one. 761 00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:53,660 And in the early '80s, that's what kids did. 762 00:39:53,870 --> 00:39:56,790 There was one kid who played 28 straight hours, 763 00:39:56,950 --> 00:39:58,870 ended up making himself sick over it. 764 00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:00,480 Kids were playing this tempest game, 765 00:40:00,540 --> 00:40:02,226 and they were having seizures. 766 00:40:02,250 --> 00:40:04,160 Another game, called berzerk, 767 00:40:04,330 --> 00:40:06,636 a kid has a heart attack, and then a couple of weeks later, 768 00:40:06,660 --> 00:40:09,660 another kid has a heart attack on the same machine. 769 00:40:09,830 --> 00:40:11,330 This was a lot of concern for parents 770 00:40:11,540 --> 00:40:13,830 who didn't really understand what video games were. 771 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,660 Did fears of video games warping the minds 772 00:40:17,870 --> 00:40:20,950 of america's youth create the urban legend of polybius? 773 00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:23,080 Perhaps. 774 00:40:23,250 --> 00:40:27,290 But the bigger question is not how urban legends begin, 775 00:40:27,410 --> 00:40:32,700 but why they continue to endure from one generation to the next. 776 00:40:35,450 --> 00:40:39,450 It's often hard to find the origin of an urban legend. 777 00:40:39,580 --> 00:40:41,950 But it spreads because it's a good story. 778 00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:44,660 Something about it appeals to people's experience. 779 00:40:44,790 --> 00:40:46,250 And that's why they tell it. 780 00:40:46,370 --> 00:40:47,700 There's something about it 781 00:40:47,870 --> 00:40:49,470 that's articulating something important. 782 00:40:50,500 --> 00:40:51,870 There's a well-known saying 783 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:53,846 about urban legends among folklorists, 784 00:40:53,870 --> 00:40:57,540 which is that legends might not always be true, 785 00:40:57,700 --> 00:40:59,830 but they're always getting something right. 786 00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:04,500 The world is full of experiences, real things 787 00:41:04,620 --> 00:41:09,160 that people see, witness, experience for themselves, 788 00:41:09,330 --> 00:41:10,830 that they can't explain. 789 00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:13,450 And those are the things where we fill in those answers 790 00:41:13,620 --> 00:41:15,830 with urban legends. 791 00:41:17,700 --> 00:41:20,200 So, what's the verdict? 792 00:41:20,370 --> 00:41:23,500 Can people spontaneously com bust? 793 00:41:23,700 --> 00:41:25,660 Are mysterious men in black hiding among us, 794 00:41:25,870 --> 00:41:27,950 concealing the truth about ufos? 795 00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:31,040 And what about spring-heeled Jack? 796 00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:33,580 Was he real? 797 00:41:33,750 --> 00:41:36,370 You know, it's easy to be skeptical, but the truth is, 798 00:41:36,540 --> 00:41:38,060 not a single one of these modern myths 799 00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:40,870 have been definitively debunked. 800 00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:45,910 So, if you happen to catch a glimpse of some creepy clowns 801 00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:48,410 prowling around your neighborhood, 802 00:41:48,580 --> 00:41:51,830 perhaps it's better to close the blinds, 803 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,660 lock the door, and let them 804 00:41:54,870 --> 00:42:01,450 and all other urban legends remain... Unexplained. 804 00:42:02,305 --> 00:43:02,734