While poking around the dark recesses of the internet for other versions of The Ghostly Bus Driver, I stumbled on this appearance by Kojak star, Telly Savalas, on an Australian show about the unexplained.

In it, Telly recounts a mysterious encounter with a helpful motorist late one night when he had run out of gas. I won’t say anything more, since that would steal Telly’s thunder.

Reader Devin P sent in the following email:

I apologize in advance for the vague details; couldn’t find them. Here goes. Supposedly transit riders of (area unknown) have reported that after having missed a late night bus, a friendly little old man in an "old fashioned bus in need of repairs" has suddenly arrived to take them where they are going. The old man is reported to make warm, friendly conversation, as he takes the rider to their stop. Later it is inevitably discovered that such a driver and bus are not running any route on (line unknown). This seems to be an inversion of the "Ghostly Hitchhiker" legend, with the "spirit" offering a ride to the living.

No need to apologise, Devin! I very much like this re-imagining of a classic scare-lore tale, and like you I believe it has grown out of a version of “The Ghostly Hitchhiker” [1].

Having said that, I can’t remember coming across a version like this in any of my source books, and Google doesn’t return a match when you search for terms like “ghost bus driver”.

Can I ask roughly where and when you heard this story, if you remember?

And to any others who drop by; have any of you heard a similar tale involving a helpful, ghostly bus driver?

Footnotes:

1.	Sometimes also known as “The Vanishing Hitchhiker”.
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Okay, so if you ever spent an evening sitting around a campfire listening to ghost stories, then the chances that you’ve heard the story of ‘The Man With The Hook’ are somewhere around about 2 billion percent. It’s one of those wonderfully chilling tales that never fails to send a tingle up the spine, and it has made its way into any number of folk stories told all over the world [1].

I recently discovered a wonderful retelling of the tale over on AmericanFolklore.net, and I’d love to encourage you to go over and read the story, if for no better reason than it might remind you (as it did me) of some great times you spent at a younger age being scared out of your wits by a good tale.

Interestingly, I’ve encountered two different main retellings of this tale in my life. The first is very much like the version over on American Folklore, where the young couple discover the psychopath’s bloodied hook attached to the car door handle, indicating a very narrow escape.

The second, which may well have been borrowed from some other tale of a terrible encounter with a maniac, is even grislier still!

In this version the boyfriend leaves the young woman to go for help. A few minutes later she hears a sound on the top of the car, and moments after that a police loud hailer instructs her to run from the car for her life, and that whatever she does, she’s not to look back. Of course, she does risk a glance back at the car as she flees, and the story ends with her screams as she sees the The Man With The Hook standing on the roof of the car, holding the severed head of her unfortunate boyfriend [2].

Hope you enjoy the read, and I’d love to hear about your own encounters with the story of ‘The Man With The Hook’ in the comments below.

Photo courtesy of TJ Scott.

Footnotes:

1.	For example, I first heard it when I was about 12, at a Christmas Camp I attended just south of Brisbane, here in Australia.
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2.	Seriously, when I look back on stories like these, is it any wonder we all had nightmares as children?
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If you’re a fan of scary stories about the Bloody Mary ritual, you might enjoy resonanttantei’s fun retelling of a group of friends calling on Bloody Mary, and the terrifying results.

You can read the full story at: “Bloody Mary Bloody Mary Bloody Mary….oh crap” (note: language may be a little unsuitable to some in some places).

After a while, we summoned up our courage and went back to school, went into the bathrooms and of course, since I’m the “Legend Tripper” I had to say what we do.

I liked resonanttantei’s idea of being a “Legend Tripper”, and while I don’t know exactly what he intended to convey with the term, I thought it was perhaps meant to be a way of describing someone who’s something of an expert in various legends, but who also may be just a little bit unpredictable with it as well.

Jake being the bravest, looked up and his eyes went BIG. I looked up as well, I gasped and I almost screamed. Cori took her hand and covered mine. “Don’t scream, don’t..” She said to me.

Photograph courtesy of peskymac

I’ve just discovered a charming version of the Bloody Mary story over on the American Folklore web site.

In this rendition, Bloody Mary is a witch who lives in a forest and who lures children from a nearby village to use them in black magic that will give her back her youth.

Predictably, things don’t go well at all for the wicked witch once the villagers discover that she has been lying, and she is burned alive for murdering their children.

Before she dies, however, Bloody Mary curses the village, and to this very day anyone who chants her name three times in front of a darkened mirror will summon her vengeful spirit from the grave.

You can read the tale in full over at: Bloody Mary: A Scary Urban Legend from Pennsylvania Folklore