Let’s Boogey: The Boogeyman Around the World (Vol. 1)

Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid. It's a bonus episode everybody. Honey, happy August. Here's your bonus episode. Hey, it's almost September. I was gonna sing something but then I didn't know why you were pausing. I was like, it is, right? No, we're wicked close. I was gonna sing something and then I didn't know what to sing. That's okay. It happens to the best of us. It does happen. It's Friday. It's Friday. It's Friday. I love Friday. And today is a bonus episode. So it's a little loosey-goosey, a little different. You know, we've been doing the twilight of it all. Mm-hmm. Had some guests on. Some book clubbies. And today we're gonna start like a new little series that might go through like spooky season. Yeah. Might dribble them in there. I like it. We're gonna talk about boogeymen. We're gonna talk about boogeymen, the folklore involving them, the social attitudes around them, how they come to be, what they are. Different places. Yeah, different places that they come from. So today we're gonna talk about like three different boogeymen. I like it. Or boogey people, I should say. Boogie people. This is an inclusive show. It is. And we'll follow this up with three more and we'll keep sprinkling them in every once in a while. Because these bonus episodes are fun. They can kind of just be. We should name them Let's Boogey. Let's Boogey. Let's Boogey. That's the series. Let's Boogey. There it is. There it is. That was so clever. How did I come up with that? That was amazing. It was tough. So this first one, we're talking about boogeymen around the world. Boogeymen and women around the world. Okay. So let's get right into it. Tell me everything about these boogie humans. So the boogeyman is kind of like this ambiguous figure. And in different cultures, like there's tons of boogeymen all around the world. Oh, yeah. And cultures can kind of project their specific fears and anxieties onto their specific boogeyman. Yeah. You know, that's kind of where they come from. And according to historian Marina Warner, they belong neither in literary or visual manifestations of art, but in that indeterminate, elusive territory that has been called folklore. I love folklore. I do too. There are a broad category of monster supernatural being that circulates within a culture. So there's a broad category of monster supernatural being that circulates within a culture as a warning. Boogeymen are definitely warning signs for sure. They're warnings to avoid certain places or to behave in certain ways. Or people. Yeah, that's how they come about. And as Warner points out, although they have shared and accepted descriptions and tend to appear in cultural texts and products, they are not themselves literary figures or characters that exist for entertainment or any kind of amusement. Usually there are exceptions, but they exist as kind of like a societal way of, or a way of encouraging or discouraging certain behaviors, especially with children. Yeah, it makes sense. Now, the primary defining characteristic of a boogeyman is, according to the Dictionary of English Folklore, any figure deliberately used to frighten others, almost always children, to control their behavior. It's fucked up. Yeah. For example, Krampus, the horned half-demon helper of St. Nicholas. Krampus is a boogeyman because he exists to frighten children. He's a boogeyman. He's a boogeyman because he exists to frighten children in good behavior. Yeah. But something like Bloody Mary, which could also, like, you know, it like teeters the line there. Bloody Mary really doesn't. Bloody Mary kind of exists outside of the boogeyman. Yeah. So a second and only slightly less significant characteristic is the boogeyman's kind of like amorphousness, like shapelessness. It's this quality that allows them to exist in cultures literally all over the world. Yeah. Without a precise or even remote physical description sometimes. Yeah. And so, you know, it's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like, societies, again, can project onto their boogeyman whatever they want or need to, you know, achieve that, like, social control aspect. Do you know who my eternal boogeyman is? Because I saw The Blair Witch Project too young. The Blair Witch? The Blair Witch. How did you figure it out? Yeah. Yeah. And you know what the lesson is? Stay out of the fucking woods. Don't go camping. That's such a valid lesson, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm so scared of The Blair Witch to this day. Yeah. I stand by the fact that The Blair Witch is a great fucking movie. It's a scary ass movie. It's scary. Yeah. And it's scary without all the bells and whistles. It is. And I was there when the marketing campaign happened, and it was the best thing that has ever happened. Jealousy. It's so good. I'm filled with it. Now, the final primary characteristic of the boogeyman is that it is typically, though not universally, but like this is just kind of like typically. Typically, they're like a lurker. Yeah. You know? They be lurking under your bed, usually. They do be lurking. Like the primary audience for the messages conveyed through the boogeyman lore, again, are children. And so it kind of like naturally follows that he's probably going to be found in dark and potentially dangerous places. Yeah. Under your bed. Your closet. You know? A dark corner of a room. Yeah. A sewer. He's this amorphous creature just under your bed. In the woods. Don't go under there. And this isn't because the space itself is inherently frightening. Like under your bed is not supposed to be inherently frightening. Honey, you don't know about under my bed. But. It is frightening. It is. It's kind of put there to ensure that once they are put to bed for the night, they will stay there. Yeah. Because there's a fear of being grabbed by the creature if they get up. That's also just like fucking terrifying. That is terrifying. Like that's fucked up. And real fucked up. Dude, you're like stay in bed or else. Or the boogeyman's going to get. That's fucked up. Maybe you should try that. Oh my God. Your kids are always getting out of bed. Honestly, if I haven't tried that yet, no one has an excuse to try that. It's crazy. Now, as children get older, though, the boogeyman starts to be in more public places that they end up going. Like dense forests, the banks of rivers and lakes, or like a dimly lit city street at night. Places that they are now going to be entering that they might encounter real world danger. Yeah. Now that boogeyman is being put out in the real world. He's kind of elevated. He's an elevated boogeyman. He levels up. He does. Yeah. He absolutely. He evolves with the kid. Well, it's useful to know like the historical and social context and defining features of the boogeyman. Obviously, the best way to understand the figure, and it's very diverse applications everywhere all around the world, is to see how it operates at various points of time. All right. So this one we are going to talk about first is La Llorona. Oh. Not to be confused with my Sharona. Sharona. Sharona. They are not the same. Vastly different individuals. Yeah. They are very different. This is also known as the crying woman. Oh. Now, ironically, as we've stated before, one of the most famous boogeyman of North America is not a man at all, but a woman. A lady. La Llorona. Again, sometimes called the crying woman or the wailer. The wailer. I don't know if I love that. Yeah. She's a figure in Latin American folklore who haunts the banks of lakes and rivers, warning the drowning deaths of her small children. Oh. Those who encounter La Llorona, I keep wanting to say La Llorona because I'm very So American. American, unfortunately. So unfortunately, deeply American. I apologize. La Llorona can expect to suffer a similar fate as her children, unfortunately. Oh. Or at the very least, experience a very long run of extremely bad luck. Now, like any proper boogeyman, the point of origin for La Llorona is kind of difficult to identify. But by most accounts, the story seems to go back more than 500 years. Damn. In the most widely shared account, the story begins with Maria, a strikingly beautiful but extremely vain woman. Maria uses her beauty to win the affections of a wealthy rancher, and they go on to have two children. Good for her. I see nothing wrong with this so far. You will. Okay. Unfortunately, after just a few years, you know, the happy couple became not so happy. Ooh. The rancher spends a lot of his time wandering the fields, working, and when he's home, he's just not happy. Yeah. He kind of ignores Maria, but he heaps love and attention onto their children. Okay. Uh-oh. One day, while she's out walking near the river with her children, Maria spots her husband having a picnic with another woman from the village. What a dick. In a fit of irrationality, she turns her rage on that which her husband loves the most. Oh. And she throws both of her small children into the river. It's not an appropriate reaction, Maria. Very disproportionate response. Period. As soon as she does this, she immediately regains, like, her sense of humor. Oh. Yeah. Like, her senses. And realizes what she's done and is immediately stricken with terrible regret. But she can't swim. Maria. So Maria ran back and forth screaming out for her children, but it's too late. Inconsolable and unable to live with what she had done, she threw herself in the river and drowned as well. Now soon after, she was found by the villagers and given a proper burial, but that night, villagers report seeing Maria wandering the banks of the river in a long white robe, crying out for her children. Oh, that's really awful. Yeah. Now, the thing is, so she was given a proper burial, all that according to the legend. But because she has technically murdered her children and taken her own life, Maria's denied entrance to heaven or the afterlife and must wander the earth forever, reliving the terrible moment. Over time, as the story evolved in tellings and retellings, Maria's spirit became a vengeful ghost. She could steal any child who wandered too close to the water, or a child who disobeyed their parents. Ugh. Ugh. cultures at various points in time there are many variations of the story of la llorona in one version from guatemala the woman has an affair with a wealthy man and becomes pregnant okay because she's married and doesn't want anyone to find out she gives birth but then drowns the baby in a river uh as a result of her actions she's condemned to spend the afterlife wandering the banks of the river looking for but never finding her lost child oh my god it's really bleak it's really sad like these are not you know boogeymen don't come from like happy origins yeah exactly now in another version specific to venezuela the woman becomes pregnant as a result of an affair with a soldier okay who abandons her soon after dick unable to care for a child on her own and wanting to avoid the shame and stigma of being a single mother she drowns the child in the river i feel like there are better options absolutely yeah now immediately again ceased with regret the woman begins crying out for her child which draws the attention of her neighbors and after seeing what she's done the people of her village curse her and throw her out of the village sending her fleeing into the mountains wow from that point on she takes on a spectral form and becomes a vengeful spirit who claims any children who wander too close to the rivers or streams of venezuela okay that one's scary that's all pretty terrifying to be frank now although most of the children in the village are children of the legends involve the death of children by drowning yeah some don't involve children at all i like those better i feel uh in one of the earliest accounts from mexico around 1550 the weeping woman is said to be the ghost of dona marina of portugal who had repented her conspiring with cortez that led to the colonization of mexico and was now condemned to wander the streets weeping quote for her sin okay so not for children just weeping just because she fucked up yeah other variations omit the murder part entirely focusing instead on the death and grief part okay and a variant from arizona la llorona is a widow whose young son drowned while playing by a flooded river grief stricken and changed by her you know profound sorrow because of this the woman wanders the region near the river seeking to kidnap any small children she sees not a valid response not a valid response according to the legend quote her fingerprints are found on windows are torn where she tries to enter homes ew i thought she's supposed to be by the riverbank that one gave me yuckus fuck that that one gave me lots of the yuckies oh don't tear my screen man yeah i didn't like that that's fucked up and fingerprints on windows oh i hate that anyway that shit pisses me off oh you now as these cultures evolve in societies evolved the story of la llorona also evolved initially to come into contact with her meant instant death yeah but as more people like you know especially because this started like way in like 1550 and all that like when people learned to swim like stronger swimmers when societies and land became less threatening because back then everything was threatening true potential contact with la llorona became less consequential okay now you would expect just like some bad luck if you catch a glimpse of her wandering the banks of the river or maybe you'll suffer no consequences at all and you just have a cool story oh wow that's really that's quite the toss-up there's still some that you know we'll we'll use the story as like don't go near the river i'd stay away from the river if i lived in any of these regions i would why did i just say regions regions if i lived in any of these regions hey people in these regions how you doing people in arizona are like ash oh let's talk about jenny green teeth what the fuck what the fuck you're just gonna move on from la llorona and bring me to a place of jenny green teeth question mark why did it also sound like you were like switching into an ad all right everybody today let's talk about jenny green teeth with my code morbid you can get 20 off your green teeth remedy the fuck you oh man tell me about jenny i'll tell you about jenny she got green teeth uh so obviously bodies of water like rivers and streams have always been a pretty common part of life particularly for rural or you know like in places that we all have been around like you're always around up some kind of body of water somewhere unless you're landlocked unless you're but but like like little ponds you got streams and stream like things that don't technically a crick the things that don't technically need to be watered down the ocean to pour into them fair it makes sense like a lot of cultures would create boogeymen to warn children away from the potential dangers of drowning yeah in the english countryside there have long existed various folktales like about goblins fairies sea hags like i love a sea hag that are all said to reach out from the depths and grab small unattended children dragging them to a watery grave i always feel like when i'm like in a lake or something that like somebody's gonna pull me to a lake or something like that i'm like i'm gonna pull me to a lake or something like that down yeah that's why i don't go in lakes i do it for the thrill you just love it i am risk averse yes so that's what we figured out yes now one such figure is jenny green it's jenny green tea i not i need to know everything about this bitch not to be confused with jenny garth you know yeah uh so also known as wicked jenny wicked jenny now she's from boston or simply grin teeth grin teeth i was gonna say i feel like i've known a wicked jenny or two you know what i mean i've known you've definitely known a wicked jenny are you listening you've known two such wicked jenny's yeah in recent years yeah you've come across unfortunately um fucking grin teeth uh this particular jenny jenny green teeth she's a water hag period specific to the region in and around lancashire england oh that's fun to say lancashire lancashire according to folklorist jenny green teeth is a variation of the more widely spread stories of the grindelow a supernatural fish-like humanoid stop it like many water bogeys jenny was designed to keep children from rivers and ponds and she is said to quote seize children in her long green fangs and drag them down into stagnant pools at the river's edge damn which is gonna give them brain amoebas so like that's fucked up yeah if they don't drown first yeah now like all jenny that's the most you know like it's not really a threatening name like if you're you and me it's like like her name is jennifer green teeth jennifer p green teeth like jennifer green teeth now like all good boogie men boogie people jenny green teeth jennifer green teeth if you're nasty jennifer p has an ambiguous appearance aside from her green fucking aside from her dental hygiene issues um her appearance tends to change depending on the teller of the story and the time the story is being told jenny's versatile according to one source um jenny jennifer had pale skin pale green skin green teeth very long green locks of hair long green fingers and fingernails wow and she was very thin with a pointed chin and very big eyes which is a wild visual when you put it all together it's a lot to take in all at once that's a lot yeah now the exact origins of jennifer green teeth aren't clear uh but she appears to date back to the mid to late 18th century um as a so-called nursery boogie nursery boogie her story is intended for very young children that's not good or recommended it's a lot less detailed and complex than something like la llorona yeah um it's also largely specific to the areas around northeast england and is related to a particular aspect of the landscape okay figures like la llorona exist at least in part to warn young people away from the landscape of the landscape of the landscape of the landscape of the landscape of the like rivers and streams where they can be pulled in and legitimately swept away yeah however in northeast england a much greater danger to small children are the still pools of stagnant water like that's the issue there because according to folklorist raw uh roy vickery quote in summer such pools are frequently covered by a dense mat composed of thousands of floating duckweed plants so that their surfaces appear to be solid oh these pools can be quite steep and really difficult to climb out of so an unsuspecting child could accidentally fall in and have a really hard time getting out or not even know that it's a pool at all they think it's a solid surface yeah that's terrifying so because it's a story for small children and again the details are kind of scant and there aren't a lot of variations of jenny greenteeth according to vickery one version of the story claims that quote jenny had descended from the water spirits of gothic mythology i'm obsessed with that whose great seductive beauty was somewhat marred by their green teeth just somewhat just a little bit it was something you could get past she's a 10 but she's got green teeth you know now one resident from liverpool recalled hearing the story as a child um and apparently jenny would quote entice little children into the ponds by making them look like grass and safe to walk on damn as soon as the child stepped onto the green it of course parted and the child was able to walk on the green the green it of course parted and the child fell through into uh jenny greenteeth's clutches and was drowned. The green weed then closed over, hiding all traces that the child had ever been there. That is so fucked up. Which is really scary. According to author Simon Young, there's a variation of the story that appeared in the mid-19th century. Quote, nuts were plentiful in our forefathers' days. They were to be met with in the hedges enclosing every field and lane, and especially in the clothes and near brooksides. To deter children from gathering the fruit before it was ripe, they terrified their young imaginations by awful accounts of a demoness, the guardian of young catkins, nuts, and nut trees. In conjunction with her were associated clap cans, who made a loud jarring noise by beating cans with sticks. To restrain their children from venturing too near the numerous pits and pools, which were to be found in every fold and field, a demoness or guardian was stated to crouch at the bottom. She was known as Jenny Greenteeth, and was reported to prey upon children who ventured too near her domain. Cool. Now let's get a little more modern, shall we? Yeah. As early as the 1990s. It was the 90s. The internet allowed users from all over the world to connect with one another through chat programs and message boards. It might have been the worst idea anyone's ever had. In 2026, I believe we fucked up. Yeah. We fucked up. We are too connected, bruh. Here's the thing. I know the idea was awesome. Yeah. So awesome. And in the 90s, we were okay. Hell yeah. Forget a pen pal. We're not killing it this year. We're not. We're not. But you know what? Back then, you could share stories, both fiction and nonfiction. And in the mid-2000s, a form of scary storytelling known as creepypasta became popular on the website Something Awful. Creepypastas are really fun. I love creepypastas. Yeah. I wish this is what the internet was all about. Just creepypastas. Just creepypastas and adorable old people. And little animals. And little animals. Yep. Yeah. And recipes. And recipes. There you go. For real pastas. Now, like the folklore and urban legends that came before them, creepypastas were short, generally vague, scary stories that were shared around the internet. Yeah. While most were like just really cool horror stories, some took the form of an urban legend by purporting that they were true stories. They had actually happened. They weren't saying, this is a creepypasta I came up with here. Read it and get scared. They were like, no, this girl in my class, her cousin experienced this, and it is 100% true. Which, when you really look at it, is back to the olden days of folklore saying, no, this happened once. Yeah. And it gets passed down and down and down. And eventually, you can't tell if it happened or not. I honestly love an urban legend. Yeah. And again, they would, a lot of times, these certain creepypastas would, they'd say they were true stories. They would locate it in a very specific place, and it would be some kind of moral message sometimes. Like an urban legend. In the summer of 2009, something awful forum user, Eric Knudsen, I believe it is, writing under a pseudonym, by the way, posted a story about a supernatural boogeyman he called Slenderman. In the original post, he shared two photographs of people walking or playing in the foreground, like two young people. While in the background, an incredibly tall, thin, humanoid man in a black suit can be seen just lurking, just watching. Those original pictures, fuck me up. Yeah. They're so scary. They're scary. It was a brilliant, brilliant idea. This story, I think it was such a good idea. Yeah, it's spooky. Because also, Slenderman, his face lacks any distinguishing features, which makes it even scarier. Yeah, 100%. And under the second photo, he added the caption, quote, one of two recovered photographs from the Sterling City Library blaze, notable for being taken the day which 14 children, vanished, and for what is referred to as the Slenderman. Which is scary. And again, really smart. This is smart storytelling. And you had a fire ring to it. I mean, come on. This is going back to Blair Witch. Yep. That's what Blair Witch marketed themselves as. This really happened. Here's the pictures. Here's the video. Here's the audio. You can see how these people came to disappear. Yeah. Which was one of the biggest parts of Blair Witch being what it was. That's what Slenderman was. It was like, nobody could tell. Some people knew it wasn't real. But some people didn't know it wasn't real. They were like, is this like for real? Like younger kids, they would have no idea. Like Aiden's like, hi. I'm a gullible witch. He's like, hi, me. Aiden said, I believe in Slenderman. And it would be easy to because it's being told to you like, here's two fucking photographs. Yeah. And it was in the early days of Photoshop. And you couldn't really like fact check it. Yeah. Like there wasn't that many avenues to go down. Exactly. Like the 78 gajillion pages. Exactly. Like it is now. Now, among other things, Slenderman is notable because he is a rare boogeyman whose origins are not only known, but were also created with the intention of hoaxing users of other message boards. The message board thread. Was created as an invite to users who wanted to contribute, contribute Photoshopped images that they could pass off as authentic. Regardless of that origin, Slenderman took hold of people's imaginations in a way that few legends have in recent years. Yeah. And maybe it was like, you know, the digital nature of the transmission. It's able to be shared quicker and easier. Yep. But it emerged also at a time when fears of children being preyed upon by adults online and boogeymen online were at an all-time high. You know what the precursor to that was? Do you remember those fucking chain text messages? Yes. Where it would be like, you have to forward this to like 16 people or this woman will be at the foot of your bed. Yes. And it was like, and it would, sometimes it would have a scary story to begin with. And it would be like, that's going to happen to you if you don't forward this. Yeah. I used to get so fucking pissed when I would get those. Chain letters were fucking crazy. Oh, they were awful. And you probably got them on email before text was even a thing. Oh, I didn't even know you were talking about text. I thought you were talking about email. I saw that on your face. No, I got them on, I didn't operate. Like me and my friends didn't really communicate via email. Oh, it was all email before. Yeah, for us it was text. It was always the like capital, not capital, capital, not capital writing with like the star, the asterisks and little like, like squiggly lines. Like, yeah. Yeah. Those were terrifying. Now, in the years that followed, the legend of Slender Man evolved on message boards and websites all over the world. Again, when it comes to Slender Man, there is endless lore. I know, there really is. You could go on for days. Yeah. And what's cool is it's like, it kept getting added to, like it was such a fun, it was almost, it was just like this big community based like grand story that kept like just getting bigger and better and scarier and more complex. But to distill some of it into something just because there is so much to it and you don't want to just like skim over it. And I heard this from Aiden told us this whole lore because he was part of this like whole community in the beginning, like loved this stuff when it came out. Like he was like the perfect age for this. Yup. Um, on June 20th, 2009, the first video of a YouTube web series came out. It was created by Troy Wagner, Joseph Delage and Tim Sutton. Um, and it came from the images on the Something Awful Forum of Slender Man. Okay. Now this series kind of revolved around a film student named Jay who was investigating this unfinished film from his friend Alex. And he was doing this by reviewing various tapes from the project. And during the course of the film, he realizes why the project was canceled. Ooh. And it gives this like really good, like early aughts, like text on the screen beginning explaining to you that this was a film that was canceled and it was, you know, he was reviewing the tapes and like Alex was starting to become paranoid and like losing his grip. Okay. It kind of gives you, it gave me, uh, like Hell House LLC vibes, especially because the main character's name is Alex, the one that was losing grip on reality. Yup. And in Hell House LLC, Alex is the one that's like pushing them further into the haunted house. And it starts off with like those like, like investigators, like asking everybody questions. Yeah. I was like, that's fun. Now, apparently the reason it was canceled was Alex had come in contact with an entity that was referred to as the operator. The operator. Which I do love that. Uh, this was a different name to the Slender Man. Now the series, it just like built more on that lore. Like I was saying, it like just added to it. And it also built off of the lore that was already there online about Slender Man. And one of the biggest parts of the lore that we had briefly mentioned when speaking about the Slender Man stabbing case was the idea of proxies. Yeah. Because when taken out of real world horror and brought into like a more fictional horror world, the idea of proxies was Do you have a proxy with this kind of entity? is really cool and like very interesting and like a fun addition to it i hate that it was taken out into the real world and turned into something violent and awful right uh but apparently proxies the whole idea of it actually was like a misinterpretation by fans um because like because of how characters in the series were acting or behaving okay fans interpreted that they were acting brainwashed and as brainwashed servants of the slender man himself like he was controlling them oh uh so that would later lead to fan fictions online with fans writing about this kind of proxy situation going on but then like how they were being elected to become the next proxy oh that's a slender man that's like fun but also so scary so scary but so fun right until it's taken out in the real world and damaging human beings it's like keep it where it belongs let fiction be fiction everybody writing now in 2012 and i remember this because aiden actually showed me this game and i remember vividly being like this is so scary oh no it was in 2012 slender the eight pages came out it was a it was like a fan game where the player could collect eight pages in this dark woods like this dark creepy forest you had to go find the eight pages without being caught by slender man it is so scary and the pages in the game were based on notes and scribbles left from characters in the marble hornets series which is what that web series so it came full circle yeah like so that original series that was the web series on youtube those pages are like from that so it kind of expanded on that like an easter egg kind of vibe yeah and it was genuinely terrifying yeah like i remember aiden showing me this and i was like what like i was like what the fuck i don't know if i can do this and with the gaming scene at that time really kind of exploding it was like gaining a lot of popularity and then slender man was kind of starting to like kind of figuratively reach his tentacles out into different forms all over the web and you know becoming far less more common to run across while you were on the internet this game really relied on this anticipatory scare where you would be running around in this dark forest trying to find these pages and he's anywhere and when he would find you it was like the whole screen would go static and it was loud and jarring and he would like attack you so it was just like ah i hate it so but that's like the perfect kind of game for like youtubers to play yeah and stream for like tons of views because you're you're anticipating it along with them waiting for them to get caught so it was that kind of like beginning of that kind of thing and this is where slender man went like really mainstream at that point okay yeah now when we get to the end of the episode we're going to unfortunately this was all like really fun this is how humans should operate it's kind of like not light-hearted but like in a way it was light-hearted in the sense that like this is horror yeah and it's supposed to scare you it's supposed to be something that you go oh is this real is it not real like it's supposed to be something fun like that right unfortunately the legend of slender man took a terrible and tragic turn in 2014 when two 12 year old wisconsin girls morgan geyser and anisa weyer used the legend as an excuse to stab their friend and try to kill their friend um quote in order to please sender slender man yeah according to the press in may 2014 the two the two of them lured their friend 12 year old peyton loitner into the woods and stabbed her 19 times i need you to remember these are three 12 year olds yeah we covered this before yeah and they left her for dead peyton managed to crawl to the road where she was discovered by a bicycle bicyclists who called 9-1-1 and when they were asked why should they did it they claimed quote they wanted to prove wanted to prove themselves worthy of slender man in their interview to police they claimed that they believed slender man was real and they wanted to become quote-unquote proxies thereby proving his existence to countless skeptics online jesus they spent months talking about this plan choosing a victim and plotting every detail of their intended murder and again that's very rare behavior for that's very rare behavior for girls especially young girls of their age in 2017 morgan geyser agreed to plead guilty to attempted first-degree murder and in doing that she avoided jail time and was instead sentenced to 40 years in a psychiatric facility um anisa weyer went to trial and a jury determined that she was mentally ill at the time of the attack she was sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric facility now slender man evolved from a traditional boogeyman to something entirely different he was no longer a source of fear fear or social control but was now a motivation for violent behavior the exact opposite of what a boogeyman is supposed to be right the stabbing incident set off a short-lived moral panic in which parents became exceedingly worried about what their children were doing online to which i say you probably should have done that to begin with um that's just me though at the same time the character took away most of its power and by the end of the decade most of the online community that had given rise to slender man had kind of moved on from him which is so sad that it got yeah one that you can't that that it's like it took away the fun of that you know that whole lore and everything and that these girls would take it to such a place to then destroy the life of payton yeah who now i'm sure you can come across slender man any old place you know like on the internet it's it's in a lot of places still even like in like um like he's on like shirts and yeah like it's it's a thing so it's like now payton it has to sit there and live her entire life she's a badass by the way yeah but she has to live her entire life worried about coming across an image of that i can't imagine what that would do to you yeah and it's just like what the fuck now again from the visceral fears of child death contained within the legends of la llorona and jenny green teeth to the anxieties of modern dangers that are in the legend of slender man the wiggy man has completely crossed cultures all over the world for centuries but again these are only a few of the endless list of bogeys that have haunted societies for as long as people could tell stories i mean there's some wild ones that we're going to talk about the next time i'm so excited there's one called the sack man i think i've heard of sackman yep there's uh kate cracker nuts haven't heard of her english lore okay um bloody bones and raw head from the american south bloody bone raw head sounds like um like that rob zombie film yeah like sure does 31 right yeah it does maybe he would be part of that yeah yeah we're gonna cover some of those hell yeah i like this let's boogie let's boogie we just dipped our toes in today so hopefully you guys thought this was fun especially for spooky season for um some bonuses this is really fun yeah yeah those are just some boogies period let us know if you loved this and don't only if you loved it yeah only if you loved it all right guys well happy bonus episode we love you we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you didn't want to boogie with us let's boogie let's boogie baby Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon