In the long history of paranormal events and bizarre stories told around campfires there are always those that are nothing more than urban legends and explorations of events that are entirely fabricated – but then there are the ones that are both some of the strangest and some of the truest of their time. The legend of the Bunny Man is a mystery that unfolded after a mysterious figure was witnessed by over 50 people in the second half of 1970. And every attempt to uncover the identity of this mystery figure has met with a brick wall.
And although it may be one of the most bizarre and terrifying campfire stories, those telling it are left with the uneasy fact that it is also entirely true. And some say Halloween is the night when he is still seen to this day as a battered and enraged ghost.
The Bunny Man was first seen in Fairfax County, West Virginia, in the late hours of the night when Bob Bennet, a cadet at the United States Air Force Academy parked his car with his fiancee Dusty. The two were in the area visiting Dusty’s family and they had just stopped for a moment with the car still running to talk and get their bearings. Far from a “lover’s lane” incident, the pair were only in the area for a few moments when suddenly Dusty spotted something behind them. It was a shape moving in the shadows behind them. Just as she was warning her fiancee that something had appeared behind them the passenger side window smashed to pieces and a dirty homeless looking man wearing a pair of long white bunny ears on his head stuck his head in and started screaming that they were on his land. After the pair sped from the area, they went to the police station and reported the incident. The police arrived on the scene looking for the mystery figure wearing a bunny suit, but found none.
Later several different people would visit the area and some would come away with their own accounts of the incredibly oddly dressed looking man and his mysterious costume. The second most famous incident came when a construction guard in a completely different area noticed a similarly dressed bunny man brandishing an axe and chopping into a support column near one of the newly constructed houses. Once again he spouted that the guard was trespassing and threatened to chop into his head with the axe. Terrified, the guard left the scene and the area was investigated. Though the police found the axe marks, no other sign of the bunny man was discovered.
And now decades later we are left with this story of a mysterious man that still appears periodically throughout the DC area with his axe in hand threatening people to leave. There is another part of the Bunny Man legend, however, that the figure may have died several years ago and the strange apparition haunting people on Halloween now is actually his ghost. Whether he will be making another appearance this upcoming halloween is unknown.