The Bunny Man is one of those spectral figures that has somehow seeped into the folklore of the continental United States. He has become more than a mere urban legend that ranges everywhere from a ghost to a mysterious creature to a spectral madman that somehow has surpassed the test of time and continues terrorizing those unfortunate enough to come across his path.
The Bunny Man, now banished to the realm of Urban Legend, actually is based on several incidents that happened in Fairfax County in West Virginia. Of the sightings commonly reported, one of the most often reported is the appearance of the man’s attire. They say he is completely covered from head to toe in either a mascot style bunny suit or the skins of rabbits.
Though there are many stories that are thrown around, the two newspaper accounts that have mention of the story have been made public largely thanks to Brian A. Conley, an archivist for the Fairfax County Public Library. He’s also the local historian. When he discovered newspaper reports of the two incidents, the story of the Bunny Man quickly gained a sort of credibility it had lacked previously as it had largely been chalked up as an Urban Legend.
The first incident occurred when two teenagers Bob Bennet, and his fiancee Dusty parked their car near the famed Bunnyman bridge. Quickly one of them noticed a mysteriously clad figure loping up to the vehicle wearing a strange outfit. The figure screamed at them and smashed the passenger window with what appeared to be a hatchet, and the couple quickly burned rubber out of the area with the man screaming after them about trespassing on his land. Of course the land didn’t have an owner and was public property. Later the couple would tell the police the man had been wearing bunny ears and a bunny suit. The hatchet from the incident was still in the car among the broken glass as they returned.
A few days later, just two days before Halloween, Paul Philips, who was running security on an unfinished development noticed a man wearing a black and white bunny suit standing on a porch holding an axe glaring out into the night. As Paul approached and called out to him, the man screamed back, “All you people trespass around here! If you don’t get out of here I’m gonna bust you in the head!” As Paul Phillips began backing away, the frantic Bunny Man began hacking at the porch post with the axe. After a few chops on the porch post, the Bunny Man leaped over a dividing post with the axe still in his hand and ran into the woods.
In the following weeks the Bunny Man was allegedly spotted by some fifty people, but his identity was never ascertained. Rumors abound as to who he could have been, but no conclusive evidence has ever been able to fully pinpoint who the mystery man really is. Still, gruesome details of murders the Bunny Man is alleged to have committed still abound in Virginia college campus folklore. It’s said no one ever goes to Bunny Man bridge at night, because he will be there watching with an axe in hand.