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'{{About||the horror film|Bunnyman (film)}} {{refimprove|date=July 2013}} {{coord|38.78985|N|77.36225|W|scale:4000|display=title}} [[File:Bunnyman Hatchet.JPG|thumb|Actual hatchet used by the "Bunny Man" in 1970.]] [[File:bunnyman bridge.jpg|thumb|right|The "Bunny Man Bridge" in daylight]] [[File:bunnyman bridge night.jpg|thumb|right|The "Bunny Man Bridge" at night]] The '''Bunny Man''' is an [[urban legend]] that originated from two incidents in [[Fairfax County, Virginia]], in 1970, but has been spread throughout the [[Washington, D.C.]], area. The legend has many variations; most involve a man wearing a rabbit costume who attacks people with an axe or hatchet. Most of the stories occur around Colchester Overpass, a [[Southern Railway (US)|Southern Railway]] overpass spanning Colchester Road near [[Clifton, Virginia]],<ref>{{coord|38|47|23|N|77|21|44|W|type:landmark}}</ref> sometimes referred to as "Bunny Man Bridge".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/with-legend-of-the-bunnyman-a-local-band-celebrates-a-quirky-urban-myth/2014/06/02/0252e9e6-ea65-11e3-93d2-edd4be1f5d9e_story.html|title=A tale about a tail: Northern Virginia band explores the bloody Bunny Man myth in a new rock opera|website=Washington Post|access-date=2017-01-23}}</ref> Versions of the legend vary in the Bunny Man's name, motives, weapons, victims, description of the bunny costume or lack thereof, and sometimes even his possible death. In some accounts, victims' bodies are mutilated, and in some variations, the Bunny Man's ghost or aging spectre is said to come out of his place of death each year on Halloween to commemorate his passing. ==Origin== [[Fairfax County Public Library]] Historian-Archivist Brian A. Conley extensively researched the Bunny Man legend. He has located two incidents of a man in a rabbit costume threatening people with an axe. The vandalism reports occurred ten days apart in 1970 in [[Burke, Virginia]]. The first incident was reported the evening of October 19, 1970, by [[United States Air Force Academy|U.S. Air Force Academy]] Cadet Robert Bennett and his fiancée, also, who were visiting relatives on Guinea Road in Burke. Around midnight, while returning from a football game, they reportedly parked their car in a field on Guinea Road to "visit an Uncle who lived across the street from where the car was parked". As they sat in the front seat with the motor running, they noticed something moving outside the rear window. Moments later, the front passenger window was smashed, and there was a white-clad figure standing near the broken window. Bennett turned the car around while the man screamed at them about trespassing, including: "You're on private property, and I have your tag number." As they drove down the road, the couple discovered a hatchet on the car floor. When the police requested a description of the man, Bennett insisted he was wearing a white suit with long bunny ears. However, Bennett's fiancée contested their assailant did not have bunny ears on his head, but was wearing a white [[capirote]] of some sort. They both remembered seeing his face clearly, but in the darkness, they could not determine his race. The police returned the hatchet to Bennett after examination. Bennett was required to report the incident upon his return to the Air Force Academy.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} The second reported sighting occurred on the evening of October 29, 1970, when construction security guard Paul Phillips approached a man standing on the porch of an unfinished home, in Kings Park West on Guinea Road. Phillips said the man was wearing a gray, black, and white bunny costume, and was about 20 years old, {{convert|5|ft|8|in|m}} tall, and weighed about {{convert|175|lb|kg}}. The man began chopping at a porch post with a long-handled axe, saying: "You are trespassing. If you come any closer, I'll chop off your head." <ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32013729/the_minneapolis_star/|title=Antics of 'Bunny Man' Start Police Hopping|publisher=The Minneapolis Star|date=October 31, 1970|page=31|accessdate=13 August 2018|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> The [[Fairfax County Police Department|Fairfax County Police]] opened investigations into both incidents, but both were eventually closed for lack of evidence. In the weeks following the incidents, more than 50 people contacted the police claiming to have seen the "Bunny Man". Several newspapers, including ''[[The Washington Post]]'', reported that the "Bunny Man" had eaten a man's runaway cat. The {{em|Post}} articles that mentioned this incident were: *"Man in Bunny costume Sought in Fairfax" (October 22, 1970)<ref name="fairfaxcounty.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/bunny/bunny4.htm|title=The Bunny Man Unmasked - Page 4 - Fairfax County, Virginia|website=www.fairfaxcounty.gov|accessdate=21 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170605163420/http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/bunny/bunny4.htm#|archive-date=2017-06-05|url-status=dead}}</ref> *"The 'Rabbit' Reappears" (October 31, 1970)<ref name="fairfaxcounty.gov" /> *"Bunny Man Seen" (November 4, 1970) *"Bunny Reports Are Multiplying" (November 6, 1970) In 1973, Patricia Johnson, a student at the [[University of Maryland, College Park]], submitted a research paper that chronicled precisely 54 variations on the two incidents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/bunny/bunny3.htm|title=The Bunny Man Unmasked - Page 3 - Fairfax County, Virginia|website=www.fairfaxcounty.gov|accessdate=21 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160824121902/http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/bunny/bunny3.htm#|archive-date=2016-08-24|url-status=dead}}</ref> ==The legend== {{unreferenced section|date=April 2015}} The legend has circulated for years in several forms. A version naming a suspect and specific location was posted to a website in the late 1990s by a "Timothy C. Forbes." This version states that in 1904, A man killed his whole family with an ax and was then sent to an institute [[insane asylum|asylum]] near [[Clifton, Virginia]] was shut down due to a petition by the growing population of residents in Fairfax County. During the transfer of inmates to a new facility, one of the fifteen transports crashed; most, including the driver, were killed, but ten inmates escaped. A search party found all but one of them. During this time, locals allegedly began to find hundreds of cleanly skinned, half-eaten carcasses of rabbits hanging from trees in the nearby forest. Another search of the area was ordered, and the police located the remains of Marcus Wallster, left in a similar fashion to the rabbit carcasses, hanging in a nearby tree, or under a bridge overpass—also known as the "Bunny Man Bridge"—along the railroad tracks at Colchester Road. Officials named the last missing inmate, Douglas J. Grifon, as their suspect, and called him "the bunny man". In this version, officials finally managed to locate Grifon, but during their attempt to apprehend him at the overpass, he nearly escaped, before being hit by an oncoming train where the original transport crashed. Supposedly, after the train passed, the police heard laughter. It was eventually revealed that Grifon had been institutionalized for killing his family on [[Easter Sunday]]. For years after the "Bunny Man's" death, in the time approaching Halloween, carcasses are said to have been found hanging from the overpass and from trees in the surrounding area. A figure was reportedly seen by pedestrians making their way through the one-lane bridge-tunnel. According to Conley, this version is demonstrably false. Among other inconsistencies, Conley notes "there has never been an asylum for the insane in Fairfax County", and that "[[Lorton Prison]] didn't come into existence until 1910, and even then it was an arm of the District of Columbia Corrections system, not Virginia's." Moreover, court records show neither a Grifon nor a Wallster. [[Cryptozoologist]] [[Loren Coleman]], on his blog ''Cryptomundo'' and in his book ''Weird Virginia'', in a section on the Bunny Man, wrote about a direct association between the legend and that of the [[Goatman (Maryland)|Goatman]] of nearby Maryland. ==Colchester Overpass== Colchester Overpass was built in about 1906<ref name="fairfax">{{cite book|last1=Netherton|first1=Nan|last2=Von Lake Wykoff|first2=Whitney|title=Fairfax Station All Aboard|year=1995|publisher=Friends of the Fairfax Station|location=Fairfax Station, Virginia|ASIN=B0006QCTP2|pages=41-42}}</ref> near the site of Sangster's Station, a Civil War era railroad station on what was once the [[Orange and Alexandria Railroad]].<ref name="fairfax"/> Because of its association with the legend, the overpass is a popular destination for paranormal enthusiasts ([[Ghost hunting|ghost hunters]]) and curiosity seekers ([[legend tripping|legend trippers]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Varhola|first=Michael J.|title=Ghosthunting Virginia (America's Haunted Road Trip)|year=2008|publisher=Clerisy Press|location=Covington, Kentucky|chapter=Bunny Man Bridge (Fairfax Station)|isbn=1-57860-327-7|pages=15–22}}</ref> Interest increases around Halloween, and starting in 2003, local authorities began controlling access to the area during that time.<ref>{{cite news|last=|first=|title=Legend Lives on at Bunnyman Bridge|url=http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2003/nov/04/legend-lives-on-at-bunnyman-bridge/|accessdate=May 8, 2012|newspaper=Connection Newspapers|date=November 4, 2003}}</ref> During Halloween 2011, over 200 people, some from as far away as the Pennsylvania–Maryland state line, were turned away during a 14-hour traffic checkpoint into the area.<ref>{{cite news|last=Stachyra|first=Mary C.|title=Neighbors Find 'Bunnyman Bridge' an Unwelcome Attraction|url=http://centreville.patch.com/articles/on-halloween-neighbors-find-bunnyman-bridge-an-unwelcome-attraction|accessdate=May 8, 2010|newspaper=CentrevillePatch|date=November 17, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122182228/http://centreville.patch.com/articles/on-halloween-neighbors-find-bunnyman-bridge-an-unwelcome-attraction|archivedate=November 22, 2011}}</ref> Visitors from outside the area may be unaware that Colchester Overpass is an active intersection of trains and traffic. The railroad tracks overhead are used by trains of [[Norfolk Southern Railway]], [[Virginia Railway Express]] ([[Manassas Line]]), and [[Amtrak]]. Virginia Railway Express and Amtrak together account for 90 trains using the overpass each week.<ref>{{cite web|title=Virginia Railway Express Manassas Line Schedule|url=http://www.vre.org/service/schedule.htm|publisher=Virginia Railway Express|accessdate=April 28, 2012}}</ref> In the vicinity of Colchester Overpass, Colchester Road is narrow and winding, with limited visibility. In Fairfax County, Virginia, it is illegal to trespass on posted railroad tracks and to loiter in a public roadway.<ref>{{cite web|title=Code of Ordinances: Fairfax County Virginia: Offenses, Articles 1 and 4|url=http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=10051|publisher=Fairfax County|location=Fairfax, Virginia|accessdate=May 8, 2012}}</ref> <gallery> File:Norfolk Southern freight train at Colchester Overpass aka Bunnyman Bridge.jpg|Norfolk Southern freight train at Colchester Overpass File:Train and vehicular traffic at Colchester Overpass aka Bunnyman Bridge or Bunny Man Bridge.jpg|Train and road traffic at Colchester Overpass File:Amtrak train at Colchester Overpass aka Bunnyman Bridge.jpg|Amtrak train at Colchester Overpass File:Night time traffic at Colchester Overpass aka Bunnyman Bridge.jpg|Nighttime traffic at Colchester Overpass </gallery> ==In popular culture== "Bunnyman", the final song<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzxoX5nOtgI|title=Bunnyman|first=|last=Ben Arp - Topic|date=26 August 2015|publisher=|accessdate=21 June 2017|via=YouTube}}</ref> on {{em|Music To Piss You Off}}, a 2010 compilation album<ref name="C/A/T - Music To Piss You Off">{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/CAT-Music-To-Piss-You-Off/master/749910|title=C/A/T - Music To Piss You Off|website=Discogs|accessdate=21 June 2017}}</ref> by [[Power noise|rhythmic noise]]/[[Industrial music|industrial]] artist<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/187215-CAT|title=C/A/T|website=Discogs|accessdate=21 June 2017}}</ref> C/A/T (Chaos and Terror), was inspired by the Bunny Man legend.<ref name="C/A/T - Music To Piss You Off"/> The 2011 [[slasher film]] ''[[Bunnyman (film)|Bunnyman]]'' is an [[Exploitation film|exploitation]]-style version of the story. In 2017, Badwolf Brewing Company, of Manassas, Virginia, released their hoppy, red lager known as The Bunny Man in a can that depicted the tunnel, a figure in a bunny suit, and a child holding a red balloon. The 2017 Amazon original series ''[[Lore (TV series)|Lore]]'', based on the podcast of the same name, uses the Bunny Man legend to introduce the second episode of Season 1. In {{em|[[The Chris Gethard Show]]}} episode "Let's Get Scared", host [[Chris Gethard]] dresses as the Bunny Man for the full episode. == See also == * ''[[Donnie Darko]]'' * [[Raymond Robinson (Green Man)]] ==References== {{Reflist|30em}} ==Further reading== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20111030185642/http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/bunny/ The Bunny Man Unmasked: The Real Life Origins of an Urban Legend] from [[Fairfax County Public Library]] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080920023346/http://braddockheritage.org/resources/item/26/ Bunny Man: Artist's Rendition] from Braddock Heritage *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080920023342/http://braddockheritage.org/resources/item/179/ Map: Braddock's Historic Sites] from Braddock Heritage showing location of Bunny Man incidents *{{cite book | author=Mark Moran and Mark Scuerman | title=Weird U.S. | publisher=Barnes and Noble | year=2004 | isbn=0-7607-5043-2 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/weirdus00mark }} *the description of "bunny suit" was removed, because it refers to what people wear to protect from biologic contamination, [[Cleanroom suit]]. ==External links== *[http://www.northernvirginiamag.com/entertainment/entertainment-features/2015/10/01/long-live-the-bunnyman/ Long Live The Bunnyman] by Jenny Cutler Lopez in Northern Virginia Magazine (October 2015) *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080225143350/http://www.weirdus.com/stories/VA01.asp Tales of The Bunnyman of Northern Virginia] from WeirdUS.com *[https://web.archive.org/web/20170912234902/http://www.castleofspirits.com/clifton.html The Clifton Bunny Man] from Castle Of Spirits *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Bk4CXebP0 The Legend of the Bunny Man] from YouTube.com *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QubDmzS7wv8&index=4&list=PL6cgtmyikyYl3wD927iso5qCSAttBKzHx Interview with the Bennetts] from YouTube.com *{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29963310/ames_daily_tribune/|title=Bunny man protects territorial imperative|publisher=Ames Daily Tribune|location=Ames, Iowa|date=January 2, 1970|page=4439|accessdate=13 August 2018|via=newspapers.com}} *{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29963225/the_monitormcallen_texas/|title="Bunny Man" Strikes Again in Virginia|publisher=The Monitor|location=McAllen, Texas|date=November 1, 1970|page=38|accessdate=13 August 2018|via=newspapers.com}} {{Urban legends}} [[Category:Urban legends]] [[Category:Supernatural legends]] [[Category:Virginia folklore]] [[Category:Fairfax County, Virginia]] [[Category:Creepypasta]]'