Sleepy Hollow Precis

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On a stormy night, Mr. Van Garrett is making his way through the fields in a horse drawn carriage, with a mysterious figure on horseback not far behind him. With the sound of a “swoosh” by a sword, his horseman’s head comes off, forcing Van Garrett to abandon the carriage. As he makes his way through the cornfields, he too meets his fate as the same figure slices his head clean off of his body.
In 1799 New York City, Ichabod Crane, an apparent medical examiner/investigator, longs to change the current system in which dead bodies are simply burned without prior examination and suspected criminals are tortured without questioning. After taking his plea to court for a change numerous times, the judge offers him a choice to either live with the current system in New York or go to a town called Sleepy Hollow to investigate three recent murders. The judge demands that he bring back the murderer that has chopped off all of the victims’ heads. Mr. Crane, of course, accepts the offer to prove his methods of investigation.
The small, grim town of Sleepy Hollow does not seem to welcome the company of an outsider. Only the Van Tassels seem to show any signs of relief in having someone to help solve the case of the recent murders. Baltus Van Tassel, a wealthy farmer, has grown to become the town’s council, banker, and landlord. He, along with a few colleagues, explains to Crane whom the real murderer is: the Headless Horseman. As history tells, the horseman was a brave warrior who fought his enemies by slashing off their heads. He was finally slain in the western woods of Sleepy Hollow, only to have his head cut off by his own sword. After twenty years buried in those woods, the spirit has awaken, cutting off heads wherever he may find them....

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...the roof of the nearby windmill and begins to set the entire structure on fire since the Horseman is still inside. The three are safely on the ground after riding the wings of the windmill to the bottom. Unfortunately, the Horseman does not die and is still after Katrina’s head. As the pursuit begins with Crane, Katrina, and Masbeth on a horse drawn carriage, the party makes their way to the tree of death where they once again meet Mrs. Van Tassel. Then, Crane is able to attack her, where he takes possession of the skull. Just as Katrina is about to lose her head, Crane throws the Horseman the skull where he can now reattach his head. Before he reenters his dwelling place in Hell through the tree of death, he takes Mrs. Van Tassel to spend eternity with him.
Ichabod Crane, Katrina Van Tassel, and the young Masbeth all returned to New York City to be where home is.

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