The Urban Legend of the Backseat Murderer

The Backseat Murderer

A good urban legend is like a good movie. It unfolds perfectly and it appeals to the audience’s hopes, fears, and anxieties. The urban legend I am about to describe was told by a first year female biology major at the University. She is of Indian descent and both her parents work in the biotechnology field. I collected this story on a Sunday night in the dorm. The fact that it was nighttime helped create the proper mood for the story. It was told in a dimly lit dorm room. The story was told with an eerie tone of voice, with emphasis and excitement during certain parts. The final part of the story was told in a mysterious fashion, which helped with the delivery of the ending.

I heard this story a while ago from a friend. It starts out with a woman who is driving late at night in the middle of nowhere, trying to get home from a long road trip. She is exhausted and is having trouble staying awake and paying attention to the road. Next, the “low gas” light on her car comes on and the car needs gas. The woman doesn’t know where the nearest town or gas station is, but she keeps driving. Eventually she comes upon an old rundown gas station. She doesn’t want to stop there since it’s so quiet and she feels unsafe, but the car needs gas so she decides to pull in. An attendant walks out to help fill her car up with gas. He is very shady looking and creeps her out. She did not like the whole situation at all and felt very uncomfortable. As soon as he is done filling her car with gas, she pays him. Next, the attendant tells her he needs to talk to her inside. She refuses, but he keeps on insisting that it is very important. When she refuses again, he grabs her arm in an attempt to get her to come inside, but the wo...

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...er. She is unwilling to obey his requests. This shows society’s view of strangers and how they should not be trusted. However, the fact that she did not trust the stranger led to her ultimate demise. The overt moral of this story is don’t be quick in judging someone that you don’t know, they may be trying to help you.

Works Cited

Brunvand, Jan Harold. Too Good To Be True. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. (pp. 97-100).

Joyce, Darrel A. “Modern Folklore: Cybermythology in Western Culture”. The AnthroGlove Journal. http://www.anthroglobe.ca/docs/cybermythology.htm

Mikkelsen, Barbara. “The Killer in the Backseat”. Urban Legends Reference Pages. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/backseat.htm

Smith, Paul. The Book of Nasty Legends. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. (pp. 95-96).

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://www.wikipedia.org.