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Dispelling the mystery of the urban myth
A DARK and dingy night. A lone woman. A car. The classic ingredients of an urban legend, the kind of which is currently the talk of Whittlesey. But why do we love hearing these tales so much, and is there any ever truth in them? Jemma Walton delved into the murky world of myths to find out.
A DARK and dingy night. A lone woman. A car. The classic ingredients of an urban legend, the kind of which is currently the talk of Whittlesey. But why do we love hearing these tales so much, and is there any ever truth in them? Jemma Walton delved into the murky world of myths to find out."OH my god, what a story! You'll never guess what I've heard over the weekend, yeah?"
It isn't often you hear the above sentence reverberating around the hallowed walls of theET newsroom, but sometimes, just sometimes the god of current events can unleash a golden newsy thunderbolt on Priestgate.
Take the other week, for example. A senior member of staff rushed into work on a Monday morning – his tie was askew, his eyes bulging, his temple sweaty.
(And this member of staff isn't normally the kind of bloke to sport a sweaty temple.)
"I've heard the strangest thing over the weekend," he said. "Apparently, a woman went to the Esso garage in Whittlesey late at night, you know, when the shop is all shut up and you have to pay through that little plastic window?"
Yes...
"Well, this woman pulled up, pumped her petrol and went to pay at this window. But the garage attendant said to her 'Don't panic, but I'm going to open the door and I want you to come in here.'
"The girl did as she was told. And as soon as she was inside the garage, the attendant explained that as she had turned her back to pay for her petrol he had seen a man tuck himself into the back of her car and crouch in the back seat.
"They called the police and waited, and when the police came, sure enough they found a man with a knife in the back of the car."
The ET staffer was right – it was a hell of a story. Only trouble was, when our reporters phoned the garage and the police to check it out, they didn't know what we were talking about.
wWat's your favourite urban myth?
Comment below, email us: features@peterboroughtoday.co.uk or telephone the newsdesk 01733 555111.
Sadly for the senior ET newshound, and the rest of us, all too often that golden newsy thunderbolt isn't actually a golden newsy thunderbolt: it's what Sir Alan Sugar would refer to as "a load of old tut." However, that hasn't stopped the story from spreading around Peterborough, and we have had dozens of phonecalls asking us why we are ignoring the most sinister, spookiest bit of news to hit the city in a long time.
The truth is, we not. We – and many of you – had just fallen prey to that most seductive and scary of things, the good old urban myth.
You've probably heard a fair few in your time: usually they involve a man preying on a young woman, the friend of a friend of the friend who is telling you.The scene for the setting of the urban myth is usually a conked-out car in the middle of a lonely winding country road, a disused barn or a cottage standing deep and lonely in the countryside.
Three of the things which never seems to change about them, however, is that they are completely untrue, that they will spread like wild fire, and people will absolutely love to hear them.
But how do these myths start, and why do we have such a passion for them?
According to Dr David Clarke, who has taught courses on traditions of supernatural belief and urban legends at the University of Sheffield, the Whittlesey myth has been doing the rounds for quite some time.
He said: "According to the Encyclopedia of Urban Legend this tale, known as "The Killer in the Back Seat," first sprung up in America. It was also the opening scene of the 1998 film Urban Legend – except in this case the woman was attacked by the man in the back of her car.
"There are two versions of this myth – the one that's gone around, plus one that features a female driver being followed by a driver flashing his lights behind her. Eventually she pulls over and the person behind her saves her from her attacker."
Dr Clarke said most urban legends had a moral – in this case, the moral is that you should always lock your car when you're away from it, and check the back seat before getting in.
"A lot of myths seem to pop up when there's something new in society," he added. "For example, when I was a reporter working on the Sheffield Star in the 1980s, lots of people told me that someone had been stabbed with a syringe in a nightclub in the city, and caught Aids.
"It was, of course, not true.
"There have also been a lot of myths spring up after 9/11. One version of this is "The Grateful Arab". In this, an Asian person drops a wallet in a crowded place, such as a shopping centre.
"A white person picks it up and gives it back to them, and the Asian person says 'Thanks for this – and make sure you stay away from here on Sunday – a bomb might just go off.'
"This myth has been going since the Second World War, when the grateful person would have been a German, during the Troubles of the '70s it would have been an Irish person, and after 9/11 it's been an Asian person."
Dr Clarke said that urban legend was a misnomer, as these myths could spread anywhere, particularly quickly in small communities such as villages or college campuses. Often, they have a grain of truth in them.
David was also a reporter in Birmingham, and there were reports that someone had been bitten by a vampire. In fact, someone had been bitten. But by a human, not a vampire – someone with a very active imagination had added that element.
"Humans enjoy story telling, and a lot of these stories tend to have macabre or scary elements, the kind of which are also found in horror films, which are also very popular," he said.
"There is something in us that likes being scared, and also scaring other people."Stuart Orme, who runs Peterborough Museum's ghost walks agrees.
He said: "Spreading urban myths gives people a frisson of danger and it also taps into the very human instinct for stories, to tell them, to listen to them – it harks back to days gone by, when people would sit round the camp fire telling tales.
"But as soon as tales are retold details change and things become exaggerated, such as with Chinese whispers. A good example of this is the recent sightings of big black cats around Peterborough.
"Someone sees a big cat and then it becomes a beast the size of a lion and so on and so on."
Perhaps urban mythologising is such a popular pastime because we all just like a little shiver down our spine to spice up our lives a little bit – but not too much (why else do people watch Crimewatch?).
As Stuart puts it: "Without fail, all of the children who look around the musuem tell me that their school is haunted. Children love to be scared, but know they're safe really, and adults are no different."
Mention the "woman in garage" story to the staff at Esso in Peterborough Road, Whittlesey, and they'll smile.
Because they've been telling punters the story is bunkum ever since it started to spread in January.
"I don't know where it came from," said manager Iqbal Hasshu. "But it's not true. We've had 30 or so customers come in and ask us about it. We've even had the police phone up and ask whether it was true!"
According to Iqbal there is an e-mail currently doing the rounds relating the story, and someone must have got it muddled up with their garage.
More stories on next pageJenny Palmer, the owner of Inspirations card and gift shop in Market Street. said she had heard the story from three different people, and had believed it.
"Three women mentioned it to me, and each of them all mentioned what they did when they bought petrol," she said. "And one told me that she didn't lock her car, but would now. So perhaps even though it's a scary story, it's got a good purpose.
"Stories do spread in Whittlesey. The other day there were police cars and an ambulance near the bookies. Someone told me that it was a bungled robbery on the bookies and someone living in the house next door had been hurt.
"I saw the woman who lived in the house in Peterborough recently, and asked her how things were. She told me that her husband had passed out in the loo and had to have stitches in his head – how that got turned into a bungled robbery, I don't know!"
Hairdressers always have the best gossip – and Nikki Billett, of Boome Hairdressers, on Market Street, is no different. She has heard the garage attack story from several of her customers.
She said: "These kind of stories do tend to do the rounds. I remember when Queensgate opened, there was a story about a little old lady asking someone for a lift, and when she got in their car the driver saw she had a big hairy hand, and realised he was really a man who was going to attack her!"
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