The Hook in the Back Seat: A Letter Received by "Dear Abby" in 1960

A ghost story that circulated among American teenagers for decades: a young couple parks their car in a desolate spot at night, turns on the radio, and the announcer says that a murderer has escaped from a nearby mental asylum, and his right hand is an iron hook.

The girl gets scared and wants to go home. The boy is unhappy, but eventually drives away. On the road, the girl hears a scratching sound outside the car, squeak squeak, like something scraping the car door. The boy ignores it and speeds away. Back home, he gets out to open the door for the girl and discovers a bloody iron hook hanging from the car door handle.

On November 8, 1960, a well-known reader's letter column in the United States, "Dear Abby," published a letter from a girl who said she heard this story from a friend and asked if it was true.

This is one of the earliest recorded versions. Later, folklorists classified this story as an "urban legend" because it has been told in various ways across the United States and Europe, with different locations and characters, but similar plots.

Folklorist Alan Dundes specifically analyzed this story; he believed it speaks to teenagers' fear of intimate behavior: a man and a woman park their car in a secluded place, a ghost appears, scaring them home—it's a story adults use to educate children.

The general explanation is: it's a story used to scare teenagers so they don't go to desolate places at night. And for storytellers, the most memorable part is the final image: that hook hanging from the car door handle.

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