Killer in the backseat

Killer in the Backseat (Also known as High Beems) is a common Urban legend in the United States and the United Kingdom. It began in 1968 by Carlos DrakeFact|date=February 2007 but many believe it was being told by at least 1964.

The Legend

The legend involves a woman who is being followed by a strange car or truck. The mysterious driver flashes his high beams, tailgates her, and sometimes even rams her vehicle. When she finally makes it home, she realizes that the driver was trying to warn her that there was a man (a murderer, rapist, or escaped mental patient) hiding in her back seat. Every time the man sat up to attack the driver, her pursuer scared him.

In some versions the woman stops for gas, and the attendant asks her to come inside to sort out a problem with her credit card. Inside the station, he asks if she knows there's a man in her back seat.

The story is often told with a moral. The attendant is often a lumberjack, a trucker, or a scary-looking man; someone the driver distrusts without reason. She assumes it is the attendant who wants to do her harm, when in reality he's the one who saves her life.

The 1998 film "Urban Legend" begins with this scenario.

References

* [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/backseat.htm Entry at Snopes]
* [http://www.urbanlegends.about.com/library/blbackseat.htm Info at Urbanlegends.com]
*'Encyclopedia of Urban Legends' by Jan Harold Brunvand
*'The Choking Doberman' by Jan Harold Brunvand