5 o'clock Shadow

[dancin'hamster]

Ok, for Cuffy - another tale about a man dressed up as a woman.........hey.....anyone else noticing a pattern here?

*peers at monitor*

What on earth are you wearing, Cufflink?

Anyhoo, the story ~

One popular urban legend, a story that is usually passed off as a real incident which happened to a 'friend of a friend' may have had its origins in the following true story, which happened in Liverpool in 1949.

Appropriately enough, the date was 31 October 1949 - Halloween. A 40-year-old motorist named William Charnock of Ennismore Road in Old Swan decided he'd visit his Aunt Verity in Knowsley. Charnock had to wear glasses when he drove, but couldn't find his spectacles anywhere. He foolishly set out without them. When Charnock was travelling along Prescot Road on his way through Knotty Ash, he saw a woman in a long black dress standing at the side of the road, waving at him. Charnock slowed the car and pulled up to see what the woman wanted. He wound down the window on the passenger door. The woman peeped in at him, and in a foreign accent, possibly Swedish, she said, 'Please may you take me to Manchester?'

William Charnock explained that he was only going as far as Knowsley, but the woman didn't seem to understand, and looked at him quizzically. Charnock opened the door and said, 'Get in, but I'm only going as far as Knowsley, not Manchester.'

'Oh. Thanking you. Kind man.' The woman said in a gruff voice. She got into the vehicle clutching a handbag and slammed the car door rather hard.

During the journey, Charnock learned that the woman had come by boat to Liverpool from Sweden, and had been trying to trace relatives in Knotty Ash. She had been unable to find them, and had been told by their former neighbours that the people she sought were now living in Manchester.

Charnock couldn't help making furtive glances at the woman. He thought there was something strange about her. The hands were rather large, and the fingertips broad and square. The straight brown shoulder-length hair looked synthetic. Despite not having his glasses on, Charnock also noticed that the woman had a five o'clock shadow of stubble - showing through the make-up. And 'she' also had an Adam's Apple. It was obviously a man in drag, and this made Charnock feel very uneasy. He wondered what was in the handbag; a knife? A gun? Or was he being paranoid? Was the passenger a mere inoffensive transvestite? He tried to be rational but felt as if he was in danger.

Charnock quickly concocted a plan to get rid of the suspicious passenger. If he could pretend his rear lights were on the blink, he could ask the 'woman' to go out and see if they were working. As he did this Charnock could drive off. If the stranger left the handbag in the car as he went out to check the lights, Charnock would be able to drive off with the bag to see if there was a weapon in it.

The car slowed and halted in a secluded lane in Knowsley, just ten minutes from the house of William Charnock's Aunt. He feigned concern as he studied the dials on the fascia.

The passenger said, 'What is the matter?'

'The rear lights circuit. I think they're off. Could you get out and have a look to see if they are working?' Charnock asked. The female impersonator returned a blank look. 'What for?'

'Just to see if the lights are working.' Charnock explained, and suddenly realised that sweat was trickling from his forehead. 'You go?' the stranger suggested.

'Yes, of course.' Charnock had to go along with his own ruse, and he left the vehicle and made a fake inspection of the rear lights. He wondered if he should just make a run for it. The nearest police station was over a mile away, and there was no one about to come to his aid. On top of all that, twilight was gathering fast. Charnock reluctantly returned to the car, and after telling the eerie hitcher that the rear lights were working okay, he reluctantly drove off. Then events took an unexpected turn. A drunk stepped out into the path of the car, and Charnock swerved to avoid him - and collided with the stump of an old tree. The car was knocked into a 180-degree turn, and when the vehicle slammed to a halt against a fence adjoining a field, the androgynous man was thrown forward and hit his head on the dashboard. The impact dislodged his wig.

The man shook his balding head and looked sidewards at Charnock with an expression of pure hate. He reached for his handbag.

Bright car headlights came down the road towards the crashed car, and Charnock exclaimed, 'Here're the police!'

The man squinted at the blazing headlamps approaching steadily down the road, then fled from the car. His long legs, clad in stockings, easily stepped over the fence, and he vanished into the darkness.

William Charnock's bluff had worked. He sighed with intense relief as the car came towards him. But the car never stopped. It passed by and continued on down the road. The Old Swan motorist leaned forward to lock the passenger door before he drove off, just in case the demented drag artist returned.

And he did return, seconds later.

As Charnock tried desperately to start the car, the maniac in female attire screamed and stabbed at the windscreen and offside door. The man tried to open the door, and pulled so hard on the handle that the vehicle rocked on its suspension.

The engine suddenly revved to life, and Charnock tore off down the road. He wasn't certain, but the terrified driver thought he had pulled the transvestite along the road for several yards.

When William Charnock reached his aunt's home, he gave a quick account of his ordeal and telephoned the police. The police duly turned up and analysed scrape marks on the bodywork of Charnock's car. The wig that had fallen from the creepy assailant was found in the car, and was the only piece of real evidence that seemed to back Charnock's incredible story. A detailed statement was taken from Charnock, but the hitch-hiker was never found. Police began to wonder if Charnock's story had been a wild attempt at some Halloween hoax, but two other people later came forward to substantiate the account given by Charnock. Two dockworkers claimed that a suspicious masculine-looking woman had passed them in a yard near the Trafalgar Dock as he or she prowled about. The description of the figure matched Charnock's description of the hitch-hiker, right down to the handbag and brown wig. Enquiries were made at psychiatric hospitals in the north of England, but there were no reports of missing inmates.

The knife-wielding man in drag was allegedly encountered again on Prescot Road in 1951 and 1960, but police evidently never took the reports seriously, for on each occasion, the hitch-hiker had been reported on the last day of October - Halloween.

Hammy x x x

[Thistle]

Cripes Hammy.........I don't know what's worse, a ghostly hitchiker or a mad knife weilding tranny hitchiker. God I am soooo glad I don't have a car !!!!!!!!!

Cuffy..........Tell me it's not true and that Hammy is just spreading scurilous lies about you

[dancin'hamster]

Cuffy..........Tell me it's not true and that Hammy is just spreading scurilous lies about you

*gasps*

Moi?

As if I would ............

[Agent_21]

Maybe he was a Scandinavian sailor whose work brought him to Liverpool in those particular years.

Why Hallowe'en though? A psychiatric case could have a fixation with the date, or he could have thought his appearance would bring less attention then.

[thefirstman]

How terrified must that guy have been?Seriously,put yourself in his position,i'd have died of fright.So,the guy is still on the loose?

[Cufflink]

Ok, for Cuffy - another tale about a man dressed up as a woman.........hey.....anyone else noticing a pattern here?

*peers at monitor*

What on earth are you wearing, Cufflink?

I see....Christmas not even over, and the abuse starts.

Mind you, there is a pattern developing, sweety. You do seem to like these tranny stories...

[dancin'hamster]

LMAO!

Only kidding Cuffs