A couple ,Tommy and Heather, are on a road trip to L.A. in the middle of a rainstorm when the radio says that in the vicinity of a small town they are approaching, a lunatic called "The Happy Hangman" has escaped a local mental institution. Just when the report ends the storm worsens and the engine dies under neath a tree. Tommy says he is gonna go to the town for help and tells Heather to stay there. She does and 10 minutes after she waits a strange nois comes from the top of the car... Scritch... Scritch.... Scritch... The rain stops and she hears ...Drip... Drip...Drip... A cop runs up to the passenger door seemingly coming from nowhere and walks her away from the car telling her not to look back. She looks back from the police cruiser to see Tommy hanging from the tree above the car with a smile on his face.

Ah, yes. One of the myriad versions of perhaps the most prevalent urban legend of all time!

Why is Tommy smiling?

The HAPPY Hangman. at least that is what i think

.... excuse me for being thick here, but is Tommy the hangman then?

no i think the happy hangman made him happy before killing him

I have heard this before.. my mum told me it as a ghost story.
and I'm from the UK.

How did the hangman make him happy?

But the story I was told by my mum had nothing to do with a smile.. hmm

i dunno how he made him happy i only know this story