So I'm new on this board, I just found it thru a Google search so excuse me if I'm making kind of a newbie... But I was wondering if anyone had ever heard about something called the Grinning Man. Basically a scary grinning man-looking thing wearing black. Has anyone heard of this?

Hello and welcome to UM. Sorry I have not heard of this. But hopefully somebody here has.

Woah! Cool! This looks like a new thing! By the way, Welcome Aboard!

Haven't heard of it. Did a quick search but nothing came up. Welcome to UM!

Hello, welcome. I think Spring Heel Jack was supposed to be a grinning fiend if I recall. You could type into google Spring Heel Jack and Unsolved Mysteries and to find some posts on him. I know there was a thread at one time that covered hin some, but I do not recall the title.

I remember what your talking about. Sounds like it could be real, But i remember back in my school books. There was a halloween story with a man wearing black with big teeth called the grinning man. He followed the boy around and eventually tried to eat him. So more than likeley it isnt a true story. Seeing how it was in with a bunch of other made up stories.

Well it's a demonic character in a silent hill novel.

The book (The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings) mentions him i think.

good story, but is he just like a regular guy who eats people? Cuz if so why not just call him cannibal man?

I've heard of it, but don't have any info at the moment.
This is a similar mystery: Mad gassers.

For two months starting in December 1933, a mad gasser ran amuck in Botetourt County, Virginia, spraying poisonous gas into resident's windows, making them violently ill. The mysterious perpetrator was never caught and the gassings were considered the result of "mass hysteria." However, 11 years later, a series of similar gas attacks occurred in Mattoon, Illinois. Are the two cases related? What has become of the phantom gasser?
HOME LINKS X-FILES
The first gas attacks happened 22 December 1933 in rural Haymakertown in western Botetourt County. At about 10pm, Cal Huffman's wife detected a foul odor and became slightly nauseated. The gasser struck again at 1am and this time, the Huffman's daughter, Alice, became so ill that a doctor had to resuscitate her. A neighbor reported seeing a shadowy figure running away from the house and a woman's high heel shoe print was found under the window where the gasser had stood.

The next reported gassing happened in Cloverdale at the residence of Clarence Hall, who returned home with his family on Christmas Eve to find their home filled with noxious fumes. Clarence was so nauseated and weak that he had to be drug outside by his wife. He and some friends searched the nearby woods all night looking for the perpetrator.

After a third gassing in Troutville, when a 1933 Chevrolet had been seen near the time of the attack, there was a lull until January 10th when Mrs. Moore of Fincastle was gassed while tending to her baby. The victim and a neighbor heard voices outside her window just before the attack. Nearly 40 more gas attacks occurred in and around Botetourt County throughout the following months, finally ending on 11 February 1934. With no suspects to arrest, the police and newspapers determined that the gassings had been the result of mass hysteria.
Edit-Email address.

This is a map of the first 5 gas attacks in Botetourt County, Virginia. "Start" is the first attack and "End" is the fifth. These five cases are less likely to be a result of the "mass hysteria" that later attacks have been attributed to.


The Blue Ridge Mountains, where the Mad Gasser was thought to have hidden
All the cases were similar with a few notable exceptions:

-The crank of an old automobile was found at the scene of one attack

-Wood and brush was found piled against the front door of one house after an attack

-A woman's footprints were found at the scene of several attacks

-Four men were seen fleeing into the Blue Ridge Mountains after an attack
The symptoms of the gas were: nausea, weakness, restricted throat and mouth, headache, numbness, smarting eyes, choking and dizziness. No one died from the gas attacks, and most victims recovered within a few minutes of contact with fresh air. On 30 January 1934, the Virginia legislature passed a law (still on the books today) imposing a prison term of up to 20 years for anyone convicted of releasing noxious gasses in public or private places.

Local author, Bob Willis wrote a series several years ago for the Fincastle Herald detailing the attacks, based mostly on old articles from the Roanoke Times. He's still undecided about the mass hysteria explanation of the gassings. "I think there was probably something of substance to it to start with, and then people's imaginations ran with it."

THE VICTIMS
Cal Huffman, Haymakertown
Clarence Hall, Cloverdale
A.L. Kelly, Troutville
Mrs. Moore, Haymakertown
G.D. Kinzie, Troutville
F.B. Duval, Bonsack
Mrs. Campbell, Cloverdale
Howard Crawford, Cloverdale
Ed Reedy, Carvin's Cove
Mrs. R.H. Hartsell, Plesantdale Ch.
Chester Snyder, Cloverdale
Ed Stanley (x2), Cloverdale
Mr. Hamilton, Roanoke
A.P. Scaggs, Nace (near Troutville)
Mrs. A.H. Milan, Roanoke
J.G. Schafer, Lithia
Numerous theories have been put forth concerning the identity of the gasser and the source of the gas. While the true perpetrator's identity may never be known, in his book The Mad Gasser of Mattoon, author and chemistry teacher Scott Maruna suggests that Nitromethane was the agent used in the attacks.

Travis has undertaken to investigate and solve the mystery of the Botetourt County gassings. He is currently writing a book on various paranormal topics, with two chapters dedicated to the mysterious Botetourt County gas attacks.
Travis and Bob Willis at his home in Fincastle
Additional attacks occurred where victim's names were not mentioned. In most cases, an entire family or multiple persons were sickened by the gas.

Source

Edit- Removed email address-Lottie
Oh sorry Lottie, didn't notice that.

Ah the Mad Gasser of Matoon. Weird story that! Up there with Springheel Jack in terms of weirdyness.

RKD

Spring Heeled Jack
Mad Gassers


Spring heeled jack ^

Welcome to Unexplained-Mysteries.com! I'm Legendcop13. I know quite a bit of myths and legends, but I haven't heard a whole lot about the 'Grinning Man'. I only know what I have read, so Bon Yoyage and good luck researching your topic! Any questions?

Edit: Leaving email addresses on the forum is against the rules. You are welcome to add your email address to your profile.

o yea my bad i forgot to introduce myself...im cubsfan7 i enjoy MGS and halo...enjoy posting in UFO and Urban Legends topics

Wow, first thanks for the awesome welcome guys! I'm really glad I found a friendly board like this.

Second, to answer some of the stuff above: This does sound a little like Springheeled Jack in similar... appearance things. The bulging eyes at least, from the description I got. I have put my hands on John Keel's book and read what he said, which jived with a lot of what I heard - creepy tall, grinning ear to ear, reddish skin, piercing eyes. That's a lot of what I read, but I'm not one who attributes everything to aliens and... he connects too many ideas without actually giving much conclussive researched evidence in folklore or mythology. The Silent Hill book I ran across but it's fiction, don't know much about it. I wonder if its based of something obscure that I'm just calling something else...? The closest I came was Springheeled Jack.

Once again, I appreciate the help on this. Its been my recent obsession in this department.

Hey, don't mention it! There is a lot of nice people on Unexplained-Mysteries.com Forums! Like I said, I really don't know a lot about "Spring Heeled Jack", so I couldn't inform you on this...sorry. But I do know a lot about Mothman, Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, the Northern Michigan Dogman, and some others, so feel free to ask questions!

no prob and as legendcop said theres really nice ppl here

welcome to UM sorry never heard of it though

I did an image search on the grinning man and found this:



I now have the serious creeps.

I think this is very old....here is what I found so far on the net (besides links back to this thread )

The Dark Man and other aspects

Nearly all of the early Verbonic settlements circulated stories of a being known as "The Dark Man" that lived in the primordial woods beyond the settlements' borders. Deeply religious and at the same time almost hysterically superstitious, clinging precariously to the edges of an unexplored and therefore terrifying land, it was only natural for people in those times to project their collective fears onto the unknown. For the predominantly fundamentalist sects that first colonized the Viscounty, these projections typically were embodiments of the concept of the Devil.

The Dark Man generally takes the form of a man, sometimes of large or even giant stature but more often no larger than a natural human. He is invariably dark-skinned, although rarely described as a Suel -- most often he is a Flan with jet-black skin, thus combining the refined, cunning intelligence of the Flaness with the base carnality of the Sueloise. He is regularly portrayed as the consort of witches. He has many names: The Dark Man, The Grinning Man, Old Scratch, Springheel Jack, The Evil One, etc., but always his formal appellation -- "Lucifer" or "Satan" -- is scrupulously avoided, a holdover from the tradition that to speak a demon's name is to attract his attention and perhaps even summon him.

More interesting to the folklorist are the names that harken further back than these simple superstitions, recalling a more pagan portrayal of the dark and unknown. These tales, which originate from the more reclusive colonies, often bring out the more animalistic, nature-worshipping aspect of the Dark Man. He is sometimes pictured as being covered with hair, or having hooves instead of feet, resembling Classical images of Pan. His names are more obscure: The Wicker (or Wicca) Man; The Black Goat With A Thousand Young. Therein lie tantalizing clues offering the enterprising folklorist still deeper glimpses into the collective unconscious. Source/Full Article

Wow, now this is very useful. It gets back beyond the latter-day sightings and gets to the root of things. I dunno how much I'm going to accept the parts that say 'associated with witches' as.... well, back then everything demonic and stuff was associated with witches. But this - as well as that carving - is very interesting.

The only trouble is, upon investigating, that that might be source material concerning a D&D game. Gah! Frustration.

That carving also put my hair up too, actually.

well on friday i'm off to the book store and i'm going to buy that book i mentioned written by john keel and i'm going to read it and find out about the grinning man. That is of course if my book store has it.

That Spring Heeled Jack guy doesn't sound like a very nice guy does he?!? Goddesskate, what makes you so interested in the legend? You know, how'd it get to catch up with you?

i was told that my cousin seen a man that was tall,wearing like a cloak kinda thingy,he had a dark brimmed hat,or maybe it was a hood,anyways,and he took off the hat or pulled down the hood and he had no eyes,no nose,and he had a big smile on his face,he stared at her for a bit then kept on walking.she thought it was one of her friends playing a prank on her but found out that her friends were inside.i think i've seen him as ti has matched the description exactly but i got to scared and just ran away before he smiled at me.People call him the Man in Black or the Dark Man

lengendcop13 would u be very nice if u breathed fire and killed women

Wll Cubsfan7, u do have point there don't ya!!!

o i do have a point there c y else would a grunt b jumping up and down

No women killing, please.

Whilst I'm sure this is very serious, the first thing that came into my head was "V for Vendetta." Anyone else?

Seriously though. Grinning mask wearing black?

Springheeled Jack sounds like a good answer though.

Isnt the grinning man the giant 6 foot tall creature that tried to climb into someone's house? I read something about it in a book about North American unexplained creatures

LegendCop13, would it surprise you if I mentioned that I've seen something like this myself? I didn't say anything about it before but I had a particular sighting of this kind of thing myself. Dark sort of clothing, pale skin, frightening grin, waxy skin, dark eyes, frightening stillness. I also did some research (like on here about different legends) and met up with a guy who saw something similar when he was a kid.

Why did you feel the need to bump this? >_<








Sol

This is all I could drudge up on the Grinning Man:

The Grinning Man is the name given to one or more mysterious figures that has become associated with various reports of paranormal activity. The Grinning Man is sometimes described as being an extraterrestrial, MIB or a hominid cryptid and was investigated by notable paranormal author John A. Keel and ufologist James Moseley. Arguably the best known Grinning Man was Indrid Cold, who appears during the Mothman sightings. Reports of Grinning Men often occur during periods of increased UFO reporting.

I personally believe that the mascot for the band Disturbed, called 'The Guy' is based upon this mysterious grinning man.
Here is a picture of The Guy:

Click to view attachment

Stephen King wrote a story about the grinning man and it is supposedly based on some accounts that early settlers had with a man in a dark suit who often cam eup to them while they we out in the woods. supposedly this man was the devil looking for souls to bring back to hell with him. at least im pretty sure that thats what it was maybe look for the story i belive its in everythings eventual.

Ah yeah, that is a great story. It is called "The Man in the Black Suit" and involves an elderly man recalling an ancounter had as a child, in which he believes he met the devil in the woods of Maine. King states that he got the idea to write the story when a friend told him that his grandfather truly believed he met the devil in the woods when he was a young boy.

Anyway, I am very interested in the whole grinning man concept. Definitely one of the more bizarre things I have heard.

Heard about this. I really don't know the story behind it though.