The Boogeyman is a real person. He looks much like you or me. You may have seen him in the coffee shop, while you were getting your groceries, or behind the counter at your local dry cleaners. He may be a coworker, a friend, or even a family member. The term Boogeyman became widely known during the investigation of an American serial killer in the early 1900s. Albert Fish was the serial killer that was first given this nickname, and the name was derived from American media. Fish was also referred to as the Gray Man, The Werewolf of Wysteria, and the Brooklyn Vampire.

Later, there were also a handful of other serial killers that were dubbed The Boogeyman because of the way that they preyed on children. Alfred Fish was one of the first known serial killers to have a penchant for murdering children in some of the most grotesque ways imaginable and then eating some of their body parts. Ed Gein was another American serial killer that is sometimes referred to as The Boogeyman. His criminal career came to fruition in the 1950s. Gein would take the body parts of his young victims, eat some of them, and place some of them inside of shoeboxes to store under the beds of family members of the children that he had murdered.

Albert Fish had at least three known victims, the youngest of which was three years old. He associated cannibalism with communion, and was one of the most psychologically-deranged serial killers ever known. One of his most notorious murders was that of 12 year old Grace Budd. Fish was staying with the Budd family at the time, and he asked is he could take Grace to the opera for the day, which was something that she really wanted to do. Because the Budd family trusted Fish and even considered him to be a friend, they allowed her to go with him for the day. Grace Budd never returned home. Her body was found in New York City strangled, butchered, and partially consumed. Reportedly, Fish spent nine days in his room eating his "stew" left over from the girl's remains. Several years later, Fish sent the Budd family a detailed letter of how he killed their daughter and ate her remains.

During the 1920s and early 1930s, Fish was at large in New York City but it was unknown who was committing these murders. Parents would often warn their children of The Boogeyman. This idea later evolved into an urban legend and became a part of modern-day horror, but it has strong roots in a very real horror. Needless to say, The Boogeyman is in fact very, very evil.

I like this picture of the Boogeyman



But to me and if I had my way the Boogeyman would remain a semi-faceless monster and not really quite known. We all know the Boogeyman will get you and the Boogeyman is hunting you right now but if you know that he is hunting you and you know him by what he looks like you will be able to prepare for the coming of the Boogeyman and that takes a bit of the edge off of the fear.

So my ideal image in my mind for the is the Boogeyman remains just out of sight but never out of mind. A perfect peripheral monster combination or pure terror, absolute evil, and the fearful unknown that is always waiting for you to leave your guard down or your closet door open.

I don't have a picture but I can give a very detailed description of the "Boogeyman" my grandmother pointed out in our neighborhood to encourage good behavior from us while in her care. My grandmother watched my cousins and me when we were younger and I suppose sometimes it was hard to keep up with 5 kids at her age. One day there was a stranger walking down our little dirt road and she told us that's the Boogeyman and he's just waiting for some little kid to wander off so he can get them and put them in his sack.
The man was rather small, he slouched terribly as he walked along with an old stick (not a walking cane.) He didn't have very many teeth, if any and his skin looked dirty and dark. His hair was long and straggling around his ears and beneath his hat which looked like the dogs had been chewing it. He looked toward us and his eyes looked almost whitish instead of having color to them.. (he most likely was going blind or had cataracts. The old man wore dirty pants and shirt that looked a few sizes to large on him and he had a belt or something around his waist. With one hand on his walking stick he and a big burlap sack in his other, he was quite scary to my cousins and to me. Between the 5 of us we were ages 2-7. At night, I worried about that old boogeyman coming around to steal us from our beds.

The old man was probably just a homeless person or poor old sole with very little money and possessions and at the time I suppose my grandmother was doing the best she could to keep us in line.

I watched the movie "Helter Skelter" when I was just a little girl, while my older sister babysat me, and it scared the crapola out of me. I think Charles Manson could very well be the Boogeyman. He's supposedly possessed by demons.

Two words.

CHUCK NORRIS

Ah, the age old question! The boogeyman lurks near and comes in out of your peripheral vision. In every neighborhood according to the statistics derived from Forensic Science, there is a serial killer and you may have had the chance to already shake his or her grimy hands. If you look into someone's eyes very deeply, you immediately know that there the lights are on, but no one is home. Sometimes it is the one most unlikely of your acquaintances who is odd and boogey. Below is a simple synopsis from Wikipedia:

"A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people12 over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification.34 Often, a sexual element is involved with the killings. The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common; for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group.

Serial killers are not the same as mass murderers, who commit multiple murders at one time; nor are they spree killers, who commit murders in two or more locations with virtually no break in between. Coinage of the English term serial killer is commonly attributed to former FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler in the 1970s.56 The concept had been described earlier, e.g. by German police inspector Ernst Gennat coining the same term in 1930.7 Author Ann Rule postulates in her 2004 book Kiss Me, Kill Me that the English-language credit for coining the term "serial killer" goes to LAPD detective Pierce Brooks, mastermind of the ViCAP system."