The Red Headed Hitchhiker: The Birth of A Legend

Robinson,–a Harvard educated anthropologist, archealogist, and writer–was thrown into the world of tracking and recording local ghost stories quite by accident, after running an article one Halloween featuring the work of one of the country’s first ghost hunters, Hans Holtzer. a story about a poltergeist in his hometown of Rehoboth immerged. Soon after the article was published, Robinson’s editor started recieving letters addressed to ” Charles Turek Robinson” from locals, eager to relay their own accounts of supernatural activity. And the father of a legend was born.

In an interview in the May, 2002 edition of “Cyril Magazine,” Robinson revealed: “Many of the accounts that were related to me by readers were silly and contained many of the usual stereotypes….I rejected those. However, there were a few that were very provocative in their originality. They did not contain the usual stereotypes and sensationalism. They contained elements so unusual and so original that if these people hadn’t really had these experiences, they should have been writing or telescripting in Hollywood.”

“Those provoked me and established for me an interest in the supernatural, moreover an interest in the folklore. As an anthropologist I was stunned by how many people responded. I began to wonder why there was such a widespread interest in this phenomenon. Although I’m a proponent of science, as these accounts came in I ran a couple of the more provocative accounts in some more of my columns. These in turn generated more calls and letters from readers, and kind of snowballed the whole thing. As an anthropologist I wondered, why such a widespread interest?”