This particular story is a stable of where I grew up, and around Halloween, the area he supposedly haunts becomes a ‘test of courage’. Some of you may have even heard of it.
We call him the Green Man or Charlie No Face. This man, per most of the legends, was badly damaged by some form of electricity, whether lightning or an electrical accident. This accident disfigured his face and turned his skin a glowing green. While the stories vary as to why he ran, he ended up finding his way to one of the many abandoned railway tunnels, where he can still be found. When spotted, they say he appears from what looks like cigarette smoke, which emerges from a gaping wound in his cheek.
He isn’t known to be friendly, and will chase folk away if they wear out their welcome.
Here’s the sad and unsettling thing. Just like many local legends, there is some truth to the tale. Charlie no face was a real man. Raymond Robinson was badly disfigured as a child due to an accident after climbing a pylon that had some serious power lines on it. Although he was reported to be very sweet, the severity of his disfiguration really unsettled people. So, he would often walk at night for exercise so he wouldn’t bother people and vise versa, but some locals did befriend him and keep him company on his walks. They’re the ones who took the known pictures of him (with his permission).
Sadly, humans tend to gawk at folk who look different, and can sometimes be cruel. As word about him spread, he became a local bogey man. And the stories spread as local draftees took photos of him when they went to fight in Vietnam. You can google his picture. I’m not adding it.
The one thing I don’t understand about this particular story is where the most commonly stated location for the ‘Green Man Tunnel’ is. Raymond lived north of the city (almost 40 minutes north), but the tunnel is on the complete opposite side… and about 40 minutes south of the city.
