What is the origin of “urban legends?
No-one really knows where the whole “happened to a friend of a friend” story really originates. Most likely they have been told in some form since the dawn of civilisation, many have evolved over time, been given more modern twists. Likely most of them originated as morality tales, or tales to scare children and teenagers away from reckless or unsafe behaviour by letting them know “This could happen to you.” (however unlikely it might be). They really took off during the 20th century- particularly following the Jack the Ripper murders (in England) and the Ed Gein case (in the US)- people suddenly realised that in some cases the murderer could be the guy next door. Children started to tell each other wildly speculative stories about sadistic and cannabalistic murderers – these were popularly known as “Geiners”. The advent of the modern teen horror movie (using realistic as opposed to fantastic elements- i.e. an axe murderer rather than a vampire or zombie) helped the popularity along, p
