SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Our host; Dr.G had his first paranormal experience at only eight years old. With over five decades of storytelling, magic and paranormal story collection he is an award winning story teller on a mission to revive firelight and the telling of stories!
SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Why Lovers' Lanes Became America’s Favorite Scary Story
The road to romance has always had a shadowy shoulder. A listener’s note from Cannon Beach sends us down the winding lanes where folklore, fear, and true crime intersect: the secluded pull-offs, the cliffside overlooks, the places where a quiet kiss meets a loud imagination. We trace how classic tales—the hook on the car door, the boyfriend in the tree—became the scripts our anxious minds reach for when branches scrape and radios hiss, and we connect those tales to real cases that rattled entire towns.
We open the mental file cabinet and look at why these legends stick. Seclusion heightens emotion; taboo adds pressure; culture tells us both to go and not to go. Into that tension, stories walk like caution signs in the dark. Then reality doubles down: the Texarkana Phantom and the Zodiac killings cement the danger of certain places and moments. We revisit key details that still echo—flashlights in faces, masked figures at the window—and how media, movies, and community memory turned specific crimes into enduring myth.
But this isn’t just a stroll through headlines. We talk about the pranks that go too far, the unpredictable backlash when fear meets fight, and the simple habits that keep night drives safer: choosing less isolated spots, keeping a critical distance line, planning an exit, and trusting your gut when something feels off. Along the way, we nod to Cannon Beach lore without stepping on others’ work, and we invite your own stories from the edges of town—the ones that made you laugh later and the ones that taught you to look twice.
If this conversation sparks a memory, share it with us. Subscribe, leave a review, and pass this episode to a friend who loves urban legends and late-night drives. Your stories might guide our next dive into the world unseen.
Hey everybody, it's Dr. G, Spirit Tales and Magic. I hope this early evening has you well. Don't forget SpiritTalesandmagic.com. Click the podcast icon and you could wind up here. But you can also submit your stories, read a lot about us, and even book us for your next entertainment option. So we're going through a lot of mail today, and as you know, if you're a frequent flyer of the podcast, Cassandra and I are always running around with our hair on fire from about a week before October until about a week after Halloween. And we still try to do what we've lovingly referred to now as the Oktoberfest. Got an email today that I caused me to change the podcast. That happens frequently. And I hope I'm not messing up your name. We live very close to a place that I understand you like Cannon Beach off of Route 101 in Oregon. My husband and I recently attended our 25-year high school reunion. And afterwards, the two of us and two of our best friends in another vehicle decided it would go fun, it would be fun to go to Lover's Lane on Cannon Beach. And we got out of there. Later on another podcast, I hear the legend of the bandage man. Do you know anything about that? And what's your thoughts on two old guys and their girlfriends going to Lovers Lane? Okay. Well, does anybody go to Lovers Lane anymore? Uh look that up on Wikipedia if you don't know what it is. But if you go there and you have this out-of-the-way place that is spooky, we'd sure love to hear about it. So we'll touch just for a second on the uh the bandage man because that is the subject of someone else's current podcast. And I don't believe the two of us know each other, but I'm still not going to step on their toes because I would expect them not to do that to me. Uh, I believe that that particular podcast is copyrighted U.S. Ghost Adventures. Um, so the bandage man is seen in that area allegedly. He's from the 1940s, and he is an urban legend. And I'll check with them to see if I can repeat this, and if I can, I will. But let's talk for a minute about we used to call it going parking when we were young. Um, my grandparents called it Leopard's Lane, my parents called it Leopers Lane. Um people my daughter's age called it workout parking. We're gonna detour from that for just a moment. The 101 around Cannon Beach, the 101, period. Um, there's a lot of urban legends on that road, and we'll do that on the subject of another podcast. There was a real life filler, the serial killer in Oregon. Uh, believe it was Netflix, but don't quote me on that, made a movie about it. I will find out those details and get them to you on the podcast. Lover's Lane. Is there anywhere more casually, let's say, vulnerable in American pop culture than a parking spot on a dark road meant for making out. Lover's Lane or Make Out Point or the Woods or whatever you want to call it. There have been urban legends told about those kinds of areas since the mid-1950s. These spots were where your boyfriend goes to check a suspicious sound that then ends up hanging from a tree just above the car. Some say by his feet, which are tied in his nails or grazing the roof. And in other legends of the same story, other versions of it, he's hanging from a tree and his feet are grazing the roof. Or perhaps a news flash comes on the radio that would tell you, let's say, about an escape mental patient who has a hook for a hand. You hear a scraping sound and you leave just in time. But when you get home, you find a bloody hook on the door handle. Remember those? Those are stories I heard. Murder legends aside, Lover's Lane, I guess you could say, is already a symbol of being vulnerable. In kind of a wide range of ways, really. So if you're a teenager, you're out there, you're you're vulnerable to the police and to angry parents, right? You get caught half naked in the car somewhere, and the cops arrest you, and your parents, there's no chance in the world that your parents are not gonna find out about that. So there's a little nerves to be had there. Yet they're also engaging these places for more serious intimacies, if you will. Often maybe it's the first time. And what's more nerve-wracking, more vulnerable than that? Not to mention the feeling of the wilderness around the car, maybe dark woods, the ledge overlooking a city. Maybe it's the seclusion of an abandoned lot far away from other people in the dark, with undoubtedly somebody who makes you feel, well, at least a little nervous. Of course, then there is an American culture screaming at you both to do it and not to do it, pushing you out to the fringes of the society, the mixture of desire, pressure, sometimes even condemnation. It's kind of a lot. This is, of course, one of the reasons that urban legends tend to center on Lovers' lanes as a dangerous location. Excuse me for one moment. You have to kind of bear with me, I'm uh having a lot of throat issues and things right now. So you hear me pausing and maybe taking a sip of water every now and then. Urban legends. They give kind of a let's say a narrative to our subconscious fears. And you hear us talk all the time about your subconscious, your filing cabinet. Something happens, or you believe that something is about to happen, and your conscious mind says, hey, this is gonna happen. What do you got for that? You're back to your file cabinet and act accordingly. Things you hear all the time in some of the stories and some of the I guess I'm gonna say scare tactics that some other folks may use tend to register in your filing cabinet. So they give you a subconscious, elevated level of fear, if you will. But this isn't just a stuff of stories. Lovers Lanes have actually been a host to a number of real murders. Some as high profile as remember the Zodiac or The Son of Sand. There are so many unsolved Lover's Lane murders that Listverse was able to create a list of ten. I have not looked at that. I know one of the earliest examples of Lover's Lane as a hunting ground of a killer comes with the unknown, unsolved murders, I believe, of who they referred to as the 3X killer. He was in Queens in New York City, and I want to say it was about 1930. A man described as a shabbily dressed and about 40-year-old attacked two different couples in secluded locations. The assailant killed the man and then ordered the woman out of the car, sexually assaulting her, then letting her go. Near a bus stop with a letter to the press. These letters were of a manic, kind of delusional order, and claimed that the killer had murdered the first man because he possessed secret documents, and that the killer himself was an agent of the International Secret Order. The guy was never caught. In 1937, another double murder was possibly connected to him. But at the time, the victims were both found dead and with red lipstick circled on their foreheads. Then about, I want to say, 1946, a string of double murders terrified a small town in Texas. I believe they called those the, I hope I don't get this wrong, Tex Arcana Moonlight Murderers. They had come to be known, I believe, in the local media. They caused a hysteria so intense that gun stores sold out of weapons and ammunition, and the streets were completely empty by nightfall. I believe it was eight people that were killed over the course of less than three months. They were all couples that had parked a local lover's lanes. The authorities assumed the killer was the same masked man who came to be known as the Texarcana Phantom. The killer's MO was so obvious that more reckless teenagers turned vigilantes and even sought to bait the murderer themselves by parking together and waiting on him with a weapon. I believe the first two victims were Jimmy Hollis, 25, and Mary Laney or Larney, age 19. It was about midnight on around February the 22nd. They were at the local Lover's Lane, a man approaches them, he shines a bright flashlight into their face. And he told Jimmy, I don't want to kill you, fellow, so do what I say. He ordered them out of the car and then ordered Jimmy to take down his pants, which he did. The assailant then hit Jimmy over the head with a hard object. He attempted to steal money from Jimmy's wallet, and also from Mary. Then hit her over the head as well. He told her to run, and while she did, she could hear him continue to beat Jimmy. That I believe is from the town that dreaded sundown. Both victims survived the attack, and they gave the descriptions of a man. Jimmy believed the attacker was a white man, while Mary said he was a light-skinned black man. He appeared to be under 30 years old. Mary saw something that Jimmy had been unable to see due to the blinding flashlight. The man was wearing a white mask with eye and mouth holes cut from the fabric. The next attack came about a month later when Richard L. Griffin, that's pretty scary, isn't it? 29 and his considerably younger date, Polly and more 17, were perked on, I believe it was Rich Road. That's another Lover's Lane. Passing driver noticed the car and thought the couple had fallen asleep. But on inspection, he saw that they had been shot. We could go on and on about that sort of thing. Real life murders in places like that spawned movies like The Town that Dreaded the Sundown. Don't forget, in California in December of 19, I want to say 68, the Zodiac Killer apparently murdered his first victims. They were high school classmates. I want to say David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen. That was on, I believe, Lake Herman Road. That was a popular spot for Lovers Lane or parking at the time. It was about 10, 15, 10:30 at night. On July of 69, Darlene Farron 22 and Michael, age 19, were shot multiple times while secluded areas. Now, there are two schools of thought on this. The Zodiac Killer was caught, and the Zodiac Killer was never caught. Some say that all the suspects were the wrong people. And some say that they actually caught the Zodiac Killer, but they wouldn't admit it because they wanted the fear to keep people in. I'm in the camp that the Zodiac Killer has never been caught. We might have insights to his motive. He did write several major media outlets in the Bay Area, including a letter detailing the murders of both couples. I had a chance in my lifetime to be on involved with a group of gentlemen who I'm sorry, gentlemen and ladies who tracked serial killers. The only decoded cipher the Zodiac sent authorities, to my recollection, went a little something like this. I like killing people because it's so much fun, and it's more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal. You see, man is the most dangerous animal to kill. Sometimes gives me the most thrilling experience. It is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl. Sorry about that. The best part of this is that when I die, I will be reborn in paradise. And all the people I have killed will become my slaves. We won't even go into the all the psychology about this guy, because you know he's twisted. There was Dick David Berkowitz, you know, he was a son of Sam. Uh there's a related story, I believe it's called Hell's Pen Pal, where the son of Sam sent creepy letters to uh Jimmy Breslin, I believe. It the 2014 horror film sets a kind of Lover's Lane as its initial scene, but then departs from it. I could tell you countless stories about people who screw with people no pun intended on on Lovers Lane. Um I'll keep the names out of this one, but there was a popular place in the town I grew up in where people went to be in cars alone. And sometimes if there was a car there, you would keep on driving because you didn't want to interrupt them. And your hope was that if you were there, then they would also keep on driving and not interrupt you. So I had a friend who was for a kid a pretty tough guy. Uh, he's a third-degree black belt karate, he was a wrestler, uh, football player, you know, the that that kind of guy. I was not that guy, but he was that kind of guy. And he's parking with his cheerleader girlfriend, and two guys wearing burlap sacks with eye holes and a mouth hole carrying pitchforks, decided they were gonna shake the car. They did not get the result that they were looking for. They got an ambulance and a trip to the hospital. I always say, you'll hear me say it a thousand times, for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. Um get a motel room, don't go out in the middle of nowhere. I don't know if people still even do that or not. Well, I guess I can't say that because I still know some folks that go out on rendezvous every once in a while. Be aware of your critical distance line, that's the three-foot space around you all the time. Have yourself in out. Don't get so involved in something that you lose track of the world around you. Okay, I'll quit that now. What's your Lover's Lane story? We would love to hear it. And email me, let me know if you want to hear more creepy stories about places like that. Just as a side note, our friend the Mothman has also been seen at the local Lover's Lane down there. Scaring the crap out of a bunch of people, allegedly. Sorry about that long pause. I uh you've heard me say a lot of times that I face this window that I should close, but I look out. The window itself is closed, but the the drapes are open. Yeah, typically I podcast in the dark so that I can look out there and people can't see me because when they can see me, they come up to the window and do all kinds of things. So we're talking about the the lover's lane and and that sort of thing. And I'm watching some of the street people go by it all, you know, huggy and kissy face. And I see a couple go by, they're holding on to each other pretty good, and there's a guy behind them. Uh it's 82 degrees outside right now. He is in a long coat, he has on a hat, he's got on a COVID-style old school mask, all of which is black, and he's wearing gloves. I know I have some Felix Police folks who listen to my podcast. When you see things like that, do something. Terry Stops went all the way to the Supreme Court. Stop this guy and ask him what he's doing, why he's dressed like that when it's hotter than hell outside. Okay. Then again, I digress. What's your lover's lane story? We'd love to hear it. And remember, my friends, there is indeed a world unseen. It's a world that exists all around us all the time. And every now and then, for whatever the reason, we catch a glimpse of it. And the debt get in. And you know we're gonna say, Hey, tell a ghost story. But watch out for that escape mental patient with the hook. Talk to you tomorrow.
