Phantom Hitchhikers and Other Urban Legends: The Strange Stories Behind Tall Tales

by Albert Jack

A journey through the origins of urban legends, conspiracy theories, and old wives' tales.

We all love a good story. But where do they really originate? Albert Jack explores the best, strangest, and funniest of the tales so many of us take as gospel, and uncovers some eye-popping true stories that are even more far-fetched than their mythical counterparts.

From the frozen body of Walt Disney to the alligators lurking in the New York City sewers, Jack explores the origins of the most captivating urban legends, unraveling the truth behind the myths. Delve into legends like Robin Hood, JFK’s brain, hamsters under carpets, and mysterious travelers, and you’ll never be short of a scary or bizarre anecdote again.

Genres: Nonfiction, Folklore, History

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 28, 2008

About the author

Albert Jack, pen name for Graham Willmott, is an international best-selling author and historian. He is an expert in explaining the unexplained and has appeared on live television shows and has made thousands of radio appearances worldwide.

Reviews

[Rappy Winters]

Albert Jack's Phantom Hitchhikers and Other Urban Legends could be summarily titled as "Urban Legends 101". If you have never heard of the most basal of urban legends, this book certainly can introduce you to the most common of the friend-of-a-friend stories such as the titular phantom hitchhikers, alligators in the sewers, or the Hook. If you're looking for something completely groundbreaking, however, I'm afraid that you'll have to look elsewhere.

The worst portion of the book is the ending, wherein the author engages in a rather non sequitur bit of sniping at science by claiming that anthropogenic climate change is the biggest urban legend of our time. Not only is this out of left field, it also betrays the very idea of what an urban legend is. Even if you disbelieve in the theory of anthropogenic climate change, it is still a directly sourced subject of scientific discussion, not the foggy "I heard it from my cousin's uncle's wife's sister's former roommate" uncertainty of origin that marks most urban legends.

I can only give Phantom Hitchhikers and Other Urban Legends a 2 out of 5: it's only for a first look at urban legends, and that has been done better by other authors.

[Clarence Reed]

ReedIII Quick Review: Covers most urban legends in an informative, entertaining fashion often including; “is this based on a true story”. This book delivers exactly what it promises.

[Peacegal]

Unfortunately, this book does not deliver what it promises: the stories behind urban legends. In fact, the majority of the tales are presented at face value in short sections; their history and/or validity is not discussed at all. I guess we'll still have to rely on Snopes.com for that.

Also disappointingly, the author inserts his own politics inappropriately into the text. He presents climate change as an urban legend on par with ghostly hitchhikers and sewer-dwelling albino alligators. This inclusion was quite unprofessional and pointless, and it seems that the majority of the world's scientists would disagree with Mr. Jack.

[Leah]

Rating: 2.5 of 5

Only recommended to newbies with little to no previous experience with urban legends in their oral, written, or cinematic forms. I thought this would have more backstory behind the tales (based on the book's title) but it was merely a collection of the most well-known urban legends in pop culture. Each tale was super short, and every once in a while there'd be some context thrown in, or a "this could be true" narrative. Overall, it was just too dry for me.

[Bryan]

This book is so funny. It will ease your boredom and drift you away from the reality as you read about weird urban legends. I literally read it anywhere—from crowded malls to long jeepney rides during an apocalyptic traffic. Urban legends are interesting! There's a lot of tickles for the mind residing in this book.

[Robert]

This is actually a pretty fun book. A lot of the urban legends told here will seem quite familiar if a person has been around for a while. Yet I also found some new ones here that I had not heard. Some of these I even found myself chuckling out loud as I read them. So for a bit of lighter reading I would give this my stamp of approval and recommend that you give it a try.

[Mark]

I like reading about Urban Legends. There were a lot of interesting ones outside the U.S. that I had not heard of before. The section on "The Appliance of Science" shows the author is fairly scientifically illiterate.

[Whitney Garrett]

This has been the most fascinating book of this series by far! There's something in urban legends that make them so interesting to us. I'm not sure what it is, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them.

[Anna]

I really enjoyed this book! It was full of interesting stories and myths. Some of them scared me and some of them made me laugh a lot. It's a great book to read for fun! I'm excited to read the others!

[Xanthi]

The humour borders on being a bit too flippant at times and close to end of the book, the author shows his hand as being a climate denier.
This really didn’t need to be a book. It would have sufficed as a newspaper or magazine column.

[Christopher]

Fun little book, detailing some urban legends throughout history.

[Shannon]

Very weird book. I think some of it would be best suited for older readers. You definitely do not want younger readers reading some of the "legends."

[Spencer]

While this is a decent collection of stories, I was expecting much more analysis on the legends rather than simple recollections.

[ashes ➷]

This book lost its credibility a little bit when it tried to "debunk" global warming. Other than that and a couple of off-color jokes, though, it was pretty good!

[Kerri]

Enjoyable until the last chapter and he claimed that global warming is an urban legend.

[Abigail]

It was a good read until page 225 where the author claims that according to science global warming isn’t real. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt since it was published in 2006, but still, YIKES. Kind of makes you question all of the other “scientific research” he uses to refute or support other “facts” he puts forward.

[Marya]

It seemed like a mindless little book, perfect for the break room. I got as far as the one about the gang rape by the police- and then I couldn't stomach any more.

[Chelsea Pierce]

Perfect for a camping trip while waiting for adventure buddies to rouse after a long night bonding around the campfire, Phantom Hitchhikers is plump with digestible urban legends to keep one fully entertained!

[Julie]

3.5 stars

[J. Muro]

A very simple and enlightening quick read, and yet, still like Jan H. Brunvand's works a lot more-