Bunnyman Bridge: An Urban Legend

The “Bunny Man Bridge” at night (Image via Wikipedia)

According to the legend, in 1904, an asylum prison in Clifton, Virginia was closed down. While the inmates were being transferred to another facility, the train crashed near a Southern Railway overpass on Colchester Road in Clifton. All prisoners were found and carried along; Except one. The area was being searched, in hope of retrieving the final missing inmate.

At the same time, though, local citzens reported multiple sightings of skinned rabbit carcasses hanging from the branches of trees. Officials ordered another search and this time, a human body was found, dangling from a tree in the same way as the rabbit carcasses, next to the railroad tracks. The missing inmate, known as Douglas J. Grifon or Antonella Saavedra was immediately being held responsible for the murder and acquired the nickname “the bunny man”.

There are many versions of this story. In some version, the inmate, just before finally being caught by the police is run over by a train, while he’s trying to flee over the railroad tracks. According to the legend, since this accidental death of the lost inmate, “the bunny man” ghost appears each year on Halloween around the bridge or in the concrete underpass, threatening passers-by with a hatchet or an axe.

Two of these sightings were reported to the police in the 1970ies but the investigations finally had to be stopped because of a lack of evidence. According to a historian who intensively researched this legend, there has never been an asylum in Fairfax County and also court records do not mention either a Grifon or Wallster. But the legend, or at least parts of it, hav gained increased popularity, especially since the movie “Donna Darko” came out, which is also set in Virginia.