The sky and sea are gray. Ocean waves are coming in stronger. The wind is whipping past you as you walk alone down the beach. You begin to see a person in the distance, but their features are vague. As they get closer, all you see are gray clothes and the figure of a man. Before you can say hello, he points to the mainland and disappears. And you know two things to be true: 1) that was, without a doubt, the Gray Man; and 2) you need to get off the island immediately.
We go into the origins of the Gray Man, where he’s most seen (Pawleys Island, South Carolina, but there are a couple extra locales!), Gray Man sightings as recent as 2018, and photos and video footage.
But first, Zoey tells us about La Pascualita — a mannequin that might NOT be a mannequin — for her Something Spooky.
Researching this episode was a delight! If you can’t tell from the description of my nightmare that I gave early on in the episode, sometimes I have a hard time shaking off the stories and entities we cover. If you haven’t listened to the episode yet, I dreamt about the Hat Man (which we talked about in episode 11) and black-eyed children (which we talked about in episode 38). Not to mention the Bly Manor-esque pale hand of Dylan O’Brien reaching from the darkness to choke the life out of me.
Anywho, my point is every now and then I like to learn about something that’s not going to haunt my nightmares, and the Gray Man was an excellent subject for that purpose. He’s not there to scare me; he’s not even there to chat. He’s there to warn me a storm is coming and then protect my house while I’m away. Okay, not me personally, but you get the gist!
He’s been warning folks when a coming storm is going to be a major hurricane for nearly 200 years now. That is useful information, darn it! Give me more useful ghosts, more helpful ghosts. Where’s the kitchen ghost that warns me I’m about to burn the casserole? Where’s the ghost that appears by my bedside at promptly 6:31 AM on days when I forget to set my alarm?
I’m putting my foot down! No more terrifying-bathroom-mirror-backwards-crawling-ooze-dripping creeps. Give a helpful tip to a struggling human (me, sometimes) or get out.
Sources:
La Pascualita source: https://allthatsinteresting.com/la-pascualita
“The Ghosts of Georgetown County” by John Thomason, Oxford American, Issue 108, Spring 2020.
“The Gray Man and Hurricanes | Ghosts and Legends III” posted by SouthCarolinaETV, Sept. 25, 2018.
“Legends of Pawleys Island” by Erin Z. Bass, Deep South Magazine, July 10, 2018.
“Viral Video: Did ghost hunters see the Gray Man in this live footage from NC during Florence?”, Fox Carolina, Sept. 26, 2018. This has the Ghost Guys Go video, possibly containing the Gray Man.
“The Gray Man of Pawleys Island” by Ashley Hall, pub. on The Paranormal Guide, April 21, 2015. This contains an alleged image of the Gray Man.
Tweet by Chip Coffey featuring an alleged photo of the Gray Man.
“Audubon prints back in Georgetown,” Georgetown Times, pub. March 12, 2015; updated Aug. 20, 2020.
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