You’ve heard his name. You’ve seen what he looks like. You probably even look over your shoulder when you’re alone at night. But you needn’t worry. He doesn’t want you – he wants the children. Just who is the SlenderMan?
With the ability to control their minds, the SlenderMan stalks children, torturing them mentally over long periods of time. He incites fear and paranoia in his victims, ultimately driving them insane.
Created in June of 2009, by Victor Surge, SlenderMan started out as a challenge to “create paranormal images through Photoshop.” Surge posted 2 photos of children haunted by a tall, shadowy figure with tentacles for arms, along with blocks of ominous text:
“We didn’t want to go, we didn’t want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time . . .
1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.”
For weeks he continued posting doctored photos, newspaper clippings and child-like drawings of SlenderMan. Gradually, other users joined in and contributed to the myth, creating their own Photo-shopped images and stories and nudging the story along. By mid-June, the group was solely devoted to developing the legend of SlenderMan, which now runs approximately 194 pages long.
But is the SlenderMan truly just a myth?
Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, 12, had read the SlenderMan story online, and believed him to be real. “(SlenderMan) can be anywhere from 6 feet to 14-feet tall. He constantly wears a suit. He doesn’t have a face. His skin is white. At his own will, he can, like, explode these tendrils from his back, and, like, strangle his victims,” Anissa said.
SlenderMan was in their heads, and they had to become proxies for him. On May 31, 2014, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, they led their friend Payton Leutner into the forest under the guise of playing hide and seek. Instead they planned to murder her.
Anissa pushed Payton down and sat on her, expecting Morgan to stab her. Payton started to scream, complaining that she couldn’t breathe, and a nervous Anissa got off of her. Morgan gave Anissa the knife, but Anissa said she felt to squeamish and passed it back to Morgan. According to the complaint, Morgan said “I’m not going to until you tell me to.”
Anissa told her “Go ballistic, go crazy. Now.”
Morgan told the police at that point it was “Stabby, stab, stab.”
Together, the girls stabbed Payton 19 times, piercing her liver, pancreas and stomach, just narrowly missing an artery near her heart. They told police that Payton cried, they remembered her screams, repeating “I hate you! I trusted you!”
After they had finished, the girls told Payton to lay down and be quiet while they went to get help. Instead, they ran, hoping she would die, and they would be able to please the SlenderMan.
Payton was a fighter though. She crawled out of the woods and onto a sidewalk, where she was spotted by a bicyclist. “Please help me,” she said. “I’ve been stabbed.”
When police arrived and asked who had hurt her, she replied that it had been her best friend. She was rushed to the hospital, “one millimeter away from certain death,” according to the filed complaint. In the hospital, Payton managed to tell police about the second girl.
It wasn’t until about 4 hours later, that Morgan and Anissa were found, near Interstate 94. The girls told investigators they planned to walk 300 miles to the Nicolet national forest, where they would live as SlenderMan’s servants in his mansion.
Police found a knife with a 5-inch blade in one of their bags, and when questioned by the police. The girls expressed little regret, mixed with cold-blooded intent. “I believe it’s ending a life, and I regret it,” Anissa said. “The bad part of me wanted her to die; the good part of me wanted her to live.”
In the interview with Morgan, when asked why they were going to stab Payton, Morgan responded, “It seemed necessary.” When asked what she was trying to do when she stabbed Payton, she replied, “I may as well just say it. Kill her.” She later told police she was sorry, stating, “It was weird that I didn’t feel remorse.”
Payton was discharged from the hospital a week after the attack and was able to walk again. When asked how she found the strength to crawl out of the woods, her response was simple: “I wanted to live.”
On February 1, 2018, Morgan was charged and committed to 40 years of mental health treatment and monitoring. She will remain at a secure state hospital in Oshkosh.
On December 18, 2017, Anissa was charged and sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric health institution, retroactive to the date of the crime. She was set to be released in 2039, when she is 37 years old, however things have changed. She will be released on September 13, 2021 under strict guidance.
Anissa will be placed in her father’s care where she will submit to around-the-clock GPS monitoring and receive psychiatric treatment. She will not be allowed to use the internet, except at home where her online traffic will be closely monitored. Her cell phone will not have access to the internet, and she is not allowed on social media. She will not be allowed to consume alcohol or drugs (aside from those prescribed to her), and she will not be allowed to enter a bar, possess a weapon, or have contact with Leutner or her family Additionally, a case manager will monitor her medication for PTSD and personality disorder.
So is the SlenderMan real? Do you think he got into their heads to enact his bidding?
Up next: Eyeless Jack
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