The Hook
photo taken from tacklewarehouse.com
Here is an excerpt from Arthur Goldstruck’s The Rabbit in the Thorn Tree, p. 99:
“The car radio is playing romantic music. The night is warm with promise. Suddenly a news flash interrupts the music. A lunatic has escaped from Groendakkies [a nearby mental hospital], and was last seen in the Naval Hill area. He can be recognised by the gruesome hook which he has in place of a hand.
The girl is nervous, but the boy is feeling amorous. He doesn’t want to leave. She protests but he tries harder. She demands he remove his hands. He keeps them where they are. She reaches out and switches off the radio. Next thing there’s the sound of scratch on the door. Terrified, the girl insists they leave. The boy is furious and he pulls away with a squeal of tyres. At home, he goes round to the passenger door to open it for her and promptly passes out.
There, hanging from the door handle, is the bloody stump of the lunatic’s hook.”
(Source: Brunvand, Jan H. Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. 2001.)
