INTRO
Another week, and another terrible, awful Frightday. There’s nothing much to introduce about this entry and I bet nobody actually reads this bit anyway so I could just say anything and it won’t be noticed: I regressed back to my childhood yesterday and indulged in a bowl of Angel Delight and squirty cream. I even put some of those multi-coloured sprinkles on it. I actually heard that squirty cream contains fewer calories if you squirt it straight into your mouth. Anyway, onto this week’s Frightday...
The Last Photo of Charlie Noonan
The words that accompany reproductions of this photograph are pretty much always the same. They tell us that the picture was taken by a man called Charlie Noonan who was a folklorist and collector of supernatural tales and who travelled the south-western portion of the US early last century. On his travels, Noonan was told a curious story by an Oklahoman farmer; a story about a strange woman that had a bit of reputation for being unusual. The farmer knew that the woman lived alone in a particularly lonely spot and he told Noonan that he was quite sure that she wasn’t, in fact, human. What brought him to that conclusion has been lost but a few meagre points remain: she was never seen without wearing a headscarf, she was always accompanied by a large dog and an unsettling feeling would afflict those who saw her. Now, none of those three things are particularly unusual (save fo the latter, I suppose) but, according to his wife Ellie, Noonan was thouroughly intrigued and one day he set off to find the woman. He was never seen again.
Months later, a newspaper report describing Noonan’s disappearance was read by a pawnbroker in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He had in his possession a camera with a name engraved on it: Charlie Noonan. It had been sold to him by a drifter that the broker remembered as eerily odd. He posted the camera to Ellie and she had the film developed as soon as she could, hoping that a clue to her husband’s whereabouts might be on it.
The photo above was, apparently, the only picture on the roll of film and hints that the image might have been one of the last things that Charlie Noonan saw. The rest remains a mystery.
Now, I’ve tried to dig into this story but there’s not a lot out there besides what I’ve written above. Kerry Noonan was a real folklorist, but I can’t find a Charlie Noonan within the same field—although it is stated that he was an amateur, so such research might be a wild goose chase.
The furthest back I can find reference to the story is a Creepypasta.wiki page which, sadly, I cannot link to here as there is a naughty word in the comment section. Searchers should find it easily with relevant keywords. The page is quite interesting and has a tale of its own, so it is well worth finding. The page’s author writes that the photograph’s original (and anonymous) poster, was working for a publishing company, when:
By that time, the poster had scanned fourteen of the photographs with the Noonan photograph amongst them. Thinking that these pictures were too interesting to let disappear from record he or she uploaded them (rightly or wrongly) to one of the internet’s most well-known picture boards.
Upon first read-through, this story seems rather redolent of the kind of made-up tale that is often uploaded to the picture board in question before being spread about like so much spooky Nutella. Real or not though, it’s a bit of fun and an interesting tale. But I wonder if any GDer can ferret out more details than I could...
Sources
Fancy more creepy reads?
Another week, and another terrible, awful Frightday. There’s nothing much to introduce about this entry and I bet nobody actually reads this bit anyway so I could just say anything and it won’t be noticed: I regressed back to my childhood yesterday and indulged in a bowl of Angel Delight and squirty cream. I even put some of those multi-coloured sprinkles on it. I actually heard that squirty cream contains fewer calories if you squirt it straight into your mouth. Anyway, onto this week’s Frightday...
The Last Photo of Charlie Noonan
The words that accompany reproductions of this photograph are pretty much always the same. They tell us that the picture was taken by a man called Charlie Noonan who was a folklorist and collector of supernatural tales and who travelled the south-western portion of the US early last century. On his travels, Noonan was told a curious story by an Oklahoman farmer; a story about a strange woman that had a bit of reputation for being unusual. The farmer knew that the woman lived alone in a particularly lonely spot and he told Noonan that he was quite sure that she wasn’t, in fact, human. What brought him to that conclusion has been lost but a few meagre points remain: she was never seen without wearing a headscarf, she was always accompanied by a large dog and an unsettling feeling would afflict those who saw her. Now, none of those three things are particularly unusual (save fo the latter, I suppose) but, according to his wife Ellie, Noonan was thouroughly intrigued and one day he set off to find the woman. He was never seen again.
Months later, a newspaper report describing Noonan’s disappearance was read by a pawnbroker in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He had in his possession a camera with a name engraved on it: Charlie Noonan. It had been sold to him by a drifter that the broker remembered as eerily odd. He posted the camera to Ellie and she had the film developed as soon as she could, hoping that a clue to her husband’s whereabouts might be on it.
The photo above was, apparently, the only picture on the roll of film and hints that the image might have been one of the last things that Charlie Noonan saw. The rest remains a mystery.
Now, I’ve tried to dig into this story but there’s not a lot out there besides what I’ve written above. Kerry Noonan was a real folklorist, but I can’t find a Charlie Noonan within the same field—although it is stated that he was an amateur, so such research might be a wild goose chase.
The furthest back I can find reference to the story is a Creepypasta.wiki page which, sadly, I cannot link to here as there is a naughty word in the comment section. Searchers should find it easily with relevant keywords. The page is quite interesting and has a tale of its own, so it is well worth finding. The page’s author writes that the photograph’s original (and anonymous) poster, was working for a publishing company, when:
By that time, the poster had scanned fourteen of the photographs with the Noonan photograph amongst them. Thinking that these pictures were too interesting to let disappear from record he or she uploaded them (rightly or wrongly) to one of the internet’s most well-known picture boards.
Upon first read-through, this story seems rather redolent of the kind of made-up tale that is often uploaded to the picture board in question before being spread about like so much spooky Nutella. Real or not though, it’s a bit of fun and an interesting tale. But I wonder if any GDer can ferret out more details than I could...
Sources
Fancy more creepy reads?
Frightday 1: The Cooper Falling Body Photograph
Frightday 2: What’s your Ghost Name?
Frightday 3: The Mystery of the Chase Coffins
Frightday 4: Robert the Haunted Doll
Frightday 5: The SS Watertown’s Floating Faces
Frightday 6: The Gruesome Mystery of Elisa Lam
Frightday 7: The Burpham Replay
Frightday 8: The Horror of the Killer Hands!
Frightday 9: A Massive Load of Creepiness
Frightday 2: What’s your Ghost Name?
Frightday 3: The Mystery of the Chase Coffins
Frightday 4: Robert the Haunted Doll
Frightday 5: The SS Watertown’s Floating Faces
Frightday 6: The Gruesome Mystery of Elisa Lam
Frightday 7: The Burpham Replay
Frightday 8: The Horror of the Killer Hands!
Frightday 9: A Massive Load of Creepiness
). And looking at that of thread of 'spooky' photos... Well, figures.