Episode #26: Slender Man

From its conception as nothing other than a made up character in a horror forum contest to folklore, numerous horror tales, and even crimes committed in his name...the Slender Man has been haunted some of our nightmares for quite some time.

Marble Hornets Wikipedia
Marble Hornets Videos on YouTube
Marble Hornets Wiki

Slender Man Stabbing
Explore With Us Interrogation of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier
2024 Judge's Ruling on Morgan Geyser's Petition for Release

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Transcript

Slender Man

 I’ve dug through the annals of the Archives and the darkest depths of the interwebs to bring you tonight’s episode...Slender Man. Is he just a figment of our imagination? A fictitious Creepy Pasta character? Or something much more terrifying…

The Slender Man is a fictional supernatural character that originated as a creepypasta Internet meme created by Something Awful forum user Eric Knudsen (also known as "Victor Surge") in 2009. He is depicted as a thin, unnaturally tall humanoid with a featureless white head and face, wearing a black suit. 

If you’ve seen pictures, then you know exactly what I’m talking about here.

Because the Slender Man's fictional "mythology" has evolved without an official "canon" for reference, his appearance, motives, habits, and abilities are not fixed but change depending on the storyteller. He is most commonly described as very tall and thin with unnaturally long, tentacle-like arms (or mere tentacles), which he can extend to intimidate or capture prey. In most stories, his face is white and featureless, but occasionally his face appears differently to anyone who sees it. He appears to be wearing a dark suit and tie. The Slender Man is often associated with the forest and/or abandoned locations and has the ability to teleport. Proximity to the Slender Man is often said to trigger a "Slender sickness"; a rapid onset of paranoia, nightmares and delusions accompanied by nosebleeds. 

Early stories featured him targeting children or young adults. Some featured young adults driven insane or influenced to act on his behalf. Others included the idea that investigating the Slender Man will draw his attention. The web series Marble Hornets established the idea of proxies, who were humans who fall under the Slender Man's influence. Initially depicted as simply violently insane, they came to be portrayed as puppets of the Slender Man. Marble Hornets also introduced the idea that the Slender Man could interfere with video and audio recordings, as well as the "Slender Man symbol", ⦻, which became a common trope of Slender fiction. Graphic violence and body horror are uncommon in the Slender Man mythos, with many narratives choosing to leave the fate of his victims obscure.Shira Chess notes that "It is important to note that few of the retellings identify exactly what kind of monster the Slender Man might be, and what his specific intentions are- these points all remain mysteriously and usefully vague."

 We’ll get back to Marble Hornets and their stories on the Slender Man, for that is how I discovered this terrifying creature and their videos really made an impact on me and my interest in this being. But let’s continue with a little bit of history.

The writings of H. P. Lovecraft influenced the creation of the Slender Man 

The Slender Man was created on June 10, 2009, on a thread in the Something Awful Internet forum. The thread was a Photoshop contest in which users were challenged to "create paranormal images." Forum poster Eric Knudsen, under the pseudonym "Victor Surge", contributed two black-and-white images of groups of children to which he added a tall, thin, spectral figure wearing a black suit. Although previous entries had consisted solely of photographs, Surge supplemented his submission with snatches of text—supposedly from witnesses—describing the abductions of the groups of children and giving the character the name "The Slender Man": 

The quote under the first photograph read: 

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.

The quote under the second photograph read: 

One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as "The Slender Man". Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence.— 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986.

These additions effectively transformed the photographs into a work of fiction. Subsequent posters expanded upon the character, adding their own visual or textual contributions. 

Knudsen was inspired to create the Slender Man primarily by Zack Parsons' "That Insidious Beast", Stephen King's The Mist, reports of shadow people, Mothman and the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. Other inspirations for the character were the Tall Man from the 1979 film Phantasm, H. P. Lovecraft, the surrealist work of William S. Burroughs, and the survival horror video games Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Knudsen's intention was "to formulate something whose motivations can barely be comprehended, and [which caused] unease and terror in a general population." Other pre-existing fictional or legendary creatures which are similar to the Slender Man include: the Gentlemen, black-suited, pale, bald demons from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hush"; men in black, many accounts of which grant them an uncanny appearance with an unnatural walk and "oriental" features; and The Question, a DC Comics superhero with a blank face, whose secret identity is "Victor Sage", a name similar to Knudsen's alias "Victor Surge". 

In her book, Folklore, Horror Stories, and the Slender Man: The Development of an Internet Mythology, Professor Shira Chess of the University of Georgia connected the Slender Man to ancient folklore about fairies. Like fairies, the Slender Man is otherworldly, with motives that are often difficult to grasp; like fairies, his appearance is vague and often shifts to reflect what the viewer wants or fears to see, and, like fairies, the Slender Man lives in the woods and wild places and kidnaps children.

The Slender Man soon went viral, spawning numerous works of fanart, cosplay, and online fiction known as "creepypasta"—horror stories told in short snatches of easily copyable text that spread from site to site. Divorced from its original creator, the Slender Man became the subject of myriad stories by multiple authors within an overarching mythos. 

Many aspects of the Slender Man mythos first appeared on the original Something Awful thread. One of the earliest additions was added by a forum user named "Thoreau-Up", who created a folklore story set in 16th-century Germany involving a character called Der Großman, which was, the writer implied, an early reference to the Slender Man. The first video series involving the Slender Man evolved from a post on the Something Awful thread by user "ce gars". It tells of a fictional film school friend named Alex Kralie, who had stumbled upon something troubling while shooting his first feature-length project, Marble Hornets. The video series, published in found footage style on YouTube, forms an alternate reality game describing the filmers' fictional experiences with the Slender Man. The ARG also incorporates a Twitter feed and an alternate YouTube channel created by a user named "totheark". As of 2013, Marble Hornets had over 250,000 subscribers around the world and had received 55 million views. Other Slender Man-themed YouTube serials followed, including EverymanHYBRID and TribeTwelve.

In 2012, the Slender Man was adapted into a video game titled Slender: The Eight Pages; and the official website crashed after too many people tried to download the game. Several popular variants of the game followed, including Slenderman's Shadow and Slender Man for iOS, which became the second most-popular app download. The sequel to Slender: The Eight Pages, Slender: The Arrival, was released in 2013. Several independent films about the Slender Man have been released or are in development, including Entity and The Slender Man, released free online after a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign. In 2013, it was announced that Marble Hornets would become a feature film.

MARBLE HORNETS AND SLENDER MAN 

https://theslenderman.fandom.com/wiki/MarbleHornets

Marble Hornets (abbreviated MH) is a Slender Man-based YouTube series/ARE (Alternate Reality Experience). It was the first Slenderman ARE to be created and set the trend for those that followed as well as bringing Slender Man to a wider audience and influencing canon. It is the leader of the Big Five and chiefly responsible for shaping the modern mythos. MH is based around the filmings of Jay, known as Entries. As of July 2014, there are 87 entries, along with three ".5" entries, the anonymous ###### entry, the unnumbered introductory video and 40 accompanying IG videos from the series' unknown antagonist, totheark. 

After presumably ending with Entry #87, series creator Troy Wagner announced on October 31st, 2018 that the series will be returning in December, though later delayed to late February, in comic form. 

Origin and History

MH gains its name from Alex Kralie's film project, Marble Hornets. The early entries in the series are clips from the filming tapes used in creating the Marble Hornets film. Alex ended the project due to being stalked by the The Operator frequently and handed the tapes over to his friend, and MH narrator, Jay. Alex told Jay that he planned to burn the tapes but, being a good friend, Jay was given the tapes and posted them on YouTube in the hopes others could possibly help him understand what was so distressing about these tapes. Alex transferred to another school shortly after, and Jay hadn't seen him since. 

Early entries consisted of tapes from the Marble Hornets film and of those taken by Alex who obsessively recorded himself in order to capture The Operator stalking him. Eventually, the entries turn to videos taken by Jay, cataloging his efforts to discover Alex's whereabouts and unravel the mystery surrounding The Operator. 

Over time, Jay follows leads to old buildings, former homes, and even defunct and abandoned locations, and begins finding this being stalking his old friend may be deeper and far more dangerous than he ever thought, and there is a very good chance that Jay may now be hunted for getting too involved.. 

Some videos receive cryptic responses from a separate YouTube channel called totheark, which makes threats, predictions, and statements concerning the goings-on of the entries as they progress. 

Characters

Characters involved in these video entries are as follows:

• Alex Kralie - Director of the Marble Hornets film, and victim to The Operator's stalking. In the beginning of the series it is Jay's motive to discover Alex and help him, but in the end that may be his undoing as to what Alex has become. 
• Jay Merrick - Uploader of the series' entries. Jay is running constantly to try and locate what has happened to all the members of the film. Jay wants to uncover the truth and gets dragged into something sinister. 
• Tim Wright - Marble Hornets film actor. Upon unknown circumstances, his mind is taken over by Masky. His personality switch is somehow triggered by The Operator, but his exact motives are unknown. He is revealed to show numerous symptoms of The Sickness, as well as numerous psychiatric reports, showing that he has probably encountered the Operator long before the others. He becomes a major character as the series progresses. 
• Jessica Locke - A young woman who appears as a recurring character in Season 2 and a minor character in Season 3. She is the former roommate of Amy and a victim of The Operator's influence. 
• totheark - A YouTube channel owned by a mysterious entity or person whom has been theorized by Jay and others to be multiple people. Their true identity was never confirmed. 
• Brian Thomas - A Marble Hornets film actor. He has another masked personality similar to Masky whom is stalking both Jay and Alex. He appears to be assisting Jay in some capacity, but also instigates Tim to become Masky by stealing the drugs which suppress him. His identity is eventually revealed to be Brian, and his motives are unknown, but he is in direct conflict with Alex. 
• The Operator - An entity of unknown origin or motivation which first came into contact with Alex during the shooting of Marble Hornets. Ever since Jay's encounter, Jay has been running for his life trying to figure out its mysterious connection to Alex. It is obviously based on the Slender Man.

Others

• Amy - Alex's girlfriend and Jessica's former roommate. 
• Seth - Cameraman of the Marble Hornets film. Suspected to be a third member of totheark. 
• Sarah - Marble Hornets film actor. Suspected to be a third member of totheark.

Locations

The videos take place in numerous locations including:

• Alex's House 
• Brian's house 
• Amy and Jessica's House 
• Jay's Apartment 
• Alex's Apartment 
• Tim's Apartment 
• Rosswood Park 
• The Hotel 
• The Mental Health Clinic 
• The Antique Shop 
• The Red Tower 
• The Abandoned House 
• The Maintenance Building 
• The Abandoned Hospital 
• The Unknown Building 
• The Tunnel

Style and Canon Influence

MH, being the first Slender Man ARG, set several trends emulated or made use of by future ARGs. Every entry opens with a black screen and white wording for an introduction, which was borrowed for use in TribeTwelve. 

MH created canon by introducing noise and video distortion when looking at Slenderman or in its vicinity- this was solidified by its usage in TribeTwelve, EverymanHYBRID, MLAndersen0, and DarkHarvest00. MH, however, is unique in that it only uses this distortion selectively- it sometimes appears heavily and other times not at all. 

The idea of a Proxy, in MH's case that of Alex, was lifted, used and termed by DarkHarvest00, in the form of their Unknown Proxy, as was the use of a antagonist's YouTube account (MH's totheark and DH's KindVonDerRitter.) The idea of a proxy was also used in TribeTwelve as the Observer, but it is much more of a hive-mind than a single entity. 

Some symbolism created by MH is included in TribeTwelve and DarkHarvest00, such as the Operator Symbol. 

I’m not going to spoil the story for everyone, but if you’d like to read the synopsis of each season, I will link the Wikipedia page as well as the videos themselves so you can give them a watch.

Marble Hornets Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Hornets

Marble Hornets Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/marblehornets

Let’s delve a little bit deeper into the created lore surrounding this hopefully fictitious creature and see what really makes the character of Slender Man so goddamn terrifying…

https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/The_Slender_Man

THE SLENDER MAN

The Slender Man is an alleged paranormal figure purported to have been in existence for centuries, covering a large geographic area. Believers in the Slender Man connect his appearances with many other legends around the world, including; Fear Dubh (or, The Dark Man) in Scotland, the Dutch Takkenmann (Branch Man), and the German legend of Der Großmann or Der Grosse Mann (the Tall Man). 

APPEARANCE

The Slender Man is a being, male in appearance, with extremely long, slender arms and legs. He also appears to have 4 to 8 long, black tentacles that protrude from his back. Different photographs and enthusiasts disagree on this fact, so it is theorized he can 'contract' these tentacles at will. 

He is described as wearing a black suit, strikingly similar to the visage of the notorious Men In Black. As the name suggests, he appears very thin. He is able to stretch his limbs and torso to inhuman lengths in order to induce fear and ensnare his prey. Once his arms are outstretched, his victims are put into something of a hypnotized state, where they are utterly helpless to stop themselves from walking towards him. 

He is also able to create tendrils from his fingers and back that he uses to walk on, in a similar fashion to Doctor Octopus. His superhuman stretching ability can also be seen as similar to Mr. Fantastic. 

Whether he absorbs, kills, or merely takes his victims to an undisclosed location or dimension is unknown, as there are never any bodies or evidence left behind in his wake to deduce a definite conclusion from. 

His face is pale and slightly ghostly; it almost appears to have been wrapped in a type of gauze or cloth. His facial features are an object of debate. Many people believe that his face looks different to each person, if it is ever seen at all. 

He is sometimes portrayed as wearing a hat, which can be a bowler, fedora, or even a top hat. He may also be seen wearing a long, flowing necktie or scarf, which is either red or grey. 

He often keeps his hands crossed politely behind his back or hanging loosely at his sides. His suit is black, sometimes pinstriped in artwork, a common misconception thanks to the similar Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas. He has long coattails, which he lets flow proudly. He wears long dress shoes, which are always shined a perfect, gleaming black. 

BEHAVIOR

Much of the fascination with Slender Man is rooted in the overall aura of mystery he is wrapped in. Despite the fact that it is rumored he kills children almost exclusively, it is difficult to say whether or not his only objective is slaughter. 

Oftentimes, it is reported that he can be found in sections of woods, which generally tend to be suburban. He also has been seen with large groups of children, as many photographs portray. It is commonly thought that he resides in woods and forests, and preys on children from there. He seems unconcerned with being exposed in the daylight or captured in photos. 

It is often thought as well that he enjoys stalking people who become overly paranoid about his existence, purposefully giving them glimpses of himself in order to further frighten them. For this reason, it seems like Slenderman very much enjoys psychologically torturing his victims. 

He also appears to float or drift around rather than walk, which suggests the possibility of him being an ethereal entity rather than a creature or man. This would also explain why he is able to remain mobile in spite of his poorly proportioned body. 

Even though Slender Man was fabricated on the SomethingAwful forums, some people have claimed sightings. He is apparently seen mostly at night, peering into open windows and walking out in front of lone motorists on secluded roads. 

His main intentions appear to be kidnapping children, as when he is seen near them in photographs, they usually disappear shortly afterwards. The Slender Man has also inspired many stories, such as those of Marble Hornets. 

In the end, though, his purpose remains unknown. 

HISTORICAL REFERENCES

Brazilian Cave Paintings

The earliest argued reference to the legend of the Slender Man is within the cave paintings found in the Serr da Capivara National Park in the Northeast of Brazil, which are believed to date from as far back as 9000 BC. These paintings show a strangely elongated character leading a child by the hand, but make no reference to the extra appendages. 

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

The next known possible allusion to the Slender Man comes from around 3100 BC in lower Egypt. References to the "Thief of the Gods" or the "Thief of Kuk" became commonplace during the reign of Pharaoh Wazner. Hieroglyphic carvings representing the Thief were found in the pharaoh's tomb, who was rumored to have had some kind of encounter with the entity. The carvings resemble a strange figure with multiple upper limbs, one that has never been found in any other hieroglyph language. 

German Woodcuts

Renowned German woodcutter Hans Freckenberg created at least two woodcuts featuring a character he described as Der Ritter (The Knight) during the mid-sixteenth century, which were eventually discovered in Halstberg Castle in 1883. 

Whilst Freckenberg was well-known for his realistic depiction of human anatomy - something that was unusual among woodcuts of the time - these pictures featured a skeletal, multi-limbed character. Historians are unsure of its exact symbolic nature. Some claim it is a personification of the religious wars that raged in Europe at the time, while others say it represents the little-known plagues that have been believed to be the reason for the mysterious abandoning of the Halstberg Castle, as well as the nearby village, in 1543. 

However, many insist that Freckenberg was attempting to represent "Der Großmann" (the Tall Man). According to legend, he was a fairy who lived in the Black Forest. Bad children who crept into the woods at night would be relentlessly chased by Der Großmann, who wouldn't leave them be until he either caught them or they were forced to tell their parents of their wrongdoing. There is a chilling account from an old journal of this era, dated to about 1702: 

“My child, my Lars… he is gone. Taken from his bed. The only thing we found was a scrap of black clothing. It feels like cotton, but it is softer… thicker. Lars came into my bedroom yesterday, screaming at the top of his lungs that "The angel is outside!" I asked him what he was talking about, and he told me some nonsense fairy story about 'Der Großmann'.He said he went into the groves by our village and found one of my cows dead, hanging from a tree. I thought nothing of it at first… but now, he is gone. We must find Lars, and my family must leave before we are killed. I am sorry, my son… I should have listened. May God forgive me.”

Romanian Mythology

There is also a Romanian fairytale which tells the legend of the Tall Man, featuring this description: 

"The tall man stood in a clearing, dressed as a nobleman, all in black. Shadows lay over him, dark as cloudy midnight. He had many arms, all long and boneless like snakes, sharp as swords, writhing like worms on nails. He did not speak, but made his intentions known,"

In the fairytale, the Tall Man causes a mother to kill her husband and child, before murdering her. 

English Mythology

There is an English myth referring to the "Tree Man", who is said to have a slim body with appendages that looks like tree branches. 

He is only known to be seen in the woods, and was used as a story that parents told their children to thwart bad behavior. Quite a few disappearances of children are said to be have been linked to the "Tree Man". 

From Wikipedia:

Folkloric qualities

Several scholars have argued that, despite being a fictional work with an identifiable origin point, the Slender Man represents a form of digital folklore. Shira Chess argues that the Slender Man exemplifies the similarities between traditional folklore and the open source ethos of the Internet, and that, unlike those of traditional monsters such as vampires and werewolves, the fact that the Slender Man's mythos can be tracked and signposted offers a powerful insight into how myth and folklore form. Chess identifies three aspects of the Slender Man mythos that tie it to folklore: collectivity (meaning that it is created by a collective, rather than a single individual), variability (meaning that the story changes depending on the teller), and performance (meaning that the storyteller's narrative changes to reflect the audience's response).

Media scholar and folklorist Andrew Peck attributes the success of the Slender Man to its highly collaborative nature. Because the character and its motives are shrouded in mystery, users can easily adapt existing Slender Man tropes and imagery to create new stories. This ability for users to tap into the ideas of others while also supplying their own helped inspire the collaborative culture that arose surrounding the Slender Man. Instead of privileging the choices of certain creators as canonical, this collaborative culture informally locates ownership of the creature across the community. In these respects, the Slender Man is similar to campfire stories or urban legends, and the character's success comes from enabling both social interaction and personal acts of creative expression.

Although nearly all users understand that the Slender Man is not real, they suspend that disbelief in order to become more engrossed when telling or listening to stories. This adds a sense of authenticity to Slender Man legend performances and blurs the lines between legend and reality, keeping the creature as an object of legend dialectic. This ambiguity has led some to some confusion over the character's origin and purpose. Only five months after his creation, George Noory's Coast to Coast AM, a radio call-in show devoted to the paranormal and conspiracy theories, began receiving callers asking about the Slender Man. Two years later, an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune described his origins as "difficult to pinpoint." Eric Knudsen has commented that many people, despite understanding that the Slender Man was created on the Something Awful forums, still entertain the possibility that he might be real. 

Shira Chess describes the Slender Man as a metaphor for "helplessness, power differentials, and anonymous forces." Peck sees parallels between the Slender Man and common anxieties about the digital age, such as feelings of constant connectedness and unknown third-party observation. Similarly, Tye Van Horn, a writer for The Elm, has suggested that the Slender Man represents modern fear of the unknown; in an age flooded with information, people have become so unaccustomed to ignorance that they now fear what they cannot understand. Troy Wagner, the creator of Marble Hornets, ascribes the terror of the Slender Man to its malleability; people can shape it into whatever frightens them most. Tina Marie Boyer noted that "The Slender man is a prohibitive monster, but the cultural boundaries he guards are not clear. Victims do not know when they have violated or crossed them." Andrew Peck also considers the Slender Man to be an authentic form of folklore and notes its similarity to emergent forms of offline legend performance. Peck suggests that digital folklore performance extends the dynamics of face-to-face performance in several notable ways, such as by occurring asynchronously, encouraging imitation and personalization while also allowing perfect replication, combining elements of oral, written, and visual communication, and generating shared expectations for performance that enact group identity despite the lack of a physically present group. He concludes that the Slender Man represents a digital legend cycle that combines the generic conventions and emergent qualities of oral and visual performance with the collaborative potential of networked communication.

Jeff Tolbert also accepts the Slender Man as folkloric and suggests it represents a process he calls "reverse ostension". Ostension in folkloristics is the process of acting out a folk narrative. According to Tolbert, the Slender Man does the opposite by creating a set of folklore-like narratives where none existed before. It is an iconic figure produced through a collective effort and deliberately modeled after an existing and familiar folklore genre. According to Tolbert, this represents two processes in one: it involves the creation of new objects and new disconnected examples of experience, and it involves the combination of these elements into a body of "traditional" narratives, modeled on existing folklore (but not wholly indebted to any specific tradition).

Professor Thomas Pettitt of the University of Southern Denmark has described the Slender Man as being an exemplar of the modern age's closing of the "Gutenberg Parenthesis"; the time period from the invention of the printing press to the spread of the web in which stories and information were codified in discrete media, to a return to the older, more primal forms of storytelling, exemplified by oral tradition and campfire tales, in which the same story can be retold, reinterpreted and recast by different tellers, allowing the lore to expand and evolve with time. 

Copyright

Despite his folkloric qualities, the Slender Man is not in the public domain. Several for-profit ventures involving the Slender Man have unequivocally acknowledged Knudsen as the creator of this fictional character, while others were civilly blocked from distribution (including the Kickstarter-funded film) after legal complaints from Knudsen and other sources. Though Knudsen himself has given his personal blessing to a number of Slender Man-related projects, the issue is complicated by the fact that, while he is the character's creator, a third party holds the options to any adaptations into other media, including film and television. The identity of this option holder has not been made public. Knudsen himself has argued that his enforcement of copyright has less to do with money than with artistic integrity: "I just want something amazing to come off it... something that's scary and disturbing and kinda different. I would hate for something to come out and just be kinda conventional." In May 2016, the media rights to Slender Man were sold to production company Mythology Entertainment, but the company split up in 2019, leaving the ownership of the character's rights in question.

In popular culture

In 2011, Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of the sandbox indie game Minecraft, added a new hostile mob to the game, which he named the "Enderman" when multiple users on Reddit and Google+ commented on the similarity to the Slender Man. In 2013, the Slender Man appeared as the antagonist of the season 3 Lost Girl episode "SubterrFaenean", in which the Slender Man was said to be the basis for the Pied Piper legend. In 2014, the TV series Supernatural parodied Slender Man as "Thinman" in the Season 9 episode of the same name. That same year, the sixteenth season of the crime drama TV series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit featured an episode, "Glasgowman's Wrath", inspired by the Slender Man stabbings. In 2018, Slender Man appeared in the episode "The Planned Parenthood Show" in Big Mouth. 

Despite this being an obvious work of fiction to most, to some, especially those of a younger, impressionable crowd, the lines between fiction and reality can be blurred.

The Slender Man Stabbing 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man_stabbing

On May 31, 2014, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States, two 12-year-old girls, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, lured their friend Payton Leutner into a wooded area of a local park and stabbed her 19 times to appease the fictional character Slender Man.[2] Weier and Geyser were both found not guilty by mental disease or defect and committed to mental health institutions. Weier received a sentence of 25 years to life and Geyser was sentenced to 40 years to life. After seven years in custody, Weier was granted early release and will be under supervision until age 37. 

Events of the attack

 The stabbing took place on May 31, 2014, during a game of hide-and-seek in heavily wooded Davids Park near Waukesha, Wisconsin. The perpetrators, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, pinned down Payton Isabella Leutner (also known as Bella, a nickname used at the time of the crime) and stabbed her nineteen times in the arms, legs, and torso with a five-inch-long (13 cm) blade. Two wounds were to major organs. One stab wound missed a major artery by less than a millimeter and another went through her diaphragm, cutting into her liver and stomach.[6] After the attack, Weier and Geyser told Leutner to lie down while they found help, which they did not do.[4] Afterwards, Leutner dragged herself to a nearby road where she was found by a cyclist who called emergency services.Surgeons operated for six hours to repair critical trauma to organs and tissue in her torso and abdomen. 

Five hours after the attack, Weier and Geyser were apprehended by police near Steinhafel's Furniture Store on Interstate 94, approximately 4.9 miles (7.9 km) from the attack location. They were in possession of the knife used in the stabbing, which was found by police in a bag they carried. They said they were traveling to meet Slender Man at his home, called Slender Mansion, in the Nicolet National Forest, 200 miles (320 km) from where they were apprehended. During their interrogations, which were not conducted with a guardian or counsel, Geyser was described as displaying no empathy and Weier was described as displaying guilt for stabbing Leutner, although both stated that the attack was necessary to appease Slender Man. 

Leutner left the hospital seven days after the attack.[10] She returned to school in September 2014.

 Geyser's mental state

During the police investigation and pre-trial psychiatric evaluations, Morgan Geyser disclosed life-long visual and auditory hallucinations beginning in early childhood. These hallucinations typically included figures she interpreted as ghosts, colors melting down walls, and imaginary friends named Maggie and Sev. One recurring hallucination was a man Geyser named "It", whose body she described as the color of smoke and ink. She would perceive him as standing behind her in mirrors or shifting around corners.

After Geyser's arrest, her mother, Angie Geyser, described her as becoming "floridly psychotic." Correctional officers reported Geyser frequently talking to herself, pretending to be a cat, and keeping ants as pets. She reported seeing unicorns and believed she was having ongoing conversations with Slender Man and other fictional characters, such as Severus Snape.

In the fall of 2014, Geyser was relocated to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute to determine if she was competent to stand trial. On October 22, 2014, Geyser was diagnosed with early-onset childhood schizophrenia. 

Geyser's treatment for schizophrenia was erratic and inadequate for nineteen months, which is believed to have exacerbated her cyclic regressions into psychosis and reduced her ability to recognize delusions against reality. In December 2015 she began a consistent, long-term regimen of antipsychotic medication, which enabled Geyser to understand what she had done and display appropriate feelings related to her crime, such as guilt and remorse. On March 23, 2016, Geyser was returned to the county jail to await trial. Although she was appropriately medicated, Geyser's mental health deteriorated. Her deterioration was linked to stressors on her already fragile mental health that are typical to forced confinement and incarceration.

During trial, Geyser was committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she was the youngest patient. 

Court case and negotiations

Geyser was charged with attempted, first-degree homicide, a Class A felony, and Weier was charged with attempted second-degree homicide, a Class B felony. Due to the nature of the offenses, both Weier and Geyser were waived out of juvenile court to be tried as adults. 

In 2017, Weier pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree homicide.A jury then found her "not guilty by mental disease or defect."Geyser accepted a plea offer that stipulated she would not undergo a trial if she pleaded guilty and agreed to further evaluation by psychiatrists to determine appropriate duration of commitment to a forensic psychiatric hospital. She later pleaded guilty as arranged by the plea offer, but was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect due to a final diagnosis of schizophrenia by court-appointed psychiatrists.

Weier was sentenced to 25 years to life, an indeterminate sentence requiring at least three years confinement and involuntary treatment in a state forensic psychiatric institute, followed by communal supervision until age 37. 

Geyser was given the maximum sentence, 40 years to life, an indeterminate sentence requiring at least three years confinement in addition to involuntary treatment in a state forensic psychiatric institute until complete resolution of symptoms or until age 53, whichever may happen first. If released, she will remain under communal supervision and undergo periodic reevaluations intended to identify need for reinstitution and/or further treatment as required by the sentence imposed.

At a hearing on March 10, 2021, Weier, who was then 19 years old, submitted a letter to the court stating that she was "sorry and deeply regretful for the agony, pain, and fear I have caused," not just to Leutner, but to "my community as well." Weier stated that, "I hate my actions from May 31, 2014, but through countless hours of therapy, I no longer hate myself for them." On July 1, 2021, Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren ordered Weier released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, gave state officials sixty days to draft a conditional release plan, and required that Weier be assigned Wisconsin Department of Health Services case managers to supervise her progress until she is 37 years old, the length of her commitment. 

On September 13, 2021, Weier was released with multiple stipulations, including 24-hour GPS monitoring that required her to request permission before leaving Waukesha County. On September 11, 2023, the GPS stipulation was removed. Weier's Internet use is restricted and monitored. As part of her supervised release, she is not allowed to use any form of social media. Weier is required to take court mandated psychiatric medication and is escorted to regular counseling sessions by a case worker. She is required to live with her father while under supervision of the court.

In 2020, an appeals court rejected Geyser's petition to be retried as a juvenile. Her attorney, Matthew Pinix, argued that she should have been charged with attempted second-degree intentional homicide rather than first-degree, and argued that Geyser gave statements to investigators before being read her Miranda rights. He petitioned the Supreme Court of Wisconsin to review the ruling.In early 2021, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. 

In January 2024, Geyser petitioned the court for release, two years after withdrawing a petition in 2022 two months after filing. A judge denied this request for release at a hearing in April 2024.

Aftermath

After the attack, the Creepypasta Wiki, which houses the bulk of Slender Man lore, was blocked throughout the Waukesha School District. On June 5, 2014, Slender Man creator Eric Knudsen released a statement of condolence: "I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act."

Sloshedtrain, a former administrator of the Creepypasta Wiki, stated that the stabbing was an isolated incident that did not accurately represent the creepypasta community. He also argued that the Creepypasta Wiki is a literary website and that its community of creators and administrators do not condone murder or satanic rituals. 

Members of the creepypasta community held a 24-hour live stream on YouTube June 13–14, 2014, to raise money for the then unnamed stabbing victim. Joe Jozwowski, an administrator on a creepypasta website, said the purpose of the stream was to show that members of the community care for the victim and do not condone real-world violence. 

Governor Scott Walker issued a proclamation declaring Wednesday, August 13, 2014, "Purple Hearts for Healing Day", and encouraged the people of Wisconsin to wear purple to honor the victim of the stabbing. He also praised the "strength and determination" exhibited by the victim during her recovery.

On August 29, 2014, the city of Madison, Wisconsin, held a one-day bratwurst festival to honor the still unnamed survivor of Weier and Geyser's attack. Hot dogs and bratwurst were sold to raise money towards the survivor's medical costs. The event was run by over 250 volunteers and raised over $70,000.

On October 24, 2019, survivor Payton Leutner, then 17 years old, spoke publicly about her experience for the first time to ABC's 20/20. She discussed her scars, saying, "I don't think much of them. They will probably go away and fade eventually." She described how she met Geyser in fourth grade and became her friend because Geyser was alone a lot and Leutner wanted her to feel less alone. She also reported how Weier, who Geyser introduced to Leutner, had seemed jealous of the friendship between her and Geyser. When asked what she would say if she ever saw Geyser again, Leutner replied she would "thank" her because the attack inspired Leutner to pursue a career in medicine. 

In September 2021, after Weier's release, it was reported that Leutner no longer lived in Waukesha County and was attending an undisclosed college as a sophomore student. 

 Debate on the effect of the Internet on children

The stabbing generated extensive public debate about the role of the Internet in society and its effect on children. Waukesha Police Chief Russell P. Jack argued that the stabbing "should be a wake-up call for all parents" because although the Internet "is full of information and wonderful sites that teach and entertain, it can also be full of dark and wicked things." John Egelhof, a retired agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, argued that the Internet has become a "black hole" that risks exposing children to a more sinister world. Egelhof suggested that parents should monitor their children's Internet use and educate them on the differences between right and wrong. Shira Chess, an assistant professor of mass media arts at the University of Georgia, described creepypasta as no more dangerous than stories about vampires or zombies. She argued that creepypasta websites are beneficial as creative communities that provide feedback and help participants become better writers. 

In popular culture

A documentary film on the incident called Beware the Slenderman was released by HBO Films in March 2016, and was broadcast on HBO on January 23, 2017.A season 16 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, titled "Glasgowman's Wrath", is loosely based on the event. The Criminal Minds episode "The Tall Man" (Episode 14.05, airdate October 31, 2018) was also inspired by this story.

On October 14, 2018, a movie inspired by the Slender Man stabbing, called Terror in the Woods, aired on Lifetime. The film stars Ella West Jerrier, Sophia Grace McCarthy, Skylar Morgan Jones, Angela Kinsey, Drew Powell, and Carrie Hood. Christina Ricci serves as the executive producer of the film.

On March 31, 2019, another movie inspired by the Slender Man stabbing titled Mercy Black, starring Daniella Pineda, was released on Netflix. Directed by Owen Egerton and produced by Blumhouse Productions, it tells the story of two girls with pre-schizophrenia who attempt to murder their friend, believing that a spirit named Mercy Black will offer them a gift in return. Later, the protagonist is released from psychiatric care and must confront the real and paranormal consequences of her actions. 

Moral panic and other incidents

The stabbing in Waukesha spawned a nationwide moral panic over Slender Man across the United States. Parents nationwide became worried about the potential dangers that stories about Slender Man might pose to their children's safety. Russell Jack, the police chief of Waukesha, warned that the Slender Man stabbing "should be a wake-up call for all parents" that "the internet is full of dark and wicked things." Many media outlets publicized Jack's warning. 

After hearing the story, an unidentified woman from Cincinnati, Ohio, told a WLWT TV reporter in June 2014 that her 13-year-old daughter had attacked her with a knife, and had written macabre fiction, some involving the Slender Man, who the mother said motivated the attack. 

On September 4, 2014, a 14-year-old girl in Port Richey, Florida, allegedly set her family's house on fire while her mother and nine-year-old brother were inside. Police reported that the teenager had been reading online stories about Slender Man, as well as Atsushi Ōkubo's manga Soul Eater. Eddie Daniels of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said the girl "had visited the website that contains a lot of the Slender Man information and stories [...] It would be safe to say there is a connection to that."

During an early 2015 epidemic of suicide attempts by young people ages 12 to 24 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Slender Man was cited as an influence; the Oglala Sioux tribe president noted that many Native Americans traditionally believe in a "suicide spirit" similar to the Slender Man. Other Sioux describe the "Big Man"[a] as a messenger or sign, warning that society is developing in a dangerous direction. 

A documentary film on the incident called Beware the Slenderman, directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky, was released by HBO Films in March 2016, and was broadcast on HBO on January 23, 2017.

After the Waukesha stabbing

The Waukesha stabbing and the negative media attention it generated irreversibly altered the Slender Man legend and the online community surrounding it. What had previously just been a creepy horror meme to most people suddenly acquired a new level of reality that most fans of Slender Man found horrifying. Meanwhile, by around the same time, the Slender Man character had lost much of his original popularity. Most of the original blogs that had once been devoted to Slender Man either shut down completely or became less popular. Slender Man's presence in mainstream popular culture also contributed to a decline in how frightening he seemed to many people.

The late 2010s also saw an increase in benevolent portrayals of Slender Man, with many depictions of him from this period portraying him as an antihero who protects victimized children from bullies, although often by violent means. In some portrayals of Slender Man from the late 2010s, he has a daughter named Skinny Sally, who is portrayed as a young girl covered in cuts and bruises.[43] Slender Man sometimes is portrayed carrying Skinny Sally on his shoulders protectively. Lynn McNeill, assistant professor of folklore at Utah State University, observes that the increase in benevolent portrayals of Slender Man seems to have begun shortly after the stabbing in Waukesha and states that this trend towards a benevolent Slender Man may be a reaction by fans of the character to the violence of the stabbing.

Despite the decline in popular interest in Slender Man, commercial adaptations of the character continued. In 2015, the film adaptation of Marble Hornets, titled Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story, was released on VOD, where the character was portrayed by Doug Jones. In 2016, Sony Pictures subsidiary Screen Gems partnered with Mythology Entertainment to bring a Slender Man film into theatres, with the title character portrayed by Javier Botet. 

The film generated considerable controversy soon after it was announced, with many accusing the filmmakers of trying to capitalize off the Waukesha stabbing.Bill Weier, the father of Anissa Weier, stated, "It's absurd they want to make a movie like this... All we're doing is extending the pain all three of these families have gone through." The progressive advocacy group Care2 created an online petition, which received over 19,000 signatures, demanding that the film not be released, labelling the film "crass commercialism at its worst" and "a naked cash grab built on the exploitation of a deeply traumatic event and the people who lived it." Sony representatives insisted that the film was based on the fictional character that had become popular online and not on the Waukesha stabbing.

Upon its release in August 2018, the film Slender Man, despite being declared a box-office bomb and receiving both little marketing and overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics, went on to gross several times its $10 million budget worldwide. David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a D, writing "a tasteless and inedibly undercooked serving of the Internet's stalest creepypasta, Slender Man aspires to be for the YouTube era what The Ring was to the last gasps of the VHS generation. But... there's one fundamental difference that sets the two movies apart: The Ring is good, and Slender Man is terrible." Writing for The Verge, Carli Velocci called the Slender Man movie "a nail in the coffin of a dying fandom".

On April 11th, 2024, news broke that Morgan Geyser’s petition for conditional release had been denied by a judge. 

The article states:

Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren has denied Slender Man stabber Morgan Geyser's request for conditional release from Winnebago Mental Health Institute. 

"Under these circumstances, this court's satisfied that the scales tip in the favor of the public, and it tips that way by clear and convincing evidence. So in the matter, after hearing all the credible evidence, which I'm satisfied was very well presented by both the state as well as by the defense, I am satisfied that the petition should be denied," said Bohren, who has been on the case since 2014. 

Geyser was sentenced to 40 years of mental institutional care but had said she had improved enough to be safely released. 

The state said Thursday that although there had been improvements, it did not believe she should be released at this time. 

The doctors who testified Thursday were split on whether she's ready.

"The fact that these clinical factors continue to exist, and are quite prominent, that raises concerns for me about her readiness," clinical psychologist Dr. Brooke Lundbohm said

"Morgan has improved quite dramatically and needs things the institution can no longer offer," psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Robbins testified. 

It was nearly 10 years ago that a 12-year-old Geyser and Anissa Weier, also 12, stabbed their middle school classmate nearly to death in Waukesha. They left her for dead, but the victim, Payton Leutner, survived 19 stab wounds. 

The girls' stunning explanation was they believed the only way to protect their loved ones from the fictional horror character Slender Man was to kill.

Weier was granted her conditional release in 2021.

Under state law, Geyser can make the release request again in as little as six months, and her lawyer said afterward to expect it.

"Yeah, I think we'll pursue it in six months. I think she's making progress, and the doctors hinted at that, so I would expect so," attorney Anthony Cotton said.

I will attach a link in the notes with so you can watch the Judge's ruling in Morgan Geyser's petition for release. 

https://www.wisn.com/article/slender-man-stabbing-morgan-geyser-denied-conditional-release/60471408

To add, there is actually a really good interrogation video on YouTube involving Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser’s police interrogation after the stabbing and paints a rather upsetting and distressing picture about not only the girls’ mental health, but how easily fictional things can be taken as reality and how simple it can be, for children especially, to fall prey to stories like this where the lines can be blurred between what is real and what isn’t.

So, what are your feelings on the Slender Man story? Just another Creepy Pasta created to scare and disturb, or has it evolved into something else? It definitely has a cult following and has become quite the horror phenomena, but is there more to it? Like I mentioned before in other episodes regarding the idea of a thought form, or Tulpa, have we as humans, a collective hive-mind, somehow given life to a fictional character? A made up store that has no factual evidence in the here in and now, our reality as we know it, but has somehow become so real in some of our mind’s that it pushed people to do atrocious things? Maybe even catapulted this horrifying being from the world of make believe into our world of tangible creation? 

Most likely it is just the former, but somewhere in the back of your mind you might wonder if it’s true...a fear that you might look out the window late at night and see an unnaturally tall, spindly, faceless character in a sharp black suit, undulating underneath a street lamp as it watches you silently from the shadows...