Easter is a world-wide holiday for families across America. If you aren’t religious, you may know it as a day you celebrated when you were younger as one of the many versions of a vast rabbit named “The Easter Bunny”, that has come to plant decorated eggs with little candies inside them, or maybe he leaves a basket filled with gifts on your dining table. If you are religious, then you know it as the resurrection day of Jesus, symbolizing victory over death and sin.
Easter is usually celebrated in either March or April, but for Fairfax in the 70s, the notorious bunny arrived early, not with chocolate gifts.
On October 19th, 1970, one of America’s most popular urban legends began. The first confirmed sighting of this bizarre legend comes from an engaged couple, Air Force Cadet Robbert Bennett and his fiancée, sitting in their car with their engine running. Suddenly, the passenger window of Bennett’s car was smashed, and a man wearing a white bunny suit with notably long ears, wielding a hatchet, chopping away at their window, had started to spew nonsense accusations, claiming the two were on private property. He also threatened that he had recorded the couple’s license plate for further consequences. In fear, Bennett quickly drove off at the sudden attack and fled with his fiancée. This “Bunny Man” left evidence of his presence: the glass had shattered out through the car, and he had either dropped or flung his hatchet through the shattered window, the couple nearly escaping what seemed to be an attempted murder. The couple had described the man differently, which gave the Police the bare minimum of physical features to look out for.
However, this was not the only sighting of the Bunny Man. Two weeks later, on October 29th, and then a second time, according to newspapers, he was seen twice again. This time, police got more of a description. A 5’8 man wearing a bunny suit showed up at a construction site. Holding his famous hatchet, the Bunny Man began to chop at an unfinished house’s front porch post at both incidents. When caught by the guard working the first incident, Paul Phillips, the Bunny Man, was quick to threaten. “All you people trespass around here. If you don’t get out of here, I’m going to bust you on the head,” quoted Paul Phillips. “And then he turned and hippity-hopped off into nearby woods,” quoted the second guard. After this account, the Police still hardly knew what they were looking for, putting in newspapers that they were looking for a five-foot-tall 20-year-old who was out and about both nights.
Residents of Fairfax were shaken, fearing the dangers of the still-unaccounted Bunny Man, especially as Halloween approached. Even after Halloween, people’s daily routines were affected. Police were soon drowned in over 50+ cases of the Bunny Man, all with various details and confusion, some contradicting the others, while some seemingly more bizarre. Soon enough, the kids in the community grew it into a horror tale- a fun and dangerous ghost story of a murderous bunny man that camped under a railroad overpass, also gaining the title of the “Bunny Man Bridge”. The story for the past 25+ years has continued to grow and bring in teens from the area to explore the bridge, and it has even gained popularity on YouTube. The original Bunny Man has not been identified, so whether he was a young maniac or an angry demon collecting the souls of those who go near the bridge will most likely stay a mystery.
