The Black-Eyed Children
A journalist said two boys knocked on his car window at night asking for a lift. When he looked closely, their eyes were completely black.
What was reported
In 1998 the Texas reporter Brian Bethel posted an online account of an encounter in Abilene in 1996: two boys came up to his car at night and asked for a ride home, in voices that were polite but insistent. He felt a growing dread, then saw that their eyes were entirely black, with no whites, and drove away.
Similar stories followed from across the United States and Britain, usually of children knocking on doors or car windows and asking to be let in.
Explanations offered
There's no evidence beyond the stories, and they spread and changed online in the way of a creepypasta. Folklorists compare them to older legends of beings who can't come in unless invited. Bethel has said he still can't explain what he felt that night.
- When
- Account posted in 1998
- Where
- Abilene, Texas, USA
- Witnesses
- The journalist Brian Bethel, then many others
- Status
- Urban legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.