The vanishing hitchhiker (or variations such as the ghostly hitchhiker, disappearing hitchhiker, or phantom hitchhiker) is an urban legend in which people travelling by vehicle meet with or are accompanied by a hitchhiker, who subsequently vanishes without explanation, often from a moving vehicle.

Public knowledge of the story expanded greatly with the 1981 publication of Jan Harold Brunvand's nonfiction book The Vanishing Hitchhiker. In his book, Brunvand suggests that the story of The Vanishing Hitchhiker can be traced as far back as the 1870s." Similar stories have been reported for centuries across the world in places like England, Ethiopia, Korea, France, South Africa, Tsarist Russia and in America among Chinese Americans, Mormons and Ozark mountaineers.

What was probably the first vanishing hitchhiker legend can be found in the 400-year-old manuscript Om the tekn och widunder som föregingo thet liturgiske owäsendet, which translates roughly as "About the signs and wonders that preceded the liturgical event". The author was Joen Petri Klint, a priest in diocese of Linköping, Sweden, and diligent collector of omens.

Variations

A common variation of the above involves the vanishing hitchhiker departing as would a normal passenger, having left some item in the vehicle, or having borrowed a garment for protection against the cold.

The Beardsley-Hankey survey elicited 79 written accounts of encounters with vanishing hitchhikers, drawn from across the United States.</blockquote>

Baughman's classification system grades this basic story as motif E332.3.3.1.

Subcategories include:

  • E332.3.3.1(a) for vanishing hitchhikers who reappear on anniversaries
  • E332.3.3.1(b) for vanishing hitchhikers who leave items in vehicles, unless the item is in a pool of water, in which case it is E332.3.3.1(c)
  • E332.3.3.1(d) is for accounts of sinister old ladies who prophesy disasters
  • E332.3.3.1(e) contains accounts of phantoms who are apparently sufficiently solid to engage in activities such as eating or drinking during their journey
  • E332.3.3.1(f) is for phantom parents who want to be taken to the sickbed of their dying son
  • E332.3.3.1(g) is for hitchhikers simply requesting a lift home
  • E332.3.3.1(h-j) are a category reserved exclusively for vanishing nuns (a surprisingly common variant), some of whom foretell the future

Here, the phenomenon blends into religious encounters, with the next and last vanishing hitchhiker classification &nbsp;– E332.3.3.2&nbsp;– being for encounters with divinities who take to the road as hitchhikers. The legend of Saint Christopher is considered one of these, and the story of Philip the Evangelist being transported by God after encountering the Ethiopian on the road (Acts 8:26–39) is sometimes similarly interpreted.

The first vanishing hitchhiker legend

The author was Joen Petri Klint, a priest in diocese of Linköping, Sweden, and diligent collector of omens.

In February 1602, a priest and two farmers were on their way home from the Candelmass market in Västergötland. A maid asked to go along. At an inn, they got off to get a bite to eat, and the maid wanted something to drink, a jug of beer (a common beverage). The first time the innkeeper fetched beer, the jug was filled with malt, the second time was acorns, and finally blood. They were then horrified. The maid explained that this year will yield much grain, plenty of fruit on the trees, but war and pestilence. Then she disappeared into thin air.

The incident contains all the hallmarks of a "vanishing hitchhiker". It fits well with Beardsley and Hankey's second and third categories (when the hitchhiker disappeared after making a prediction). The beer's transformations match Baughman's category E332.3.3.1(b), when the maid left behind seed, acorns, and blood, and category E332.3.3.1(d) when she predicted the future (however, Klint does not mention whether the prophecy was correct), as well as category E332.3.3.1(e), because she wanted something to drink, and E332.3.3.1(g), because she was on her way home.

Skeptical reception

Paranormal researcher Michael Goss in his book The Evidence for Phantom Hitch-Hikers [sic] discovered that many reports of vanishing hitchhikers turn out be based on folklore and hearsay stories. Goss also examined some cases and attributed them to hallucinations of the experiencer. According to Goss, most of the stories are "fabricated, folklore creations retold in new settings."

Skeptic Joe Nickell, who investigated two alleged cases, concluded that no reliable evidence exists for vanishing hitchhikers. Historical examples have their origin in folklore tales and urban legends. Modern cases often involve conflicting accounts that may well be the result of exaggeration, illusion, or hoaxes.