The Bunny Man is a Northern Virginia urban legend about a threatening figure in a rabbit costume, carrying an axe or hatchet. The story has become attached to Colchester Overpass near Clifton, better known as Bunny Man Bridge. But the two best-documented encounters from 1970 happened elsewhere in Fairfax County, along Guinea Road.
That gap became the question we kept coming back to. How did reports of a costumed man near a parked car and a construction site become a ghost story about a railroad bridge? The records let us follow some of that change. They also show how quickly people were already struggling to separate an encounter from a story someone had heard.
The Bunny Man at a Glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who is the Bunny Man? | A rabbit-costumed figure in a Virginia legend, with roots in reports from October 1970. |
| Where is Bunny Man Bridge? | Colchester Overpass on Colchester Road near Clifton, Virginia. |
| Was the person identified? | No. The police investigation ended without an identification. |
| Are the bridge murders documented? | The sources reviewed here do not establish the killings or asylum escape described in the legend. |
The Bunny Man Story
In elaborate variant of the legend, an asylum transfer goes wrong, an escapee survives in the woods, and dead rabbits begin appearing. The story eventually arrives at a bridge, where victims are said to have been killed or left hanging. Other versions make the Bunny Man a ghost who returns at Halloween. Conley traces several of these later versions.
These details vary, and they need to stay in the category of folklore. A date, a victim’s name, or a precise location can make a version sound researched without supplying evidence that its events happened.
The Two Reported Encounters from 1970
October 18: A hatchet through a car window
Robert Bennett, an Air Force Academy cadet, reported that he and his fiancée were in a parked car on Guinea Road when a man accused them of trespassing and threw a hatchet through the passenger-side window. Neither was injured. Bennett described a white outfit with long rabbit ears.
This account appeared in the October 22, 1970, Washington Post. We are using the text reproduced in Brian A. Conley’s Fairfax County research; we have not independently inspected that original newspaper page.
October 29: An axe at an unfinished house
Construction security guard Paul Phillips reported a similar confrontation at an unfinished house on Guinea Road. A man was chopping a porch support and threatened him. The October 31 Washington Post account reproduced by Conley specifies a long-handled axe. The Washington Daily News also covered the incident on October 31.
The surviving police packet, case 858-748, records the October 29 complaint and the unsuccessful search. It also records reported damage to the porch post. Officers did not catch the person.
Descriptions were inconsistent: Bennett’s account described white clothing, while the later Post report described a gray, black and white rabbit suit. The reports do not establish whether both encounters involved the same person.
The Story Was Spreading While Police Investigated
Reading the Washington Daily News pages from November 1970, we can watch the reports spread beyond Fairfax.
By November 4, the paper was reporting more Bunny Man sightings. Yet on November 6, D.C. police said they had found no evidence confirming that wave of reports. A November 5 article also discussed adult bunny-costume rentals, including one after the original Fairfax encounter. So the question becomes: how much of the expanding story was another encounter, a copycat, or a rumor repeated at school? The newspapers were asking that while it was happening.
The rental report gives us a possible explanation to consider, but it does not connect a particular renter to an attack. And D.C. police were discussing the later wave of reports, not declaring that nothing had happened in Fairfax.
The police packet lets us follow a rumor more closely. In early November, Investigator W. L. Johnson interviewed children who supposedly knew about the Bunny Man. The trail led to children who said they had heard about him at school rather than met him. On March 14, 1971, Johnson marked the investigation inactive. No identity had been established.
By 1973, the variations were substantial. Conley reports that Patricia C. Johnson’s student paper collected 54 versions from 33 students, mentioning 14 locations. We have not read her original manuscript, so those figures are Conley’s account of her work. Conley’s summary does not identify all 14 locations, so it cannot settle when the bridge entered the story.
How Did the Story Reach Bunny Man Bridge?
The 1970 reports place the encounters along Guinea Road. They do not place them at Colchester Overpass. Later versions place the Bunny Man at the bridge. We have not found a securely dated account that establishes when people first connected it with Bunny Man.
One detail in John Kelly’s June 2, 2014, Washington Post article gives us a glimpse of what the bridge became. Kelly was writing about a Bunny Man rock opera by Jim Waters and Chris Piller. Waters recalled spending time at the bridge when he was young. Years later, his daughter and her friends went there too.
Neither visit is dated, and the account does not establish when Waters first knew the bridge’s Bunny Man name. But it does show the same place drawing two generations of one family. A father recognized his own childhood hangout in his daughter’s night out. By the time Kelly wrote about it, that family story had become part of a new adaptation of Bunny Man.
Was There a Clifton Asylum Escape?
The popular 1904 asylum-escape story has no support in Conley’s historical investigation. He found no matching Fairfax County asylum, and Lorton Prison, which appears in that version, did not open until 1910.
The extra details solve a storytelling problem: they give the strange figure a past and explain why he is dangerous. We can describe that version without treating its escape or murders as history.
Why Do People Visit Bunny Man Bridge?
A legend trip is a visit to a place associated with a story, often with storytelling or an attempt to test what the story says will happen. Reading about the practice helped us ask a different question about the bridge: what keeps bringing people back after they have heard the tale?
Someone can doubt the story and still enjoy being scared by it. That gives us a way to think about the bridge tradition without treating a frightening experience as evidence of a haunting. Bird’s study helps explain the appeal of such visits. It cannot supply the missing date when this particular story arrived at this particular bridge.
Is the Bunny Man Real?
There were contemporary reports of a threatening man in unusual clothing, a hatchet thrown through a car window, and damage at a construction site. There was a police investigation. No one was identified as responsible.
The supernatural killer at the bridge belongs to the legend. The November articles bring us much closer to the moment when the story started spreading. Reporters were asking which sightings they could confirm. Investigators were following school rumors. People were already trying to make sense of a frightening, strange report before anyone could explain who was behind it. That part of the Bunny Man story is there in the records.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Bunny Man Bridge?
Bunny Man Bridge is the popular name for Colchester Overpass on Colchester Road near Clifton, Virginia. The original reported encounters were on Guinea Road.
Did the Bunny Man kill anyone?
No killing has been established in the 1970 encounters described here. The bridge murders in later versions remain unsupported.
Was there an asylum near Bunny Man Bridge?
Conley found no Fairfax County asylum matching the story. The alleged 1904 transfer to Lorton Prison also conflicts with the prison’s 1910 opening.
Who was the real Bunny Man?
The investigation did not identify the person or establish that every reported encounter involved the same individual.
When did the bridge become part of the legend?
The sources reviewed here do not establish the earliest bridge association. Later recollections show an established tradition, but an undated memory cannot settle its starting date.
Related Urban Legends
- The Hook urban legend
- The Killer in the Backseat urban legend
- The Boyfriend’s Death urban legend
- Black-Eyed Children urban legend
- List of Urban Legends
Sources and Further Reading
- Brian A. Conley, “The Bunny Man Unmasked: The Real Life Origins of an Urban Legend,” Fairfax County Public Library. Historical synthesis, including transcriptions of the October 22 and 31, 1970, Washington Post reports and discussion of Patricia C. Johnson’s 1973 manuscript.
- Fairfax County Police Department, case 858-748. Eight-page redacted police packet, October 1970–March 1971; reviewed as a PDF. It does not contain a written account of the Bennett encounter.
- Washington Daily News, October 31, 1970, p. 3. Jerry Oppenheimer, “Bunny Man, Superman are rivaling bogeyman,” with the sidebar “Just chopping along.”
- Arthur Rotstein, “Two more sightings: Bunny Man seen in D.C.,” Washington Daily News, November 4, 1970, p. 4.
- Arthur Rotstein, report on Bunny Man costume rentals, Washington Daily News, November 5, 1970, p. 5.
- Alex Bilanow, “Hare today, and tomorrow: Bunny-Man reports multiply,” Washington Daily News, November 6, 1970, p. 9.
- John Kelly, “With ‘Legend of the Bunnyman,’ a local band celebrates a quirky urban myth,” The Washington Post, June 2, 2014.
- S. Elizabeth Bird, “Playing with Fear: Interpreting the Adolescent Legend Trip,” Western Folklore 53, no. 3 (1994): 191–209. Especially pp. 191–192 and 200–202.