Have you heard of Charlie No Face (also called the Green Man)?
We all love an urban legend: the kind of story that gets told around the campfire or by your siblings right before you go to bed – a tale that is told to you in such a way that they seem almost real – or at least real enough to keep you awake for the rest of that night.
From Slender Man to what supposedly happens when you drink a soft drink with Pop Rocks in your mouth (I may have actually tried this once), we all weirdly love to feel that horror or that uncertainty about whether something is actually true or not — because they’re not true … right?
Charlie No Face
If you grew up in Western Pennsylvania during the 1950s or 1960s, then you may have heard the urban legend about Charlie No Face or the Green Man, as he was sometimes called. The apparition was often described as a man with no face – only seen at nighttime. The ghostly figure was said to run off after people and scare off anyone who was out and about.
One Koppel resident remembered seeing the figure as she walked home from the local swimming hole and later recalled: “I was so scared it was unreal.”
Residents would tell their children, who would tell their children in turn and eventually the story became part of the local culture. Everyone knew of the urban legend of Charlie No Face.
Only, it turned out that it wasn’t an urban legend at all.
Charlie No Face did exist …
… and his name was Raymond Robinson.
Raymond Robinson – the real Charlie No Face
Raymond Robinson was like every other kid you’d meet; brave beyond comprehension who just has no reason to feel the world. This is why in 1919, at the age of eight, Robinson found himself climbing an electrical pole in an attempt to get a bird’s nest at the top.
Robinson was reaching for the nest when he came into contact with the cable, sending 11,000 volts of electricity into his body, sending him flying to the ground in a brilliant flash of white, and badly burning his hands and face – leaving holes where his eyes and mouth used to be.
Raymond, realising that his condition would alarm others, decided to only venture outside at nighttime in an effort to minimise his chances of meeting others. It’s believed that he got the moniker of the Green Man from the headlamps of passing cars reflecting against his flannels as they passed him in the dead of night.
While some residents were undeniably terrified of this ghostly apparition they’d spy only at nighttime, some took time to befriend him and would often bring him cigarettes and beers.
“Helluva a nice guy,” remarked one Phil Ortega.
Despite his horrific injuries, Raymond Robinson, the Green Man/Charlie No Face, lived until the age of 74, dying 11th of June, 1985.