To most people, Urban Legends are there to scare the little kids around a campfire on a hot summer night. Urban Legends, although just stories, most of the time have some truth to the stories, and some real aspects that might even scare you more than the legend. With the Legend of Axe Murder Hollow in Erie, Pennsylvania, there’s a lot more truth to the stories than most of the urban legends in the area.

One of the very first legends to the Hollow was about a man named Billy the Butcher. As a hermit, it was rumored a man would kill young teens with an axe with whoever entered the area and hunted the area ever since. But unlike other elements in this story, this one doesn’t really have much backing up towards it.

The only real truth to the story was that there was a man who lived in the area whose name was William Gack, who happened to be a hermit after his family had passed away. William did happen to be a butcher, so it would make sense for fearful teens to make up a story about him butchering humans as well. It is believed that teens were trying to vandalize his home in the hollow, and he caught and held them there til the police came.

Along with Billy the Butcher, there is a rumor of a band of Romani people who help to contribute to the story of Axe Murder Hollow. A Tribal Chief had learned about how his wife has cheated on him. Full of anger, the Chief had then chopped her head off with an axe and hid her head near the now Weis library building.

Now although no one has ever found the decapitated head of the wife, there were many other crimes committed in the area that were have said to be done by a group of Romani people. There was reports of all kinds of mischief in the newspaper, even reports of child abduction during the time.

Both of these stories are more legends than anything, but this last section, is about a true murder to happen. Meeting up for a date one night, Daniel Biebighauser had raped and murdered the young Mary Lynn Crotty in Harborcreek, and then dumped the body off at Axe Murder Hollow, adding more fuel to the legend. After he was found and arrested for his crime, and then charged with murder to be put into prison. At the trial, he was described as, “ the type who can kill you and not say anything.”

Urban Legends at the end of the day are just stories with little bits of truth in the end, it’s up to those who hear it to decided what’s the truth.