On the internet, there is a new-wave form of horror stories. They are told as real-life accounts of encounters with monsters that lack explanation and are often inspired by strange pictures or altered photographs.
They are called “Creepypastas,” a mutation of “copypasta,” or a copied story and shared many times with no attributed author. None of these are more prolific and terrifying than Slender Man.
Slender Man has inspired a vast array of media, and like all media, it has lent an influence down to its viewers.
In 2014, two girls believed in Slender Man so much that they tried to murder one of their classmates.
They were ordinary girls who never did anything wrong before, and they changed in the worst way all because of this character.
How did this happen? What did Slender Man do that turned two girls from rural northern Wisconsin into psychotic would-be killers?
10 /10 The Slender Man Stabbings
In Waukesha, Wisconsin, a distant rural town without any stories, two 12-year-old girls committed a terrible crime. In 2014, they took a classmate out into the woods and stabbed her 19 times with a knife.
Their victim survived, and when questioned, the girls both made the same comments. They were doing it for Slender Man. They claimed it was part of a ritual that would give them his powers, saying they would be his “proxies.”
9 /10 The Slender Man Trials
The girls were tried as adults. Initially, they were both deemed mentally unfit for declaring to have conversations with a fictional character.
For one of the girls, it wasn’t her first time. She had similarly given accounts of conversing with Voldemort, the villain from the Harry Potter series of books and movies.
Once they were declared legally competent to stand trial, they were sentenced to heavy terms in jail and mental health hospitals, respectively.