Urban Legends

Charlie Noonan

Charlie Noonan is an urban myth about the mysterious disappearance of a man. This tale is not a true story but the image is interesting and grabs your attention.

Charlie Noonan was an amateur folklorist who traveled throughout the South ad Southwestern United States during the early years of the 20th century, collecting tall tales and stories of the supernatural. According to his wife, Ellie, Charlie was told a story one day by an Oklahoma farmer about a strange woman who lived alone on an isolated property in the panhandle.

The farmer claimed the woman was not a woman at all, but something else, something that hid its true nature beneath a headscarf and was never seen without a large dog by its side.

Noonan was apparently intrigued enough to try searching the woman during one of his research road trips. 

He was never seen again.

Ellie Noonan was later contacted by a Tulsa pawnbroker who remembered reading about her husband's disappearance in the papers, after finding his name engraved on a camera sold to him by an itinerant. The pawnbroker returned the camera, and Mrs. Noonan had the film inside developed in the hopes of finding a clue as to his whereabouts. This was the only photo on the roll. 

Unfortunately, neither the location of the property nor the name of the farmer who told him the story was recorded in Noonan's notes.

However, further research reveals that this is just an urban myth. There is no folklorist named Charlie Noonan, and there is no record of any of these strange events. This is just an intriguing story made up by someone on the internet, inspired by the picture above.