Let’s say you wake up in the middle of the night and a strange man is in your room. Your first assumption is that he’s there to hurt, rob or kill you right? But instead he just leaves and you realize that this bizarre man has robbed some of your hair. In 1942, this happened to more than four women and girls in one of the most insane cases that has happened in Pascagoula.
No one could of even guessed what was about to happen in this small town. It all started with the girls who began it all, Edna Hydel and Mary Briggs, who woke up one night to find a man climbing out their window and each with a single strand of their hair missing. They both claim that he left too fast for either of them to get a good look at him but they were certain that the thief was a man.
The next victim was a six year old girl, Carol Peattie who suffered a very similar fate as the first two women while she was sound asleep next to her brother. Here he left one of the few clues, a sandy footprint. The third attack was the first of violence, where he attacked Mr. and Mrs. Heidelberg with a crowbar. It is unclear why he became violent on this third attack and why he didn’t take his usual prize. The last victim was Mrs. Taylor, from whom the barber took a little less violent approach and used chloroform before taking the hair.
The attacks were so random and strange that it is hard to pinpoint a rhyme or reason to the Barber’s actions. The small town was now on edge and was quick to accuse anyone who looked guilty. William Dolan, because of some small connections with one of the victims and a bundle of hair found behind his house, was accused of the crime. Even with the lack of evidence, he was charged with 10 years in prison. No one really knows if it really was Dolan or someone with bizarre intentions that we will never fully understand.
SOURCES:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55316/strange-states-mississippis-phantom-barber-pascagoula
http://swordandscale.com/the-phantom-barber-of-pascagoula-mississippi/
