W. J. Hankey

The vanishing hitchhiker (or variations such as the ghostly hitchhiker, disappearing hitchhiker, or phantom hitchhiker) is an urban legend in which people travelling by vehicle meet with or are accompanied by a hitchhiker, who subsequently vanishes without explanation, often from a moving vehicle. Public knowledge of the story expanded greatly with the 1981 publication of Jan Harold Brunvand's nonfiction book The Vanishing Hitchhiker. In his book, Brunvand suggests that the story of The Vanishin…