Charlie No Face

Have you seen this man?

He is often referred to as Charlie No Face, or The Green Man, and his story has become something of an urban legend. ​

"Charlie No Face" came about from reports of people seeing a man with no eyes or nose walking around a town in Pennsylvania at night, smoking. Many claim that the smoke would literally pour out through the holes in his face. A chilling image, admittedly. "The Green Man" was also spotted around Pennsylvania, and was thought to be the ghost of a man who worked at a power plant and was grossly disfigured during a work-related accident that melted his face off and turned his skin green. Some accounts depict the faceless man as a grotesque monster of sorts, whereas others describe a sad, lonely man who occasionally wandered around, seeking companionship. Such tales have been circulating throughout numerous communities, mostly in the state of Pennsylvania, since the 50s. ​

I've been fascinated by this story since I came across it several months ago; it inspired me to not only write this post, but to write my own version of Charlie No Face. . .and I'm not alone. There are blogs about this man, and many people have felt inspired to write characters based on him. Various versions of the Charlie No Face/Green Man legend continue to surface to this day, and there is much speculation about the details of his life. The most captivating part about this story for me is that, essentially, it's true. ​

His real name was Raymond Robinson. He grew up in  or around Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and was a pretty regular kid, until he suffered a terrible accident as a pre-teen which left him permanently disfigured. As the story goes, Raymond was goofing around with some friends who dared him to climb up a pylon to look at a bird's nest. He was electrocuted by nearby power lines in the process, and was not expected to live. He did live, and well into his seventies at that. 

As an adult, Raymond mostly kept to himself, and apparently started crafting indoors to occupy his time, making wallets and belts out of leather. Man, I would LOVE to get my hands on one of those. The guy had no eyes! It's amazing to picture him intricately stitching  things together. Very cool. 

As his life wore on, Raymond became a local celebrity of sorts. He liked to walk around at night, which caused quite the stir. There's speculation about whether he walked around at night in order to attract attention or avoid it. Some say he  liked meeting people at night for good conversation over beer and cigarettes. As legend has it, people from all around tried to meet Raymond, and traffic became so congested in his town that police had to reroute  visitors to clear the way for locals. Even Vietnam draftees traveled to meet and be photographed with him. If indeed these events did happen, I can imagine this was quite the ride for Ray. 

Versions of Raymond Robinson's story still continue to circulate, each  bringing an intriguing element along with it. I encourage you all to look them up! I keep finding more interesting aspects in the different variations that keep me searching. 

May the legend continue. . .