故事发生在20世界初，故事主人翁查理是一名美国民俗学家，经常游走於美国西南部和南部，收集各种鬼故、奇人奇事、超自然经历等等。有一天，查理在酒吧结识到一名来自奥克拉荷马州的农夫。他和查理分享了一则家乡的传闻∶在佛罗里达州，有一名阴沉古怪的巫婆和一只恶魔化身的狼狗独居在一栋与世隔绝的房子里。
纵使查理外表保持郑重其事，但内心已经嗤之以鼻。作为民俗学家多年，他见识类似的事情多的是。那些思想狭窄的乡巴佬老是喜欢把一些非社会主流人士，如寡妇、同性恋者等妖魔化。到山森郊游说成和魔鬼交媾，用乡语说话说成念巫毒咒语。但那个农夫非常笃定地说那一个老妇人根本不是人类，隐藏在她那块霉得发黄的头巾下，是一种更邪恶、更可怕的怪物。除此之外，有一只大得吓人的狼狗总是陪伴著她左右。据说，那只狼狗异常凶狠，任何人走近它都会发出低沉轰呜，露出尖锐利牙，一副杀而快之的模样。
查理听到后不禁暗暗窃笑，但看见那妇人居住的位置刚好在自己下一次旅程的路途上，就顺便把她放在行程表里，打算好好拜访那一名“邪恶”的老妇人。
自此之后，查理一直下落不明。
日子不知过了多久，有一天，一名自称是来自奥克拉荷马州的当铺老板，上门拜访查尔利的遗孀。他说日前在报章看到查理的寻人启事后，想起当铺里有一台相机上面刻著他的名字，所以送来给她。他又声称那台照相机是数日前，由一名拾荒者卖给他。对于为丈夫失踪一事悬肠挂肚的遗孀，照相机里残存的胶片成为了她唯一的希望。她赶紧把相机拿到最近的照相馆，期望找出一丝线索。但当她把胶片冲洗出来时，最后的希望都变成了绝望…..
下图是胶片中是相机里最后一张照片，也是查理人生最后一张照片。
照片放大后可以看到女人两眼发光。
开局一张图，故事全靠编，这种行文描述事件的笔法都很故事会。实际上原版只是一张展现农妇Virginia Romero辛勤工作的照片。以下是外网的节选：
Solved: The Last Photo of Charlie Noonan
A blog post I published last year called The Last Photo of Charlie Noonan has proved to be one of my most popular (along with The Cooper Falling Body Photograph and The Mystery of Elisa Lam and the Cecil Hotel). And I’m not surprised, as it features an eye-catchingly weird photograph with a chilling tale attached.
It appears that the original was posted in late November, 2009 on a blog called Always Becoming. The subject of the photograph is a real woman, named Virginia Romero, a Tiwa Indian from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico:
“Virginia weighed all of 90 pounds and stood four and a half feet tall on days when she wasn’t hunched over with a bundle of some kind on her back. Her long black hair never left the tidy knot at the back of her head and on days when the task at hand was especially dirty and laborious – plastering with mud or tanning a hide – she wore a blue and white bandanna. Virginia spoke little English and rarely traveled beyond the reservation. From the moment this wiry workhorse of a woman woke up until she went to sleep, Virginia worked and she worked hard.”
The blog entry was about strong women and went on to describe more details of Virginia Romero’s life. This is the image that accompanied the text:
As you can see, our photo of Charlie Noonan is clearly copied from this, with some details erased, the dog and the glowing eyes added and the image reversed to confuse search engines. So there we have it. I’m sure, despite the proof here, most people will still continue to post the doctored photograph around the internet regardless, but it is not often that we get the luxury of confidently drawing a line under any of these stories and my sincere thanks go to the anonymous poster who got in touch to tell me about their research.
Case closed.
For more research into real-life cases please check out my ebooks.
