A few years ago I started posting about true crime books. For the last decade, the tagline of this website has read “Horror and Occult Book Reviews” and in keeping with the theme of the blog, I’ve only posted about crime books focusing on cases that involved the occult in some way. Most crimes are horrific in some regard, but horror fiction does not play into many crimes in the same way that occult beliefs frequently do. There is, however, one infamous criminal case in which horror fiction plays a central role, the 2014 Slenderman stabbing of Waukesha, Wisconsin. While the story of 2 children attempting to stab their friend to death as a sacrifice to a sinister internet boogeyman seems rather suitable for a website like this, I have avoided discussing it here for personal reasons.
At this point, I doubt many of the freaks who spend their time reading blogs like mine don’t know the story of Morgan Geyser and Annisa Weier. When they were 12 years old, they became convinced that a character they read about on the internet would let them come and live in his mansion if they murdered their best friend. This seems absolutely crazy, and that is because one of these girls was suffering from severe case of schizophrenia and the other kid was impressionable and messed up in her own ways. Together they formed a very toxic relationship that school counselors and parents failed to notice until it was too late. They stabbed their friend 19 times and left her to die in the forest while they headed towards the forest to find Slender Mansion.
The book I read, Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, was good. It doesn’t focus on the sensational aspects of the story and rightfully directs its readers’ attention to the shortcomings of the education, rehabilitation and mental health systems in America.
While the victim of this affair is obviously the child who was stabbed, it’s hard to believe how badly the support systems in Morgan Geyser’s life failed her. This book was published 4 years ago, and Morgan was recently in the news again for trying to flee her group home. I don’t think anyone suspects she’s out to hurt anyone at this point, but she is clearly very insane. The entire story of this case is horribly depressing. If you’re interested though, this book is a good place to start.
So apart from the fact that I generally avoid reading about children getting hurt, I’ve specifically avoided covering Slenderman stuff in the past because of my personal connection to the story.
I was 16 years old when we got the internet in our house. My parents knew nothing about the web, and my friends were computer nerds. I very quickly learned how to delete my browser history and how to connect with other like minded weirdos. I used to post on a few different heavy metal forums, and on one of these I befriended a user called DevilMatt666. He was 14 years older than me, and I thought he was really cool. He had seen Pantera live and used to describe things that he liked as “mint”. I’m pretty sure he’s the person who first introduced me to the music of Glenn Danzig. We weren’t best friends or anything, but I would have interacted with this guy several times a week for at least 4 or 5 years. When the internet changed and forums started to die, Matt was one of the few posters I added on facebook.
I remember sitting in work one day in 2014, reading the news. I had seen mention of the Slenderman stabbing but hadn’t bothered reading about it properly. When I saw a headline mentioning this incident and the name Morgan Geyser, a bell went off in my head. I knew that name. My internet buddy Matt’s last name was Geyser, and I knew his kid’s name was Morgan because he posted about her all the time. I had seen a constant stream of pictures of this kid as she grew up. Honestly, one of the things I liked about Matt was the fact that he was a big, long haired heavy metal dude who was absolutely enamored with his little girl. Underneath the tattoos and sick goatee was a big softy. When I saw the photos in the news article, I knew it was her.
Matt disappeared from the internet for a while, and when he returned he was a broken man. In truth, the only things I remember about him from this point on were the endless posts about missing Morgan and not being able to stop crying. I saw comments and articles on the internet labelling him as a Satanist and a monster, but as far as I could see, he was a really lovely man. I got rid of facebook in 2020, and it was only after reading a recent article on Morgan’s escape that I read that he died 3 years ago. This was a real bummer, but even when he was alive I found it hard to imagine a happy ending to his story.
Knowing that he was dead and that calling attention to this case was no longer potentially going to upset him, I read this book about what happened. It was actually quite challenging to get through. Part of this is the fact that it’s an all round sad story, but my familiarity with some of the characters and the fact that I have my own kids now made it quite a struggle to get through. Keep an eye on your children.
Nocturnal Revelries 