Bulldog Man

The Bulldog Man is an urban legend from Tulsa, Oklahoma, about a disfigured boy who grows up to be a scary hermit.

The legend of the Bulldog Man begins in the 1920s, at an old amusement park that was located on Old North Road, between Sand Springs and Tulsa. One day, a poor family were driving by and they stopped to visit the park. The father and mother had a lot of children and they couldn’t afford the entrance fee. Instead, they were forced to watch all the fun going on inside from the parking lot.

They say that when the parents got all the kids back in the car and drove off, they didn’t realize that they had accidentally left their youngest son behind. Some say the parents abandoned the little boy on purpose because they already had too many mouths to feed. The boy was only four or five years old and he lived off popcorn, corndogs and other snacks, discarded by people who visited the park. At night, when everyone had gone home, he would sleep in the amusement park.

A few years later, the amusement park was closed down, and the boy found himself homeless. He was wandering aimlessly around the woods and sleeping rough. One day, he wandered into a brick factory and the workers there gave him some food and allowed him to sleep in the warmth, near the brick kiln. Every day, the factory workers brought him sandwiches in their lunches and, in a way, they unofficially adopted him.

One night, as the boy slept peacefully near the brick kiln, a pile of bricks shifted and fell on his head. His face was crushed and his nose was pushed in. The factory workers didn’t want to pay for the boy to go to the hospital, so he never recieved any medical attention. His face healed on its own and the poor boy was permanently disfigured. He had a squashed pug nose and hanging jowls like a bulldog.

The factory workers began calling him “Bulldog Boy”. He never went to school, never recieved any education, so his only hope of getting a job when he grew up was to work in the brick factory.

Unfortunately, when the Bulldog Man was old enough to work, the factory was closed down. Dejected and angry at society for making fun of his mutilated face, the Bulldog Man went off into the woods to live alone. He became a hermit, avoiding the cold stares and the cruel laughter of others, living off whatever he could find in trash cans.

He spent his time sleeping in a makeshift shack in the forest and guarding the old abandoned brick factory where he grew up. They say that he carried a gun and would take a shot at anyone who got close enough to catch a glimpse of his ruined face.

There was a nearby lovers lane where local teenagers would go to make out. The Bulldog Man would often sneak around the lovers lane, looking for food. He ate the discarded hamburgers and french fries that the teenagers threw out of their car windows. They say that if you didn’t throw out some food for the Bulldog Man, he would creep up to your car and scare you.

What became of the Bulldog Man? No one knows. People say that he is still spotted, now and then, lurking the woods around Old North Road.