"Green Man" or "Charlie No Face" is a story told as an urban legend that recounts several appearances in western Pennsylvania of a mysterious man with a completely disfigured face. But... is he real?
Urban legends.
There are different versions of the story of "Charlie No Face".
In western Pennsylvania, there are many local stories about the Pittsburgh Green Man or Faceless Charlie. It is said that this man can be seen lurking by the roadside at night puffing cigarette smoke through the holes in his cheeks, trying to stay out of sight.
The story goes that the Green Man had an accident that left his face ruined. Some say he was working for an electric company and was struck by lightning or after a power line fell. Others suggest he was splashed by acid in the factory where he worked.
In a better known version of the story, the accident took place in an abandoned railroad tunnel in Pittsburgh, most likely South Park Township, located off Snowden Road, used by the township to store rock salt for snow days.
Tourists and curious outsiders drove along the road expecting to meet the mythical "Green Man," but some of them were disappointed not to see him. However, they passed on the stories about him to their children and grandchildren, which led the people who grew up hearing these stories to be surprised to discover that the man was a real person.
Raymond Robinson.
While the story of faceless Charlie has been told over the years as an urban legend, even a creepypasta, the person behind the legend actually existed under the name Raymond Robinson.
Childhood and accident.
Raymond Theodore Robinson was born on October 29, 1910 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. He was a severely disfigured U.S. citizen whose years of night walking made him a famous character, and created an urban legend in the state of Pennsylvania.
Son of Vasil R. Robinson, also known as Robert Van Robinson, and his wife Lulu (Louise) Henrietta Winnail Robinson. His father died in 1917. His mother remarried her husband's brother, Orin Newton Robinson in 1929, who was a widower. They raised at least six children. Mildred, Beatrice, Valda, Raymond T., Wilfred L. and Verner F.
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| Alleged photograph of Raymond prior to the accident. Erroneously mentioned as being 9 years old. |
On June 20, 1919, Robinson was seriously injured in a children's electrical accident. Raymond was only eight years old when he was injured by a power line while climbing a pole and trying to reach a bird's nest on the Purple Bridge outside Beaver Falls. Running across the bridge was a streetcar line with 1,200-volt and 22,000-volt power lines, which were responsible for the death of another child less than a year earlier. Robinson survived, defying doctors' expectations, but was severely disfigured: Raymond lost his eyes, nose and right arm.
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| Possible site of the accident. |
Post-accident life.
Robinson lived in Koppel, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and spent his days at home with family members, making mats, purses and belts to sell later. Because of his condition, Ray learned Braille. He lived in isolation, not appearing in public until his later years. He reportedly ate separately from his family and, as an adult, was provided an apartment in his garage. He loved to listen to the radio, especially baseball games.
Because of his appearance, he rarely ventured out during the day. At night, however, he would take long walks along a lightly traveled stretch of State Route 351, feeling his way along with a cane.
Different groups of locals would regularly gather to look for him walking along the road. Robinson usually hid from neighbors and curious walkers, but sometimes he would exchange a brief conversation or a photograph with them in exchange for a beer or a cigarette. Some walkers were friendly, others, however, were cruel. It was reported that on one occasion he was given a beer in which the culprit had urinated. After this, Raymond would never drink from an open bottle again.
While he often hid from traffic, he occasionally accepted rides. But among the cruel acts was leaving him in the middle of nowhere to find his way home. Ms. York said that during her interviews with people who knew him, there were many who were ashamed of how they had treated him, many grown men bursting into tears. His sister, wanting to maintain the family's privacy, only told one reporter that she was concerned about him drinking and walking down that narrow road. Her nephew was quoted as saying that Uncle Ray never talked about his injuries or his problems, "It was just a reality and there was nothing he could do about it, so he never talked. He never complained about anything."
Death.
Raymond was known to have been struck by vehicles on the road on more than one occasion. Robinson stopped walking during the last years of his life, and retired to the Beaver County Geriatric Center, where he passed away on June 11, 1985, at the age of 74. Raymond was buried with his natural father, Robert, in Grandview Cemetery in Beaver County.
¿Green Man?
There are two competing hypotheses to explain the alias "The Green Man" that accompanied Raymond Robinson throughout his life.
The first hypothesis comes from the color of his skin, which was supposedly green due to the electric shock he suffered in the stories.
The second hypothesis proposes that Robinson often wore green clothing, more specifically, a shirt, and that his skin being so pale, it reflected the color of the clothing.
The sad reality was that since his nose was an open wound, it often became infected and the area turned green.
Legacy.
Over the years, Robinson became a local myth in the Pittsburgh area, and his true story was obscured by urban legend. In the stories, he is the "Green Man," and as a child, he was involved in a terrible accident in which he lost his eyes, nose, mouth, an ear and an arm. The story goes that when he grew up, he hid in an abandoned house. Even, according to belief, "sightings" of Faceless Charlie, who wanders along the Koppel-New Galilee Highway in Big Beaver or can be found in a railroad tunnel in South Park, an industrial area near Pittsburgh, have continued after his death on June 11, 1985.
Film adaptations.
Filmmaker Tisha York planned to direct and release a film based on the urban legend of Green Man, titled "Route 351," in 2008, with the intention of completing it in 2009. Filming was delayed by the Great Recession and is on hold as of 2023. York owns the film rights to the story.
In 2011, filmmaker Joe Shelby wrote, directed, and produced an unofficial, low-budget slasher film based on the Green Man legend. In the film, a group of seven friends discover the local urban legend during a birthday party and decide to go in search of the 'Green Man.' However, what starts as a fun adventure turns into a nightmare when they realize the legend is real and far more dangerous than they ever imagined.
The film has only been seen by a handful of viewers at film festivals and has not been officially released.
