Case file · High strangeness
The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor
In June 1921 Dr E. H. Helby, medical officer at Dartmoor Prison, was killed when his motorcycle crashed near Postbridge; survivors of other crashes on the B3212 said invisible hairy hands had grabbed the controls.
1921 CE · 50.59, -3.91 · status: legend
The account
Later that year an army officer said hands had seized his handlebars on the same road. Newspapers took up the story in 1921, and the road was later re-cambered.
The sceptical view
The road's steep camber is the likely cause; the legend grew from a run of accidents.