Keep away from Pumpkinhead,
Unless you’re tired of living,
His enemies are mostly dead,
He’s mean and unforgiving,
Laugh at him and you’re undone,
But in some dreadful fashion,
Vengeance, he considers fun,
And plans it with a passion,
Time will not erase or blot,
A plot that he has brewing,
It’s when you think that he’s forgot,
He’ll conjure your undoing,
Bolted doors and windows barred,
Guard dogs prowling in the yard,
Won’t protect you in your bed,
Nothing will, from Pumpkinhead.

-Ed Justin

It is said that the creature called Pumpkinhead is a fairytale used to frighten children, merely a backwoods story of a demon to scare attentive listeners around the campfire. Either myth or legend, there is almost always a grain of truth, of some kind, to be found in their origins.

Pumpkinhead is said to be a demon, one particularly summoned for revenge. It’s name derives from the fact that the demon, according to the stories, is buried in a pumpkin patch deep in the far corners of the woods and swamp. The burial site is said to be watched over by a witch named Haggis; other reports chronicle a witch named Osie.

Records indicate sightings of Pumpkinhead throughout history, and after 1957, here in the United States, sightings were all but nonexistent. It wasn’t until a man named Ed Harley had the demon summoned in the late 1980s that sightings became pronounced.

According to friends and neighbors of Ed Harley, it was the death of his young son that gave him the impetus to seek the help of Haggis in raising Pumpkinhead from the grave. In statements from the time, Harley’s son was killed when vacationing young adults struck and killed the boy while riding dirt bikes. Grief stricken, Ed Harley sought the help of the witch, Haggis, who was reluctant at first. Haggis warned Harley of the dangers, but the grieving father insisted.

Newly raised, Pumpkinhead set out on a mission of revenge for the mourning father. What Ed Harley did not know was that he would be able to witness, through the demon’s eyes, the killings. As Pumpkinhead slaughtered the teens, Harley not only witnessed it, but was nearly driven mad by it. Having a change of heart, Harley asked Haggis to stop the creature. Haggis informed him that the only person capable of stopping the creature was Harley himself.

Trying to save the remaining youths from Pumpkinhead, Harley learns that the only way to stop the demon is to die himself. With him dead, Pumpkinhead will also die. One young lady, named Tracey, shot Harley until he and the demon were both dead.

With the demon gone, Haggis buried Harley’s burnt corpse in the pumpkin patch.

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