Huggin’ Molly
- FATE Magazine
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
We all appreciated a warm, loving hug once in a while.
But, when you’re a kid and alone out in the street at night, and that hug comes from a seven-foot-tall witch dressed in a black coat, it’s a completely different story.
Read here to learn more about the haunting story behind the legend of Huggin’ Molly, and why every Abbeville native, no matter their age, still avoids walking the streets alone after dark.
The Legend of Huggin’ Molly
Every Abbeville native grew up and listened wide-eyed to their parents telling them the story of Huggin’ Molly:
You’re alone, it’s dark outside, and you didn’t listen to your parents to be home and indoors before sunset. You hear footsteps behind you as you walk home in the moon’s glow, not another soul in sight.
You stop to listen. Nothing. You take another footstep. There it is again. You take a deep breath. Maybe it’s just your imagination…
You start walking faster. The footsteps also pick up speed. “Let me hurry to that streetlight!“, you think, hoping that island of safety in the pitch black night will be your saving grace. But, just as you reach the streetlight’s warm glow, the light goes out, and the dark envelopes you.
And then, in an instant, you feel strong arms grab you, fold around you, and start squeezing the life out of you as a shrilling scream deafens your ears.
A Quaint Little Town
Huggin’ Molly’s story has been told from generation to generation in the small town of Abbeville, Alabama.
From a young age, all Abbeville children knew Huggin’ Molly and not to be on the street after dark. As Jimmy Rane, a long-time Abbeville native recalls:
“If your mother or dad didn’t want you to be out after dark, they’d tell you Huggin’ Molly would get you. And you believed it, too.”
His father told him and a friend that he was one night grabbed and given a huge hug by Huggin’ Molly, scaring them witless and making the story of the hugging witch even more real for the two young lads.
A Scary, Dark Figure
Huggin’ Molly, according to legend, is a tall, seven-foot witch.
Dressed in a big, dark coat and huge wide-brimmed hat, Huggin’ Molly would lurk in the dark, waiting for a child on the streets alone after sunset, to stalk, pounce on, and give a huge hug.
Though Molly never really harmed any of her victims – except for a ringing in your ear after her shrilling scream – kids in Abbeville grew up knowing you hurried home and indoors when the day was over and it became dark outside.
Only Young Victims
Huggin’ Molly would strike on nights, lit only by the moon’s glow, stalking young kids walking the dark streets alone.
Little boys, they say, are her victims of choice.
Who Was Huggin’ Molly?
No one knows who Huggin’ Molly is or where she came from. Some claim Molly is the ghost of a mother who lost a young child and now roams the street trying to find her long-lost boy.
Others say Huggin’ Molly worked as a professor at the former local college, the Southwest Alabama Agriculture School, and that she roamed the streets at night to scare young people off the street and, in her own, unique way, kept them out of harm’s way.
Another more scary retelling is that Huggin’ Molly was the ghost of the woman killed one night on the dark streets of Abbeville, now trying to warn others of the dangers that lurk in the dark.
Comments