The Faceless Man of Pawley's Island

By Crusader1307

This is the legend of a spectral figure of the ''Man Without A Face''. Going back to Charleston, South Carolina (US) lore as far back as 1822. The story tells of a beautiful young girl from a well-off Southern Family. She had her pick of the finest of young gentlemen. She chose her Cousin (who was a known scoundrel). Both families parents stopped the possible marriage (by sending the young man overseas to France), While there, he was killed in a duel (problem solved). Grief stricken, our young lass is forced to marry another man. He owned a Plantation on Pawley's Island (and they spent much time there). He was called to fight in The American Revolution (so she spent 1778 alone on the Island). One night, while walking the beach he saw wreckage of a ship on the sand nearby. As she went closer, a gray figure approached her, falling to her feet. As the girl bent down to help, she saw it was her first love -  The Cousin! Apparently, he had not died in a duel after all. Our girl had no choice but to tell him than she had married someone else. The story says that he ran off, dying later. After the War, our girl and her hero husband lived a normal life (she never told him the story). It is said on certain cold and damp nights the Man Without A Face (The Cousin), is seen wandering the beach, moaning and crying for the life he was robbed of.