We’ve all seen the pictures and probably heard some version of the story. A strange man with a smile that is just a little too big. But where did the Smiling Man actually come from?

Turns out, that isn’t as easy to answer as I thought it would be.

The story takes us back to John Keel, a strange encounter in New Jersey in 1966, a few things that sound more like hauntings to me, and yes, Indrid Cold. I teased his story way back in Episode 70 as a tale yet to be told. Apparently it took me 117 episodes to get back to it.

Then there’s the Smiling Man most people know today. That story has a very different history, and once Deb finds out where it came from, she has a few things to say about it.

So are all these smiling strangers connected? I don’t know. I’m not even convinced they should all be called the same thing.

But there is something damned creepy about a stranger standing in the dark and smiling at you for absolutely no reason.