INTERESTING PEOPLE: RAYMOND ROBINSON

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RAYMOND ‘RAY’ ROBINSON: ‘GREEN MAN’

Raymond Theodore Robinson (1910 – 1985) was a disfigured American man whose years of walks at night resulted in his becoming an urban legend in western Pennsylvania. Robinson was so severely injured in a childhood electrical accident that going out in public created fear and panic. Instead he went for long walks at night.

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About:

Robinson was eight years old when he was injured by an electrical line as he climbed a pole and reached for a bird's nest on the Morado Bridge, outside of Beaver Falls. The bridge carried a trolley and had electrical lines of both 1,200 and 22,000 volts, which were responsible for the death of another boy less than a year earlier. Robinson survived, defying doctors' expectations, but he was severely disfigured; he lost his eyes, nose, and right arm. The high-voltage shock burnt Robinson’s face and arms, leaving holes where his eyes and nose once were.

Despite this horrific injury, reports at the time noted that he was in good spirits and that he could still hear and talk. 

He was isolated and ostracized, even by his own family in Koppel, Pennsylvania, who would eat separately from him. He tried to make the best of it. An avid baseball fan, he listened to every game he could pick up on his radio. He learned to read braille and how to make wallets and doormats out of old tires. When he became a man, his family fashioned a small apartment for him out in their garage.

Because of his appearance, he rarely ventured out during the day. However, at night, he went for long walks on a quiet stretch of State Route 351, feeling his way along with a walking stick. Groups of locals regularly gathered to search for him walking along the road. Robinson usually hid from his curious neighbours but would sometimes exchange a short conversation or a photograph for beer or cigarettes. Some were friendly, others cruel, but none of his encounters deterred Robinson from his nightly walks. He was struck by cars more than once.

He stopped his walks during the last years of his life and retired to the Beaver County Geriatric Center, where he died in 1985 at the age of 74.

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Urban Myth:

Robinson became a local myth in the Pittsburgh area, and his real story was obscured by urban legend. In the stories, he is the "Green Man", and as a boy, he climbed an electric pole to see into a bird's nest, and was shocked. He fell to the ground, and lost his eyes, nose, mouth, one ear, and one arm. The story states that when he grew older, he hid in an abandoned house.

There are different versions of how the name ‘Green Man’ came about.

One is that the name came from his skin, which was purported to be green because of the electrical shock he suffered in the stories.

Another is that it came from car lights reflecting off Ray Robinson’s flannels when they passed him in the night.

Through several generations, Robinson's story was passed on so many times that his name and his real history have been overshadowed by the ghost story that grew out of them.

He also became known as Charlie No-Face.

Little more is known about Robinson’s life, other than that he lived a fairly solitary existence.

He stopped his walks during the last years of his life and retired to the Beaver County Geriatric Center.

Raymond Robinson passed away in 1985 at the age of 74 from natural causes but though he may be gone, the legend of The Green Man and Charlie No-Face lives on.