With several friends and colleagues engaged and working on this project, I turned my attention back to my own investigation. As I scoured reddit threads and decade-old message boards dedicated to urban legends, I received a chat message from a stranger, username Vl00pniR (a reference to the mythic Nordic bird Víðópnir). The message was simple: just a link to an eBay listing. The item for bid was an old, broken television with an image burned onto the screen. This itself is not a phenomenon. These phantom images were a frequent occurrence with older cathode-ray tube (CRT) TVs. The phosphor compounds used to emit light and produce the images would lose their luminance over time. In cases where a screen would show a single, static image for a long time, that image could get permanently “burned” onto the TV. This effect would essentially render the TV unwatchable. So what’s interesting about this particular TV set? The lister purports that the image burned onto its screen depicts the Eyeless Man. A Shroud of Turin for the media age. The lister refused to share pictures. And they had no other listings or previous sales. Was it a hoax? The seller’s username evoked the young man lost at the end of the podcast: Come2Cambria. A plea? A taunt? It didn’t matter to me. I had to gamble. To bid and win, whatever the cost.
My home is packed with books and curiosities. Yeti track casts, alloys collected from Roswell, ambergris-scented plague masks. Even if I hadn’t embarked on this book project, I’d still be in the mix for this television. It’s simply my nature. The auction process started out quite well. For days, I was the only bidder. But events escalated quickly. A user called Z challenged me for the TV, and we bid back and forth day and night. After forty-eight hours, I won the auction and bought the television for $3,500. A price I suppose Z was unwilling to meet and that precipitated a terribly awkward conversation with my landlord about the month’s rent.
I listed my contact information and sent the money, and Come2Cambria sent the package, which I was able to confirm via UPS tracking. I had one nagging thought, one question I could not shake: Who was Z, and why were they so intent on outbidding me? A Video Palace podcast fanatic? A fellow disheveled adjunct? Someone with more knowledge than I had? And if so, were they benevolent in their pursuit?
To my surprise, Z contacted me via email. I’ve no idea how this fellow bidder procured my address. We exchanged a number of correspondences, and I want to share them with you here:
From: Z
To: ProfWills
Subject: TV
Dear ProfWills,
Congratulations on your bidding victory. A well-played auction. But I wanted to reach out to you and inquire as to your interest in this item? Do you know what this is? Do you know why it’s so important? This is too serious an artifact to go to a nonbeliever or, worse, an enemy. Tell me, who are you and why did you buy this television?
From: ProfWills
To: Z
Dear Z,
I’m glad you contacted me, and I have questions for you as well. I’m sensitive to your frustration. I’ve lost my share of auctions! My name is Maynard Wills, and I am a professor of folklore in New York City. I’ve been studying the Eyeless Man for some time now, and with Video Palace prompting curiosity across myriad subcultures, I’m embarking on a large-scale project devoted to this myth. You don’t need to worry. It will remain respected, protected and in my good care.
Now, I would ask you the same question: Who are you? And it is clear that you know what this is, but what is your interest in it?
My best,
Maynard
From: Z
To: ProfWills
I’m glad to hear that you bought this with knowledge of its importance. But I have to say I bristle at the thought of some academic having it when others have devoted their lives to the EM. This item has power. Describing him as a myth is unwise. I cannot afford the $3,500 you paid, but I must have this. It is more important to me—to us—than you can imagine. Please, let us pay you. I can give you $3,000, that is all we can pool, as our goals have other requirements, other expenses. If you care about the EM as much as we do, then you likely care about us, too. Please. Take this deal. We beg you.
From: ProfWills
To: Z
Dear Z,
I am sorry to say that I cannot sell this television to you and your cohorts. It is important to me as well, and I won the auction, as they say, “fair and square.”
However, I repeat my initial question: Who are you? Why are this TV and the Eyeless Man so important to you? Perhaps you could share more with me.
Best,
M
From: Z
To: ProfWills
We believe in the EM. I have seen one of the tapes. Yes, the White Tapes. And I can tell you that this is all very real. We know the truth, we wish to worship and you—a nonbeliever—have taken hold of our altar. Unacceptable. You must share it. I will find the rest of the money. You have to give it to me.
From: ProfWills
To: Z
Dear Z,
You’ve indicated that you are part of a group? Is this true? Where do you meet? I would genuinely like to meet you or speak on the phone. Even a digital chat, if you’d like to remain fully anonymous.
Perhaps if you were more forthcoming and could share information of value, I would be more inclined to sell you the television. I am very interested in learning more about you and your beliefs. And maybe I could help enlighten you a bit, too.
Please let me know if you would be amenable to meeting, whether in person, via phone or online?
Best,
M
From: Z
To: ProfWills
Don’t patronize me. You don’t negotiate with us. I will have that TV. We must have that TV. You will not put us under your microscope or prod at us with insolent questions. I am not your lab rat. And now, you will give me the artifact.
From: ProfWills
To: Z
Dear Z,
I didn’t mean to offend you, and I’m sorry if my negotiation tactic was perceived as an insult. As a gesture of good faith, I’ve attached a document to this email that includes all my notes on the Eyeless Man and his influence throughout world culture this last half century. It seems that you believe him to be a real entity, and I am fascinated to learn more. Again, in a very respectful way. Tell me what I’ve got wrong. Teach me what there is to learn.
Well, I do meet some eccentrics (reddit is, as the kids say, a dumpster fire), but even by the standards of monster chasers and conspiracy theorists, the correspondence with Z was unsettling.
Maybe I was patronizing. Frankly, I’d never encountered such fanatical devotion to a folk character or urban legend in modern-day America.
Z stopped emailing me after that last message, much to my disappointment.
And worse, when the TV arrived, the screen was smashed in. Whether it was the result of poor packaging or something more nefarious, I’ll never know. Money lost. And worse, a potential lead destroyed.