A prime example of the adaptability of older legends is "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" -- the classic automobile urban legend. This returning-ghost tale was known by the turn of the century both in the United States and abroad. There are as many versions as there are tellers of the tale, each prefaced with the claim that it really, truly happened.
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THE VANISHING HITCHHIKER
This is a true story...
A friend of a friend and his daughter were driving along a lonely country road at night and happened upon a female hitchhiker. The woman asked for a ride to her home just a few miles up the road. The travelers obliged and continued on with the woman riding silently in the backseat. As they approached their destination, the driver turned to inform the passenger they were arriving, only to discover she had vanished from the backseat without a trace! Thoroughly spooked, the travelers inquired at the house and learned that a woman matching the description of the hitchhiker had indeed once lived there, but died several years earlier in an automobile accident. Her ghost, they were told, was sometimes seen wandering beside the highway...
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