OT: No Face

Submitted by MGoJoe on

I don't know why I thought of this, but I was recently telling my girlfriend about an eerie encounter I had one evening in the Michigan Union about 5 years ago with a man who had no face.

I was using a pay phone near the food court in one of those tiny phone booths next to the restrooms. I felt a tap on my shoulder, turned around, and there was a tall man holding a handwritten note explaining that he needed money. The man's face was severely disfigured in such a way that I will never forget. He was missing his upper lip/jaw, nose, and parts of his cheeks. He attempted to communicate with words, but I couldn't make out anything he was saying. I felt really bad for the guy, even though I was in shock as I had never seen a face so disfigured.

I saw him again a couple times walking around campus, but haven't seen him on campus again for the past 4 years. Does anyone know who I am referring to? Does he still hang out on campus? Know how his face got disfigured?

03 Blue 07

October 14th, 2009 at 12:30 AM ^

Such an awesome mailman! Always in a great mood, funny dude, always wearing that sweet hat.

Word on the street was that he didn't mind stopping by for the occasional spliff while on his mail route if his customers were partaking upon his arrival with that day's mail...

MGoJoe

October 13th, 2009 at 9:38 PM ^

No, I didn't give him money. I've always declined people's requests for money and I think my reflexes got me through this particular encounter, because I honestly didn't know what to think or how to react. So, I finished my phone call and left the Union. A minute after I left, however, I turned around and saw him feverishly approach every random student on the street asking for money. I'll never forget the look on one woman's face. She couldn't even eek out any words, she simply stared at him with eyes and mouth wide open just before he decided to move on to the next person.

A tree

October 13th, 2009 at 9:48 PM ^

I saw this guy walking on Liberty Street on a very early weekday morning 3 years ago. There was no one around me and the entire street was deafeningly silent. I thought I imagined the whole thing due to sleep deprivation and the fact that I turned around after realizing what I saw and noticing he wasn't there anymore. It was months later that a friend related a similar story and it removed all doubt. This dude is real and he is out there somewhere. I hope he isn't too lonely.

03 Blue 07

October 13th, 2009 at 10:18 PM ^

Because I was at UMLS from June 2005-- December 2007, and I never saw nor heard of this man. So if it's after December 2007 (which would mean he began in 2008), okay, that's possible. If before then, I'm calling bullshit on this statement re: Man without a Face and U of M law. I'm fairly certain that if he went there prior to my arrival, it'd been at the very least urban legend amongst my colleagues and I.

blueblueblue

October 14th, 2009 at 11:26 AM ^

Holy shit - I had the same experience. Early one morning I was walking past espresso royale on state street - the street pretty deserted, I sleep deprived, and caught a glimpse of this guy. The image has stuck with me. He must frequent AA in the early morn. Perhaps to avoid crowds?

BernieMac

October 13th, 2009 at 10:08 PM ^

I had heard a rumor a few years back that he had tried to commit suicide and was unsuccessful, thus the disfigured face. I can't verify the voracity (ha!) of that claim, however.

noshesnot

October 13th, 2009 at 10:16 PM ^

I've had a freaky encounter with him once. I was in the parking lot at Arborland and he knocked on my window of my car. I turned and looked, kind of jumped; that's not a sight you expect to see when looking out of your car. I felt so bad. But then he wouldn't let me out of my car until I (I assume) gave him money. Being a college kid, I had none on me and tried to explain it to him. He then smacked my front door window so hard that I thought it was going to break.

A Case of Blue

October 13th, 2009 at 10:27 PM ^

I saw a guy like this once in Iowa City. It was really shocking, because at first I saw someone walking around minding their own business, and then as I got closer I noticed how severely his face was deformed.

I think the man I saw was like the so-called "elephant man," but it's possible that he had some other cause behind his deformity.

Any other Iowa people (A Tree? iawolve?) seen this guy?

aawolve

October 13th, 2009 at 10:28 PM ^

I used to work at St. Joe's, and he would come into the ER on a regular basis. I believe he had a lot of problems with infections, as you could imagine. He's the most facially disfigured person I've ever seen. I also wonder what's keeping him alive now that wasn't there for him before. The story at the hospital was that his injury was the result of a failed suicide attempt.

BlueGoM

October 13th, 2009 at 10:39 PM ^

Random story is random.

Anyway that's pretty strange, I can say I never saw the guy. I thought having to put up with the random beggars and "Are you interested in revolutionary politics" guys was bad enough.

Topher

October 14th, 2009 at 12:36 AM ^

If anyone decides to post this guy's picture, could you modify the thread title to let us know so we are prepared for informed consent if we scroll down to it?

PurpleStuff

October 14th, 2009 at 3:30 AM ^

I'd chip in for a Scream mask though. Way more entertaining for the public than a freaky missing grill and he'd probably get a lot more dough than he does currently.

Seriously though, I think I would have lost my shit if I ever saw this dude. I still cringe thinking about the guy playing Two Face in "The Dark Knight", so I can't imagine running into a real life version and having him hit me up for a few bucks.

tomhagan

October 14th, 2009 at 12:43 AM ^

There was a story on the news recently about a woman who had been tragically shot in the face by a jealous ex-boyfriend...and after years, they were finally able to reconstruct her face a bit.

Its sad. I do give money to people like that every time.....

OT: Eyes Without a Face is an awesome song:

LSA Superstar

October 14th, 2009 at 7:10 AM ^

I don't really have anything to add, but the guy is real. My first encounter with him was on State Street. I was walking the opposite direction from him on the sidewalk and talking to someone walking with me on my left and he crossed behind the person I was talking to. The bizarre part of the experience was that I remember that I couldn't figure out whether I'd really seen what I thought I'd seen - he just passed by for a moment. He had a phase around 2005 where he walked backwards. I also rode the bus with him one time where he approached me for money before getting yelled at by the bus driver.

I try to ask anyone who went to U of M whether or not they'd seen him, because for the longest time I'd convinced myself that I just managed to make the whole thing up.

The anonymity of the internet allows me to say that he horrified me. I know that it's wrong to feel that way but he did. I should also not judge him but it really offended me that he uses other people's fear of him to try and get money - he was pretty aggressive during our bus encounter. Maybe that's too harsh. I dunno. Very, very strange to see this.

Blazefire

October 14th, 2009 at 7:41 AM ^

I absolutely love that this thread is full of breathless superlatives like "deafeningly quiet". It's one of the best threads ever, just for that reason.

Also, he ought to wander around in UM Hospital till a plastic surgeon sees him and offers reconstruction.

osdihg

October 14th, 2009 at 8:01 AM ^

I have only heard of this guy and never saw him. But those stories coupled with the posts here just add to my fear of seeing that man. This is very cruel of me, but I'm very glad I didn't run into him during my time at Michigan, or else I would have had trouble sleeping that night.

On a side note, has anybody else been "attacked" by a mentally ill man with boils on his face on E. William street? He attacked me once, but he didn't hurt me or anything. He just went crazy and ran away. I'll never forget that day.

patol8

October 14th, 2009 at 8:24 AM ^

I know a couple doctors at UM who have worked with him in the past. Basically, he had cancer and tried to commit suicide with a shotgun or rifle of some type. I was at the main bus terminal once and saw him get dropped off by a cab, but he was really weak I guess and could barely walk. He ended up just lying on the sidewalk for a bit.

blue_n_VA

October 14th, 2009 at 8:45 AM ^

My wife and I saw some guy in a coffee shop in 2005. She was paying and I was facing her so I saw the guy come in before she did. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It looked like his eye had fallen out and he was putting it back in. I felt so bad, I told my wife not to stare when she turned around. If she wasn't with me I would almost swear now that it didn't happen.

MGoJoe

October 16th, 2009 at 10:39 AM ^

Man, I was hoping someone here could shed light on whether he is still in the area. It looks like he hasn't been seen in at least the past 4 years. Wherever he is, I hope he is doing better.

Oh, and a strange thing happened today. As I went to the Union to grab a snack, I walked past the phone booths next to the bathrooms where I first encountered the man without a face. Except that, the phone booths are now gone! Painted over completely as if they were never there. Just as many of you are convinced that your encounters with No Face were imagined, I'm now starting to wonder if my encounter with him was just a figment of my imagination.

Cybershaman

August 24th, 2018 at 6:20 PM ^

I know this thread is old, but I have some clarifications. First of all, he didn't try to kill himself with a shotgun. He had a degenerative bone disease which slowly ate away at his face. He used to wear a simple dust mask like the kind people use when working with drywall or in other dusty environments. However, once his sores got too big he didn't bother wearing any sort of protection at all. My brother-in-law knew him from high school, which is how I heard this information. Second, he apparently committed suicide by walking into the Huron river after taking a bunch of drugs (he had a heroin problem). This was in 2004 which is why nobody saw him at the time of most of the posts in this thread. Yeah, he used to beg for money with a hand written note because he couldn't really speak and depended on his ghastly visage to provoke people into giving him change just out of sheer shock. I can't imagine living like that. Definitely a sad story and one that will go down in local history as an Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti legend. Anyway, I hope I at least made his memory a little better/more accurate concerning why he had the condition he had. :/