Sleepy Hollow1999

Crane:
So... three persons murdered. First, Peter Van Garrett and his son, Dirk Van Garrett. Both of them strong, capable men, found together... decapitated. One week later, the widow Winship. Also decapitated. Now, I will need to ask you many questions. But first, let me ask: Is anyone suspected?

Van Tassell:
How much have your superiors explained to you, constable?

Crane:
Only that the three were slain in open ground. Their heads found severed from their bodies.

Reverend Steenwyck:
Their heads were not found severed. Their heads were not found at all.

Crane:
The heads are... Gone?

Notary Hardenbrook:
Taken. Taken by the Headless Horseman. Taken back to hell.

Crane:
[confused] Pardon, I...I don't...

Van Tassell:
Perhaps you had best sit down? [Crane does so] The Horseman was a Hessian mercenary, sent to these shores by German princes to keep Americans under the yoke of England. But unlike his compatriots, who came for money, the Horseman came for love of carnage. When battle was joined, there you'd find him; he rode a giant black steed named Daredevil, and was infamous for riding his horse hard into battle, chopping off heads at full gallop. He'd filed his teeth down to sharp points, to add to the ferocity of his appearance. This butcher didn't finally meet his end until the winter of '79, not far from here in our western woods. They chopped off his head with his own sword; even today the western woods is a haunted place, where brave men will not venture...for what was planted in the ground that day was a seed of evil. And so it's been for 20 years...but now the Hessian wakes. He's on the rampage, cutting off heads where he finds them.

Crane:
Are you saying...? Is that what you believe?

Notary Hardenbrook:
Seeing is believing.