"The Wicker Man"

In the Chicago suburbs in the late 1970's, George Korbits was not a likeable man. He would say that it was the flawed world around him that made him bitter and angry. He regularly found himself getting drunk after work and sitting on his porch, making cynical comments to anybody passing by.
One warm summer evening, George had put a few too many away. He passed out in his wicker chair, oblivious to the darkening storm of hatred coming towards him. It seems that at some point in his recent past, George had thrown a beer bottle a someone. Even though he was too drunk to hit his target, the slight was not forgotten. As he sat, dreaming of what, no one knows, his former almost-victim and a few friends crept up on to his porch. They had brought some alcohol of their own...the very flamable kind.
George never woke as the five teens soaked his clothes in Everclear. He never stirred, even while they tried to stiffle their giggles and failed. When they lit the match, the fabric of George's work uniform caught quickly and melted into the wicker before he even sensed danger. When he finally did wake, it was over for him. Unable to get out of the chair, George died a painful, gruesome death while neighbors came from their homes to see what that screaming was all about.
Later, some witnesses would say that they could hear the screams even after their neighboor's remains were taken away. The police never did catch those responsible. After almost a year, no big leads were found and most thought George's killers would never be found
Just after the fall of the next year, a local teen's body was found beaten and burned. When the investigating officer went to the parents, he looked into the teen's room. He was looking for clues to a possible enemy or motive while his partner interviewed the parents. What the officer found was a whole lot more. There were newspaper clippings from the year before and some crude artwork that, if analyzed correctly, could pin George's murder on him and his friends.
Quickly though, it was found out that they would never face a jury. Each teen was found dead that night. Each one was beaten and cut hundreds of times. There was burn scarred flesh within each of the wounds that the pathologist was never able to determine the cause of.
The only clue that the police had to go on (and which only led to more questions) was an eyewitness account of one of the murders. During psychological review in the Chicago Hope mental department, he had this to say:

"...tha' poor kid didn't have a chance. That thing came out of nowhere. You couldn't see it at first, but you could hear it. It just came up out of the shadows and tore tha' kid up...beat him bad. They was both screaming as he did it."

When asked who "he" was, all the witness would say "the wicker man" before he broke into fits of tears and screaming. He never spoke of that night again.

*****
This is my second Urban Legend installment. I'm hoping for many more. Hope you like it. I know the size may be a bit big for some and I apologize (1024X768 isn't too bad, I think). I will put up a version for an 800X600 wallpaper though.

~ Abasyyx