The Burlap Mask: Hiding in Plain Sight

What Is the Burlap Mask?

The burlap mask is the killer’s most tangible signature in Chasing the Boogeyman. Constructed from coarse burlap fabric, it features ragged eye and mouth slits cut with a sharp blade, and short lengths of twine laced up the back to secure it to the wearer’s head. The mask first appears as a piece of evidence after survivor Annie Riggs fights off her attacker; the Harford County Crime Lab later tests it. Richard Chizmar and his friend Jimmy Cavanaugh also recall seeing a similar object floating in the dark near the Meyers House earlier in the story, suggesting the killer used it long before Annie’s attack.

Where the Mask Recurs

The mask appears at key turning points in the narrative:

• Meyers House sighting: Richard and Jimmy glimpse what they believe is the same burlap mask near the abandoned property, linking the killer to a location already associated with local legend.
• Annie Riggs attack (September 9): The assailant wears the mask while attempting to abduct her. After she sprays him with pepper spray, he rips it off and flees, leaving it behind. Police recover the mask and release a photograph to the media.
• Halloween night: Richard spots a masked man watching his house from across the street. Though he dismisses it, the next morning Cassidy Burch is found murdered, confirming the Boogeyman remains active.
• Joshua Gallagher’s confession: In his 2019 prison interview with Richard, Gallagher admits to wearing a mask during his hunts. He describes feeling “powerful,” “invisible,” and says the mask helped him embody the Boogeyman identity.

How the Mask’s Meaning Evolves

At first, the mask functions as a straightforward piece of forensic evidence—a cloth sack with eyeholes that gives the police their first concrete clue. But its symbolic weight deepens as the story progresses.

1. From urban legend to reality – Before Annie’s attack, the mask is something Richard and his friends half-believe they spotted near a spooky house. After the attack, it becomes a real, photographed object broadcast on CNN. This shift mirrors the novel’s core tension between small-town folklore and actual violence.

2. Anonymity versus identity – The mask hides the killer’s face, allowing him to move through Edgewood undetected. Yet when Annie sees his uncovered face (short dark hair, pronounced chin) that description leads to a police sketch that proves a dead end. The mask thus symbolises the killer’s ability to remain both hidden and ordinary—he could be anyone the townspeople pass on the street.

3. The Boogeyman persona – During his confession, Gallagher tells Richard that the mask helped him feel “at one with the night” and “invincible.” The object becomes a psychological tool that lets him separate his mundane life from his violent urges. It is the physical boundary between Joshua Gallagher, adopted son and neighbor, and the Boogeyman, a myth he actively chose to embody.

Character and Theme Connections

Characters

• Annie Riggs: The only survivor to see the mask up close. Her pepper-spray attack forces her assailant to shed the mask, transforming it from a weapon of intimidation into lost evidence. Her brave actions make the mask a symbol of her resistance.
• Richard Chizmar: He twice glimpses the mask—once before the murders escalate, and again on Halloween. His failure to act on the second sighting haunts him, linking the mask to survivor’s guilt and the unreliability of memory.
• Joshua Gallagher: For the killer, the mask is a tool of empowerment. He admits naming the “bad thing inside” him “the Boogeyman,” and the mask externalizes that identity. It allows him to feel like a supernatural entity even as he commits human atrocities.

Themes

• Metafiction and Blurred Reality – The mask exists in a story that frames itself as true crime. Its concrete details (burlap, twine, police photos) ground the narrative in realism, while its association with the Boogeyman legend blurs the line between documented fact and invented myth.
• Small-Town Evil – The mask allows the killer to hide in plain sight. He wears it only during attacks; the rest of the time he is an unremarkable member of the community. This emphasizes the theme that evil can be ordinary and undetectable until it reveals itself.
• Memory and Nostalgia – Richard’s memory of the mask at the Meyers House is uncertain. Later, he cannot be sure the man he saw on Halloween wore the same mask. The object thus becomes a test of memory—what we recall may be shaped by what we later learn.
• True-Crime Obsession – The mask is republished in newspapers and shown on TV, becoming a piece of pop-culture evidence. The town’s fixation on the image mirrors the media frenzy around real unsolved cases, where a single object can take on outsized symbolic importance.
• Nature of Evil – Gallagher’s use of the mask suggests that evil is not always visible. He does not wear it to frighten victims (he attacks from behind) but to transform himself. The mask argues that evil can be a chosen disguise adopted by otherwise ordinary people.

Four Study Questions with Answers

1. How does the burlap mask function as both a real clue and a symbolic object in the novel?
   Answer: Literally, the mask is forensic evidence—the first tangible link between the attacks. Symbolically, it represents the killer’s ability to hide in plain sight and his psychological need to become the Boogeyman. The object bridges the factual (crime lab reports) and the mythical (folklore of the Bogeyman).

2. Why does Richard’s sighting of the masked man on Halloween night carry such emotional weight?
   Answer: Richard sees the masked figure but does nothing, rationalising it as a trick-or-treater. The next morning Cassidy Burch is found murdered. The moment underscores the theme of missed opportunity and the narrator’s complicity as an observer. It also reinforces the idea that the killer was always close, hidden behind the mask.

3. In what way does the mask connect to the novel’s exploration of small-town evil?
   Answer: The mask lets the killer remain anonymous in a community where everyone knows everyone. No one suspects Joshua Gallagher because he wears the mask only when attacking. The object illustrates the theme that evil can be concealed behind a bland, everyday exterior, making it impossible to spot until it is too late.

4. How does the mask change after Annie Riggs’s testimony?
   Answer: Before Annie’s attack, the mask is merely a rumour or a glimpsed shape. Her description—and the physical item left behind—transforms it into documented proof. The object moves from the realm of local legend (the Meyers House) to the domain of official investigation, reflecting the novel’s shift from atmosphere to action.