Pacific Nocturne, 1944

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

In 1946, a letter-to-the-editor appeared in the USMC Leatherneck Magazine asking if other Marines recalled the "Mad Ghoul" on the island of Pavuvu, 65 miles off the coast of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Sea. The subscriber was attacked, as were others who responded in later 1946 issues to his query. The attacks were true events, holding 16,000 Marines of the 1st and 3rd Divisions "hostage" while resting, refitting, and recuperating after 10 months fighting for Guadalcanal. The mysterious Ghoul would cut square holes in the tents while the Marines within were sleeping, then reach down and fondled their throats. When awakened, the Marine would see a huge K-Bar fighting knife in the moonlight about to plunge into his face. Everyone was scared -- there were no Japanese on the island, no one was killed, and the Ghoul was never found -- the activity started when the Marine divisions arrived and stopped when they left five months later. "Leatherneck" editors searched the military archives for reports of the incidents -- but no files, no records, no reports, nothing was present except that 6 or 8 Marines wrote in swearing it had happened to them.