ABSTRACT
This chapter will examine the role that debunkers of urban legends, particularly those who gravitate to debunker-friendly sites on the Internet, have played in shaping the social life of crime legends in the 1990s. It will attempt to understand why debunkers find their enterprise important, how they approach the problem of truth and fiction, and how the collective development of an on-line debunkers’ culture ultimately fails to directly challenge a credulous and fearful culture that surrounds and provokes them. It is based upon my participation and observation during this time (19951999) in alt.folklore.urban and the Urban Legends Listserv.
