Overview
The Staten Island Clown is a man dressed in a clown costume that was seen lurking around at night in Staten Island, New York in March of 2014. The clown’s presence was wildly reported online, and it continued to be a topic of interest even after the clown was suspected to be a publicity hoax staged by Staten Island based horror film company Lens.
Background
On March 16th, comedian Vic Dibietto posted a video of the clown on his Facebook page.[1] As of March 24th, the video has gained over 2,000 likes and over 5,000 shares.
The video and phenomena was reported on March 24th by New York Daily News[2], The New York Post[3], and New York Magazine.[4]
Search Interest
Search query volume for “Montauk Monster” first rose in August of 2008 after the late July news coverage. The second peak in searches occurred when Animal Planet[8] placed the Montauk Monster at #4 in their “Top 10 Animal Stories of 2008” in December of 2008.
External References
[1]Facebook – Vic Divitetto
[2]New York Daily News – "Creepy Staten Island clown spotted around borough, spooks residents ":http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/creepy-staten-island-clown-spotted-borough-spooks-residents-article-1.1732454
[3]New York Post – Creepy viral clown may be linked to film company
[4]New York Magazine – "Creepy Clown Haunting Staten Island Probably a Hoax for Horror Movie ":http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/creepy-clown-haunts-staten-island-photos.html