MonsterTalk Live - Jerry Drake
We're joined by Jerry Drake to discuss "Black Eyed Kids" and some interesting timing that suggests a possible origin for the legends.
Archived post from Bethel - July 30, 1997 - discussing Chaos Magick and Bloody Mary.
Reposting of Bethel's original BEK post - but not the original post. His original posting was dated August 28, 1997.
Jerry points out that at this time The X-Files was in its 4th season. A recurring image/concept in that show as "the black oil" virus, an alien mind-control entity that's most visible symptom is that it turns the eyes of the infected...black.
In appearance, it is pretty much identical to the eyes in the kids described in Bethel's story. Multiple episodes with this effect had aired since its first appearance in the episode Piper Maru back in 1996. Further development of the concept (and more visuals) were in the episode Terma which aired quite close to the time of the original telling.
Listen to the episode for more details.