The Man In The Black Trench Coat & Hat

I've had the same encounter. Except mine felt more paranormal. I was awoken by a baby crying. I was sleeping in a guest room visiting my mom from out of state cuz I was attending a semester of college in Utah. Anyway I hear this baby crying and I think nothing of it because in my head I'm just like oh well the neighbors must have a baby. Well I'm facing towards the window, blinds closed and curtains shut when I see a shadow figure walk by. I look out the window but no one is there. I lay back down and I see see the shadow figure so I look once more. Still nothing. I than lay back and down and just feel someone standing behind my bedside and when I turn to see its this shadow figure. It looked like this man wearing this black trench coat just staring at me with nothingness into his face. Pure darkness with black eyes. Its crazy to see how black his eyes were. That was all that was noticeable on him. We stared at each other all night. I was locked in terror I had no idea how to move in these moments. Hours had passed it felt until I finally dug up the courage to turn the other way in bed and get under the covers. I stayed under the covers the rest of the night but I knew he was standing over me. I could feel his presence as if he wasn't standing beside me anymore but hovering over me because I feel the pressure as if someone had laid on top of me. I stayed that way for the rest of the night. Up until a blender turned on in the kitchen. When I heard the blender and felt the weight had been lifted and when raising my head above the sheets there was no one in sight. I remember getting up and telling my mom the whole story. I never slept in that room again but until this day I still phyche myself sometimes into thinking I still this man in my room sometimes but don't think he means you any harm. He'll scare the shii out of you but alas I was unharmed when having this encounter. Just scarred mentally lol

I am 44 years old and I can go months without thinking of what happened to me when I was younger but for some reason I decided to google it today after I brought up what happened with a co-worker and I am blown away by the similar stories. My parents were into black magic and family game night was not candy land it was the Ouija board. I was young and it started on my mothers birthday. This man came to visit me every night and would stand over the edge of my bed in a black hat and long black coat (just like the images that came up when I googled it) back then I was terrified and would hide under my covers. He would stand there sometimes all night and I would doze off then wake up and he would be standing there. My mom would get up and I could'nt wait for her to use her hair dryer because that was the only sound that would make this spirit leave. I really am blown away by all of this. I try not to think about it much and after talking about it, I had to google it. This went on for years and the sound of a blow dryer to me is one of the most comforting sounds. Looking back at it, he never harmed me, he never tried to touch me, it was like he was there to protect me or feed off fear. I don't know but what I do believe is that my parents were going through a dark time and that door to the other side was open due to what they were practicing and playing the Ouija board. Looking back at it, I feel that spirit was there to protect me and keep me safe. I didn't feel that way when it was happening. After my parents saw what it was doing to me they stopped all of it and started living life like normal people. That's when it all stopped. During this time I also had horrible nightmares that were the same thing over and over. It is very hard to explain and then I stubbed on a picture after googling this and the picture had several shadows (not of the man in the hat but other people who were bald) and hands everywhere and that picture took my breath away and its what got me on this site and now writing this... It matched my dream without me even using those words when searching. The way I feel right now is hard to explain... I don't know why I am writing to you all, I don't know why I would even want to talk about it. It was something I let go of and don't bring up. I am going to go back and read more... Thank you for reading:)

I don't believe in ghost story's but I do believe in heaven and hell these guys in my opinion are demons or satan himself

Me and 2 others saw these guys there were 3 of them and 3 of us when they appeared. When they came up out of no were it was to late for us to turn and run we had to walk by then. All 3 same size and build about 7 foot tall and natural buff the ONLY difference between them was there hair color one on my left was blood red the one in the middle was jet black the one on my right was rich blonde very curly greasy hair all of them. THEY HAD NO EYES no eye lids that whole skull area was just a cavity. There's much more to this story but if you are hear reading this because it haunts you then you know my words are true. It happened in Sandy city Utah summer of 93 I was 13 the other 2 guys were 14 and 16 we were wide awake we had snuck out this encounter happened in the middle of the street they turned into 3 oval shaped shadows about 3 foot from tip to tip and traveled as shadows on the ground about 30-40 miles and hour.

I have a question for all who've seen this man, can you see his face? Does he slouch?

whoa! ME TOO! I grew up in Appalachia Kentucky in a "holler". My parents lived on 200 acres. On the "hill" which was really our own mountain. My father molested me & I spent my entire childhood in misery. Between my mother using me to babysit foster children in their care to doing chores I really never had a childhood. (went to college & haven't been back in 30 years!) On several occasions in our shack of a house I saw a man in a black cowboy duster & cowboy hat walk by our kitchen window. His head was always down. I'd run out to the porch off the kitchen & he was no where to be seen. There was literally no where for him to go. I just thought I'd lost my mind. I never felt threatened and it was always out that kitchen window with him walking towards the porch not 10 feet away. Poof gone. I've spent my entire life trying to figure out who he could have been, where he came from & how the heck he left without me seeing him. I knew all the neighbors & again, there was no where except down our mountain he could have gone but I would have seen him. The gravel road leading off the mountain & yard were clear with only sporadic trees. Hmmmm

Hi everyone! This is so freaky! I'm 53 now and back around 20 years ago I had a visit from the same guy! I was sleeping and left my bedroom door open and the bathroom night light on, when I woke up to see a man standing at the foot of my bed and maybe off to the left slightly he was silhouetted from the night light so I clearly seen that he had a black trench coat and black hat on. He just stood there looking at me. I froze in my bed with the covers over my head then he disappeared. About 7 years ago my daughters friend came over and we were talking about ghosts, when she mentioned the same guy at the foot of her bed. I was really creeped out, but just a couple days ago I was talking to my friend here in Kincardine and she had the very same experience. Now back about a month and a half ago I went into this little store in Allenford, Ontario called Down to Earth and just as I was parking out in front of the store I noticed this same guy going into the store with cowboy boots and when I went in I noticed he had a beard an moustache like what everyone else was discribing. So who is this guy and what does it mean?

Dream_Orbiter_Drifter - did you read the o/p's story? No where in it did she say she felt fear from this man in the black trench coat. She actually said she believed him to possibly be a spirit guide. Please do not attempt to incite fear where none is needed. I have deleted your comments as I do not feel they are appropriate to this story.

-- thanks Caz --
But I felt old when I was 40. Yes you got my age right. Let me ask you this, you ever see this tall dark figure dressed all in black with long coat and wide brimmed hat? Maybe this is where the idea of the Boogeyman actually comes from. What do you think?

Jerry...you are 'not' an old dude! I reckon you're only 69, but 60 is the new 40 doncha know! 😉

OK, I have to add my short story of something very similar that happened to me too.
I was probably about 5 or 6 when I began having a scary as hell dream about riding on a roller coaster, sitting alone in the first car (I had dreamed this often back then but thank God it stopped) -- as I was saying -- I would find myself on a roller coaster and slowly climbing the largest peak where the train of cars would crest the hill and then come rushing down super fast speed towards the base of the next hill.

That was bad enough but here's he part that always woke me screaming:

At the bottom of the hill would be this tall man all dressed in black, hat and trench coat too, standing there on the tracks with his arms wide open as if he was about to catch me, grab me. I would wake just before any collision, screaming like I said. Sweating also. My screams loud enough to wake my parents.

I've never been on a roller coaster for this very reason... And I'm an old dude today.

Im 42 now, my encounter was about 20 years ago. I was living in Alaska and had been using cocaine pretty heavily for a few months. Cocaine had been a drug I had previously stayed away from because I had an uncle who's name was Brad that lost his life to cocaine addiction when I was about ten years old. But ten years later I had found myself following in his footsteps, when I met the dark man in the hat.
I was in the middle of a dream, I think, in which I was in my bedroom where nothing was out of the ordinary except for the scenery outside my window was moving by as if my house was moving down a road at about 30mph. I turned away from my window to lay on my side in which Id be facing my open closet which was about five feet from my bed, and there he was. He had a long dark trench coat, and an old brimmed hat tilted down over his eyes. He had long wavey hair and a beard and mustache. His coat was open, and I remember vividly that he had a very feminine curvey hourglass figure. He was definitely more masculine than feminine, but there definitely was some female physical attributes. I wasn't scared at first. He was just chillin in my closet facing me. But then he motioned me to follow him and said "Come on, it's time to go." To which I replied "Where are we going?" He tilted his hat up just enough to make eye contact as his lips began to form a dark sinister grin. "We're going Brad's way" he announced as he began to chuckle and turned away from me. I was instantly scared shiatless and woke up to see him slowly vanish into my closet.

I am shocked to read very similar experiences like mine. Here is my experience.
In case this matters I lived in Farrell Pennsylvania at the time of this incident.
I am 32 years old now, This took place when I was 5 years old. I remember it like it happened yesterday.
I woke up at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning to get ready to watch Saturday Morning Cartoons, My mother, father, sister, and brother were all still asleep. As I sit in front of our TV I started to hear footsteps coming from the roof. Confused, thinking my dad woke up and went to do something on the roof I ran outside to see. As I went up my next door neighbors little hill so I could see my roof I saw a very tall shadowy person, wearing a black trench coat and black fedora hat just walking slowly around my roof, as I stare at it trying to figure out who, and why, that is when it slowly turned to look at me and move toward me. This is when I screamed and ran into my house, up the stairs and scared my mother and father half to death. My father sprang out of bed and had me show him where this "person" was, I did, however it was gone by this time, no more then 2 minute at the most and it was gone!
That is what happened to me so far.
I recall an interview done by my all time favorite horror film maker Wes Craven. He was asked how Freddy Krueger came to be? Craven replied by saying when he was a little boy he remembers looking out of his window 1 day to see a tall shadow man wearing a black coat and black fedora (The fedora being 1 of Krueger's trademarks) staring at Craven, he ran to get his big brother who also then seen this man still standing there staring at their window, that is when Craven's older brother ran outside to chase the mystery man away and many years later Wes used part of the shadow hat mans outfit and creepiness to create Freddy Krueger (He also used the articles of kids who died while sleeping for Freddy). You can see this interview of Wes Craven anywhere online.
This story Wes Craven told hit me to close to home and was the first time I ever heard of anyone else seeing this "thing"...
There is a few patterns I see here:
This shadow thing usually shows up when we are between our childhood and teenage yrs.
We are fully awake not asleep (THIS IS NOT A DREAM!)
Most sightings seemed to have occurred in the North East USA (I am sure this has happened elsewhere on the Earth, just need more people to come forward to form a better pattern). 😨

I am 29, this is the first time I have tried to research this man. He was in my room, when I was rather ill. I believe that he may have something to do with my life contract. Just something I have heard, that makes somewhat sense. It happened to me at the age of 20. It took me years to believe that he was real. The only reason I remember him, is because I was awaken from my trance from a friend who barged into my room. Since she did not see the man, she rushed me to the hospital for examination. I was ill, yet I survived. I may do a hypnosis for the real answers.

I'm 49 years old when I was 16 I woke up and a hooded man was leaning over me he reached out and touched my arm... It hurt I started screaming for my mom... I was awake I couldn't sleep alone for weeks I'm interested now after reading these other experiences... My mom thought I had gone crazy... She actually told me I was doing to much drugs... I wasnt. I'm not alone and now I'm curious as to why and what this is about. I was born in 1966 and I was 16... No real problems just teenage stuff.

cashinaz - if you haven't already and would be interested in sharing your experience with us, please feel free to submit it. Just follow the Submission Guidelines if you decide to 😊

My father first saw this man when he was a boy in the late 60's. Since then, myself and others in my family have periodically had encounters with this haunting. During my encounters, you do not always see him in physical form and often times, it's just a feeling of dread and fear that overwhelms you. The times that I have seen this man, he wears all black, with a trench coat and a brimmed hat. I have never seen his face and at times, I have wondered if he has one.

Like others on this site, I have either asked him to leave and he did, or just become frozen in fear until he is gone. He has only become violent with me once, but others in my family have said that he tried to attack them, my uncle had a conversation with him.

I have seen something similar. Only it was a black coat and it had a hood over its head. I published a story about it. It should be up in a few days. Please read and let me know if you have something similar. I am worried my daughter will meet this "thing" one day. 😭

WOAH! This is crazy. I thought I was the only one. When I was around 14 and going through a very rough period in my life, I saw the same black figure that everyone is describing on this site... In a long trench coat and oversized fedora hat... All black... And VERY tall, standing in my room. I was sleeping and woke up (wide awake and yes, I was aware that I was awake and not dreaming) and saw "him". He was just standing there... Looking at me. I was so afraid that I literally could not move. I now know what it means to be "Scared Stiff". The craziness is that I thought that this only happened to me and now, here I am, 35 years later, reading stories from others that are just like mine. Something clicked in me tonight and I decided to google it, just out of sheer curiosity. GLAD I DID!

Can't believe other people have had this same type of experience. When I was a kid, probably about 3 or 4 at the most, I went to a daycare center with my friend and when our parents came to get us they would talk to the owners while we played on a little swing set outside. I've always remembered a weird tall man in a trench coat and a fedora-like hat who would just stand there next to me when I was on the swings. My friend never seemed to really or notice or care (we were basically toddlers so it's not that strange) but I would always feel so uncomfortable and scared and try to ignore him. I don't remember specifically if he ever tried to talk to me or anything... For the longest time when I was older I just thought he must have been a creepy guy hanging around a daycare center and I couldn't believe no adults ever noticed (I've asked my parents if they recall this, they don't). Then when I was in high school I was going through a rough time, I used to take my ADD meds at night and drink and all of that and stay up all night doing whatever; I definitely had some weird experiences with insomnia but there was one time when I went into a complete panic mode because I swear I saw him in my room. I immediately associated whatever that person or thing was when I was a kid with whatever I thought was in my room. I was talking to a friend on instant messenger and just kept saying things about how I couldn't go to sleep because this man was hiding by the foot of my bed and waiting for me to sleep. I could have been little mentally delirious, but I still swear by the fact that when I was a kid that guy was always hanging around me at that daycare. I just stumbled across a website that randomly had a story sometime posted of this 'man' being in their room and I was so surprised so I googled it and found this website and a lot of others. Thought it was really strange other people have had this experience. Anyways, that's my experience.

My dad and two of my friends told me a similar story. They were all going trought a rough time. For my dad the story I can recall was that he saw a tall man wearing a black trench coat. He had talk to the man asking him if he was coming for him or something (like death) but the man just stared at him. My dad ask him if it was about his situation, the man smiled to him with all out teeth and noded a "yes". My dad ask him if everything would going to be ok and then the man noded "yes" again. My dad walk away after a few step he return himself to look at the man but he wasn't there anymore.

I can't tell of the situation my dad was in but what my father said that the presence of the man help him.

I live in canada.

(ps. Sorry for my bad english)

I have had similar experiences, I was a runaway as a teenager. I had a hard time with depression and suicidal tendencies. While I was in Nevada, I ran away and my boyfriend told me a story his tribe from Nevada told him. They said the Devil will walk around at night dressed in all black leather. And he had spurs you could hear before you saw him.

We were walking around in downtown Reno and we both heard the sound of spurs hitting the cement then this man came walking ahead of us, he was a white man with a beard very manicured. He had on all black leather clothes I noticed his large black leather trench coat floating unnaturally slow and the sound of the spurs as he walked drowned out every other noise. It was like he was walking in slow motion. My boyfriend whispered to me, "That's what the Devil is supposed to look like." We stopped in our tracks and turned around.

I have heard of people seeing the same man in other cities. Whoever or whatever it is it is not good be careful out there everybody.

I was probably about 6 or 7 years old at the time and I had a very hard time going to sleep whenever I stayed the night at a friends house. I was laying on the top bunk of my friends bunk bed and she was asleep on the bottom bunk. I was just starring into the hall way trying to day dream to get myself tired when I saw a ball roll from down the hall way into her bathroom. Chasing right behind the ball was a black cat and chasing the cat was a tall man in a trench coat and a hat. They went into the bathroom and disappeared. All the lights in the house were off the whole time but I saw it very clearly. I woke up my friend and asked her if she saw anything, when I told her what I had seen she told me she doesn't have a cat or a dad. (I thought the man in the trench coat and hat was her father but nope). No one was there just me her and her mom. I was freaked out for the rest of the night and a few months later I saw him again at another friends house. I am 19 now and my current boyfriend told me he had seen a man like this all the time just lurking around his house at night and my roommate told me that a few years ago she saw this same man running across a field some where between midnight and one in the morning. Very creepy...

I was almost ten and living in northern California at the time and We lived in an apartment building which had a separate washer and dryer building that you had to pay for and it was across the courtyard and my apartment was in the very back with my parents and I believe it was summertime so it was about 930 10 o'clock at night and I happened to be walking back to my family's apartment with a basket full of clothes and I felt like someone was behind me. As I turned around to see who's behind me I saw a man in a long dark colored trenchcoat I'm not sure if it was black or brown you couldn't really tell and he had a black felt Fedora on and he was looking down at the ground and I turned away. When I turned back around she was still there and lifted his head up he didn't really have any facial features that the facial features were it was like he was on fire from the inside out almost like he was serving penance or something him and his soul was burning and he lifted one finger up and I turned away and looked back and he was gone. That night I asked my mom if we could go to my aunts house for the night and my stepdad didn't want to go so he stayed at the apartment by himself and it ended up that am my stepdad have had to have a guy arrested that night because she was targeting our family for initiation into a gang and he was going to break into our house and kill my entire family had I not seen the guy in the trench coat we all would've been there and everybody probably would've been asleep but because we weren't my stepdad was the only one there he was still awake and the gang member was arrested. I don't know who sent the man in the trenchcoat I don't know why he appeared to me that night but he did but for whatever reason he was there I thank God that he was because it prevented something bad from happening to my entire family.

My little girl (now 8 years old) has seen a man in black coat and hat several times over the last 3 years, both at our house where we live now and our old house. She runs out of the room scared when she sees him. She has seen him walking outside windows and recently inside our front door, just standing there, not looking at her. People have said it is a bad omen, like on here, but we have had no deaths in the family over the last three years. We live in Brisbane, Australia.smile]

Are you serious? I've seen hat man every since I was about three years old. That's crazy! He looks exactly like what you have described.

Oh boy, I had this feeling today to google my experience of seeing a tall man in a trench coat and hat. I saw him all the time growing up. I saw him in my house, on the side of the road, at school, and it didn't matter night or day. Along with seeing him I saw a baby, always crawling around. The man never scared me, I always felt like the man was watching over me. I just couldn't understand why I also saw the baby. The baby freaked me out to where I couldn't sleep at night. I would cry myself to sleep. It was always around at my house. I believe the two have some sort of tie because I started seeing them around the same time, and stopped around the same time. I just want to know what they wanted or what they needed me to understand. I saw spirits all the time growing up, but nothing as clear as these two.

OK, so I have been trying to find info on any other sightings of this guy. Myself, brother and a good friend of mine have discovered we had had 3 separate meetings with this or something like this. All happened in Fairview, NC.

My story: I was about 14 and had a friend sleeping over. It was late, and we were about to go to sleep when I noticed the motion detector light went off outside. I looked out and 3 stories down, staring into my garage window was the outline of a large man with a trenchcoat, and a large hat. Not a fedora, something with a larger brim. It scared the crap out of me and it seemed like he stayed there for a few minutes, then disappeared. I have no idea to this day what that was, if it was a real person or not. My friend looked out and saw him too. It was so late and we were so scared we hid under the covers.

My brothers story: It was a few years after my sighting, probably 4 years, because my brother was driving by then, as he is younger than me. He and a friend were going down Hwy 74 A in fairview and noticed a man in a trenchcoat and a hat walking down the road. They thought nothing of it until, as they passed him, he seemingly threw himself onto the car, and they hit him with the side mirror. They could not see his face or any skin, however. They thought they hit a mad man, but turned around anyway to see what had happened, if there was a body in the road, but there was nothing.

My friends story: Probably around the same time as my brothers story, maybe a year after. Out in the middle of nowhere in Fairview, out at the end of a backroad that leads into the country side, near the area of Hickory Nut Gap/Gerton, it was snowing and my friend was driving alone on his way home. On the road right as he was about to pull into his driveway, he too saw a man in a trenchcoat and hat walking down the road. It is not normal for people to be walking out in the middle of the night on this road unless they are in some kind of trouble, or up to no good, especially in the snow. So, he was genuinely shaken up. As he parked at the bottom of his 1/2 mile long drive way because it was covered in ice, he noticed that man in the bushes behind his car. Watching him. He called his mom and didn't want to get out of the car, but got out and ran up the driveway to the safety of his house.

Luckily, no one was injured, only emotionally scarred to say the least. If any of you had similar experiences anywhere in Western North Carolina or anywhere for that matter, I would love to hear them and see if we can figure this mystery out.

I am 33. I have had encounters with spirits, ghosts and entities in and out of dreams my entire life. This 'man in black' with trench coat and fedora-like hat can take many forms as far as face, but the height and clothes remain the same. I had a few encounters with (him?) starting in my mid teen years. Strange thing was that I never actually SAW him at first, my girlfriend at the time did. She saw him standing on a bridge overpass when we were coming back from a concert with her older brother, who was driving us back home later that night. She whispered to me in the back seat that he kept popping up almost every time we passed a bridge/overpass, plunging her further into terror. I saw nothing, but had sensed something weird the whole night, even before the incident. I'm naturally tuned to supernatural phenomenon, but I saw nothing. She fell asleep in my arms most of the ride home only to abruptly wake up later from a nightmare that he had killed me and my mother in our house- details, I will leave out, way too graphic.
One of my other friends who was spiritually inclined too listened to me talk about it (the incident with my girlfriend) a few days later and said that he too had seen him lurking around his neighborhood, but never got to close to his family's house, as it seemed he was just being watched.
Days later, me, him, my girlfriend and an entourage of seemingly spiritually inclined individuals went into our local woods/preserve to take a walk about to see if we could explore any strange phenomenon. (I speak of Massapequa and Massapequa Park, Long Island, NY if anyone's curious) The man in black was not our focus, nor did any one bring him up. We did find strange and ominous things that we did talk and pick apart later- (campfire sites, strange markings and symbols on trees, other places where sacrifices or rituals could have been used, etc.) but NOTHING about the man in black, not even a peep from my girlfriend, who had been having recurring and new nightmares about him.
That night, I had a dream that I walked to my windowsill in my house, opening up the curtain to expose the sunlight and sip my coffee while I gazed at what was going on in the gigantic park across the street. In dreams, some people can zoom their sight very far in and out quickly, which is what I was doing. The park is separated by a chain link fence in the middle, and there is a big tree at the center of the fence, with an opening to move to either the north side or the south side of the park. The south side was closer to my house, with the tree directly aligned to my house as well. The north side has two baseball fields, and a school, while the south side has a basketball court and large meadow to the right.
I zoomed all the way in and saw children playing baseball in one of the fields, some parents watching on the benches, and traffic behind it on the main road that led to the mall nearby. I saw a middle aged woman with black hair in a trench coat with a bald man in a shorter black coat walking from the side entrance of the north side, along the fence toward the tree and stop just before they reached the tree. I didn't recognize them so I zoomed back towards the south side, and saw people in the basketball court playing some games. It was all relatively normal until I zoomed back to normal view and saw three figures standing in the middle of my street, no more than 20 feet from my house, staring at me. All three figures wore trench coats and hats, but the one in the middle wore all black. The other two figures wore brown. The man in black was about 5'11 or so and the others were clearly taller, like 6'4. Man in black had facial features- dark brown-black eyes and a squarish face, cut jaw. Had a black goatee and long black hair, curling a bit. He looked like the actor Tom Salvini. The other two were almost identical in look- but were not human looking. They looked like a disfigured vampire/demon hybrid. Faces were animalistic and pale, almost melted skin, eyes completely blacked out and a set of crude fangs. This startled me beyond belief, but even more so when the man in black said to me, almost telepathically, "How you doing?" He was grinning real wide at this point. I answered him with my thoughts back, "Wonderful." His grin wavered when he said this in return, "Yeah...SO. You might want to do yourself a favor. You and your little friends... MIGHT want to stay out of the woods from now on..." Me, standing my ground through this terror, replied "Oh yeah? Or WHAT?" He said, "This..." Whereas the two creatures in brown coats and hats ran towards the window and jumped through it. The first one grabbed me and tried to bite me until I killed it with a piece of broken glass. The other picked me up by the neck, smashing me against the wall and tried to choke me out, until I shoved a pair of rosary beads my mother had hanging on the wall within reach down its throat, causing it to die. I'm telling you the non-graphic version of this because ALOT more happened, and that some here might not want to visualize.
At that point, I walked to the now destroyed open windowsill and saw the man in black and screamed in rage, "ANYTHING ELSE?!" To where he looked surprised and a little scared, said "Oh s__t..." And vanished into thin air. I then woke up, and my nose was bleeding.
He tried to get me in a few more dreams, much more terrifying though. In the dream, I had ran into a local lake near one of the woods from him and kept afloat, trying not to make a sound, barely keeping my nose above to breathe. It was night, and he levitated around the lake searching for me. He had the same coat, but no hat, and his face was pale white, completely shaved, translucent skin, mouth full of tiny razor teeth and bald head. A FAR cry from what I saw him as previously. Apparently, he doesn't like water, because he didn't hang around for long, almost apprehensive of it.
I woke up smelling like pond water instead of sweat, so that wasn't good.
Then I started to see his shadow (body, coat and hat) in reality while other friends/girlfriend at the time continued to see him clearly in and out of dreams, but never his face. Apparently, I'm the only one that has but only in dreams.
It started to dawn on me that he feeds on fear and sometimes anger. Since then, I never really saw much of him again. New people I became kindred with had seen him, and it sparked my interest when I was in my early to mid twenties. They told me that they spotted him hanging around a baseball field near the woods by the very lake where he chased me into the water in my dream. I said let's get down there and check it out, since I had lived in another town from the edges of my teen years, I had not been back to Massapequa for years. Sure enough, I saw only his shadow and they saw him fully. Them being cautious, and me, older and a little wiser (also I had seen worse things in those years after the man and black incidents) I walked right over to his shadow saying "Hey, remember ME?" That shadow quickly dissipated, and my friends were amazed and interested. They learned as I had that this thing, or demon/ghost whatever, is just a parasite on people. It didn't matter how old you were, that you have to know what it eats- your fear. Show no fear, and he runs.
On a side note into something sort of relative, years later I met the love of my life, (who is into the spiritual/supernatural and has had similar experiences) went for a walk in my home town. We decided to go to the park across the street from my old house, to see where I hung out the first half of my life. It was a bright day but chilly so we dressed appropriately and headed there. We chose not to park in front of my old house due to the some of the neighbors I didn't care to run into again so we parked on the side of the park and used the entrance where the north side is. She felt uneasy about going before we got there but didn't know why. When we started to walk along the divider fence to the tree entrance, there was a baseball game for little leaguers playing. She was a few feet behind me and stopped to tie her shoe, which prompted me to stop where I was a be turn around to her. When she got up, she said, "What?" I then realized we were the two people from my first dream encounter with the man in black. I have been bald since I was 23, and she has long black hair and was wearing a long black trench coat, while I wore a regular coat. I turned to look through the fence and saw people playing in the court, and I was in direct view of my old house and the window I stood in from my dream.
To this day I have no idea how to look at that one part.
A closed inter/outer dimensional loop in time travel? Maybe I saw what I would become/the love of my life and the man in black tried to prevent me from seeing/getting it? Who knows. All I can tell you all is that from my experiences and the 15 people I know/knew, this entity is NO GOOD.
Take my experiences and use my knowledge. It may help you.

I have had 2 experiences myself and have several friends that shared their black hat story, not knowing I had one myself. The commonality is that it happens to everyone as kids. I have not had the experience since my mid 20's and I am 35 now. The first, I was in 3rd grade and the dark man (I don't remember a face, just darkness) with a black trench coat stood at the foot of my bed while I was wide awake. I could hear drums pounding to a beat in my ear and I couldn't move. I was crying fiercly but couldn't make a sound and remember for some reason, tears getting into my ears and magnifying the drum sound. When the drumming started, little imp like creatures started marching around my bed surrounded by red light. This seemed to go on forever. I wanted to call for my parents in the next room but I couldn't open my mouth. It eventually went away but the feeling was that I was being punished and the tall man in the hat was glaring at me with judgement. I can still remember it like it was this morning all these years later. The latter happened in my early 20's but he had no hat. I was wide awake sleeping on a friends sofa and this black bald headed mans head appeared mid air with no body. He had a charm to him and gave the impression of a hatian or islander. I didn't feel threatened but I did feel like he wasn't there for good either. He had a beauty about him but a suspect grin on his face. All I remember is my hands moving in almost a dancing motion in front of me and I kept looking at my fingers thinking how graceful they were. Its as if they were dancing like the snakes that dance out of a basket to a flute in eastern culture... And then he was gone. The most disturbing part is not having an explanation. My friends said that they called on the lord, and theirs dissapeared but I myself don't believe and it didn't cross my mind in 3rd grade. None of the stories I have heard from those close to me had a good feel about this being but then again, we associate darkness and black mysterious clothing as a negative thing so perhaps its perception and he isn't bad. However the 3rd grade experience with the imps was terrifying.