Nubbins Sawyer

Grandpa Sawyer (grandfather)†

> "*I was at the slaughterhouse. My brother worked there, my grandfather too. My family's always been in meat .. I was the killer!*"
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> - **Nubbins Sawyer**, 1973
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**Nubbins Sawyer**  (died 18 August 1973), also known as the **Hitchhiker**, was a mentally unstable grave robber who worked to help kill and cook unsuspecting visitors with his family.

## **Biography**

The Hitchhiker first appears in *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre* walking along the road, where he is picked up by a group of friends traveling through the area, who feel sorry for him having to walk in the heat.

The group asks him what he was doing out there and he tells them that he was "over at the slaughterhouse" where he and his brother and his grandfather used to work. He shows them pictures of him and his family killing the cattle while telling them a story about how head cheese comes from the cows when their heads are melted, all while attempting to get them to drop him off at his home and even inviting them to dinner. He soon begins acting erratically after the disgusted travelers return the photographs. The Hitchhiker suddenly pulls Franklin Hardesty's (Paul A. Partain) pocket knife out of his grasp after he sees the teen picking his fingernails with it. The group is shocked and appalled when the hitchhiker uses Franklin's knife to cut open the palm of his own hand. Shortly after, the hitchhiker shows off the straight razor he keeps in his boot and then takes a picture of Franklin using a camera he pulls out of his satchel. Nubbins takes a picture of Franklin, and tells him it's a good picture. He offers to let him keep it for $2. After Franklin refuses to buy the picture, the Hitchhiker sets the photo on fire and slashes Franklin's arm with the straight razor before being kicked out of the van. The Hitchhiker briefly chases after the van, kicking and yelling as he smears a bloody handprint onto the side of the vehicle, but soon relinquishes his attack on it. The smeared blood on the van is a symbol to help assess which vehicle Drayton should go after as a target for murder.

The film later identifies the Hitchhiker as the brother of the two other main villains of the film, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and Drayton Sawyer (Jim Siedow), as well as the middle son of a mentally unstable family of murderous cannibals. It's also revealed that he was the one responsible for the grave robberies, which are mentioned at the beginning of the film. He was taking photographs of decomposed corpses and making horrific art and statues out of them at the cemetery. Together, they torment Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), Franklin's sister, whom Drayton had captured. Eventually deciding to kill Sally, the Hitchhiker, Drayton and Leatherface are at first content to allow their highly-regarded Grandpa (John Dugan) to do so, but when Grandpa proves unable to kill Sally with a hammer, the Hitchhiker and his brothers become impatient and over-eager with trying to help him. The Hitchhiker forgets to keep a hold on Sally when he tries to take the hammer from Grandpa, allowing her break free of their grasp and jump out a nearby window. As Sally flees, the Hitchhiker and Leatherface chase her, with the Hitchhiker catching up to her on a road. While slashing Sally with a knife, the Hitchhiker meets his demise when he is run over by an 18-wheeler.

In *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2*, the Hitchhiker appears only as a macabre puppet-like corpse: his family has reassembled him after the events of the first film, and his twin brother, Chop Top (Bill Moseley) carries him around and treats him as if he were still alive. At one point, Drayton refers to him as Nubbins, indicating that that is his real name. The Hitchhiker's corpse is presumably destroyed when a hand grenade, accidentally set off by Drayton and the film's secondary protagonist, Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright (Dennis Hopper), blows up the family's hideout with the Hitchhiker's body in it.

## **References**

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
2. ↑ Leatherface