Everybody's known this story for over 50 years, guy and a girl drive out to lover's lane, turn on the radio, a news bulletin comes on about an escaped killer with a steel hook for a hand who slashes the throats of young people and the asylum is near lovers lane. The girl pushes the guy to drive her back home, they tear out of there, they get out of the car and find on the door handle of the girl's side of the car a stainless steel hook.

They covered this story on Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed, to confirm that a hook hand is most likely no more dangerous than a regular hand, and very poor choice for a murder weapon, however the story emerged at a time when there WERE a lot of lovers lanes murders going on, most notoriously, the 'Phantom murders', of which the killer was found and arrested, but let go due to a legal technicality.

But what I want to know is, HOW did whoever started the story, get the idea for a killer to have a steel hook for a hand, in which to kill people with? I mean we're not talking the kind of hooks they were dragging zombies with in Night of the Living Dead exactly...so how did it begin? Does anybody else wonder?

Cadet, following is a link to Snopes.com which gives not only examples, but the origin of the legend following the examples.

Snopes and madmen and hooks