Otis Hazelrigg

"He's a blight. Like stinkweed and cutworm that you spray and spray to get rid of but always keep coming back. No, I haven't changed my mind. Something's gotta be done. But it has to be permanent."

- Otis's thoughts on Bubba.

Otis P. Hazelrigg is the central antagonist of the 1981 horror film Dark Night of the Scarecrow. He is the postman for the nameless Southern town and the main person responsible for the murder of Bubba Ritter.

He was portrayed by Charles Durning.

Biography
In a nameless Southern town, Hazelrigg watches from the bushes as Bubba Ritter and Marylee Williams are frolicking in a field of flowers. He relays this information to a friend of his named Harless Hocker who claims that he'd "kick Bubba around a bit," but wouldn't go as far to murder him, unless Bubba hurt someone or gave him a reason to.

Meanwhile, Bubba and Marylee wander off and come across a hole in a neighbor's fence. Marylee goes through the hole and starts playing with some garden gnomes in the backyard. She is interrupted by a dog who viciously attacks her, but Bubba comes to her rescue. Bubba manages to carry her body home, much to the horror of the Marylee's mother.

Immediately after receiving the news, Hazelrigg is convinced that Bubba killed Marylee and rounds up his three friends to enact some vigilante justice. Armed with guns and dogs, they head up to Bubba's home where they pester Bubba's mother, before following their dogs into the fields and finding a lone scarecrow. Once Hazelrigg realizes that Bubba's hiding inside the scarecrow, he and his friends fire their guns, shooting Bubba twenty-five times. After the execution, Hocker gets a call on his truck's radio alerting him that Bubba was innocent and Marylee was still alive. Unable to take back their decision, Hazelrigg puts a pitchfork in Bubba's limp hand, making it look like they shot him in self defense.

A trial is held, but the four men are found not guilty on account of the lack of evidence. (In reality it was because the four men were respected members of the community.)

Gallery
To be continued.