Mr. Gepeng Was a Ghost Who Captured a Generation's Concerns With a Changing City

My childhood ghost stories were so lame. Maybe it was because I grew up in a village, or maybe I've always been out of touch. Whatever the reason, I totally missed out on hearing about what has to be my new favorite ghost—Mr. Gepeng.

The legend of Mr. Gepeng was basically viral back when the term still meant that a bunch of people were falling ill. I'm talking about the '90s, a time when cities like Jakarta were rapidly developing and everyone was talking about Mr. Gepeng. Here's the story: Mr. Gepeng was a rich guy who was crushed by a falling elevator at the height of his career. (Hence his name, "gepeng," means "flattened.") At the time of his untimely death, Mr. Gepeng was carrying a briefcase full of cash; cash that he was more than happy to share with anyone who gave him a call. All you had to do was dial 7777777 and voila! a fat stack of cash would appear in your toilet.

What did Mr. Gepeng look like before his death? No idea. That wasn't part of the legend, but I like to imagine him in an oversized suit and chunky watch a la Hotman Paris, only, you know, flatter.

It seemed like every school kid in the city knew the story of Mr. Gepeng until the end of the '90s, when the urban legend just, suddenly, disappeared. Why? And what was behind Mr. Gepeng's rapid rise? I think it has a lot to do with one thing—confusion over the rapid economic growth of Indonesia's cities. Cities like Jakarta change A LOT in only a few short decades. By 2015, the city had one of the fastest-growing skylines on Earth, according to a study by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

In 1967, the tallest building in the city was 15-stories high. Today, the tallest one is 69 stories high, rising a towering 310 meters above the city streets.

Need more evidence? Take a look at this image of the Semanggi exchange back in the 1970s:

And here's the same interchange in 2012:

Or this image of Jalan Thamrin in the 1970s:

And this one only two decades later:

Mr. Gepeng was crushed by an elevator, something that was becoming increasingly common in the city as the buildings continued to grow taller. Maybe he was unaccustomed to such technology and didn't know to watch out. Or maybe the elevator itself was installed by a corrupt building company that cut corners and pocketed the cash.

Maybe he was a member of the capital's nouveau riche, the sudden moneyed class who made a fortune off the oil boom of the '70s, and that's why he was so careless with his cash (who carries it around in a briefcase?). Or maybe he's one of the old money families and all that money wasn't even all that much to him.

Was his habit of gifting others with this wealth a form of giving back by a rich guy remorseful for making a fortune off the backs of the rest of us? Or is it a myth perpetuated by the elites to convince the working class that a change of luck was only right around the corner, as long as you picked up the phone?

I don't have an answer here, but I do think that ghost stories and urban legends are a product of a specific time and place. When Jakarta was in flux and its residents dealing with the culture shock of suddenly seeing so much money right in front of their eyes, its people created Mr. Gepeng, a man who was a product of the changing city in more than one way. His death was caused by the creation of a taller city, one where you need an elevator. And all his wealth was a product of the city as well, at a time when the wealth gap we struggle with today was starting to show its face.

Or maybe it was all just a plot by the phone company to convince people to dial a useless number so they could make some more money. We'll never know.

No one talks about Mr. Gepeng today. We have new worries: traffic jams, a weakening currency, rising property values. Today's kids might be talking about a ghost that keeps you waiting for a ride forever. Or one that steals your money in a land deal as intangible as any ghost.