One story of the origin of the name is that at one such dance, a jealous lover stomped on his hat, ruining it, and in frustration Ong tossed it in the air, where it caught on a high branch of a pine tree.

According to Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey by Henry Charlton Beck, Ong's Hat was a real village.

Tracking Mr. Chininiski to New York but unable to prove anything, Burlington County Sheriff Ellis Parker kept the skull in his office for many years as a reminder of the unsolved case.

In the foreword to the 1961 edition of the book, Beck reports that Freed no longer lived at Ong's Hat and that additional legends concerning the village had emerged.

[7] A 1968 letter published in The New York Times, written by an Ong family descendant, claims reports of an actual town are a misnomer.

[8] In his 1944 book Jersey Genesis, Beck himself says in reporting on Ong's Hat he fell for "elaborate traps" and that the story he had earlier repeated was a "fairy tale".

[11] In his book, written in the first person, he tells the story of an investigative journalist trying to uncover the truth about the mysterious town, detailing everything that is happening there.