Trivia: This story is an adaption of a version of an old horror tale called 'The Adventure of the German Student', written by Washington Irving WAY back in the 1800's, specifically 1824.
'The Green Ribbon' was written 160 years later in 1984 by Alvin Schwartz, and was featured in the 'I Can Read!' book 'In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories'.
While being similar to each other, one of the main differences in Irving's story is that, instead of a green ribbon, the woman wears a black band with diamonds.
The original Green Ribbon story ended with the woman's head falling off. However, Adam took the horror to the next level by having the woman's headless body come to life, murder the man's current wife, and put her head on as a replacement, which I think is really genius.
This adaption also seems to take inspiration from 'Jane Eyre', a novel by Charlotte Brontë (notice how the women in the story are named 'Charlotte' and 'Jane'), and 'Bluebeard', a French folktale (the titular Bluebeard keeps a locked secret room filled with corpses that is eventually opened by his wife).
Links for more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_German_Student
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Dark,_Dark_Room_and_Other_Scary_Stories
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard
