Monsters and Myths

He ekes out a solitary existence deep in the woods, surviving by snaring rabbits and foraging for berries.

But when nature alone cannot satisfy his needs, the shaggy bearded recluse will leave his lair and, with the stealth of a wild animal, go on the prowl for other prey in the nearby villages.

Locals call him ‘The Wolfman’ and blame him for a series of thefts of milk from their doorsteps.

The one man mini-crimewave is also suspected of a string of thefts of shopping from parked cars and clothes from washing lines during his furtive forays into the civilised world over the last two years.

Police have tried to catch him during searches on foot and have even sent up a helicopter with heat-seeking equipment to track him down, but he has so far always managed to avoid capture.

He knows the miles of paths through the dense woodland near Ammanford, South Wales, where he lurks, so well that even when officers are on his trail, he manages to give them the slip.

Abandoned hideouts made from board with plastic roofs have been found, suggesting he moves around to avoid arrest.

Some locals believe ‘The Wolfman’ - said to be in his 30s and to look ‘dishevelled’ - also hides in holes in the ground.

In the hamlet of Pantyffynon, which is one of his hunting grounds, disgruntled householders have threatened to send out vigilante search parties to find him.

Now there are also fears that child fans of the X-Men comic book superhero Wolverine, as played by Hugh Jackman, might think it fun to go looking for him and put themselves in danger.

Today one villager said: ‘We want him caught before something serious happens.’

Police have vowed they will catch him ’sooner or later’ and have appealed to locals not to start scouring the woods themselves.

Sergeant Charles Gabe warned: ‘We would advise people not to take the law into their own hands or approach this man.

‘We’ve found one or two hides where we believe he has been sleeping. We think he catches rabbits and eats berries or whatever else he can get his hands on.

‘But although we’ve had the police helicopter overhead using heat-seeking equipment we’ve still been unable to locate him.

‘This a massive thickly-wooded area - and one he obviously knows well.

‘On one occasion a couple of our guys came close to nabbing him but he scarpered back into the woods. But we are sure he will be caught sooner of later.’

Local councillor Hugh Evans said: ‘It’s a very strange case and no-one seems to know who he is.

‘But he must be a bit of a Rambo type and pretty tough to have survived the bitterly cold winter living out in the open.

‘The area where he is living is thickly-wooded and forested - the sort of area where it is easy to disappear.’

‘The Wolfman’ lives in the woodland on an area of  reclaimed coal slagheaps known locally as ‘The Tips’.

A Dyfed-Powys Police spokesman said: ‘We want to question him over several alleged incidents.’

Source: Dailymail.uk

Rich La Monica was behind the wheel of a box truck on a late winter day when he saw a large figure moving through the briars beneath the leafless trees.

“It wasn’t human. It was just too big,” La Monica said. “It definitely looked like what you’d expect to see of a Bigfoot.”

Fearing people would think he was nuts, he kept quiet about what he saw for four years, until he found a community of believers in 1992.

“Then I knew there were actually hundreds of people who had seen them,” he said.

This weekend, hundreds of believers from around the nation will descend on Salt Fork State Park for the 21st annual Bigfoot Conference.

The free event in the ballroom of the park’s lodge will feature exhibits and a tour of nearby locations of Bigfoot sightings. There also will be several speakers, including Doug Hajicek, producer of the History Channel’s “MonsterQuest.”

The show aired an episode last summer that included interviews with La Monica and Don Keating, director of the Eastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Center and conference host. The episode was called “Ohio Grassman.”

Grassman as a local name for the Bigfoot stems from the 1940s and 1950s, before “bigfoot” became a household name, said Keating, who was one of the authorities interviewed for the program.

In the 1940s and 1950s, children would tell their parents they saw a large man walking through the grass, hence the name “Grassman,” Keating said.

Sightings date back to at least 1869, when people reported seeing what they called “Wildmen,” super-humanly large, hairy creatures. Since then more than 300 sightings have been reported, said Keating, who said he has had two encounters.

He and a network of colleagues investigate reports of sightings, including ones in rural parts of Ashtabula, Medina, Portage and Summit counties.

Keating excludes reports that are clearly false.

“There’s a lot of people out there who try to make Bigfoot investigators look like total idiots,” Keating said. “You cannot be gullible.”

But he knows gullible, foolish or even crazy is what skeptics would say he and other believers are.

Believers point out that for a long time people believed that the world was flat, that there were no planets around stars other than the sun, that no creature could live near the thermal vents at the bottom of the ocean. They say that new creatures are discovered all the time and that no Westerner had seen a panda until late in the 1800s.

Even those who accept that science evolves often remain certain that there is no such thing as Bigfoot.

La Monica says, “If they ever have the experience, I’m sure they’ll understand why I believe.”

Source: cleveland.com

The “Association of Maritime Research” is calling for witnesses to come forward pertaining to sightings of a mysterious creature in the English Channel off the coast of Dover. A reward is being offered for information leading to proof of the creature’s existence.

“On 20th April 2009 Thierry and Sophie were enjoying a walk at the Boulogne Harbour. They are both passionate about boats and sea-life and intended filming the variety of boats sailing out of the harbour. As Thierry was filming, his eye glued to the lens, he suddenly became aware of a large shape which appeared on the horizon. Intrigued, he zoomed the camera in to focus more clearly and saw a huge, dark, rapidly moving object, which disappeared within a matter of seconds. Something of an amateur expert about the sea and marine life, he knew this was not simply the outline of a whale or any similar creature and was convinced that he had sighted some phenomenon as yet unseen by man. He decided to contact the AMR who are pursuing further investigations.

Now they need your help. The AMR are appealing for witnesses to come forward and help them find the Channel Creature, or similar sea monsters. Anyone who gives evidence leading directly to proof of the creature’s existence will receive a reward. “

Source: channelcreature.com

THE Yowie has been unfairly blamed for the death of a dog in the Top End, according to one of the world’s leading cryptonaturalists.

Territory Yowie researcher Andrew McGinn told the Northern Territory News yesterday the dog’s death could be the work of the Bigfoot-like beast.

“The way the guy’s dog was killed was typical of a Yowie,” he said.

“I know it sounds fanciful but over the past 100 years, dogs get killed or decapitated and people report feeling watched, having goats stolen or seeing some tall hairy thing beforehand.”

But Tim the Yowie Man, a former economist who turned his hand to Yowie research after spotting a hairy beast on a bushwalk 15 years ago, said the Yowie was not to blame.

“I’m very concerned that the Yowie is being incorrectly portrayed as an aggressive creature that is posing a danger to people’s pets,” he said.

“In over 150 years of Yowie reports all over Australia, I’ve never heard of a Yowie ripping an animal’s head off.

“It is my understanding that in this case there is no evidence that proves a Yowie is responsible for biting the head off a seven-month-old puppy.

“To speculate, with a lack of conclusive evidence to back the claims, that the decapitation of this poor puppy was the work of a Yowie is alarmist.”

The Canberra cryptonaturalist said there had only been a handful of Yowie reports from the Territory in the past 15 years.

“One turned out to be a hoax, another turned out to be a hairy naked human running across the Stuart Highway near Alice Springs and the other was of spurious origin,” he said.

Source: ntnews

BENTON COUNTY- In October 2003, the small town of Decatur on the western side of Benton County found itself with a new resident.

Normally, a new neighbor would not cause any kind of stir. After all, people pack up and move every day, but this time things were different.

Although a little shy, the new neighbor soon brought news crews and myth debunkers from all around into the tiny town as the local gossip began to circulate about just what the new guy looked like.

It did not take everyone long to realize that the new neighbor who had moved into the woods around Crystal Lake was, indeed, Bigfoot.

“We had some pretty interesting calls on it,” Decatur Chief of Police Terry Luker said. “I had one lady call me and I tried to explain to her that it was not a Bigfoot and that it was too small to be a Bigfoot.

“The lady stopped me and she said, ‘Well, you know, they have babies, too.”’ ery day she hears someone in the restaurant telling their own Bigfoot story.

“He stays right out there,” Mickey Metz of Gentry said as he pointed into the woods across Crystal Lake. “Some people still say they can hear him way out over there, but we never see him and I do not stay out after dark.”

Paul Austin of Decatur says he remembers the excitement the town went through when Bigfoot was first seen in 2003, but after about a week he did not hear any more about the new neighbor.

“I am not a believer,” Austin added.

Kim Strobel of Gravette, however, is a believer and with good reason.

“I believe in him. I have heard him,” Strobel said.

While working on a wild-game reserve in Winston, Ore., Strobel and a group of his coworkers heard Bigfoot’s howl. When Bigfoot entered the reserve, all of the animals - the lions, the tigers, the monkeys - began howling and hissing and getting extremely nervous in their cages, and then Strobel

The official stance on Decatur’s Bigfoot sightings in 2003 is that the monkey-like creature people were getting fleeting glances of around town was actually a baboon that had escaped from the local wilderness safari in nearby Gentry.

The first spotting of Bigfoot was on Hill Street, and it was not long before the police department was getting calls from citizens who had seen Bigfoot on the west side of Decatur, Luker said.

“It was a lot of fun. I have not heard of any sightings lately,” Luker said.

“He is still around. He still comes in for coffee in the morning,” Denise Trammell, owner of the Gallery Café in downtown Decatur, said.

“He is a little shy, so sometimes he has to come in before we actually open,” Trammell said, noting the café has a deal with Bigfoot to not take photographs of the being that is surrounded with mystery.

“He has a family now. He is a pretty nice guy,” Trammell said, noting that evheard what he believes was Bigfoot letting out a sound that he is not likely to ever forget, he said.

“It was a quiet night. You could hear the grasshoppers chirping and then you could hear just a strange howl and all of the lions started roaring and the monkeys started going crazy,” Strobel said. “The next day we went out looking for him, and never could find anything. But being around animals all my life, I can tell you that sound was like nothing else.”

The mystery of whether or not Bigfoot really exists lives on in Strobel’s mind.

“I have been in quite a few places and you always hear about these stories, but none of us know what all God has created,” Strobel said. “I can not say it was (Bigfoot). I can not say it was not. Two-thirds of the rumors out there are usually true, though.”

Source: nwanews

The legend of the ‘Honey Island Swamp Monster’ born in the swamp lands of Louisiana has been debated for years. Since the legend began with the first sighting in 1974  reported by Harlan Ford and Ray Mills until present day many crypto zoologist and bigfoot believers have investigated and reported on the legend. There have been alot of varying opinions as to if this was an elaborate hoax or an authentic sighting of a bigfoot like creature. Some think that the original reports and sightings by Mr Ford may have been accurate , although through out the years others created hoax footprints and sightings trying to expand on the legend.

M.K. Davis did some research into the legend and found some interesting facts and items which lean to the honey island swap monster being a hoax. These findings are thought by some to simply prove that there were some people over the years who tried to profit or expand on the legend by means of a hoax , but does not prove that the orginal sightings and reports by Mr Ford  and indeed fabricated.

A Louisiana Hoax

M. K. Davis’s presentation…dealt with the “Honey Island Swamp Monster,” a Bigfoot-like denizen of Louisiana reported by an air traffic controller in the late 1970s and featured in the television series In Search Of… featuring Leonard Nimoy. Davis had an unbelievable stroke of luck. He found a man who had recovered one of the shoes used to perpetrate the hoax-for a hoax the story seems to have been. Davis showed footage of the shoe with a three-toed claw attached to the bottom, which was presumably used to fake the tracks. The other shoe is unaccounted for, but the Honey Island Swamp Monster seems to have been exposed once and for all. Bearing in mind [Loren] Coleman’s earlier remarks, there may have been sightings of some anomalous creature in the beginning, but the only available evidence points to fraud.

Whether the legend was a hoax from the beginning or not we may never know. But like many other cryptozoological creatures the legend of the “Honey Island Swamp Monster” lives on.

The Search Never Ends - Monsters and Myths

Does a hulking, 7-foot-tall, ape-like creature roam the rugged mountains and forests of Northern New York and Vermont?

It may seem far-fetched, but accounts can be traced back to Indian lore and even the logs of Samuel de Champlain.

While the lake creature Champ remains the region’s best known ‘monster,’ in recent years, two nationally televised documentaries — on the History and Discovery Channels — have featured entire segments on Bigfoot sightings in upstate New York and Vermont.

The most recent, “Monster Quest,” in 2008, chronicled numerous sightings of a large, hairy, ape-like creature on both sides of Lake Champlain.

‘CANNIBALISTIC MAN’
In the Pacific Northwest, there’s Bigfoot or the legendary Sasquatch; in the Himalayas, there’s the yeti or abominable snowman.

The Algonquin on the western shores of Lake Champlain told of seeing the windigo or “giant cannibalistic man” who, according to legend, roamed the countryside. One modern-day Native American account of the windigo describes it as “a giant thing, swift “¦ and covered with hair, and has eyes like two pools of blood. And there’s this smell, like rotting meat.” This description is similar to Bigfoot reports today.

The Iroquois have a similar oral history of flesh-eating stone giants who possessed powerful physiques.

Across the border in Quebec, the Algonquin-speaking Attikamekw called these creatures Kokotshe.

In his ship’s log chronicling his voyage of discovery on the St. Lawrence River 1604, Champlain wrote how numerous Indian tribes in the region had told eerie stories of a giant, hairy man-beast that was known to the natives as “the Gougou.” Champlain wrote that so many of the tribes recounted such stories that he believed there must be some truth to the tales.

“And what makes me believe what they say, is the fact that all the savages in general fear it, and tell such strange stories of it.”

In northern Vermont, Abenaki traditions tell of a huge, hairy, man-like creature known as the Forest Wanderer who would leave giant, human-like footprints behind. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, many early Vermont settlers in Essex and Orleans counties told of encountering a mysterious bear that moved swiftly through the woods on two legs, always managing to elude capture.

Vermont historian Marion Daley describes this creature in her book, “History of Lemington,” noting its ability to move about in a swift, ghost-like manner bordering on the supernatural.

A CLEVER RUSE?
More than 100 sightings in upstate New York state have been recorded.

In August of 1869, a “wild-man” scare took place at Sucker Brook near Ogdensburg. The creature was never found. In 1883, the Plattsburgh Sentinel reported on the “great scare at Port Henry” involving a “wild man who scares women and frightens the children.” Some witnesses said it appeared to be wearing “an overcoat.” Could this have been fur or hair that was mistaken for clothing by those trying to make sense of what they were seeing? Once again, the creature eluded search parties.

Another cluster of sightings occurred during autumn of 1921, when residents living near Malone organized hunting parties to track down a “wild man.” Most of the reports were centered near the hamlet of Skerry, 12 miles to the southwest. A reporter for the Dunkirk Evening Observer described the tension in the area: “Women sleep ill o’ nights, children are kept from school, or guarded by adults on their way there and back, lonely females cower behind locked doors and men wag their heads in gossip as they ponder over the puzzle of the wild man”¦”

Skeptical authorities in Franklin County considered the story unlikely, instead opting to believe that it was “a clever ruse effected by bootleggers to take advantage of the absence of officers,” so they could more easily smuggle liquor across the Canadian border with ease.

‘SCARY AS HELL’
In the summer of 1969, an ape-like creature was spotted near a cabin at the Pumphouse campsite at Long Lake. The encounter took place at about 11 p.m., as a small oil lantern illuminated the inside of the cabin. One of the men reported afterwards that his wife told him she could see a raccoon staring at them through the window at the back of the cabin. Rolling over in bed, he glanced up and saw a large cone-shaped head and a dark face that appeared to be pushed in. Brownish fur encapsulated the face.

The next morning at a nearby stream, the couple found what appeared to be a heel print 8 inches wide.

Another sighting took place near Saranac Lake on a tranquil summer’s evening in August of 1996. Two men fishing in a boat on Pine Lake near dusk spotted what they took to be a black bear. Suddenly the “bear” stood up and walked off, leaving the men shaken. One of the witnesses said it stood 7 feet tall and had dark-brown hair.

“Its face was hairy yet fleshy around the upper cheeks. Its eyes were dark in color but clearly visible and had a brightness about them.”

The creature stared at the pair for 10 seconds before tilting its head then darting into the woods with the agility of a cat.

Said one of the men: “The whole experience was very, very upsetting. Although I can honestly say it did not attempt to threaten us “¦ it was scary as hell. That night I did not sleep one wink.”

Source: pressrepublican

More evidence of the abominable snowman (more politely known as a Yeti or Bigfoot) has been uncovered in Russia’s Kemerovo Region in southwestern Siberia, the Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.

Vladimir Makut, a local administrator in the Tashtagol district of Kemerovo Region, noted in an interview with the newspaper that sightings of unusual large creatures in the area date far back into Soviet times, when the area contained several prison colonies. The creatures inspired such dread that the prisoners sometimes refused to go out to work. The local native people, the Shors, also have numerous legends about wild “dark people.” Specialists note, however, that, historically, more yeti activity has been recorded in neighboring regions. The Soviet Academy of Sciences even set up a commission to investigate those reports in 1958. It concluded that Altai, which Tashtagol borders on, is a breeding ground for the creature. There the yetis have been sighted in pairs and yeti children have been seen.

Dozens of sightings near Azas Cave have been recorded, all during the winter months. The area is accessible only with local guides and the right equipment, but it is visited by campers and personnel from the coal mining industry. The latest series of reports began last November. Igor Burtsev, director of the International Center for Hominology, noted that the situation is unusual in that reports have come from locals. Local inhabitants rarely report such sightings, even when they are aware of the presence of the mysterious creatures. There were no actually encounters with the yetis, but numerous tracks were found. They were described as similar to bear tracks, but with distinct toes.

Makut organized an expedition to the cave and, after finding tracks himself, called in Burtsev and several regional officials. They also confirmed the presence of footprints in the cave, but declined to enter the cave farther than 30 yards, noting the dangerous conditions. The yetis themselves eluded the explorers.

Komsomolskaya Pravda noted that there have been other recent developments in hominology. Last month, a film crew from Russia’s Channel One television discovered enormous hominid footprints in Abkhazia and interviewed a local resident who stated that she was the granddaughter of a domesticated yeti. According to the woman, Raisa Sabekia, her grandmother, named Zana, was captured by hunters and given as a gift to her grandfather, who was a local nobleman. He eventually taught her to speak. Abkhazia is another region known for the presence of yeti. An Academy of Sciences expedition searched for the creature in that region in Soviet times as well.

Source: mosnews