THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO

MYSTERIOUS
BEINGS

JOHN A. KEEL

18
TOR
ATOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK
 This book is dedicated to the memory of
Otto Binder, Charles Bowen, Alex Jacldnson,
Coral and Jim Lorenzen, Ivan T. Sanderson
and all the others who spent their lives
pursuing the unknown and the unknowable.

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is
stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the
author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

Copyright 1970, 1994, 2002 by John A. Keel

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any
form.

This book is a revised edition of Strange Creatures from Time and Space, published in
1970 by Fawcett Publications, Inc.

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor.com

Tor is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 0-765-34586-2

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-45544

First Tor edition: October 2002

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 Contents

1. A World Filled with Ambling nightmares 1

2. "The Uglies and the Nasties" 10
3. Demon Dogs and Phantom Cats 17
4. Flying Felines 32
5. The Incomprehensibles 37
6. Giants in the Earth or "Marvelous Big Men
and Great Enmity" 47
7. The Hairy Ones 59
8. Meanwhile in Russia 71
9. Big Feet and Little Brains 80
10. Creatures from the Black Lagoon 95
11. Those Silly "Flying Saucer" People 144
12. The Big Joke from Outer Space 160
13. Cattle Rustlers from the Skies 179
14. The Grinning Man 194
15. Cherubs, Angels, zmd Greys 208
16. The Bedroom Invaders 216
17. Winged Weirdos 224
 CONTENTS

18. The Man-Birds 233

19. West Virginia's "Mothman" 244

20. Unidentified Swimming Objects 271

21. Scoliophis Atlanticus 282

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
22. The Great Sea Serpent of Silver Lake,

MYSTERIOUS
new York 293

23. The Yellow Submarine Caper 302

BEINGS
24. Something Else . . . 314
Afterword: 2002 323
Index 329
 ONE

A World Filled with

Ambling nightmares

o matter where you live on this planet, someone

within two hundred miles of your home has had a
direct confrontation with a frightening apparition or
inexplicable "monster" within the last generation. Perhaps it was
even your cousin or your next-door neighbor. There is a
chancea very good onethat sometime in the next few years
you will actually come face to face with a giant hair-covered
humanoid or a little man with bulging eyes, surrounded by a
ghostly greenish glow.
An almost infinite variety of known and unknown creatures
thrive on this mudball and appear regularly year after year, cen-
tury after century. Uncounted millions of people have been terri-
fied by their unexpected appearances in isolated forests, deserted
highways, and even in the quiet back streets of heavily populated
cities. Whole counties have been seized by "monster mania," with
every available man joining armed posses to beat the bushes in
 THE COMPLETE U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 3
2 JOHN A. KEEL
dents of the little village of Segamat were quoted in the Malay
search for the unbelievable somethings that have killed herds of Mail as describing a shy, harmless giant who blundered about in
cows and slaughtered dogs and horses. the bushes, leaving huge eighteen-inch footprints in his wake. The
Over the past hundred years, thousands of intriguing human report speculated that perhaps the giant ape was on the move
interest items have appeared in newspapers all over the world, because of the pressure of advancing civilization and the loss of
describing incredible encounters with awesome creatures un- feeding grounds.
known to science. Can all these items be hoaxes and journalistic An ape twenty-five feet tall is a biological impossibility. But
jokes? Can we believe that the major wire services, whose very that does not mean that one cannot exist.
existence depends on their reliability, employ men to concoct and Berwick, Nova Scotia, sounds exotic and faraway. Actually it is
circulate irresponsible tales about hairy giants and helmeted pyg- on the Canadian peninsula lying just off the coast of Maine. In
mies stepping from circular flying machines? Can we conclude April 1969 a giant eighteen-foot-tall figure was seen by many res-
that the millions of badly frightened people who have reported idents on the outskirts of that little town in the Annapolis valley,
such encounters to the local pohce and authorities are merely according to the Evening News. It was allegedly a "tall, very dark
pathological liars and lunatics? form" seen striding about the landscape at a speed of about twenty
We know that our little planet is infested with remarkable ani- miles per hour. After the initial witnesses reported the "Phantom,"
mals and insects that defy common sense. Have you ever consid- as it became known, local police had to assign two cars to the area
ered the total absurdity of the giraffe? Or that inane rodent, the to control the bumper-to-bumper traffic.
lemming, swarms of which periodically march across miles of ice People in Nova Scotia have been seeing all kinds of oddities for
in the Arctic to drown themselves in the sea? years. Giant luminous snakes that appeared suddenly and melted
Scientists had a good laugh in 1856, when Paul du Chaillu away mysteriously were reported there in 1967.
returned from the Congo and described his encounter with a hairy These things are "erratics" and "anomaUes." They have been
giant. "He stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight I entertaining us for years, and their appearances have spawned all
think I shall never forget," Du Chaillu reported. "Nearly six feet kinds of cults and "crackpot-ologies" ranging from "Angelology"
high, with immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, (the study of thefrequent appearances of angels) to UFOIogy (the
with fiercely glaring large deep gray eyes . . . he stood there and study of flying saucers). Since 1896 a spectacular assortment of
beat his breast with his huge fists till it resounded like an immense weird apparitions have been dropping out of the sky to plague us.
bass drum." A nude giant paid a visit to Michigan in 1897, according to the
We know now that Du Chaillu was the first white man to meet newspapers of the period, and when a farmer tried to move in for
a gorilla in Africa. Gorillas did not exist in 1856 simply because a closer look, the creature lashed out with his giant foot and broke
the desk-bound scientists of London and Paris said they did not the poor man's ribs.
exist. For the past twenty years South America has been infested with
People are still seeing things that do not exist scientifically. beings ranging from eight-foot giants with single eyes in the mid-
They are seeing them in Nebraska, in England, in Siberia, in dle of their foreheads to little man-shaped things only two feet
South East Asia, and in national parks everywhere. tall. Cyclopean giants have also reportedly been seen in the state
A Reuters dispatch from Malaysia on August 15, 1966, of Oregon, and a radio announcer in Minnesota claims he ran into
reported that an ape twenty-five feet tall was on the loose. Resi-
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS
4 5

a group of tiny animated tin cans only six inches tall. Other crea- would make an acceptable and credible witness in a court of law if
tures ranging from fifteen to twenty feet in height have scared the called upon to testify about a more mundane master. We are not
dayUghts out of people in such scattered places as Mexico and dealing with wild-eyed crackpots and publicity seekers. These are
people very much like yourself and, contrary to the hardboiled
Argentina.
cynicism of New York editors, most people are honest and they
In West Virginia more than one hundred sober, God-fearing
are particularly truthful when trying to describe an unusual but
people have seen some sort of tall, gray human-like figure with possibly important event to police officers, newsmen, and scien-
wings since 1966. It has glowing red eyes and is known locally as tific investigators.
"Mothman." A similar creature horrified four teenagers in Kent, Many of these witnesses will be named in this book. They are
England, back in 1963. real people, they exist, and you can check them out if you wish
These are only a few of the examples in our lexicon of monsters although by now most of them are weary of the ridicule and non-
and ambling nightmares. There are hundreds more and we will try sense that usually follows the act of reporting an unusual event.
to give a comprehensive, documented account of each one as we
Skeptics who have had no newspaper experience usually tiy to
go along. Unfortunately there is very little scientific evidence that
make an issue out of the rehabihty of newspaper reports. We grew
any of these things really exist. In many cases unusual footprints
up m the newspaper business and have been involved in journal-
were found on the ground afterwards and plaster casts were made
ism all our life. Newsmen are trained in a hard school and total
of them. In some instances witnesses were clawed or went into a
objectivity becomes a part of their hfestyle. Most newspaper
state of shock and required medical attention. Over and over again
reports are very reUable. We personally have had the opportunity
police officers and sheriffs have thought enough of the witnesses'
to check out many newspaper clippings by visiting the scene and
credibility to organize posses and search parties to scour the area
talking direcy to the witnesses. Often we found that the local
for some trace of these elusive beasts, always without success.
newspapers had actually protected the witness by playing down or
You are, of course, familiar with the giant footprints of the cel-
deleting altogether the more incredible aspects of his story. This
ebrated Abominable Snowman (ABSM) of the Himalayas, which
means that many of the newspaper accounts offer only a superfi-
have been seen and photographed by numerous mountain-
cial description of the event and an in-depth, on-the-spot investi-
climbing expeditions. But did you know that the same kind of tall,
gation IS necessary to uncover all the details.
hairy creature has frequently been seen throughout the United
States? Heor itturns up almost annually in such places as So we are not going to dwell on the false issues of reliability in
California, Michigan, Rorida, and New York. Hundreds of people this book. Rather, we are going to tiy to assemble and present the
have seen these ABSMs in the past hundred years. All of their available facts on these bizarre situations. As you go along you
descriptions tally. The reliability of most of these people is will begin to note that there are striking correlations and sinlari-
beyond question. ties in many of these stories, no matter where or when they
We have personally investigated many of the cases in this book occurred. The smaller details become the most significant. Identi-
and have talked to the witnesses for hours on end, probing for dis- cal happenings have been reported in France, Brazil, and Ohio.
crepancies in their stories and trying to uncover emotional or psy- Yet few, if any, of these stories have been widely circulated
chological aberrations. It is our studied conclusion that the great beyond the area of origin. If all these people are liars, then we had
majority of these people are telling the truth. Any one of them better launch a psychiatric program to determine how so many
 OHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

far-flung Uars are able to come up with the same significant, cor- "authority" when an unusual event occurs. If, for example, a
relating details in their lies. meteor flashes across the local skies, the reporter will phone the
On the other hand, there exists a large and vocal group of men professor of astronomy at the nearest school. This professor will
who are unreliable and often irresponsible. Over the past several either talk off the top of his head or he will scurry to his bookshelf
years our work has brought us into almost constant contact with and quote from the works of a Type A scientist.
this group. They call themselves "scientists" and they usually put Much of the scientific rubbish you read in your daily newspa-
a Ph.D. after their names. Science has become a sacred cow in this pers comes from the mouths of Type B. Type A is usually too
generation but that term is a misnomer. The gender is wrong. Sci- busy, too inaccessible, and too smart to pontificate for the press.
For years Type B scientists have been telling us that the Abom-
ence, by and large, is a lot of bull.
inable Snowman did not exist. None of these men had ever ven-
Hardly a month passes that yet another scientist is not caught in
tured closer than three thousand miles to the Himalayas. Their
the act of faking his statistical material or cheating in his experi-
conclusion was based upon the fact that no scientific literature
ments. In recent years such scientific swindles as "poly water"
existed on the subject. Similarly, a number of college professors,
and "cold fusion" have stirred up headlines in the daily newspa-
without bothering to talk to a single witness, identified West Vir-
pers and bogus claims of new scientific discoveries have become
ginia's "Mothman" as a kind of ordinary bird.
commonplace. The once-rigid standards of academia have been
Back in 1938 some fishermen in South Africa found a very
replaced by overinflated egos, continual personaUty conflicts,
odd specimen in their nets. It turned out to be a coelacanth fish
cheats, frauds and fakers of every description, and a complete
which had been considered extinct for many thousands of years.
absence of ethics in the mad pursuit for fat government grants.
Then the fun began. Recently Ivan T. Sanderson, a biologist and
Science has become a major disgrace and scientists now rank
one of the world's leading authorities on animal oddities, com-
close to politicians in terms of credibility. mented on the coelacanth fracas:
In all fairness, we must admit that there are two kinds of scien-
tists. Type A works for a large corporation or an important govern-
A certain Doctor of Piscology, i.e. Ichthyology, stated for
ment agency. He is a proven producer. He has helped develop new
the record, and to none less than the Associated Press, on the
soaps and toothpastes and atomic engines. He is rarely quoted in
hearing of the initial announcement of such a fishy thing
the press. In his spare time he writes scholarly papers that make a
having been obtained by a Dr. Latimer of the Port Elizabeth
contribution to his chosenfield. While he can have a large ego and
Museum in South Africa, that it was impossible, because
other human failings, he does not seek publicity and his rare pub-
"we all know" that all coelacanths have been totally extinct
lic statements are carefully worded and often make good sense.
for some TO-miUion years. That was in August, 1938. In
Type B is not a producer. He is usually a teacher at some uni-
August 1948, the same great expert stated, and to AP again,
versity or small college. He is caught up in the vicious "pubUsh or
plainly, clearly and categorically that: 'This is probably the
perish" atmosphere of our educational system and so he also
greatest zoological discovery of all time, but we [who are
grinds out reams of books and papers, generally based on a sys-
these wesl] have always expected it because it is, after all, a
tematic plagiarism of the works of Type A. He seeks publicity and
shallow-water fish."
is frequently seen placing his foot in his mouth. It is a common
practice for newspapermen to call upon the nearest available The coelacanth is a deepwater fish.
8 JOHN A. KEEL
THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

There are very few genuine scientific authorities on the sub-

in West Virginia is slap-happy, a theoiy we vehemently contest
jects to be discussed in this book. That is, authorities who have
since we have visited that state several times or else there is some
personally investigated and studied these various phenomena.
place m the back hills where these things are hiding out.
These will be quoted along the way, and from time to time, Type
B scientists will also be quoted without comment. The discrimi- u'' theory untenable. Posses,
experienced hunters, and even helicopters have searched for these
nating reader can draw his own conclusions.
monsters immediately after some of these events and have failed
There is only one acceptable group of authorities for our mon-
tofind ^ y trace of a hiding place. So where did they go?
ster storiesthe witnesses themselves. Our only evidence is testi-
monial; the same kind of evidence used in a court of law. Too Mund^e explanations do not seem to fit the known facts. We
many honest, reliable people have seen these things to discount have to stretch our minds a bit and extend our imaginations into
them. Too many newspapers have been publishing too many of the paranorm^. The sudden appearances and disappearances of
these stories for too many years. The question is not: Did these rnlT^ ^ ^ ^orid, even in densely
people see anything? Rather, it is: What did these people see? Wulated areas, suggests that they have some means of trans-
Man once explored the moon at a cost of approximately four portation or else they are deliberately dumped here and retrieved
billion dollars a year, even though four-fifths of the planet Earth oLtrmpr; ^^^P^rt^tion- Although unidentified flying
objects (UFOs) are frequently seen in these same "window" a r L
has not been adequately explored or even surveyed. Within a few
years we will undoubtedly know more about our satellite than we Tve^'nf A ^^^^ ^'^^PP^ before the bewildered
eyes of An- Forcefighter pilots.
know about our home base. When our space program was
launched, its publicly avowed purpose was the "search for extra- Obviously, something far more complicated is involved. Some
terrestrial life." A dramatic and imaginative challenge, to be sure, Z ^ h ? ^^ involving concepts of the
but this planet is teeming with all kinds of life forms that >ve know fourth dimension. Researchers such as Allen G r e e L l d of
nothing about.
You have seen the tiny insect known as the silverfish. It seems B S Le Poer Trench, a well-known
to live in the bindings of books; a tiny white bug that eats glue. At
Thev w r ideas involving "interpntration."
last report, no scientist had yet bothered to study the silverfish and conlr ? "i^ide our space-time
learn its life cycle. We don't know a damned thing about the bugs Z T T l creatures have found
crawhng around on our bookshelves but we are searching for life tedW if r i ; T^'^ ^^^^^ Admit-
tedly It IS a far-fetched idea, yet much of the data supports it.
outside this planet! Planet r r strange is engulfing our
s^me d I T ' r Unbehevables are c o L n g L m
We have a theory. It is not very scientific but it is based upon the Tv h ^ "" dimension. They are here.
known facts. These creatures and strange events tend to recur in
the same areas year after year, even century after century. This, in n l ioTh an Abominable Snowman in cages
itself, indicates that the creatures somehow live in those areas con i i that day amves, we must
consider every possibility and every explanation
which we call "windows." West Virginia had many unusual crea-
ture reports before "Mothman" appeared in 1966. Either everyone
 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

cow, makes a small, expert incision into the animal's flesh, and
proceeds to lick up the blood thatflows forth. It does not suck the
blood. Scientists believe that the bat's saliva contains an anticoag-
TWO ulant, which keeps the bloodflowing even after the nasty little fel-
low has had his dinner. (Various types of leeches also apply an
anticoagulant for this purpose, and the tiny lesions they create can
bleed for hours afterwards.) The vampire bat is a greedy character
and will lap up blood until his small body is nearly spherical.
The Uglies and Then he clumsily spreads his wings andflutters off to his cave to
sleep it off.
the Nasties" Human victims are nearly always bitten in the toes. Explorers
and peasants in the back hills of Central America frequently wake
up in the morning to find their feet, which had been sticking out
from under the sheetsif they were using sheetscovered with
blood. It is very rare for the victim to actually feel the bat's pres-
ence. Usually the wound is completely painless. Occasionally the
bats will take a nip out of other exposed parts of the bodythe
arms, the legs. But they very seldom attack the human neck or
face.
Unconfirmed (uninvestigated) rumors appear from time to time
claiming that swarms of rabid bats have openly attacked villages
, ^ Ja P^ ^ d W and plantations, swarming over people like locusts and killing
them or driving them mad.
Well-known scientists and explorers, such as the late Dr. Ray-
mond Lee Ditmars of the American Museum of Natural History,
have invaded the caves of vampire bats and brought back live
specimens for study. So we know these things definitely exist.
Some Type B scientists speculated that the many vampire legends
of Unbelievables. iney
c a t a l o g wuigspread of eight
of central Europe may have been spawned by an influx of vampire
over three inches long, ^ P ; j bats in the Middle Ages. However, those legends seem to be com-
inches, m y ' t t o T e l h o L they can pletely unrelated to the tiny bats and deserve separate study.
Some five thousand feet below the surface of the oceans there
lurks another tiny creature with a vampirish reputation. In their

^iHsz-r:':--
infinite wisdom, scientists have labeled it Vampyrotouthis infer-
nalis, the vampire of hell. This is a little black monstrosity about
 THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1
1 JOHN A. KEEL

two inches long with red eyes an inch in diameter, a mouthful of ten in the twelfth century, describes both of these. The hoop snake
was called the Amphivena and the milk snake was identified as an
sharp white teeth, ten squirming tentacles, and hundreds of glow-
Italian boa. Flying snakes were known in even earUer times and
ing lights all over its minute body. It is a mollusk, distant relative
were labeled the Jaculus.
of the fearsome octopus. Since it lives in the tremendous pres-
Dr. Ditmars, one of the worid's greatest herpetologists,
sures of the great depths, we do not know too much about its life
believed that the hoop snake myth was centered around the com-
cycle and habits, but it is clearly a miniature carnivore which
mon mud snake, which has a habit of lying in a half-coiled posi-
probably gobbles up anything of comparable size that comes its
tion in shallow water. "I have sometimes mistaken these snakes
way. Hundreds of these creatures have been caught by appalled for a bicycle tire thrown into a watery ditch," he noted in his defin-
fishermen, and Yale's Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory has itive Snakes of the World.
studied them.
Farmers in North America, lacking an Italian boa, have labeled
The Vampyrotouthis infemalis is a minor example of the
a species of the common and harmless king snake the milk snake.
strange and infinite variety of life forms which exist hidden away
Several years ago we returned from an Abominable Snowman
from us at the bottoms of the oceans.
hunting expedition in India with a live, "two-headed snake"
Our splendid planet is seething with all kinds of strange animals among our souvenirs, somewhat to the consternation of the neigh-
and plants in dire need of a good press agent. Some, like the bors in our New York apartment building. The snake was a small
redoubtable gooney birds of the Pacific, cannot quite make up sand boa, thick and blunt on both ends. The eyes and mouth were
their mind what they are. The gooney would like to be a bird but so ill-defined that it was very difficult to judge which was the head
often, after much fluttering of wings and running back and forth, and which was the tail. The natives of India actually beUeve that
it will fall flat on its face instead of taking off. There are birds that type of snake has a head on both ends and can travel in either
can't fly at all, such as the ostrich and the penguin, and there are direction. This particular specimen was very lethargic, as most
animals that can. The flying squirrel gUdes from tree to tree by boas are, and a gentle, ahnost lovable, creature. Snakes, inci-
spreading a membrane it has conveniently grown between its legs. dently, are not slimy to the touch; they are very dry. The sand
Throughout Asia there exists the Opisthoglypha, a flying snake. boa's skin was ahnost like crinkly cellophane. One hot summer
This character is about three feet long and has the ability to flatten day it expired suddenly in its glass cage and received a funeral
its ribs. It hides in a tree and when a delicious-looking lizard befitting the only "two-headed snake" in America.
strolls by underneath, it soars into space and spirals downward for India, of course, is filled with snake legends . . . and snakes.
dinner. It can glide a considerable distance. Cobras are responsible for the deaths of over one thousand people
eveiy year in Bombay alone. Like all snakes, cobras are deaf and
There are many other kinds of legendary snakes that do not
pick up vibrations from the ground with an auditory nerve that
actually exist, yet new stories about them crop up in every gener-
runs the length of their bodies. The ancient art of snake-charming
ation. One is the hoop snake which, according to folklore, catches
is based on showmanship and courage (or stupidity). The snake
its tail in its mouth to form a circle or hoop and rolls away from its
charmer's flute is just a gimmick, and the inept way most charm-
enemies. Another popular nonexistent snake is the milk snake.
ers play the instrument makes a snake bite justifiable. The
This one is supposed to sneak up on cows and attach itself to the charmer waves the longflute back and forth as he puffs into it and
animal's udders to drink itsfill. A Latin book. The Bestiary, writ-
14 JOHN A. KEEL THE C O P L E T E G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 15

the cobra sways with it, actually trying to get the charmer's bare feet long were once plentiful on this planet. Maybe they were the
hands in a striking position. If the charmer pauses in his move- source of the "racial memoiy" which still haunts us.
ments, the snake will lash out. There are spiders on this planet so big that they prey upon birds
What a way to make a living. and snakes. While boa constrictors crush all the bones of their vic-
tims before swallowing them whole, spiders discharge a very
The roster of nasties and ughes in the animal kingdom would not potentfluid over their trapped prey. Thisfluid liquifies the victim,
be complete witiiout some mention of the arachnids: spiders and for spiders cannot eat solid food. Lizards, snakes, and fish have
scorpions. Nearly everybody hates arachnids, even though most been killed by giant spiders and liquified in a matter of hours.
of them are harmless to human beings. There is something repug- Nature works in complex ways. All kinds of animals and insects
nant about little crawly multi-legged insects that drives most have developed weird and even ridiculous digestive systems. We
housewives up the wall. have sponges that pump water through their cells to extract what-
A number of pseudoscientists have suggested that our fear of ever food particles might exist. There are fish that climb trees,
arachnids stems from some buried racial memory, from some dark snakes that can glide, birds that can't fly, bats that can't land,
time when giant arachnids roamed the earth and menaced human microscopic forms of life that live on stone and even lead.
beings. The Bible warns us in Revelations (9:10) of fearsome We have trees and plants that feast upon insects and living
scorpion-like beings rising up from the bowels of the earth: "And things. There are even animals that are cunningly disguised as
they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their plants, such as crinoids: brilliantly colored things with featherlike
tails: and their power was to hurt menfive months." arms which can exude a paralyzing poison. Not so long ago there
For whatever reason, the fear of these little insects runs deep were myths of a man-eating plant on Madagascar but these even-
and has always been with us. tually proved to be without foundation.
We have sat in outdoor cafes in Cairo, Egypt, and watched The famous Venus's-flytrap, a bug-consuming plant, has been
scorpions scramble around the walls of nearby buildings, pursu- found growing naturally in only one spot on the earth. That spot is
ing insects. Their wavering tails are tipped with a poisonous barb an ancient meteor crater in North Carolina. Colonial Governor
that paralyzes their prey. Their sting has been known to kill men. Arthur Dobbs discovered the flytrap in 1760, and there has been
In the little village of Abu Rawash, not far from the Great Pyramid much speculation since then that the plant was somehow intro-
of Gizah, we met a family of snake hunters who were so adept at duced to our world by a crashing meteor.
handling these loathsome creatures that they even put scorpions When we try to assess these wonders, we are forced to ask our-
on their faces and let them crawl around while we took pictures. selves how many other marvels may exist with us without our
When you travel through scorpion country it becomes a habit knowledge? The gorilla was considered a mere myth for many
to shake out your shoes every morning in case one of the little years, as was the okapi, a crazy combination of horse and zebra
monsters has staked out a claim in the toe and is lying in wait to which wasfirst captured in Africa in the early 1900s. A ferocious
give you a new kind of hotfoot. giant lizard, the Komodo dragon, remained folklore until the
Fossils and other evidence dating back 350 million years indi- 1930s when an American expedition visited Indonesia and
cate that giant scorpions or euripterids ranging from five to nine brought one back alive.
16 JOHN A. KEEL

A world that can produce vampire bats, flying snakes, and

nine-foot scorpions might well be able to serve as the nesting
place for fifteen-foot-tall apes and giant birds. The Abominable
Snowman is no more impossible than afifteen-foot-tall penguin THREE
and, believe it or not, there is some evidence (but not muchsee
Ch^ter 5) that such a breed of penguins exists. There is also con-
siderable evidence, which we will review later on, that ten-foot-
tall giant men once roamed tiiis little mudball of ours.
The Type B scientists sit in their campus ivory towers and scoff
Demon Dogs and
while men like Dr. Ditmars poke around inhospitable jungles and
caves reeking with bat guano. In any given year the back pages of
Phantom Cats
your own local newspaper carries dozens of small "human inter-
est" items about new sightings of sea serpents, ABSMs, and flie
funny folk who ride around in flying saucers. Are all these things
journalistic put-ons? Are we still wallowing in the myths and non-
sense of the Middle Ages?

uge dogs and cats of unknown origin have appeared

and reappeared frequently all over the world, spread-
ing terror and nurturing superstition in their wake.
There are numerous documented accounts of these apparitions in
medieval histories. But such events continue to persist to this day.
England has suffered periodic outbreaks of these monsters, but so
have the civilized, sophisticated climes of Connecticut and Michi-
gan. In many of these incidents, the creatures somehow material-
ized during violent thunder storms.
In 856 A.D. a church in Trier, Prussia, was suddenly invaded by
"a dog of immense size" during a storm which filled the place
with such darkness that members of the congregation could
hardly see each other. The floor seemed to open, according to the
account in Annales Francorum Regum, and the huge beast rose up
to run back and forth to the altar. Another ancient text, Chronicon
Saxonicus, relates a similar incident eleven years later in 867 A.D.
 THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1
1 JOHN A. KEEL

A gigantic pig-like thing reportedly appeared in the church at ning of our narrative. Those were the centuries of dragons and
Andover, Hants, England, on Christmas Eve, 1171. It dashed assorted monsters of every description. Most of the records of the
around the altar just as the priest was struck by hghtning from times were kept by no-nonsense priests and clergymen who
within the church and killed. Incredible though it may seem, these played down the sensational aspects of many of these events,
monstrous "pigs" have been reported again and again in a long making it necessary to check and cross check many different rec-
series of perplexing cases. ords before the full story can be assembled.
Lightning often accompanies these manifestations. A Tudor Perhaps the "burning man" of Germany, circa 1125, had some
historian named John Stowe recorded the following in the six- remote connection with the scorched footprints of York. In the old
teenth century: "In the reign of King John thunder and lightning book Deutsche Sagen this strange report appears:
killed many men and women, and children, burnt cornfields, and
fishes of strange shape, armed with helmets and shields, like In this year, A.D. 1125, afiery man was haunting the mountains
armed men were caught, only they were much bigger . . . " like an apparition. It was just at midnight and the Man went
Giantfish clad in armor! There's an Unbelievable for you. from one birchtree to another, and set it ablaze. The Watchman
On August 4, 1577, hghtning struck the church in BUborough, said he was like a glowingfire. He did that for three nights, and
Suffolk, killing two people and injuring several others. That same then no more. Georg Miltenberger, living in a hopfield near
day "a thing like a black dog" materiaUzed in a church in Bungay, Railbach in the district of Freinstein, explained, 'On the first
England, causing some parishioners to die instantly. Meanwhile, appearance on Sunday night, between eleven and twelve
seven miles away in the church at Blythburgh, a similar giant dog o'clock, far from my house, I saw a Man burning all over with
killed two men and a boy. The Bungay monster allegedly left fire. One could count all the ribs on his stomach. He continued
behind deep clawmarks in the church masonry. There are numer- his wayfi-om one landmark to another until after midnight he
ous historical records of this frightening Sunday. suddenly vanished. Many people were fearstricken by his
appearance because through his nose and mouth he belched
Freakish footprints have a way of turning up during these out-
fire while dashing hither and thither in all directions.' '
landish events. According to the Chronicles of Abbot Ralph of
Essex, following a horrible electric storm in England on July 29,
1205, "monstrous tracks were seen in several places, and of a kind Another Unbelievable had the poor taste to show up uninvited
never seen before. Men said they were the prints of demons." at the wedding dance of King Alexander of Scotland in 1293. This
Enormous prints were supposedly left behind by the huge fly- poor fellow was not afire, he was simply stark naked. Worse still,
ing black horse that thundered across York, England, during a he had neglected to wear anyflesh. He appeared in nothing but his
lightning storm in 1065. Abbot Ralph's account indicates that bare bones, according to the court records, and managed to put
York experienced another rash of strange footprints in the years quite a damper on the wedding festivities.
1189-99: "In the time of King Richard I, of England, there ap- Five hundred years before this Black Period "a plague of
peared in a certain grassy,flat ground human footprints of extraor- frightening and terrible animals" swept over the Middle East,
dinary length; and everywhere the footprints were impressed the
grass remained as if scorched by fire."
'Deutsche Sagen, Vol. 1. p. 229.
Flying horses and smoldering footprints only mark the begin-
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

killing many people in Armenia and Assyria. The Chronicon of denly pulling in his horse, came to a dead stop. I then saw an
Denys de Tell-Mahre describes them thus: " . . . their muzzle was immense black dog just in front of our horse, the strangest
small and long, and they had great ears, like those of horses. The looking creature I ever beheld. He was as big as a New-
skin on their dorsal spine resembled the bristles of pigs, and stuck foundland, but very gaunt, shaggy, with long ears and tail,
straight up." It was said that these fearsome beasts easily outwit- eyes hke balls of fire, and large, long teeth, for he opened his
ted and killed many men. They raided villages and carried off mouth and seemed to grin at us. In a few minutes the dog
children. For some reason, dogs did not bark at them. Whole disappeared, seeming to vanish hke a shadow, or to sink into
herds of goats and sheep were devoured by them. They ravaged the earth, and we drove on over the spot where he had lain.
hundreds of square miles of villages before they vanished forever.
In Germany during this same period, some huge black animal White and black phantom horses have also appeared and disap-
was prowling the dark forests near Darmstadt, killing people off peared mysteriously throughout history, their heavy hoof-beats
like flies. Finally, a local baron fought the beast. He managed to resounding late at night across dozens of countries. Often they
kill it but during the fight he suffered a wound which led to his carry eerie riders dressed in black capes with hoods drawn over
death. A statue was erected to him in the tomb of his castle, both their heads.
of which are still standing. Something wicked this way comes . . .
He was the Baron of Frankenstein and the first Frankenstein Every century has produced almost countless monster tales.
monster movie was actuallyfilmed in tiie ruins of the old castie. The nineteenth century was no exception. Something was busy
Hairy beasts and spectral dogs have always held a prominent killing sheep and cattle along the border between Scotland and
place in occult lore. It is hard tofind a book on psychic phenom- England in 1810. Whatever it was, it nipped the animals' jugular
ena that does not mention at least one or two dog stories. England veins and sucked out their blood, killing eight or ten animals a
and France have yielded many. A phantom donkey with shaggy night. Mobs of angry farmers took up arms and searched the area
hair and "eyes ike saucers" is supposed to have haunted Leeds, without success. But that September a dog was shot in a cornfield
England, for many years and earned the nickname "Padfoot." It and the killings reportedly stopped.
was said to have been missing one, possibly two legs. A vampire dog? But wait, there's more.
Tring, Hartford, England, was visited frequently by a spectral Charles Fort, the late and much maligned researcher into the
dog in the nineteenth century. It was said to have been connected deliberately forgotten past, unearthed various other accounts of
somehow with a lady who was drowned as a witch in 1751. Here blood-sucking sheep killers in the files of the British Museum in
is one description of the animal from the Book of Days, published London. In his mind-dazzling book, LO!, he discusses tiie wave of
in the 1800s: vampirism that overtook Ireland in 1874.^

I was returning home late at night in a gig with the person Beginning in January of that year, something killed as many as
who was driving. When we came near the spot where a por- thirty sheep a night in Cavan, Ireland, making incisions in their
tion of the gibbet had lately stood, we saw on the bank of the
roadside aflame of fire as large as a man's hat. 'What's
that?' I exclaimed. 'Hush!' said my companion, and sud- ^See Chap. 13.
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

throats and sucking out their blood. Noflesh was eaten. The mon- December a total of thirty sheep had fallen prey to the blood-
ster left behind elongated tracks, dog-like, yet larger and more sucker near Gravesend alone.
powerful than a dog's. The menace spread to other communities A police sergeant in Gloucestershire, talking to a reporter from
and counties, while angry armed men scoured the countryside, the London Daily Mail, remarked, "I have seen two of the car-
blasting away at stray dogs. casses myself and can say definitely that it is impossible for it to
By April 1874 the beast was prowling around Limerick, one be the work of a dog. Dogs are not vampires, and do not suck the
hundred miles from Cavan, and several people were reportedly blood of a sheep, and leave theflesh almost untouched."
attacked and bitten by it. The Cavan Weekly News for April 17, Not a dog? What was it, then? A bat? But animal and human
stated that several of the victims had been placed in an insane asy- victims of the tiny vampire bats do not die immediately, even
lum because they were "laboring under strange symptoms of when infected with rabies. And the little bats can hardly drink
insanity." them dry of blood. Furthermore, there were no known vampire
Damn the dearth of details in the Irish and British press! Jour- bats in Europe. As for wolves, the last known wolf was killed in
naUsts of that period had a frustrating way of writing ambling 1712 in Ireland.
essays which only hinted of the facts. Could those victims in Lim- Then, as in all the previous cases, the killings stopped and the
erick have been suffering from hydrophobia . . . rabies? Louis monster simply vanished. This is an important characteristic of
Pasteur did not develop his cure of inoculation until ten years these incidents. These monsters appear for only a short time, are
later, in 1884. seen by many people, commit all kinds of outrageous acts, and
One of the great "classics" of vampirism took place at Croglin then vanish without a trace.
Hall, an estate in Cumberland, England, in the summer of 1875. In March of 1906 something was prowling around Windsor
Miss AmeUa Cranswell was awake in bed when an eerie, Castle, attacking sheep. Seventeen miles away, near Guildford,
skeleton-like figure broke open her window and barged into her the mystery monster slaughteredfifty-one sheep in a single night.
boudoir. Her screams alerted her two brothers, Edward and Another kind of monster turned up in Russia in 1893, terroriz-
Michael, who broke down a locked door to reach her. They found ing the district of Orel, south of Moscow. It chose to attack
her unconscious with blood pouring from wounds in her throat women and children, killing several. Surviving victims described
and shoulders. They saw thefigure loping across the lawn outside it as being a long, black creature with a blunt muzzle, round,
and pursued it, but it got away. stand-up ears, and a long, smooth tail. The army was sent out to
Other women in the neighborhood reported similar attacks by a track it down, beating the bushes and covering every square inch
grisly, bony apparition. The senseless wave of sheep killings also of ground in the affected area. It left behind enormous dog-Uke
took place in Cumberland County and was repeated throughout footprints. Nothing more.
England years later. October 1925, Edale, Derbyshire, England. Herds of sheep
In 1905 the mysterious marauders were on the prowl again, this were being destroyed by a huge black animal that ripped its prey
time near Badminton, England. Dogs were shot. The sheep killing to shreds. This one was not a bloodsucker. The usual armed bands
continued sporadically. Posses of irate farmers were formed, launched a search. The killer was never caught or identified.
ready to blast anything that moved near their grazing fields. By On August 1, 1966, the Associated Press reported that a fright-
 4 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

ening animal was loose in Jessore, East Pakistan. It killed a baby history books. We can assume that for each published incident
girl, mauled a rickshaw driver and a woman, and destroyed a there may have been scores of others that have passed unnoticed
number of cattle. The town lived in terror for several days while and are now totally forgotten. The history and folklore of almost
police and soldiers conducted a fruitless search. According to the every country in the world, extending back to ancient times, are
police the creature appeared only at night and "vanished" imme- filled with stories of monstrous hairy creatures who attacked and
diately after attacking people. Apparently it was not a tiger or any slaughtered domestic animals and human beings and then man-
other known animal. aged to elude armies of pursuers. These incidents undoubtedly
Packs of ferocious wild dogs still inhabit the deep bush in contributed to the massive, unscientific literature on were-
India, although their numbers have been thinning in modem wolvesanimals which were actually evil human beings in mag-
times. They have reddish brown hair and look exactly like what ical disguises. There have been so many cases of this sort of thing
they are: mean dogs. They have been known to attack cattle and that we even have a word for it: lycanthropy.
even human beings. Generally speaking, however, they regard Most languages have a definite term for werewolf. In France
man as their natural enemy, as do most wild animals, and try to they are loup-garou; in Spanish, lob ambre-, in Portuguese, lob
steer clear of them. It is unlikely that a pack of these dogs could omem. Wolves are nasties in any language. Fortunately, they are
have traversed the almost impassable Himalaya Mountains into now extinct, or almost extinct. Fearsome packs of the marauding
Russia in 1893, and then could have swum to England to feast beasts are now quite rare, except for remote regions of northern
upon the king's sheep. Canada and obscure sections of Russia. But occasionally a wolf
No. Something else is abroad here. Something that kills by still turns up in the United States. Mr. Marvin Meade shot one in
making almost surgical-like incisions and then drains off the March 1967, near Gorham, Illinois. His kill was so unusual that it
blood. Once the deed is done, the perpetrators vanish into thin air. was discussed in the local newspapers and he was paid a fifteen-
For over twenty-five years there has been a continuous wave of dollar bounty by the government of Jackson County.
these vampiric attacks throughout the world, particularly in the The werewolf, on the other hand, can presumably pop up any-
thinly populated states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Texas. Thou- where and skillfully elude hunters, since it possesses human
sands of animals have met sudden death in inexplicable ways, per- rather than animal cunning, being, according to folklore, a black
plexing the authorities and keeping assorted cultists in constant magician in league witii the devil.
turmoil. This mystery will be discussed further in Chapter 13. Could some men somehow transform themselves into fiendish
In West Virginia and Ohio, where UFOs and monsters have hairy monsters which prowl when the moon is full? If this were
also been active, cattle and dogs have met a sudden and enigmatic even remotely possible we might have a bizarre explanation for
end. One cow was sliced neady in half, as if by a giant pair of the horrifying animals which seem to appear and disappear so
scissors, in Ohio in December 1967. Numerous dogs have been easily. It is ridiculous, of course, but remember that we are
found with their blood gone and no trace of injury on their attempting to deal with the ridiculous and the unbelievable. Were-
corpses. wolves might properly belong in the ranks of the milk and hoop
Probably events of this sort have been occurring regularly snakes. Then again....
throughout history, but only those which inspire large panics have Controversial religious texts dating back two thousand years
received any notoriety and been recorded in the newspapers and tell how Christ ordered his followers to stone a pitiful beggar.
 2 JOHN A. KEEL
THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

They were taJcen aback but obeyed, and as their stones fell upon
its feet. It left behind the kind of hoofprints so often associated
the wretch he slowly changed into a loathsome hairy beast with
with the devil.
fiery red eyes, having been the devil in disguise.
A few months later the monster attacked a group of children
For twenty-five years a gentleman named Peter Stubb allegedly
near the village of Chanaleilles and they fought back with knives
terrorized the countryside of sixteenth century Germany by don-
and pitchforks, finally driving it off but not before it had mauled
ning a magical belt made of wolfskin given to him by the devil
and killed two of their number.
(who was apparently one of his few friends) and transforming
himself into a giant wolf. He specialized in killing hapless King Louis XV heard the reports and dispatched a company of
females, although he occasionally knocked off a cow or sheep just cavaky to the scene. The soldiers found the tracks and followed
to keep his hand in. His own daughter had a child by him, adding them. They even caught a glimpse of the Unbelievable andfired at
incest to his long list of crimes. And during one dull season he it. But, as usual, it got away.
killed and ate his own son. As the killings continued the usual army of farmers spread out
to hunt the demon down. In the end, a man named Jean Chastel
Finally, the agitated populace turned out with guns and dogs
won a place in French history by shooting it. He had loaded his
and tracked the monstrous wolf down. When they had it cornered
rifle with silver bullets (it being a well-estabUshed superstition
at last, Herr Stubb appeared miraculously before their eyes. He
that only silver bullets can kill werewolves and vampires) and was
was given a fair trial. But first he was closely questioned by the
nervously reading a prayer book when the monster stomped out of
authorities, and during that interrogation his fingernails were acci-
the woods and headed straight for him. Hefired point blank, hit-
dently pulled out, and a few of his bones were broken. Perhaps
ting it in the chest and terminating its three-year career of horror.
these proceedings convinced him that it might be wise to confess
The huge body was paraded triumphantly through the villages and
openly. Following his fair trial, he was tortured a bit more, and
then was supposedly shipped to Versailles so the king could see it.
then his head was mounted on a pole outside the village of Bed-
We say "supposedly" because it apparently disappeared along the
burg to warn away other werewolves, no doubt.
way or was buried when the stench got to be too much for its
His magical wolfskin belt was never recovered.
transporters. The ending of the otherwise detailed report is unac-
Among the classics of lycanthropy is the well-documented
countably hazy, raising some speculation that the authorities were
story of the werewolf of Le Gevaudan, France, circa. 1764-67.
trying to hide something about its identity orfinal description. But
This beast walked like a man but was covered with hair, had a
what? Was the creature actually more Uke a man than an animal?
snout like a pig, and pointed ears. It killed many people tearing
We will never know.
out hearts and drinking blood with wild abandon. Children from
several villages fell prey to it. A peasant farmer named Jean- There are many books on lycanthropy, a number of which go to
Pierre Pourcher was among the first to actually shoot at it in Sep- the trouble of explaining just how you can turn yourself into a
tember 1764. He said he saw it sneaking up on his house so he werewolf The great flaw in most of these formulas is that you
grabbed hisrifle and blasted away, apparently without effect. The must smear yourself with a special "witches' salve" composed of
beast ran off. M. Pourcher described it as being the size of a don- almost unobtainable ingredients. And most of the werewolf sto-
key, covered with hair, and having something like horseshoes on ries seem of dubious origin, handed down from generation to gen-
eration in cheap pamphlets and littie-known "secret" books. Some
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

of these seem to have been based on tenuous letters passing along which the cult was named. Their victims, who are supposed to
local rumors and gossip, which may have been founded on the number in the thousands, look as if they had been savagely
enigmatic appearances of mystery beasts rather than the provable mauled by a leopard.
existence of a genuine werewolf. In case you have never seen the animal kill, the leopard, like
One puzzling werewolf story which is possibly of that type most of the big cats, attacks by gripping the human prey about the
appears word-for-word in two different American paperback head and shoulders while its hind claws raise up and rake away at
books published in recent years by two different companies and the stomach, disembowehng the victim. Man-eating tigers, who
credited to two different authors. It is very neatly vague. The time are usually injured or lame and thus unable to go after ordinary
is "about fifty years ago." The place is a county in Wales called prey, prefer to pounce from behind, seizing the head and snapping
Merionethshire. A woman identified only as Miss St. Denis was the spine in a single quick frenzy of movement.
walking away from a railway station somewhere in Meri- The African Leopard Men share the commonly held primitive
onethshire when she became aware of a figure behind her. She belief that they can draw upon the strength and spirit of wild ani-
turned and faced an erect creature covered with hair, a head like a mals by wearing their hides. The cult is also cannibalistic and one
wolf, blazing eyes, and dripping white fangs. Showing great pres- of the initiation rites requires that the plebe must produce a mem-
ence of mind, Miss St. Denis whipped out a flashlight (we can ber of his own family for dinner after the ceremony. What a way
question whetherflashlights existed and were in use in Wales fifty to get rid of your mother-in-law!
years ago) and directed the beam at the monster. It instantiy faded The Leopard Cuh was last heard from in the early 1960s. There
away into thin air. have since been many changes in the countries affected by the
While the werewolf legends are open to debate, there are many cult, and perhaps they are no longer roasting their mother-in-law
authentic cases of human vampirism; some of them occurred as but are sitting home and watching television instead.
recently as the last decade. In his book Sex and the Supernatural It is not very likely that the Leopard Cuh ever existed in Eng-
Brad Steiger discusses several celebrated cases in which land or France, nor would such a cult ruthlessly massacrefifty cat-
demented men and women found sexual gratification in acts of tle or sheep in a single night. The real culprits are still at large.
brutal murder, which included drinking their victims' blood.
There have been numerous ghoulish affairs in which the Every so often some newspaper describes how a tame, polite little
pseudovampires dug up fresh graves and mutilated the corpses or house cat suddenly turned into a ferocious monster and success-
even ate them. In their way, these unfortunate characters seem to fully drove off an unwary burglar who dared to invade its home
have been obsessed with the same frightening appetites that drove grounds. Cats are odd little beasts and have managed to surround
the Leopard Men to terrorize whole generations in West Africa. themselves with all kinds of legend and folklore.
Appetites that would have sickened even the Marquis De Sade. Cat cemeteries have been found in ancient Egypt. Beautiful,
The Leopard Cult plagued Guinea and Senegal for many cen- lovingly carved cat statues have been discovered in ancient tombs.
turies, but during the last decade the authorities have made a seri- Winged cats are depicted in the ancient hieroglyphics. The cat
ous effort to wipe them out. Leopard Men don leopard skins, grip was even deified and worshipped.
razor-sharp, claw-like instruments in their hands, and crawl about During the Dark Ages, the cat acquired a somewhat more sinis-
the bush trying to imitate in act and appearance the animal after ter reputation. Practicioners of witchcraft were alleged to have
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

used the animals as "familiars." The cat became a spy, sent to peer one is huge in size, resembling somewhat a lithe black panther. It
into windows and report back to the witch. It is said that witches has turned up in many places where panthers were, and are,
could call upon the little beasts to perform all kinds of foul and unknown. Pantherless England has had a number of sightings of
ugly deeds. this beast over the years.
One of the most fascinating of these tales involves a lady who In the fall of 1967 our giant mystery "panther" caused consid-
practiced vampirism in her spare time. Her name was Countess erable consternation when he took a stroll along the quiet streets
EUzabeth Bathory. She lived in a charming old castle in Csejthe, in Connecticut. A bus driver in West Rock could hardly believe
Hungary, in the early 16(X)s. Life was dull in Csejthe so the count- his eyes when the great beast ambled past him and turned a comer
ess developed a quiet httle hobby. She would invite local peasant on Valley Street. Hordes of policemen descended on the area and
girls to the castle and entertain herself by stringing them up in the searched for what was described as "a baby tiger." No circus or
dining room, slicing open their arteries, and drinking their blood. zoo was missing such a beast. No trace of it was found. Had the
After a few years of this, the local townspeople became rather driver been mistaken?
annoyed and grumbled to the authorities. On New Year's Eve Soon afterwards, Connecticut State Senator Lucy T. Hammer
1610, a group of soldiers and policemen, led by the local gover- and her husband Thorvald were sitting down to breakfast when a
nor, assaulted the castle and caught the countess and a few of her huge animal strolled past their home near Branford.
select friends in the act of celebrating the New Year by lapping up "My husband went out and watched him walking in a most
the blood of a very unhappy young girl. stately manner down our path," Senator Hammer said. "The ani-
Upset by the intrusion, the countess is supposed to have uttered mal went around a bend and my husband lost sight of him. He
an extravagant curse, calling upon ninety-nine cats to come to her must have gone into the woods."
rescue. Shortly afterwards, by a most curious coincidence, the Police and game wardens searched the Hammers' forty-acre
local priest who accompanied the raiders was climbing a staircase estate. All they found was the carcass of a dead squirrel.
in the castle when six cats suddenly pounced upon him, badly It was sliced in half
scratching and biting him. The soldiers chased the animals but
they seemed to vanish into thin air.
The countess became the subject of a sensational trial and,
because she was of royal hneage, she was condemned to a life in
solitary confinement. There are extensive records of this incredi-
ble affair and you can find a carefully documented summary in
William Seabrook's Witchcraft.
Events of this type were seemingly common up until the eigh-
teenth century and undoubtedly contributed to the folklore sur-
rounding witches and their evil cats.

There is another kind of phantom cat which occasionally appears

and disappears suddenly, even in heavily populated areas. This
 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

mal had two peculiar lumps growing out of its back. Wings, with-
out a doubt.
"It wasn't wild," Doug said. "It acted like it was used to people.
FOUR And its manners were pretty good until you pulled those wings.
Then it would get mad and start clawing."
He carried the cat home triumphantly and it adopted his family.
Word soon flashed across the hills that a marvelous winged cat
Flying Felines had been found and the stampede started. A reporter from the
Beckley, West Virginia, Post-Herald, Fern Miniacs, was one of
the first to examine the animal with an objective eye. Although
Doug had named the cat Thomas, Miniacs discovered it was
really a female. The name stuck anyway.
"It's thirty inches long," Miniacs reported, "has a tail like a
squirrel, and two perfectly shaped wings, one on each side. The
wings are boneless but evidently have gristles in them. Each wing
is about nine inches long."
Thomas looked like a Persian cat and had long, beautiful hair.
Her feet were slightly oversized and she was considered some-
what larger overall than the average cat. The wings were furry and
cat named Thomas was a nationwide sensation in
soft, but felt gritty near the body. A local conservation officer
1959. His picture was published from coast to coast
inspected the animal and said he thought it was just shedding its
iand he starred on several television shows. He was
coat, much to the annoyance of the growing cult of "winged cat"
about the only interesting thing that ever happened to the httle
believers in Pinesville.
town of Pinesville, West Virginia, and its seven hundred hard-
An anonymous veterinarian traveled from Baltimore, Mary-
working inhabitants. Thomas was no ordinary cat. He possessed a
land, to look Thomas over. "I thought atfirst," he said sagely, "that
pair of "wings" and whenever he got angry he wouldflutter them
the wings were the result of a freak of nature . . . an attempt to
up and down like a grounded gooney bird.
grow an extra pair of legs. But now I don't know what they are."
Unfortunately he could not really fly. But that didn't seem to
Stories of Doug Shelton's amazingfind reached New York City
matter much to the long lines of open-mouthed West Virginians
and Dave Garroway, then the M.C. of NBC's Today show, invited
who happily paid ten cents a head to glimpse this wonder.
Thomas and owner to the big town. Though it was obviously
Young Douglas Shelton,fifteen, had captured the cat early in
beneath the dignity of a winged cat, Doug's mother insisted that
May 1959, while hunting in the hills. "My dog treed it," he
he and Thomas travel to the city by train. She was afraid to let
explained later. "I almost took a shot at it with my .22, but then 1
them fly.
saw it was a cat so I shinnied up the tree and caught it."
On June 8, 1959, Thomas confronted the NBC cameras like a
He quickly realized that he had a most unusual prize. The ani-
bored pro while Doug shyly told his story to millions. Jack
 4 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

Lescoulie was acting M.C. that day, and Doug admitted that he On October 5, 1959, Thomas had his day in court. The circuit
had been offered as much as four hundred dollars for the animal, judge hstened soberly to Mrs. Hicks' claim of ownership. Then
but he was not tempted to sell her. Thomas apparently was not Doug Shelton entered the courtroom with Exhibit A, a beautiful
very interested in the furor surrounding her, but fame gave her oversized Persian cat, under one arm and Exhibit B, a shoe box,
expensive eating habits. She preferred fresh meat and mackerel under the other. A surprised murmur rose from the crowd as
fish over ordinary canned cat foods. Thomas studied the courtroom with haughty disdain. Something
Pinesville now had a real honest-to-goodness celebrity in its was missing. Thomas' wings were gone.
midst. People traveled for miles along the treacherous mountain "She shed her wings in July," Doug Shelton admitted in embar-
roads to look at the animal, and the Shelton family realized they rassed tones. "There they are, Yoiu" Honor." He opened the shoe
had a good thing going. Doug hauled in the dimes and Mrs. Shel- box and displayed two large balls of fur.
ton charged reporters a nominal sum if they wanted to take pic- "That is not my Mitzi," Mrs. Hicks snapped icily.
tures of Thomas. The Judge awarded Mrs. Hicks one dollar in damages "for her
"Folks around here estimated that Douglas took in over two trouble." Doug Shelton was given full custody of the now rather
thousand dollars with that cat," one resident observed. ordinary cat.
Doug, however, claimed that "about a thousand people" paid We happened to pass through Pines ville in 1966, and we
ten cents apiece to gape at the fehne. That would have netted him stopped and tried to locate, without success, the principals in this
around one hundred dollars; hardly enough to keep the winged case. We can only assume that Thomas lived out her hfe in obscu-
wonder in fresh fish. rity, surrounded by scrapbooks recounting her past glories. To hear
As the lines continued to form and townspeople began to mum- the townspeople tell it, she was at least the richest cat in Pinesville.
ble about all the money Doug was making, a new drama unfolded.
Mrs. Charles Hicks, a softspoken gray-haired widow on the Winged cats are not as rare as you might think. In June 1966 a
Pinesville-Baileysville road, announced that Thomas really large black feline with apparently workable wings reportedly ter-
belonged to her. rorized farm animals and family pets around the little conununity
"I don't want to cause any trouble," she noted gently. "1 just of Alfred, Ontario, in Canada.
want my cat back." Ontario seems to have had an epidemic of winged cats that
According to her story the cat had been given to her by a friend year. According to a UPI dispatch, one had been shot near the vil-
who had purchased it in a pet shop in California for twenty-five lage of Lachute, about twenty-four miles north of Montreal, and
dollars. She had named it Mitzi and she said that her family, another had been killed near Ottawa. Details on these two inci-
friends, and neighbors were used to seeing its wings and could dents were skimpy and efforts to uncover more complete reports
verify her claims. have been in vain.
"One day I put some drops in Mitzi's ears," Mrs. Hicks told On Friday, June 24, 1966, a confectioner named Jean J. Revers
reporters, "and she ran away. That Shelton boy found her four heard a noise outside his home in Alfred, and he saw something
days later." "looking like a big black catbut with hairy wings on its back"
Douglas, still busy raking in the dimes, refused to turn Thomas saihng after a neighbor's cat, a pet owned by the Arthur Lavle
over to her. So she sued. family.
 6 JOHN A. KEEL

"It screamed like hell," Revers said. "And it tried to get away
by making ghding jumps of fifty or sixty feetwings extended
after a good running start. It could stay a foot or so above the
ground." FIVE
Revers grabbed his rie and blazed away, pumping five bullets
into the howling,fluttering animal.
"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the thing," Ontario
Police Constable Terence Argall remarked. Revers and Lavle
had called the police immediately after shooting it. "Its head The
resembled a cat's, but a pair of needle sharp fangs five-eighths of
an inch long protruded from the mouth, measurements showed,"
Incomprehensibles
Argall continued. "It had a cat's whiskers, tail, and ears, and its
eyes were dark, greenish and glassy. I never saw anything like it
before in my life."
The animal's pelt was sleek black and it had a wing span of
fourteen inches. It weighed about ten pounds.
After newspaper photographers took pictures of it, the carcass
was buried in Revers' backyard.
But, like the Pineville winged wonder, this story had a disap-
pointing ending. A few days later the animal was exhumed and knot of students and teachers gathered on the snow-
shipped off to the veterinary lab at Kemptville Agricultural covered lawns of the campus of Cornell University in
School where an autopsy was performed. kNew York State early one winter morning about eight
"The bat-Hke wings protruding from its back were found to be decades ago. Spread out before them in the freshly fallen snow
growths of thick, matted fur," the lab technicians announced. "It was a long line of large, deep animal tracks.
was just an ordinary black cat." "My God!" the professors cried in unison. "It's a rhinoceros!"
The explanation did not sit well with the townspeople who had They cautiously followed the huge imprints across the campus
been terrorized by the thing for weeks and claimed they had actu- to the edge of Beebee Lake, the local reservoir, which was frozen
ally seen it on the wing. over at the time. The tracks continued on across the ice until they
Our scholarly conclusion is that three or more large black cats ended in a gaping hole.
with "growths of thick, matted fur" and vampire-bat-type fangs The professors stared at each other in amazement. Obviously a
visited Ontario in 1966. renegade rhinoceros had blundered onto the quiet campus during
One of these days some of their relatives may come back. the night and had blindly charged across the ice, meeting its doom
in the college reservoir! Everyone stopped drinking the tap water
while hooks were lowered into the lake to probe for the luckless
rhino.
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

Years later, humorist H. Allen Smithfinally let the rhino out of which has killed many sheep and frightened hundreds of people.
the bag in his book The Compleat Practical Joker. A young man Even though it is reportedly the size of a leopard and leaves
named Hugh Troy had taken a wastepaper basket fashioned out of behind big footprints, no one has been able to catch it or shoot
a rhino's foot (similar to the old elephant foot umbrella stands), itwith one exception. A man named George Sumner said that he
filled it with scrap metal to weigh it down, and tied two long ropes shot one near Katanning back in 1905. It had gray and black
to it. Then he and friends had stayed up all night, manipulating the stripes and a cat-like head. "I feel sure it was not a domestic cat
foot from a distance with the ropes, raising and lowering it into gone wild," he reported. "Like a fool, I did not remove the skin
the fresh snow. They carefully planted rhino footprints at proper and send it to a museum."
intervals all over the campus, their own footprints falling some Another Austtalian, R. F. Brown, claimed that he caught one of
distance away. The hole in the ice was afinal stroke of genius, you the cats in a net but after a five minute battle the fifty-to-sixty
must admit. pound beast got away.
Those of us who chase Unbelievables are always haunted by Mr. and Mrs. Ted Simms were camping in Queensland, Aus-
the realization that Hugh Troy is still out there somewhere. But tralia, on June 5, 1957, when one of these big cats terrified their
very few of our monsters can be explained as the work of indus- dog. "It looked rather like a leopard," Mrs. Simms said. "It was
trious practical jokers. Since such wits derive most of their plea- too big for a domestic or wild cat, more the size of a dog. Only it
sure from the reactions of their victims and the resultant publicity, had short legs, pricked, pointed ears, and a long tail. My husband
it is highly unlikely that they would bother to plant their prankish estimated its length to be approximately five feet from its nose to
footprints in remote, seldom-visited areas where they are not apt the tip of its tail."
to be discovered. Nor would any sensible joker risk repeating his The husband of another witness, Hugh Kennedy, described it
gag night after night, week after week in the same area. this way: "It was a large cat-like animal, similar to a lynx. It was
Was a practical joker on the loose in Australia back in 1890? A larger than my blue cattle dog, possibly eighteen to twenty inches
huge animal thirty feet long instituted a brief reign of terror in height, tawny colored, with a long, smooth, cat-like tail. The
around the village of Euroe that year. It left behind gigantic foot- body was long, narrow, and sleek.
prints to confirm its awesome size. Forty men turned out with nets "The most frightening part was the cat-like head, small pointed
and guns and made repeated attempts to trap the animal. But, like ears, and terrific fangs. It hissed like a cat and used itsfront paws
Alice's Cheshire cat, our Incomprehensibles seem to melt away to keep off the dogs. Unfortunately, by the time the wife had
leaving only a whimsical smile. returned to the house to get arifle, the animal had vanished. How-
A Mr. Hoad of Adelaide, Australia, however, reportedly did ever, it was afraid neither of dogs nor humans."
find the body of one of our Incomprehensibles in September The town of Emmaville, Australia, was caught up in a routine
1883. It was described as having a headless, pig-like body, with monster panic in the early 1960s when a beast killed seventy
an appendage that looked like a lobster's tail. A few months ear- sheep, sometimes eating four in one night and leaving nothing
lier another unknown caused great excitement in Masterton, New but the hides. Although many people saw the culprit, it was never
Zealand. People who saw it said that it was very large, with a caught or killed. One witness described the thing that ran in front
broad muzzle, short legs and curly hair. It killed dogs. of his auto headlights as being about two feet high, with slender
Australia has long been haunted by a giant cat-like creature back legs, smallish back paws, a heavy head, a long tail with a
4 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

blunt end, and irregular, black and white stripes on both body ing seven feet when extended, and a number about two feet
and tail. longer. My record Megascolides was over ten feet."
In Furred Animals of Australia, author Ellis Troughton If you ever gofishing for a sea serpent you should probably use
remarked: a Megascolides for bait. The trick to catching one, according to
the experts, is to tie it in a knot so it can't burrow into the ground
Although such an animal has been reported on several occa- and get away from you. It can squirt its lubricating fluid a couple
sions, no specimen has ever reached any museum to verify of feet, so wear old clothes.
the occurrence scientifically. There are often simple expla-
nations for such reports, but the consistency of the accounts Perhaps giant earthworms may account for some of the grotesque
suggests the possibility of the presence of some large camiv- snake stories that have been produced in nearly every state over
orous marsupial of the dasyurid family (which includes the the years. Enormous reptiles, sometimes described as being
thylacine). twenty feet or more in length, are seen with astonishing frequency
hi future, observers should make every effort to obtain in the United States but, so far as science knows, no snakes of
both the skull and complete skin of a specimen and ensure such unusual size exist here at all. Minor constrictors such as the
the preservation by heavy salting before forwarding the king snake and the black snake are common enough and can grow
remains to the local museum . . . The failure of observers to to six or seven feet in length on a diet of rodents and smaller
obtain any parts of the hide, hair, or skull, casts much doubt snakes. But they avoid men. In fact, contrary to all tiie Hollywood
over the reports of such an animal. jungle movies, even the largest known boa constrictors will not
wantonly attack anything they cannot swallowwhich, of course,
The thylacine, referred to above, is the Tasmanian tiger, a includes man. In self-defense a boa will wrap itself around a man,
freakish and elusive beast found on the island of Tasmania. It has bite him, and hammer at his head with its bony snout, inspiring
been caught and caged. It looks something like a cross between a considerable discomfort. But there is only one reasonably docu-
mongrel dog and a hyena, has stripes on its back, and comes mented story about a boa attempting to swallow a human being.
equipped with a kangaroo-like pouch in which it carries its young. This is supposed to have occurred in the jungles of Burma during
Before one of these animals was finally brought to bay, you can Worid War II, when some Japanese soldiers found the feet of one
imagine the kind of reaction Tasmanian witnesses got when they of their comrades sticking out from the mouth of a giant reptile.
reported seeing a giant striped dog carrying its young in a pouch. Nevertheless, every now and then someone like Orland Packer
Gippsland, Australia, has produced another Unbelievable. It is of Kenton, Ohio, comes up with a new snake story. Packer
a giant earthworm which looks hke a garden hose and grows to as claimed that he was horseback riding near his home on June 9,
much as ten feet in length. It burrows deep in the earth and is hard 1946, when a snake eight feet long and four inches in diameter
to catch because it can coat itself with a very slippery lubricating appeared in his path. It bit through his boot, breaking his ankle.
fluid. But it has been caught and studied, as has another mon- Then it bit the horse for good measure and slithered off into the
strous Australian worm known as the Megascolides. In the Bul- woods. This was the beginning of a long nightmare for the Pack-
letin of the New York Zoological Society (March-April 1938), ers. According to Mrs. Packer, her husband had to have part of his
Charles Barrett announced, "I have seen many specimens extend- foot removed surgically. He was confined to his bed for over a
 2 JOHN A. KEEL
THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 3

year, suffering from recurrent fever and other symptoms not nor- which feasted on cattle and dogs. No one really got a good look at
mally related to snake bites. His neighbors formed a search party it but many heard its strange call. It sounded something like a
and tried tofind the snake without success. woman screaming or a baby crying. Store that little detail in the
In July of that same year, the Willard Tollinger family in Flat back of your mind.
Rock, Indiana, reportedly saw a twenty-foot snake coiled up in Back in the early 1930s sheep and small animals began to dis-
the shallow water of a river. Pigs and other small animals had appear with regularity around Campbell Lake in South Dakota.
been disappearing mysteriously in the area that summer. Then, in 1934, a farmer reported that a giant four-legged, dragon-
Some years ago when we were playing with two-headed sand like creature had forced his tractor off the road and upset his
boas and giving occasional lectures on herpetology, several wild digestive system as it went scurrying by Huge tracks were dis-
snake stories were brought to our attention. There was, for exam- covered leading through the mud to Campbell Lake. Was Hugh
ple, a man who claimed that he conmiunicated with rattlesnakes Troy at it again?
through mental telepathy. A claim we were inclined to doubt since A boy named Donald Neff next discovered some unusual
snakes are creatures of instinct rather than intelligence. About a bones in die mud of the nearby Elm River. Professor James D.
dozen years ago a man from Massachusetts approached us after a Bump of the Museum of the State School of Mines, in Rapid City,
speech and soberly described how he and a friend had encoun- South Dakota, took a look at the skeletal remains and identified
tered a gigantic serpent the year before. They had been hunting them as belonging to a mosasciur, a creature known to have been
and were riding a jeep along a rugged dirt road through a dense extinct for 130 million years. Had that anonymous farmer run
forest when a small animal darted in front of them. It was either a smack into a mosasaur? Would such bones survive the erosion of
fox or a dog. They were not sure which because it was traveUng so 130 million years?
fast. Directly behind it there followed a huge brown and green
reptile "as big around as a truck tire." It shthered across the road
Suppose you were walking along the bank of a river near your
very rapidly, but was so long that it took several seconds to pass.
home and you came face to face with a prehistoric monster? To
The men were not inclined to stop and get out of their jeep for a
whom would you report it, and do you think anyone would take
closer look. They estimated that it must have been at least twenty
you seriously? This was the dilemma faced by the late Harold T.
feet in length.
Wilkins, a scholarly researcher and distinguished British author,
Could unknown snakes and varieties of the Tasmanian tiger who modestly claimed that he had personally encountered two
have caused the waves of sheep killing in England andfreland? It prehistoric amphibians in the waters of a quiet creek at East Looe,
is not very likely. Besides, everyone knows that St. Patrick drove Cornwall, in England. At 11:30 A.M. Tuesday, July 5, 1949,
all the snakes out of Ireland (although a few harmless varieties Wilkins and a friend reportedly stumbled upon "two remarkable
remained behind). We can probably rule out vampire bats, snakes, saurians"fifteen to twenty feet long. They resembled the ancient
and known breeds of wildcats in those cases. plesiosaur and Wilkins noted, "What was amazing were their dor-
Pennsylvania also seems to be the habitat for an unidentified sal parts: ridged, serrated, and like the old Chinese pictures of
killer of livestock. In 1945-46 there were numerous reports of a dragons. Gulls swooped down towards the one in the rear, which
frightening Incomprehensible around Lebanon and Pottstown had a large piece of orange peel on his dorsal parts." Their heads
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5
4

were a "bottle-green," according to Wilkins' account in his book back and forth like this," he explained, "and give a big hop. The
Strange Mysteries of Time and Space. weight of the feet would carry me about six feet. They were heavy
A year earlier, beginning in February 1948, Florida was in an enough to sink down in the sand. I'd put the shoes on in the water
uproar over the sudden presence of a giant Unbehevable which and then walk a long way up the beach, maybe two miles, and
traipsed around the beaches near Clearwater and left big three- then get back in the boat."
toed tracks in its wake. The largest toe measured thirteen and a The local Chief of Pohce, Frank Daniels, told reporter Jan
half inches, and it was possible to estimate the weight from the Kirby: "We always suspected WilUams because he usually called
indentations, according to excited engineers who studied the in with reports of the monster." WiUiams also had a reputation as
imprints. They calculated the critter had to weigh somewhere in the local practical joker. He died in 1969, and the aging Signorini
the neighborhood of three tons. wanted to set the record straight. Ivan Sanderson passed away in
Mr. Ivan Sanderson was doing a television series for NBC at 1973, never knowing that one of his favorite monster cases was
the time (he was a pioneer in television), and he flew to Florida the product of a couple of rambunctious Hugh Troy imitators.
with a camera crew to make measurements and plaster casts and Even a trained professional like Ivan Sanderson can be fooled
to interview the many witnesses. Fishermen and residents of the occasionally. A very fine line sometimes separates the Incompre-
area told of seeing somethingfifteen or twenty feet tall waddling hensibles and Unbehevables from the totally Inconsequential.
around the marshes and beaches on two legs. Four different pilots This funny Httle island in space seems to harbor all kinds of
operating in the area claimed they had seen something huge and incomprehensible beasts still unknown to science. But next week
black thrashing around the riverbanks of the Suwannee: or next year Australia's mysterious cat may get himself caught.
One aviator lowered his voice and explained in embarrassed Then some scientist will write a learned paper about it and brand
tones, "Maybe I'm crazy . . . but that damned thing looked like a it with a fancy Latin name. There may even come a time when the
giant penguin to me!" Florida "three-toes" will be cornered. Three-toed tracks almost
Sanderson meticulously collected the many newspaper stories identical to those found in 1948 have reappeared in other places in
and grilled all the witnesses. Scientists and engineers who exam- recent years. A set of these tracks were discovered along the
ined all his data said that if the prints were a hoax, they had to banks of the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania in 1966.
have been made by a huge machine weighing many tons. It was The Unbehevables are more rare and less peripatetic. Some-
easier to believe in a giant penguin, they noted, than in the exis- times they are seen only once and never heard from again. But
tence of such a machine. So Ivan did his broadcasts and later they can pop up almost anywherein Central Park or Disney-
wrote authoritative articles on how giant penguins had swum up land, or in your own backyard.
from the antarctic regions to frolic on Florida beaches. Consider the "walking fir-cone" of Kent, England.
Forty years later, in June 1988, an elderly resident named Tony "The thing was covered with quills, had a long snout and a
Signorini gave an interview to the St. Petersburg Times, claiming short tail. It was as big as an Alsatian dog and had large claws.
that he and his old buddy A1 WiUiams had faked the footprints You might have thought it was a walking fir-cone."
using iron feet attached to boots. They had preserved the feet and The witness who offered this incredible description was a
Tony demonstrated them for reporters. "I would just swing my leg poUceman named S. Bishop. The thing had meandered past him
 6 JOHN A. KEEL

in Dumpton Park, Ramsgate, Kent, England, on April 16, 1954.

He did what anyone else would have done. He called the cops.
Other police descended on the area and searched every bush but
the "walking fir-cone" was gone. Constable Bishop had seen
something that does not exist. SIX
-

Giants in the Earth or

"Marvelous Big Men
and Great Enmity"

ot so long ago, there lived upon this planet a race of

human beings who were ten feet tall. They inhabited
Africa, Europe, North and South America, and the
Aleutian Islands. We know a great deal about them. We know that
they had nasty, even evil dispositions. Some of them were differ-
ent from modem man only in that then- huge jaws were graced
with a double row of sharp teeth, somewhat akin to the double
teeth found in some reptiles andfish. We know that large numbers
of this fearsome race still existed into the seventeenth century.
We know all these things because giant human bones have been
unearthed all over the world, and the tales and legends of many
Indian tribes offer extensive detail as to their nature and living
habits. But no scientist has ever bothered to collect and study the
enormous amount of available data, perhaps because such giants
are supposed to be scientific impossibilities. Or perhaps because
such a study would explode too many beloved scientific theories.
 4 JOHN A. KEEL
THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

So scattered museums are filled with giant bones, and fringe

famed Watusi tribe in Africa, who range between six and seven
scholars are left to contemplate the meaning of it all. Were these
feet tall, must have seemed like enormous giants to the early
giants a race apart or were they an important but neglected part of
European explorers. Today any American basketball team can
mankind?
match the Watusi in size. The Watusi have an agrarian culture and
Although the "giant myth" began in earliest times, we can are not especially fierce or warlike. They prefer raising cattle to
begin with the biblical reference in Genesis (6:4): "There were bashing in the heads of the diminutive tribes around them.
giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons
England has always had extensive legends about giants, backed
of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children
up by enormous stractures of unknown origin, such as Stone-
to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men
henge, and huge designs carved into the ground and covering
reknown."
many acres. Most of these designs are fully discernible only from
That verse, like many other parts of Genesis, was derived from the air. The Ceme Abbas giant, for example, was carved into the
The Book of the Secrets of Enoch. Enoch claimed that angels con- British hills aeons ago and clearly depicts a huge human carrying
ducted him on a tour of the universe and that he was ordered to a club. England, Ireland, and North and South America contain
write down all that he saw and learned. Some flying saucer buffs, thousands of great mounds, artificially constructed of earth,
including the late Dr. Carl Sagan imply that Enoch really went for which have apparently survived as the sole evidence of some
a ride in a UFO. In any case, during a visit to the "fifth heaven" ancient, forgotten culture. Although Indians are often credited
(the fifth planet, maybe, Jupiter) Enoch saw great giants with with the building of these mounds, they have nothing in their
"their faces withered, and the silence of their mouths perpetual." ancient lore to account for them.
Far from being "sons of God," Enoch describes them as the "Grig-
An old book titled History and Antiquities ofAllerdale offers
ori""fallen angels." In Chapter 18 he asserts that these Grigori
this undated description of a giant found in Cumberland, England,
"broke through their vows on the shoulder of the hill Ermon and
sometime in the Middle Ages. It is supposed to be "A Tme Report
saw the daughters of men how good they are, and took to them-
of Hugh Hodson, of Thomeway."
selves wives, and befouled the earth with their deeds, who in all
times of their age made lawlessness and mixing, and giants were
The said giant was buried four yards deep in the ground,
bom and marvellous big men and great enmity."
which is now a comfield. He was four yards and a half long,
The legends of many isolated Indian tribes agree that the giants
and was in complete armour: his sword and battle-axe lying
were evil-doers and that the world is well rid of them. The Bible
by him. His sword was two spans broad, and more than two
and many other ancient records suggest that the giants mated with
yards long. The head of his batde-axe a yard long, and the
normal women and produced a half-breed race which was large in
shaft of it all of iron, as thick as a man'sfliigh, and more
size and short in intelligence, just as many large members of the
than two yards long.
animal kingdom, such as the dinosaur, seem to have had smallish
His teeth were six inches long, and two inches broad; his
brains. If this is tme, then it is understandable that the giant race
forehead was more than two spans and a half broad. His chin
would eventually become extinct, wiped out by stupidity.
bone could contain three pecks of oatmeale. His armour,
Up until the twentieth century, modem man remained rela-
sword, and batde-axe are at Mr. Sand's of Redington, and at
tively short in stature, averaging just a trifle overfive feet tall. The
Mr. Wyber's, at St. Bees.
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

A manfifteen feet tall, dressed in armora true Goliath! We teeth and remodeled part of the bone structure. The "Piltdown
have no way of knowing what happened to this interesting find. Man" was a cunning fake!
The bones and armor may have been scattered eventually among Had Charles Dawson pulled the leg of science? Or was he,
dozens of souvenir collectors. himself, the victim of a prank? If so, who could have had the
In those early times the discovery of bones and fossils of pre- knowledge, skill, and motivations to execute such an elaborate
historic animals were often misjudged to be the bones of giants. hoax? The discovery of the manipulation created a whole new
And there were Hugh Troys in those days who were quite wilhng mystery and raised questions which will probably never be
to turn mastodons into ancient giants. One such prankster appears answered.
to have been a physician named Dr. Mazurier who wrote a As soon as Europeans began to explore the distant reaches of
remarkable pamphlet in 1613, claiming that the tomb of a giant South America, they encountered a breed of giant men. The
had been unearthed near the castle of Chaumont. The tomb con- southernmost parts of Argentina and Chile were labeled Patagonia
tained a human skeleton over twenty-five feet long, with shoul- by Magellan because the giants there wore leather moccasins and
ders ten feet wide. "pata" is Spanish for "hoof." In June 1520 when Magellan's fleet
A controversy soon raged over this discovery and other pseu- anchored at Port San Julian on the Argentine coast, a giant
doscientific pamphleteers accused Dr. Mazurier of buying some appeared on the beach. Pigafetta, a member of Magellan's staff,
big bones from some workmen and hoking up his giant. The later wrote: "This man was so tall that our heads scarcely came up
bones still exist in the Muse de Palontologie in Paris as a part of to his waist, and his voice was like that of a bull."
their mastodon collection. Magellan's men managed to capture two of the giants, intend-
The best-known hoax of this type took place in Sussex, Eng- ing to take them back to Europe, but they died in chains en route.
land, in 1908, when an amateur archaeologist named Charles Next, the British explorer Drake docked in Port San Julian in
Dawson purportedly found fragments of bone near Piltdown. The 1578 and had a skirmish with "men of large stature" who towered
fragments seemed to be part of a "dawn man" dating back hun- at seven feet six inches tall. He lost two of his men in the battle.
dreds of thousands of years. Paleontologists at the British Other later explorers came into contact with this race of giants
Museum of Natural History became quite excited over this "Pilt- and contributed to the growing documentation. Anthony Knyvet
down Man" and it became one of science's most important arti- passed through the Magellan Strait in 1592 and reported not only
facts. Dawson died in 1916, honored and distinguished as the having seen the huge Patagonians but having measured several
discoverer of a vital link to man's distant past. dead bodies at Port Desire, all ranging from ten and a half to
Thirty-six years passed before a new generation of scientists twelve feet tall. In 1598 Sebald de Weert saw natives ten feet high
took a second look at the "Piltdown Man's" illustrious skull. They in the same area. Other captains and crews reported similar expe-
subjected it to carbon fourteen radioactivity tests, and sprinkled it riences.
with the magical chemicals that had been developed since Daw- Then the giants began to disappear. By 1670 some scholars
son's time. Their conclusions rocked the scientific world. The jaw began to view all the Patagonian giant stories with distrust. Two
of the "dawn man" belonged to an ape who had joined his ances- French ships revived the controversy when they reported seeing
tors around 1900. Even worse, there was evidence that some groups of giants mixing with men of more ordinary stature on the
highly skilled dentist had carefully and lovingly filed away at the shores of Possession Bay. The giants may have been thinning out
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

or moving further inland to escape the encrouchment of the mili- Again, we might speculate that the giants had been busy cross-
tant Europeans. breeding with more normal races over the centuries and gradually,
However, Commodore Byron, skipper of die Dolphin, is sup- generation after generation, they were reducing in size.
posed to have had a peaceful meeting with the giant tribe in 1764. The British researcher and student of Unbelievables Rupert T.
After anchoring in the Magellan Strait, the crew of the Dolphin Gould offers the following in his book Enigmas:
saw hundreds of natives, some of whom were on horseback, and
Commodore Byron timidly approached them. Believers in a living race of giants, if they are not satisfied
"One of them, who afterwards appeared to be a chief, came with the Patagonians' average height of six feet or a littie
towards me: he was of gigantic stature, and seemed to realize the over (which is considerably above that of any other race)
tales of monsters in a human shape: he had the skin of some wild may, if they wish, still believe that the nine-foot men alleged
beast thrown over his shoulders . . . I did not measure him, but if I to have been seen by Byron (or, for that matter, Knyvet's
may judge of his height by the proportion of his stature to my men of ten to twelve feet) were stray members of a tribe of
own, it could not be much less than seven feet. When this frightful colossi still surviving in the heart of Patagonia. It cannot
Colossus came up, we muttered somewhat to each other as a salu- definitely be said that such is an impossibility. There are
tation, and I then walked with him towards his companions . . . " enormous areas in Southem Patagonia which are still quite
One of Byron's officers wrote in the Annual Register, 1768, unexplored. It may be remembered that a considerable sen-
" . . . some of them are certainly nine feet, if they do not exceed it. sation was caused in 1897-98 by the discovery, in a cave at
The commodore, who is very near six feet, could just reach the Consuelo Cove, Last Hope Inlet, on the western coast of
top of one of their heads, which he attempted, on tip-toe; and Patagonia, of what was, apparently, some quite fresh skin of
there were several taller than him on whom the experiment was a Mylodon, or giant slothan animal hitherto supposed to
tried . . . The women, I think, bear much the same proportion to have been extinct since prehistoric times.
the men as our Europeans do; there was hardly a man there less
than eight feet, most of them considerably more; the women, I Nothing much has been heard from the Patagonian giants in
believe, run from seven and a half to eight." recent years.
In the nineteenth century the Patagonians began to shrink. Stories of giant humans abound in other parts of South Amer-
Charles Darwin, originator of the theory of evolution, visited the ica. The Incas told tales of giants descending from the sky and
area and was unimpressed, according to his book. The Voyage of having sexual intercourse with Inca women. An early record by
the Beagle: "During our first visit (in January), we had an inter- Bemal Diaz del Castillo tells how the Spanish conqueror Captain
view at Cape Gregory with the famous so-called gigantic Patago- Cortez shipped the thigh bone of a giant back to the king of Spain.
nians," he wrote, "who gave us a cordial reception. Their height "They said that their ancestors had told them that in times past
appears greater than it really is, from their great guanaco mantles, there had lived among them men and women of giant size with
their long flowing hair, and general figure: on an average their huge bones," Castillo stated, "and because they were a very bad
height is six feet, with some men taller and only a few shorter; and people of evil manners they fought with them and killed them and
the women are also tall; altogether they are certainly the tallest those which remained had died off. So that we could see how high
race that we anywhere saw." and tall these people were, they brought us the leg bone of one
 4 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

which was very thick and the height of a man of ordinary stature The Britons, members of an Anglo-Brazilian scientific
and that was the bone from hip to knee. We were all amazed at reconnaissance group, are Alistair Mackenzie, Ian Bishop
seeing these bones and felt sure that there must have been giants and David Hunt. They are already on their way to the Ama-
in this country. Our Captain Cortez said to us that it might be well zon basin.
to send the bone to Castile so that his Majesty might see it, so we
sent it with the first of our agents who went there." As so often happens in these odd stories, the rest is silence.
Maybe the giants migrated to the impenetrable jungles of In Italy archaeologists were baffled by the discovery of the
Brazil. On May 16, 1966, the London Daily Mirror reported: bones of fifty tall men in the spring of 1969. Workmen excavating
a factory site at Terracina, sixty miles south of Rome, uncovered
A ferocious band of savages more than seven feet tall are fifty tiled coffins which bore neither inscriptions nor designs.
terrorising neighbouring tribes in the Amazon jungle. Each coffin contained the bones of a man measuring from six to
seven feet tallvery tall by Roman standards.
The existence of the savages was revealed by a group of State archaeologist Dr. Luigi Cavallucci examined the remains
Brazilian air cadets who went on a course of adventure- and said they were all apparently between the ages of thirty-five
training in the jungle. and forty. Their teeth, he noted, were in unusually good condition,
with httle indication of decay. The date this mass burial took place
According to the cadets, the giants are known locally as was not immediately determined.
the Krem-Akarore. The only theory was that the tall men had been picked mem-
bers of a special Roman military force and had all died in battle.
Peace-loving tribes of Indians on reservations in the However, this idea was disputed because it was the practice to
Xingu region of the Matto Grasso live in terror of them. bury warriors in full armor, with all the trappings. There was noth-
ing in the coffins except the bones. So the mystery remains.
The cadets said they tried to make contact with the Where didfifty men from six to seven feet tall originate? How did
giantsbut failed. they die, and why did they all share a common grave?
There were giants in the state of Minnesota. Their bodies have
Members of the friendly Calapalos tribe living on the been unearthed. There were giants in California. More bodies
reservation told the cadets that their tribe had captured a have been found. There were giants in Arizona. There were
small Krem-Akarore boy who grew to be nearly seven and a giants
half feet tall. A giant skull was found in a cliff dwelling thirty miles south of
Winslow, Arizona. It was so big that a size 7[E] Stetson was
But he became so strong and rebellious as he grew up placed on it and "looked like one of those tiny hats merrymakers
that he was condemned to death by the chief and executed. wear on New Year's," according to Jesse J. Benton in his book.
Cow by the Tail. It had a gold tooth. Did Charles Dawson pay a
Three Britons plan an expedition next year to the area in visit to Arizona? Or shall we blame Hugh Troy?
which the giants live, to study different types of Indians. Back to Charles Fort who found an interesting article in the
 JOHN A. K E E L THE COMPLETE G U E TO M Y S T E R I O U S B E I N G S 5

American Journal of Science (3-26-139) about footprints imbed- Chatfield, Minnesota, yielded six skeletons of "men of enormous
ded in a block of sandstone near Carson, Nevada. They were size." The St. Paul Pioneer Press (June 29, 1888) reported that the
eighteen to twenty inches long. remains of seven persons "seven or eight feet tall" were found in a
In Ohio a copper ax was found in a mound. It was twenty-two mound. The skulls had receding foreheads and "teeth were double
inches long and weighed thirty-eight pounds. A mighty big ax. But all the way around, not like those of the present race of men."
a bigger one was found in Wisconsin. It was carved out of stone; According to the St. Paul Globe (August 12, 1896), the skele-
twenty-eight inches long, fourteen inches wide, and eleven inches ton of a huge man was dug up on the Beckley farm at Lake Koro-
thick. It weighed three hundred pounds. What kind of men could nis. At Moose Island Lake the remains of seven-foot-tall men
swing such axes? Perhaps Paul Bunyan wasn't a myth, after all. were discovered. Near Pine City several more outlandish skele-
The Delaware Indians believe that their tribe once lived in the tons were dug up. And at the lone mound outside Warren, Min-
Wild West but migrated eastward. In those days the land east of nesota, ten more bodies of gigantic size, both men and women,
the Mississippi was inhabited by a race of giants who built mighty were produced in 1882.
cities and fortifications. They were called the Alligewi. Both the A slender link was found in the Grand Mound of Itasca County,
Allegheny River and Mountains were supposedly named after Minnesota, when sea shells from either California or the Gulf of
them. The migrating Indians asked for permission to pass through Mexico were discovered amongst large skulls and bones. How did
the Alligewi country. Permission was refused. The Indians went to California sea shells end up in a mound in the wilds of Min-
war against the giants and eventually drove them out. The nesota? Obviously somebody must have carried them there. And
Alligewi fled westward, down the Ohio River and up the Missis- that somebody was, from the evidence, a giant. The McKinstry
sippi into Minnesota.' Mounds are not far from the Grand Mound and it was there that
The Sioux Indians have another legend. When they lived in one hundred more skeletons were found, some of them represent-
Minnesota, a race of giants appeared there and were exterminated ing men over ten feet tall.
by die Indians.^ Back in 1833 a group of soldiers at Lompock Rancho, Califor-
So we have two widely separated legends from two different nia, dug up the remains of a man twelve feet tall. He was sur-
tribes. One claims they successfully drove the giants westward. rounded by giant weapons, and carved sea shells. The skuU
The other claims they were on hand when the fleeing giants disclosed a double row of teeth.
arrived. Those giants left their bones in Minnesota to lend cre- Excavating workmen came upon another oddity in 1891, near
dence to the story. Volume I of the Minnesota Geological Survey Crittenden, Arizona, when their shovels suddenly struck a huge
and Aborigines of Minnesota give the details of many finds of stone coffin which apparently once held the body of a man twelve
monstrous human skeletons. feet tall. A carving on the granite case indicated that he had had
Mound diggers at La Crescent found a large copper skillet and six toes.
"bones of men of huge stature." Mounds seven miles southwest of Six toes? Not far from the tiny hamlet of Braytown, Tennessee,
there is a rock clearly impressed witii more giant footprints. They
seem to have been made by someone whose heel was thirteen
'See Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 12. inches across. Someone with six toes!
^See the Ohio Historical and Archaelogical Society, Vol. 2. Prospectors near Eureka, Nevada, discovered the bones of a
 JOHN A. KEEL

giant foot and foreleg in July 1877. The leg measured thirty-nine
inches from knee to ankle, according to the local newspapers.
What has happened to all these bones and relics? Some are
packed away in the basements of local museums. Most have SEVEN
moved, generation after generation, from living rooms to bams to
garbage dumps. Since science does not believe in giants, scien-
tists are naturally not very interested in giant human bones. No
one can estimate how many hundreds or thousands of these finds
have been made over the years. The written records are sparse, The Hairy Ones
and thousands of old newspapers and files must be sifted before
we can fully assemble the complete story of the giants.

In 1896-97 scores of mysterious airships appeared suddenly in

the skies all over the United States. The newspapers for the period
werefilled with incredible stories of the objects and their peculiar
occupants. One of the most amazing of these tales appeared in the
Saginaw, Michigan Courier-Herald (April 16, 1897). It seems
that at 4:30 A.M. on Wednesday moming, April 14, a strange fly-
ing contraption landed in afield near Howard City, Michigan, and
a naked giant stepped from it. nother kind of giant has seemingly always existed with
"He is about nine and a half feet tall," the report stated, "and his us on this planet. He is shaped like a human being but
talk, while musical, is not talk at all, but seems to be a repetition ris covered with hair and prefers to hve in the quiet,
of bellowing. One of the farmers who was somewhat braver, thinly populated forests of Canada. However, he is something of a
attempted to go near him, and got a kick that will last him for vagabond and has frequently been seen all over the United States.
some time, having got his hip broken. Great excitement prevails Like most of bur other monsters, he has the uncanny ability to dis-
here, and lots of people are flocking here from Morley and appear into thin air as soon as the posses begin to close in. The
Howard City to view the strange being at a distance, as no one natives of the far-off Himalayas are also very famihar with this
dares to go near. He seems to be trying to talk to people." creature and long ago named it the Metoh-Kangmi which means
There were no follow-up stories on this alleged incident. "the evil-smelling man of the snows." The British explorers took
Have our giants taken to the air? liberties with this phrase and dubbed the animal the Abominable
Was a gentleman from Patagonia swooped up by a flying Snowman. ABSM for short.
machine and deposited in Michigan in 1897? The report men- There is now considerable evidence that the ABSM actually
tioned that piles of fiirry animal pelts were seen on board the exists. What is more, there seem to be several different types mn-
object, and Michigan in April might have been unpleasantly warm ning rampant. They come in all sizes, ranging from stout three-
to a Patagonian used to the climate of the Antarctic Circle. footers to giant hair-covered beasties ten feet tall. Some of them
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

seem to be directly related to unidentified flying objects. Others Mr. Alexander Caulfield Anderson of the Hudson's Bay Com-
could be actual descendants of the prehistoric Neanderthal man. pany, claimed to have encountered these animals as early as 1864.
Like Hugh Troy's rhinoceros, they are fond of scattering their The definitive work Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come To
giant footprints around the countryside, leaving behind very little Life by Ivan T. Sanderson delves into these early reports in detail
evidence of any other kind. In the redwood forests of California and notes the many Indian legends and myths revolving around
they have earned the nickname "Big Foot." these creatures in North America. There are several old Indian
The first published reference to the Himalayan ABSM tales about women being abducted by the ABSM and even having
appeared in 1899, in a book titled Among the Himalayas by Major children by them. We might also mention that many other cultures
L. A. Waddell. He stated matter-of-factly that he had come across have produced identical stories. Scholars may one day discover
some giant man-like tracks in the tiny kingdom of Sikkim in that man has frequently crossbred with these hairy beings
1887. Successive expeditions to those mountains reported regu- throughout history. The Bible makes particular mention of this. In
larly encountering similar tracks and, in several instances, large Genesis (25: 19-34) Esau was described as being bom "red, all
hair-covered personages. Generations of Type B scientists, hud- over like a hairy garment."
dled comfortably amid their books on Ivy League campuses, Early European hterature contains numerous references to the
scoffed at the reports and presented a wide range of speculations. "Wild Men of the Woods" who were supposed to have existed
It was only a bear or an ape, they announced periodically, and one hidden away in the dense forests of England, France, Germany,
group of scholars concluded that the tracks were spread by naked and many other countries. They were described as tall, hair-
Yogis wandering about the mountains in the sub-zero tempera- covered men of remarkable agility, able to leap vast distances and
tures. out-mn ordinary men. In Irish folklore, according to The Bestiary,
Three years before Major Waddell found those footprints in these Homines Sylvestris "used to inhabit inelegant subterranean
Sikkim, an actual ABSM-type creature was reportedly captured in hovels, lived on vegetables, and refused to have anything to do
Canada. According to the Daily British Colonist (July 3, 1884), a with other humans . . . However kindly they were treated, it was
group of raihoad workmen digging a tunnel outside of Yale, impossible to civilize them, because they refused to recognize law
British Columbia, came upon what appeared at first to be a man and order... There were an almost infinite number of them in
sleeping on the tracks. It proved to be a hairy "half man, half Ireland."
beast" which was captured aMve after a five-minute chase. In the early hterature the European "Wild Men" purportedly
"Jacko," as he was named by his captors, was four feet seven had a lustful nature and would accost lone human females passing
inches tall and weighed 127 pounds. through the forests, forcibly engaging them in sexual intercourse.
"He has long, black, strong hair and resembles a human being Perhaps these tales are the basis for the Satyr legends, and artists
with one exception: his entire body, excepting his hands (or paws) and Playboy cartoonists have misrepresented the Satyrs by giving
and feet are covered with glossy hair one inch long," the account them cloven hooves. Since the American Indians have similar sto-
stated. "His fore arm is much longer than a man's fore arm . . . " ries it is possible that there is some fact to the tales.
What happened to "Jacko" is not known. As recently as 1946, a Isolated tribes in South America also have legends of racial
Canadian reporter interviewed an elderly gentleman in Lytton, intermixing with the hairy ones. Some nonscientific speculators
British Columbia, who claimed he had seen it. Others, including have even suggested that the creatures can only reproduce through
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

human females. However, we have yet to uncover a claim that in ABSM-infested territories. A mountain-cHmbing expedition to
anyone was raped by a hairy monster, although if such claims Everest in 1923-24, headed by General Bruce, not only came
were ever made it is unlikely that they would get into print. across flie classic giant footprints of the ABSM, but also report-
Even more incredible is the steadily accumulating evidence edly saw "a great, hairy, naked man running across a snow-field
which strongly suggests that the hairy ABSMs are connected in below" at around seventeen tiiousand feet. Subsequent expedi-
some peculiar way with the phenomenon of unidentified flying tions had further encounters witii the creature. During the 1933
objects. We will examine this material in another chapter. The Everest attempt, mountaineer F. S. Smythe was climbing alone
funny flying saucers have produced all kinds of intriguing mon- when he observed "two curious-looking objects floating in the
ster reports, and we were not being entirely facetious when we sky." They hovered motionless and seemed to pulsate slowly.
proposed in Chapter Six that a Patagonian giant might have been Other Himalayan expeditions in the 1920s and '30s reported vari-
fi-ansplanted in Michigan in 1897. It almost seems as if anomalous ously seeing "giant silver disks" and "a flying teakettle." The
earthly creatures have somehow been enlisted (or drafted) into UFO controversy did not exist in those days so most Type B sci-
service by the saucers to carry out some mysterious missions. The entists regarded diese stories as hallucinations created by the high
UFO evidence, which is now almost overwhelming, indicates that altitude. Although the natives had plenty to say about the ABSM,
the entire flying saucer phenomenon is an outrageous enterprise or Yeti, they shrugged off the aerial objects as religious manifesta-
that preys upon our gullibility and is meant to inspire a totally tions. The disks had always flown regular routes over the moun-
false belief in extraterrestrial (interplanetary) visitants. tains. They belonged tiiere, like the clouds, the natives explained
One of America's leading UFOlogists is Brad Steiger, author of to early explorers.
many books on the subject. Mr. Steiger has received an astonish- We visited India and the Himalayas in 1955-56 and heard
ing journal from James C. Wyatt of Memphis, Tennessee. The many Yeti stories from the natives. These mysterious animals are
journal was purportedly written by Mr. Wyatt's grandfather and an accepted fact in the lives of the mountain people in the same
discusses in detail an experience with a "Crazy Bear" in the year way that deer are an accepted fact to us. At the time of our visit
1888. An Indian is supposed to have led Grandfather Wyatt to a only about four hundred white men had visited those regions in
hidden cave in Tennessee where a hairy man-like creature was all of history. Most of these had been religious missionaries more
concealed. The Indians fed the "Crazy Bear" at regular intervals, intent on saving souls than chasing monsters. In many remote vil-
asserting that such creatures were ejected from "moons" which lages we were the very first white men ever to be seen by the
landed periodically in the valley. natives. Since then the tiny mountain kingdoms of Nepal, Bhutan,
The Indians told him that over the years there had been many and Sikkim have been opened up to limited tourism. But the Red
"Crazy Bears" left in the woods, and many of their people had Chinese had occupied Tibet completely, driven out the Dalai
seen the "skymen" put their "Crazy Bears" out of their "moons." Lama and his followers, and sealed off the mountain passes with
So there is one solution to our mystery. The flying saucers are troops and fortifications. It was virtually impossible to obtain an
dumping hairy monsters all over the landscape! Wyatt's "Crazy accurate map of the Himalayan territories. The area was strategi-
Bear" is described as a short-necked, long-armed creature covered cally important to India, and it would have been easier to get a
with glossy black hair. map of the atomic installation at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
It is a curious fact thatflying saucers have been repeatedly seen In some places the Yeti is greatly feared and tiiere are numer-
 4 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

ous accounts of the animals attacking and killing human beings. could be a false impression depending on how the carcass was
In 1949 a Sherpa herdsman named Lakhpa Tensing was report- lying. Its feet could have been handlike, like an ape's, hanging
edly torn apart by a Yeti in the bleak pass of Nanga Parbat, one of down over the edge of the table.
the highest passes in the world, far beyond the reach of ordinary It is significant that the Snowman legend persists throughout the
animals. Himalayan range from Kashmir in the east, to Assam far to the
Mountain mothers deal with their misbehaving children by west. Every tribe has stories about the creature, and every moun-
warning that the Yeti will get them if they don't watch out. Hill tain language (tiiere are many) has a word for it. All of these stories
farmers in some areas are afraid to work after dark because of this contain essentially the same details, and the basic descriptions are
curtain of superstition and fear. They believe that to look at a Yeti universally agreed upon. There are two main types. One is about
means death, and the only protection is to cover your eyes and run four feet tall and resembles a human dwarf covered with hair. The
downhill. The Yeti's feet are supposed to be mounted backwards other is very tall, frequently reported to be from to seven to ten
to facilitate mountain climbing, but that makes things damned feet. Neither resembles a bear or ape. Bears move about on all
awkward when it tries to run downhill. fours most of the time, except when attacking. As for gorillas,
This odd belief springs from an incident that allegedly hap- anthropologists estimate that the total world gorilla population is
pened back in the early 1900s when the English were stretching a around four hundred, and they are found only in a small area deep
telegraph line from Kalimpong, India, to Lhasa, Tibet. It was a big within Equatorial Africa.
job and many hillmen were hired to work on it. Some of them Animals answering to the descriptions of the two Himalayan
were encamped at Chumbithang, three miles from the Jelep-la Yeti types have reportedly been seen near grounded flying saucers
pass, one of the gateways to Tibet. One morning a dozen workers in South America, and even in France. They will be discussed in
went out and failed to return. The next morning a squad of British another chapter.
soldiers went out to search for them. Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who, together with Sir Edmund
They found, instead, a strange animal hiding under some giant Hillary, was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest on
boulders in the approaches to the pass. They shot it and dragged it May 29, 1953, lives in the picturesque mountain village of Dar-
to the nearest dak bungalow (huts maintained for travelers). Later jeeling, India, in the Himalayan foothills. We were able to spend a
Sir Charles Bell, then the British political officer of Sikkim, came considerable amount of time with this remarkably simple and
and ordered the carcass packed and shipped away, supposedly to humble man during our visit to the region. Tenzing likes to tell
England. It was never seen again and there is no trace of it. about his brother-in-law who was once an assistant to the great
This story has been lovingly repeated in several Indian books Sangay Rimboche, the late Grand Lama of the Rongbuck mon-
on mountain lore but it seems to be based more on hearsay than astery on the steep approach to Everest. He went with the Grand
fact. There is no mention of it in Sir Charles' papers. However, an Lama on his annual treks to meditate in the high, secret, holy
old man in Daijeeling, Bombahadur Chetri, claims he saw it with places on the mountain. During one of these trips another assis-
his own eyes when he was a boy. He describes it as being ten feet tant lama found a dead Yeti and presented the skin to Sangay Rim-
tall and covered with shaggy hairs two or three inches long. Its boche. It looked like the skin of a young bear, and the Grand
gruesome face was hairless, set with a mouthful of sharp yellow Lama used it for years to sit on while meditating. It was probably
fangs and cold red eyes. Its feet were backwards, he said. But this placed in his Chorten after his death.
 JOHN A. KEEL THE C O M P L E T E G U E TO M Y S T E R I O U S B E I N G S

Many of the mountain lamaseries cherish bits of Yeti hair and B scientists to quickly shuffle the discovery into the back of their
bones as sacred relics. They think Yetis are devils posted around files.
the mountains to guard the gods who supposedly live on the sum- In the 1950s an expedition in the Middle East unearthed relics
mits. In the fall of 1954, a tribe of headhunters in Assam report- which suggested that modem man, Cro-Magnon man, and Nean-
edly killed and ate a creature ten feet tall. The bones and fur are derthal man had all existed at the same time. This, too, was
supposed to have been carried off to a monastery. quickly swept under the carpet by the pro-evolution types. After
Tenzing has never seen a Yeti personally but he does not ques- all, if these various human and subhijman personages all lived
tion its existence. His father claims to have once met one face to together in a single epoch then there is something radically wrong
face and managed to escape. Tenzing said his father wasn't a liar with our long-accepted evolutionary scale.
or given to making up wild tales. And his description correlates The evidence we are summarising here opens a whole new
with the reports of other eyewitnesses. anthropological bag. Could the "Wild Men of the Woods" of
Almost every expedition into the more remote sectors of the Europe have been stray survivors of some ancient time, gradually
Himalayas in the past fifty years has seen and photographed the driven further and further back into the forests and mountains,
huge ABSM footprints. Usually such prints are found in the snow forced to mate with human females in order to survive at all, and,
at high altitudes which are beyond the reach of most ordinary ani- finally, pressed into extinction when human females were no
mals. After all, animals are not likely to venture into areas where longer readily accessible? Could these hairy beings have survived
no food or prey can exist. Samples of Yeti droppings have also in the remote fastness of the Himalayas and the deep jungles of
been collected and studied and indicate that it lives on a small Brazil and northern Canada?
rodent known as the mouse-hare. A number of expeditions have We have seen the Yeti footprints for ourselves. We have even
produced rehable reports of having seen the beast itself from a tried to track the animal down to his lair. In Jadoo, this adventure
distance. It has been seen digging up roots with a stick, something was fully described. Here is a summary of that narrative:'
no ordinary animal would do. This use of a tool puts it in a subhu- While travehng through northem Sikkim with a native guide
man class. named Norbhu, we heard the YetVs distinctive call which
What could it be? There is some evidence that it might actually "sounded Uke a bird very near, short chirps with a sUght warble.
be a survivor of the early Neanderthal man. Footprints known to Similar to monkey chatter but higher pitched and less defined."
have been made by Neanderthalers have been discovered and they We were very close to the border of Tibet, and soon found defi-
are almost identical to the ABSM tracks. In 1948 an ancient cave, nite Yeti tracks. "The tracks were clear and spaced at a leisurely
long sealed by volcanic lava, was opened near Toirano, Italy, and pace. It was definitely not an ape or bear, and the prints were much
it was found to contain all kinds of interesting artifacts, including too big to have been made by a barefooted man . . . Then suddenly,
the footprints of modem-type men, giant bears, and Nean- from somewhere in front of us, there was a sharp animal scream;
derthalers. The latter tracks were immediately recognized as brief, filled with tearing pain. Norbhu jumped a foot. Then there
being almost exactly the same as the footprints photographed by was only silence and the drip of water on the leaves overhead.
the various expeditions to Everest. Of equal interest was the fact
that the discovery seemed to indicate that modem man and the
Neanderthalers existed in the same era. A fact which led the Type 'Jadoo by John A. Keel, published by Julian Messner, Inc., 1957. Out of print.
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

"A little further on a group of natives appeared and led us to "Cautiously I moved forward, staggering up an inchned path
their village on the brink of a narrow river. They'd heard the strewn with giant boulders. Finally, I emerged onto the edge of a
scream, too. It was a panther, they said. A dying panther They sweeping cavity filled with water, where broken trees and decayed
had found a bloody spot surrounded by Yeti tracks. They were bushes poked up like skeletons.
rushing back to their village when they bumped into us. "That was where I saw it!
"Could a Yeti kill a panther, I asked? "Maybe it wasn't a Yeti, 1 wasn't close enough to be absolutely
"It was one of the few things that could. sure. But something was out there, across the lake. Something big,
"Norbhu turned back to Dubdi, and I proceeded alone. The breathtakingly big, and brown, and moving swiftly, splashing
trail was easy to follow; too easy. The Yeti was more agile and through the shallow, icy waters toward a pile of boulders. As it
faster than a plodding white man. True to what the lamas had told neared them, another brown blur moved out to meet it and
me repeatedly, the Yeti was picking the easiest route to wherever together they disappeared beyond the debris of a landfall.
it was going, avoiding more difficult jungle areas, picking the "1 circled the lake and headed cautiously up through the rocks
shallowest spots in rivers, etc. Sometimes it seemed as if I were and landfalls. In a few minutes I came to a narrow channel in the
right on top of him. Other times I seemed to have no chance of cliffs...
finding it. "Suddenly the high-pitched Yeti call sounded again and I froze.
"I found villages and lamaseries in a state of alert and fear after It was coming from the cliffs overhead. The Yetis were up there
having heard or seen my prey. All the descriptions ran the same. It somewhere, watching me, jeering me!
was three feet taller than myself (I'm six feet two inches), covered "1 hugged the side of the channel and looked up. High above
with brown hair, with a hairless red face and a head that sloped up me there was a quick movement. Aflash of brown against the gray
to a slight point. sky . . . The Yetis must have climbed straight up the sheer face of
"At a monastery above Changthang, the lamas were beating the cliffs; something no bear or ape could do easily . . . I knew I
drums and blowing trumpets when I arrived. They'd seen the Yeti couldn't climb those cliffs. I knew I couldn't get near those clever,
only a few hours before, running along the trail I was follow- evasive animals alone. I stood there tensely for a long time . . .
ing... then I slowly backed out of that channel.
"Following the hot and cold Yeti trail, I arrived at last in the "That was as close as I ever got to the Abominable Snowmen."
northern village of Lachen, 8,800 feet above sea level, where the After thousands of years of total isolation, the Himalayas were
natives grabbed me excitedly and led me through the tortuous opened to tourists in the 1970s and soon Katmandu, Nepal, was
passes to a marsh. A Yeti... my Yeti, no doubt... had been seen overrun with young hippies and camera-carrying Japanese. De-
there by a group of children that very morning. The place was pictions of Yetis appeared on postage stamps while restaurants
crawling with tracks. As I stood there looking down at them an and dry cleaners bearing the word Yetis in their names appeared
eerie screech drifted down from the jutting rocks nearby. The everywhere. Hundreds of hardy souls now assault Mount Everest
effect on the natives was electric. They were stunned and fright- annually. Business is so brisk that people anxious to climb that
ened; only my presence kept them from running. They watched formidable rock pile must apply for expensive permits ten years in
me with alarmed curiosity, wondering what I was going to do. advance! Several would-be Everest conquerors fall off the moun-
"I was wondering, too. tain every year to their death.
 JOHN A. KEEL

With all this traffic you might expect a dramatic increase in

ABSM sightings. Unfortunately, this hasn't been true. There were
a few scattered reports in the 1970s and '80s, and Yeti footprints
have been photographed occasionally but the creature himself EIGHT

remains as elusive as ever, providmg the natives with a profitable
industry.
Tibet has also undergone some drastic, sad changes under Chi-
nese rule. There is a five-hundred-room Holiday Inn in Lhasa Meanwhile in Russia
now. Yeti hunters lounge there in semisplendor as they plot their
futile expeditions. Sometimes during the long cold nights they say
they can still hear a famiUar sound far out in the mountains . . . the
cry of a sea gull.

ity the poor Yeti. He doesn't exist but he doesn't have

enough brains to reaUze it. The mystery of the giant
footprints has been solved many times by many Type B
scientists. Back in 1958 a wire story quoted an anthropologist
from Johns Hopkins University, explaining that the Yeti footprints
were made by natives wearing sandals with their big toes sticking
out. The natives of the Himalayas apparently never read the story,
and so they continue to wear heavy boots when they are wading
around in the mountain snows.
Somebody is always shooting at these hairy illusions, and there
are a number of documented accounts of the creatures having
been shot dead, or captured and dying slowly in captivity. The real
myth seems to be the scientific allegation that the Abominable
Snowman does not exist, has never existed, and cannot possibly
exist.
China has produced a considerable amount of ABSM lore and
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

a good part of it correlates favorably with the material from the sent out expeditions to try to leam more about them. A number of
Himalayas and even from Canada. well-documented reports have come from Russia and have been
One story relates how a group of Chinese hunters came upon collected and translated by Ivan T. Sanderson. A good part of the
an ABSM in 1913, shot, and wounded it, carrying it triumphantly Yeti hterature in the United States is based entirely upon Mr.
to Patang in Sinkiang Province where it survived for some Sanderson's research and writings, usually without mentioning his
months. The late Frank Edwards describes it in Stranger Than name at all. We are therefore going to give Mr. Sanderson full
Science as "a creature with a black monkey-like face, covered credit before we proceed to steal some choice items from his work.
with silvery yellow hair several inches long. It had exceptionally In Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come To Life Sanderson
powerful hands and had feet much like those of a human, rather deals at length with the geographical distribution of the ABSM
than an ape. It grunted and made guttural sounds but spent most of stories and points out how unlikely it is for separate, isolated cul-
its time pursing its hps and making loud whistUng noises." tures to come up with identical details, unless there was some def-
In 1954 a Chinese official in the Yunnan Province told some inite tmth underlying those details. Tribes speaking entirely
visiting Russians that a hair-covered race of sub-humans thrived different languages, and remaining ahnost completely isolated
in the mountains of Western Yunnan. One of them had even been from other tribes of thek own race, have managed to produce
captured a few years earlier and brought to Kunming. The Chi- identical ABSM "data." Even in the United States, where general
nese call them Gin-Sung or Bear-Men. In other regions the Chi- communications are superb in comparison to the remote fastness
nese speak of giant hairy animals known locally as Kra-Dhan and of Tibet and China, the many annual encounters with ABSM-
Bec-Boc. It is well-known to the tribes of the Gobi Desert and the types rarely receive any publicity beyond the areas where they
people of Mongolia, and ancient Chinese hterature frequently occurred. Monster stories, like flying saucer tales, are "human
alludes to these "hairy mountain men." It would take a book twice interest" items and rarely receive much notice in the national
the length of this one just to list the many available Uterary refer- press. This dearth of pubhshed reports is in our favor since few
ences extant. Explorers and expeditions to those far comers have witnesses have even heard of these things before their own
retumed with a wealth of information about these fascinating ani- encounter. While most Americans have now read random superfi-
mals and numerous accounts and descriptions have been pub- cial items about both Yetis and UFOs, they have not been exposed
lished in random scientific joumals over the years. to the information necessary for the constmction of a convincing
With the exception of the European stories and some of those false report. Russia could conceivably capture a whole tribe of
reports from Canada, it seems that the majority of these creatures Yetis and we might never know it until they put them on display at
are accompanied by a pungent, very unpleasant odor. This stink the next World's Fair. Material pubhshed in the Russian language
seems to exceed normal animal smells and could, eventually, offer rarelyfilters down to American monster buffs.
some kind of clue to the body chemistry of the creatures. For now Whole states in the United States have been thrown into an
we can only conclude that the Abominable Snowman is using the uproar over "monster mania" in recent years, with armies of
wrong kind of soap. armed men, pohce dogs, and hehcopters searching hundreds of
North of Tibet and west of China, Russia has several isolated square miles in vain efforts to locate the unbehevable creatures
"pockets" where ABSM-types seem to abound. Russian scientists which were reportedly slaughtering domestic animals and terrify-
have long had a special interest in the Yeti and have periodically ing farmers. But what causes headhnes in the newspapers in one
 4 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

state is often ignored altogether in the press of adjoining states. Chesh Teb is supposed to have wrestled with one of them in
News of these monster panics rarely appear in the New York Times 1939. He was out hunting around 4:00 P.M. when the animal
or Time and Newsweek. We live in a world so filled with "hard" sprang at him.
news of war and disaster that these more unusual events are "Now this hunter wrestled with Gul-Biavan," the story goes.
reduced to the status of "fillers" and "human interest items." Col- "The Gul-Biavan was covered with short, soft wool and flie man
lectors of esoterica tend to regard all this as some form of sinister could not get hold of anything. On the face of tiiisman there was
censorship, and circulate wild stories about how the government also short wool and fliere was a terrible odor coming from him.
suppresses the news of such events. Finally, die hunter was able to throw the Gul-Biavan to the ground,
In countries such as the former Soviet Union, where the press but at die same time he lost consciousness himself. The viUagers
really is controlled and censored by the government, there are cer- came upon the man and brought him home . . . the ground around
tain to be even fewer published reports. him bore evidence of this wrestling match."
"There lives in Moscow today a scientist by the name of V. A. While camping near the head of the Jurmut River in Russia,
Khakhlov," Sanderson writes, "who in 1913 submitted a full and Professor V. K. Leontiev reportedly obtained a brief glimpse of a
detailed report on the east Asiatic ABSMs to the Russian Imperial Yeti type. It was in August 1957 and the Professor's adventure
Academy of Sciences. This priceless material was shelved, he was began when he heard an unusual cry. "It wasn't likeflie yeU of an
denied funds to continue his field investigations, and he was animalnot any wild mammal or bird known to me could make
frankly told to shut up." such a sound, and yet it couldn't be a human being either," flie
In more recent years some maverick Russian scientists have Professor wrote. Shortly afterwards he saw somefliing moving
begun to take a more open interest in the ABSM mystery, and a across a field of snow about 150 feet away. "He was walking on
few papers on the subject have been circulated in limited num- his feet, not touching die ground with his hands," Leontiev contin-
bers. A geologist named B. M. Zdorick claims that he stumbled ued. "His shoulders were unusually wide. His body was covered
upon a sleeping creature in 1934 while trekking along the Darwaz wifli long dark hair. He was about 2.2 meters [about 7 feet] tall."
Ridge in the Pamirs. The Professor said he picked up hisrifle andfired at the being.
"He was about a meter and a half in length [approximately four At the sound of the shot, the creature took off at "incredible
feet ten inches]," Zdorick reported. "The head and the forward speed" and disappeared into some high rocks beyond flie snow-
limbs could not be seen because they were hidden by a growth of field. Large footprints were left behind.
wild oats. The legs, however, could be seen. They had black naked The Russian Information Service supphed Mr. Sanderson wifli
soles, and were too long and graceful to have belonged to a bear; a translation of flie foUowing testimony from Lt. Colonel V. S.
his back was also too flat to be a bear's. The whole body of this Karapetyan of die Medical Service of the Soviet Army:
animal was covered with fur, more like the fur of a yak, than the
rich fur of a bear. The color of the fur was a grayish brown, some- From October to December of 1941 our infantry battaUon
what more prominent brown than a bear's." was stationed some thirty kilometers from the town of
His guide was badly frightened by this sight and the two men Buinaksk (in the Dagestan A.S.S.R.) One day the represen-
did not stay to study the creature more closely. Legends of these tatives of die local authorities asked me to examine a man
creatures abound throughout the Pamir mountain range. A man in caught in the surrounding mountains and brought to the dis-
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

trict center. My medical advice was needed to establish and someone offered him a hand, but there was no reaction.
whether or not this curious creature was a disguised spy. I gave the verbal conclusion that this was no disguised per-
I entered a shed with two members of the local authori- son, but a wild man of some kind. Then I retumed to my unit
ties. When I asked why I had to examine the man in a cold and never heard of him again.
shed and not in a warm room, I was told that the prisoner
could not be kept in a warm room. He had sweated in the Since Colonel Karapetyan makes no mention of the man's
house so profusely that they had to keep him in the shed. odor, despite his sweating, we assume he was not a member of the
I can still see the creature as it stood before me, a male, smelly variety. There are many other accounts of captured Yeti
naked and bare-footed. And it was doubtlessly a man, types, some at great variance with the others. Professor
because its entire shape was human. The chest, back and Khakhlov's 1913 report contains several of these cases. He
shoulders, however, were covered with shaggy hair of a dark describes, for example, how a group of herdsmen captured one of
brown color. This fur of his was much like that of a bear, and the creatijres in the mountains of fran-Kabirg. This one was one of
two to three centimeters long. The fur was thinner and softer the "shorties." Khakhlov wrote:
below the chest. His wrists were crude and sparsely covered
with hair. The palms of his hands and the soles of his feet The "wild man" was a male, below average height, covered
were free of hair. But the hair on his head reached to his with hair "like a young camel". He had long arms, far below
shoulders, partly covering his forehead. The hair on his his knees, stooped, with shoulders hunched forward; his
head, moreover, felt very rough to the hand. He had no beard chest wasflat and narrow; the forehead sloping over the eyes
or mustache, though his face was completely covered with a with prominently arched brows. Lower jaw was massive
hght growth of hair. The hair around his mouth was also without any chin; nose was small with large nostrils. The
short and sparse. ears were large without any lobes, pointed back. On the back
The man stood absolutely straight with his arms hanging of his neck there was a rise. The skin on the forehead,
and his height was above the averageabout 180 centime- elbows and knees hard and tough. When he was captured he
ters [about 70 inches]. He stood before me like a giant, his was standing with his legs spread, shghtly bent in the knees;
mighty chest thrust forward. Hisfingers were thick, strong, when he was running he was spreading his feet wide apart
and exceptionally large. On the whole, he was considerably awkwardly swinging his arms. The instep of the "wild man"
bigger than any of the local inhabitants. resembled a human, but at least twice the size with widely
His eyes told me nothing. They were dull and empty separated toes; the large toe being shorter than that of
the eyes of an animal. And he seemed to me like an animal humans, and widely separated from the others. The arm with
and nothing more. longfingers was like a human arm, and yet different.
As I leamed, he had accepted no food or drink since he When the "wild man" at the insistence of the herders was
was caught. allowed to go free, two men followed him and discovered
He had asked for nothing and said nothing. When kept in the place where he vanished; an indentation under a hanging
a warm room he sweated profusely. While I was there, some rock strewn with high grass. The local residents offered
water and then some bread were brought up to his mouth; additional information about these creatures: that they lived
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

in pairs, seldom seen by people, and not at all dangerous to Ivan Sanderson's book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come
humans. To Life is overfive hundred pages long and carefully presents all
A second witness stated that for several months he sides of the question. Obviously we cannot even begin to reduce
observed a "wild man" in the regions of the River Manass, such a complicated subject to a few pages here. Sanderson has
or Dam. This creature of the female sex was sometimes attempted to catalog all of tiieknown ABSM lore from many scat-
chained to a small mill but was also allowed to go free. The tered geographical locations. After many years of investigation
general description was die same as of the male: hairy cover and study he concludes, "I think tiiere are at least three main types
of skin, stooped, narrow chest, shoulders were inclined for- of ultra-primitive men, and/or sub-men, and/or subhominids, still
ward, long arms; bent knees, flat insteps, spread out toes alive today. These I would say are, first, sundry pigmy types of
resembling a paw, the contact with the ground flat without very near-human or completely human composition; second,
the instep. The head is described in the same fashion some remaining Neanderthaler types in eastern Eurasia; and third,
absence of a chin and arisein the back. some very primitive and large creatures almost absolutely without
This creature seldom issued any sounds and usually was any 'culture' in any sense of tiiatterm, in northwestern North and
quiet and silent. Only when approached she bared her teeth Central America, perhaps in South America, the eastern Sino-
and screeched. She had a pecuhar way of lying down, or Tibetan uplands, and in Indo-China. Then, I am even more sure
sleeping^Uke a camel, by squatting on the ground on its that there still remains something else."
knees and elbows, resting die forehead on the ground, and We agree. There stiU remains something else.
resting die wrists on the back of the head. This position
accounts for the unusually hard skin of the elbows and
knees^like camel's soles. When offered food, the female
ate only raw meat, some vegetables and grain. She did not
touch cooked meat or bread, although later she was getting
used to bread. Sometimes she would catch and eat some
insects. She would drink in animal fashion, by lapping
water, or sometimes she would dip her arm in water and hck
the water. When she was allowed to go free, she ran awk-
wardly swinging her arms, to the nearby reeds where she
disappeared.

Some of tiiedetails in these accounts will turn up again in this

book in other monster reports viewed in an entirely different con-
text. The long fingers are common in many of the descriptions of
flying saucer "pilots" which we will examine further on. Some of
the hairy creatures running around the United States seem to con-
form to these general descriptions from Russia.
 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

dence of a "human foot but with phenomenally long and spread-

ing toes."
British Columbia has produced many ABSM reports (up in
NINE Canada the thing is called by the old Indian name, "Sasquatch").
Even Theodore Roosevelt, the great outdoorsman who later
became President, recorded a hairy monster story in a book he
published in 1893, Wilderness Hunter. Roosevelt repeated a tale
told to him by a trapper named Bauman. Essentially, Bauman and
Big Feet and another man had been camping at the head of Wisdom River when
something tall, walking on two legs, had invaded their camp and
Little Brains smashed their gear. At night they could hear "a harsh, grating,
long-drawn moan, a peculiarly sinister sound." Bauman left the
camp one day and when he retumed he found his friend dead.
"The body was still warm," Roosevelt wrote, "but the neck was
broken, while there were four great fang marks in the throat. The
footprints of the unknown beast-creature, printed deep in the soft
soil, told the whole story . . . It had not eaten the body, but appar-
ently had romped and gambolled round it in uncouth, ferocious
glee, occasionally rolling over and over it; and had thenfled back
' ancouver Island, British Columbia, lies just across the into the soundless depths of the woods."
^ ^ Canadian border, north of Seattle, Washington. Uniden- Fortunately there aren't too many stories of witnesses suffering
^ ^ tified hairy beings live there. The Indians have always physical harm from their meetings with the hairy people. But
insisted that the heavily forested sections of the island were there are too many to ignore. In the next chapter we will summa-
inhabited by "Wild Men of the Woods." A lumberman named rize a large number of North American sightings, including inci-
Mike King reported stumbling across one of the creatures there in dents involving attacks and injuries.
1901. He said that he saw it squatting by a creek, carefully wash- In 1965 John W. Green, editor of the Agassiz, British Columbia
ing off some roots and stacking them in two neat piles. He started Advance, compiled a list of 120 Sasquatch incidents ranging from
to raise his rifle but felt that he was looking at something sightings and attacks to the discovery of tracks and various
humantoo human to be shot at, even though it was large and strange occurrences. In 1942, according to Green, a man in Katz,
covered with reddish brown fur. It finally jumped up and ran off British Columbia, had his arm broken by a hairy giant while pick-
like a man. ing berries. Going further back, there was a story that two moun-
"His arms were peculiarly long and used freely in clunbing and tain hunters in British Columbia had been killed by something
bush-running," Mr. King observed. After the thing had departed. that "walked on two legs" in the early 1800s. Back in 1907 Indi-
King went down to the creek and looked at its tracks. He saw evi- ans at Bishop's Cove, British Columbia, were reportedly terrified
 OHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

by a monkey-like wild man that dug clams at night and "howled." Grandma say Sasquatch big nice man is catch litde Indian
In 1945 a hairy giant chased one Henry Charlie for nearly a mile woman for make love to all they want. Old daddy scared of
near Harrison Mills, British Columbia. woods after, never go anywhere, just stay home.
Another member of our monster hunting brigade, Lee Trippett,
an electronics engineer in Eugene, Oregon, has collected forty- What intrigues us the most about the above is Mary Joe's repe-
one ABSM incidents from the states of Washington, Oregon, and tition of what her grandmother had told her: Sasquatch big nice
California, alone. In California the creature has been dubbed "Big man is catch little Indian woman for make love to all they want.
Foot" for obvious reasons. Biologists will argue that one species cannot successfully mate
So right there we have 161 events. Obviously we cannot list and produce offspring with another. But we cannot say with cer-
them all. A columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, George tainty that the ABSM types are not at least partially human. They
Draper, has written many articles about "Big Foot," and he, too, are different, to be sure, but are they totally nonhuman? Could
has come up with more items for our grotesque glossary. Still there be some element of truth to the ancient legends from other
another researcher, Roger Patterson of Yakima, Washington, has lands that the "Wild Men of the Woods" kidnap human females
built up an enormous file of httle-known sightings and has and indulge in scandalous hanky-panky?
acquired a collection of plaster casts of "Big Foot" footprints and One flaw to this admittedly sensational speculation is the fact
other kinds of tangible evidence, including photographs. An that the female Sasquatch has been observed on a number of
anthropologist in Illinois, Loren Coleman, has yet another collec- occasions. Or, at least, hairy humanoids with pendulant breasts
tion of reports. have been seen and it is generally assumed that they were female.
This mass of evidence contains all kinds of oddities, such as the Since the animals are naked, witnesses who have been close
following letter written in Katz, British Columbia, on April 23, enough to notice have reported upon their obvious masculinity or,
1957, by someone who signed the name "Mary Joe." The letter in the cases of the apparent females, their lack of it.
was mailed to the village clerk at Harrison Hot Springs in the heart In a notarized affidavit, signed on August 26, 1957, William
of Sasquatch country. It was written in a crude, almost illiterate Roe stated:
style, apparently the work of an Indian lady. She says, in part:
My first impression was of a huge man about six feet tall,
Fifteen years ago my old daddy was hurt bad by Sasquatch almost three feet wide, and probably weighing somewhere
man he met a mile from Katz . . . One thing my daddy was near three hundred pounds. It was covered from head to foot
good Catholic and he very httle drink likker . .. What hap- with dark brown, silver-tipped hair. But as it came closer I
pens he say was daddy was with momma picking berries saw by its breasts diat it was female.
when he went away from others for rest. He say he only look And yet, its torso was not curved like a female's. Its
at trees and sky, then big man over six foot comes running broad frame was straight from shoulder to hip. Its arms were
from rocks at him, hit old daddy to ground, hit him on head much thicker than a man's arms and longer, reaching almost
and side arm, hit him hard and make grunts. Daddy yell then to its knees. Its feet were broader proportionately than a
others come and Sasquatch run away fast. They see man's, about five inches wide in die front and tapering to
Sasquatch running and daddy blood on his head... much diinner heels. When it walked it placed die heel of its
4 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

foot downfirst, and I could see the gray-brown skin or hide back and made a pecuUar noise that seemed to be half laugh
on the soles of its feet. and half language, and which I could only describe as a kind
The head was higher at the back than at thefront. The of whinny. Then it walked from the small brush into a stand
nose was broad andflat. The lips and chin protruded farther of lodge-pole pines.
than its nose. But the hair that covered it, leaving bare only
the parts of its face around the mouth, nose and ears, made it In several similar stories armed hunters have declared that they
resemble an animal as much as a human. None of this hair, could not bring themselves to fire their weapons. The creatures
even on the back of its head, was longer than an inch, and seem too human to kiU. "It would be Uke shooting a man in cold
that on its face much shorter. Its ears were shaped like a blood," many have said.
human's ears. But its eyes were small and black Uke a In an article for the San Francisco Chronicle (December 7,
bear's. And its neck was also unhuman, thicker and shorter 1965), George Draper discussed a hair-raising story which added
than any man's I have ever seen. to the evidence that the ABSM may sometimes hunt human
beings. Mr. O. R. Edwards, owner of a lock and safe company in
Mr. Roe's studied description came from his encounter in Fresno, California, testified that he had encountered a man-animal
October 1955 when he was climbing Mica Mountain near Tete in the southern Siskiyou Mountains during World War II:
Jaune Cache, Alberta, Canada. The time was about three o'clock "I saw a large man-hke creature covered with brown hair,"
in the afternoon. The report continued: Edwards stated. "It was about seven feet taU and it was carrying in
its arms what seemed Uke a man. I could only see legs and shoes.
Finally, the wild thing must have gotten my scent, for it It was heading sfraight downhill on the run.
looked directly at me through an opening in the brush. A "I, of course, did not beUeve what I had just seen. So I closed
look of amazement crossed its face. It looked so comical at my eyes and shook my head to sort of clear things up.
that moment I had to grin. StiU in a crouched position, it "I looked down the hill again in time to see the back and shoul-
backed up three or four steps, then sttaightened up to its full ders and head of a man-like thing covered with brown hair. It was
height and started to walk rapidly back the way it had come. disappearing into the brush some seventy to eighty yards below."
For a moment it watched over its shoulder as it went, not Edwards also claimed that the creature emitted "the damned-
exactly afraid, but as though it wanted no contact with any- est whistling-scream I ever heard." Draper noted that "other
thing strange. observers have described the man-animal's strange cry as 'a
The thought came to me that if I shot it I would possibly vibrating sound' or Uke the sound of a steam locomotive whistle
have a specimen of great interest to scientists the world or the sound of metal tearing." One witness, a geologist named
over... I leveled my rifle. The creature was stiU walking R. A. E. Morley, said the animal issued "a vibrating wail, Uke a
rapidly away, again turning its head in my direction. I low- person in pain."
ered the rifle. Although I have caUed the creature 'it,' I felt Did Mr. Edwards actually see an ABSM kidnap a human?
now that it was a human being, and I knew I would never There are many tales to this effect, some told by people who pur-
forgive myself if I killed it. portedly had been the victims of such events and had lived to teU
Just as it came to the other patch of brush it threw its head the story. The most celebrated is the elaborately detailed narrative
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

of an elderly Canadian, Mr. Albert Ostman, who claims that he George F. Haas, periodically publishes a newsletter, The Bigfoot
was carried off by a tribe of Sasquatches in 1924 and held pris- Bulletin, for monster collectors. Up in Yakima, Washington, the
oner for several days. He described males, females and "chil- Abominable Snowmen Club of America thrives, selling phono-
dren." It would take several pages for us to recount his whole graph records of eyewitness testimony and offering an ornate
story properly. He has repeated it in many interviews and on membership certificate to those who wish to prove their devotion
radio, and Ivan Sanderson gives the full details in his book. The to the subject.
story is so incredible that it raises an element of doubt. But, then, In a number of instances "Big Foot" has displayed superhuman
our years of experience in this field have taught us that the more strength by angrily throwing heavy objects such as metal drums
bizarre a story is, the more likely it is to be true. Liars who want to filled with gasoline, and hurling huge tractor tires great distances,
be taken seriously don't try to "sell" absurdities. somewhat to the consternation of construction workers and lum-
berers in the remote "Big Foot" haunts. This tire-throwing feature
The California "Big Foot" surfaced in die 1950s and created a seems to be a peculiar ABSM habit and has turned up in a number
sensation of several years' duration, particularly in northern Cali- of reports.
fornia close to the Oregon border. Oregon has also had its share of On the one hand, part of our testimonial evidence suggests that
ABSM sightings, as has the state of Washington, still farther the ABSM is abysmally stupid, more animal than human. Some
north. Apparently die creatures have been moving up and down have been tempted to jump to the conclusion that he has big feet
the western mountain ranges from Canada, and when die many and a small brain. Yet, there are contradictory reports which indi-
sightings are laid out on a map they seem to follow a definite cate that the animal is keenly alert, even sensitive, and is able to
mountain route. In addition to the hundreds of physical sightings easily outsmart and elude his pursuers. Perhaps we are trying to
there have also been hundreds of "footprint" discoveries through- cope with several entirely different animals. The ten-foot giants
out that region. From time to time local authorities and Type B may have only a tenuous relationship to the smaller ABSM. Some
scientists have tried to quell the "monster mania" by denouncing may be more human than animal, and vice versa. Some may be
the tracks as die work of practical jokers. This would mean that part of another phenomenon altogether, more psychic or halluci-
some hardy soul has gone through the trouble of constructing a natory than real. We will deal with that aspect further on.
special pair of giant shoes which can leave imprints so convincing There is now substantial physical evidence proving the exis-
that zoologists and anthropologists could be fooled by them. Said tence of genuine man-like animals. First of all, we have plaster
hoaxster would then have to trek thousands of miles through very casts of giant footprints collected from many continentsfrom
rugged areas, scattering his tracks in places where the chance of the remote borderlands of Tibet to the pastoral hills of Indiana.
anyone ever finding them would be almost zero. And he would Many of these casts match! Scientists have spun fanciful theories
have to be very persistent, stomping up and down the mountains about the Earth's ancient past from a single piece of bone or a sin-
year after year for almost two decades. gle fossil fragment. The ABSM evidence is far more substantial
"Big Foot" is now an integral part of California folklore. The than the fragmentary evidence which has been accepted as sup-
Humboldt State College Library at Areata, California, has com- port for many anthropological theories.
piled one of the world's most complete collections of Abominable Second, unique animal droppings have been found at many of
Snowman literature and lore. A man in Oakland, California, Mr. the monster sites and analyzed by qualified men. These materials
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

indicate that the animals are vegetarians in some areas, and live on read an article by Ivan T. Sanderson. He began makingfield inves-
small rodents and wildUfe in others. There is now enough of this tigations in his home state of Washington and interviewing wit-
evidence so we can reach some general scientific conclusions if nesses who had claimed to have glimpsed old "Big Foot." In his
only we could collect the materials together in a single place for treks about the state he discovered a number of the classic foot
comparative studies. tracks and dutifully made plaster casts of them. He estabhshed the
Third, we now have photographic evidence of a high order. Abominable Snowmen Club of America in the early 1960s, and
Motion pictures have been made of one of the creatures. spent all of his spare time and money travehng and investigating
Thefirst alleged ABSM photo is admittedly veryflimsy. It was new cases.
published in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 7, 1965, On October 20, 1967, Patterson and Bob Gimhn were explor-
and depicts a black human-like figure between some trees. The ing the "Big Foot" country northeast of Eureka, California on
figure is quite indistinct and the story behind the photo is even horseback. They rounded a bend and came upon a small creek. On
more vague. It seems that a man identifying himself as Zack the otiier side, about a hundred feet away, there stood a huge, furry
Hamilton dropped off afilm for developing at the Brooks camera creature. At first they thought it was a bear but then it stood upright
store in San Francisco around 1960. He told manager Dick Rus- and started to walk away. Their horses became terrified and threw
sell an eerie tale about being stalked by a hairy monster in central them. Patterson managed to grab his loaded movie camera and he
Oregon, and he said he had taken some pictures of it. Hamilton ran after the animal. It was a female. He excitedly cranked off sev-
never retumed for his finished photos, and Mr. Russell, when he eral feet of film while she strolled into the bmsh and disappeared.
first examined them, said, "I got prickly all over when I realized "She was about seven feet tall, and from examination of her
they were the pictures the oldtimer said he had taken in the bmsh. tracks later, we estimate her to weigh in the neighborhood of three
I never saw anything like them." Russellfiled them away and for- hundred pounds," Patterson said. "She was covered with short,
got about them until he read some of the Chronicle's "Big Foot" shiny black hair, even on her big, droopy breasts. She seemed to
stories. About all we can say about the photo is that the figure have a sort of peak on the back of her head, but whether this was
does look broadmuch broader than a manand it doesn't more hair or not I don't know.
appear to be walking like a bear or any other known animal. "Anyway, hau" came right down her forehead to meet her eye-
The motion picture is another story. It created quite a sensation brows, if she had any; and it came up to just under her cheek-
in 1968 and has been carefully studied by a variety of scientists bones. And she had no neck. What I mean is that the bottom of her
and government officials. Some believe it to be absolutely authen- head just seemed to broaden out onto her big muscular shoulders.
tic. Others are bewildered and dubious. We have it on good "She walked like a mana big man in a hurry . . . the soles of
authority that the man who took it has not made a nickel on it. He her feet were definitely hght in color."
has, in fact, been denounced as a hoaxster in some Type B circles. Among those who viewed the film was Dr. John R. Napier,
If thefilm had been taken by a vacationing school teacher, a min- Director of Primate Biology at the Smithsonian Institute in Wash-
ister, or even a teenaged hunter, it might have had somewhat more ington, D.C. He later stated, "I observed nothing that, on scientific
impact. Unfortunately, it was taken by one of America's leading grounds, would point conclusively to a hoax. I am satisfied that
monster hunters and ABSM authorities, Mr. Roger Patterson. the walk of the creature shown in thefilm was consistent with the
Mr. Patterson wasfirst attracted to this subject in 1959 when he bipedal striding gait of a man.
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

"The bodily proportions of the creature, as far as could be seen, upon the litde village of Rolling Stone, Minnesota, where the
appeared to be within the normal limits for man. The appearance refrigerated van was kept during the winter under the care of
of the high crest on top of the skull is unknown, but given a crea- Frank Hansen.
ture as heavily built as the subject, such a bio-chemical adaptation The scientists worked methodically in the freezing cold, setting
to an exclusivelyfibrous raw vegetable diet is not impossible." up lights and cameras to photograph the cake of ice from all
But Roger Patterson had not solved the mystery. He had only angles, making careful measurements and drawings. They knew
compounded it. that if they tried to free the body from the ice the decay would be
Now we had a seemingly authentic movie of an ABSM female. accelerated and the specimen would quickly be reduced to a heap
All we needed to clinch our case was a body of one of the crea- of bones and rotting flesh.
tures. The final amazing chapter to this epic was written in It was shaped like an adult human male, six feet tall and cov-
December 1968, when a body turned up and was examined by ered with dark brown hair three to four inches long. Visible por-
Ivan Sanderson and Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans, the great European tions of the skin were a pale white. The hands were almost
authority. This should have settled the matter once and for all. But human except for thumbs which were excessively long. The feet
it didn't. The discovery was given a big play in the press but when measured eight inches wide across the toes; the Utfle toes were
reporters went to view the remains they discovered only a wax almost as big as the others. Thick hair covered the feet. The
rephca. So new stories were published denouncing the whole hands and feet were more human than apelike, the scientists
affair as a hoax. Could two experienced authorities like Sanderson noted.
and Heuvelmans have made such a mistake? The left arm was twisted awkwardly upward, and was visibly
On May 3, 1967, the corpus delecti went on exhibit in a refrig- fractured midway between the wrist and the elbow, giving the
erated van attached to a travehng show in the Midwest. Thou- appearance of a "sawdust doll." The right arm was twisted also,
sands of people paid thirty-five cents for the privilege of trooping with the open palm spreadflat against the abdomen.
through the van that season and the next. The barker outside made Somebody had apparently shot it in the right eye, and the eye
no effort to identify the creature, merely classifying it as another was dangling out of the socket. It also seemed to have been shot in
of nature's mysteries. The body was deeply entombed in a huge the chest, and Heuvelmans speculated that the creature may have
cake of ice with soft lights focused on it. People entered the van been hit in the left arm when it attempted to defend itself. Its face
not knowing what they were going to see and left not knowing had a large pug nose, more like that of a Pekingese dog than a
what they had seen. Finally, a herpetologist from Milwaukee, gorilla, with large, circular nostrils pointing straight forward. The
Wisconsin, Mr. Terry Cullen, paid his thirty-five cents, wandered mouth was wide with no visible lips, and some small teeth were
into the exhibit, and then rushed to a telephone to call Ivan T. exposed. These were in no way similar to the teeth of chimps or
Sanderson long distance. Sanderson, long hardened from constant gorillas.
exposure to hoaxes and the almost endless nonsense that revolved "To meat leastthe most interesting features of all are
around the study of monsters, was wary atfirst. But Cullen's cre- some folds and wrinkle lines around the mouth just below the
dentials were respectable, and his description of the frozen animal cheeks," Sanderson wrote in Argosy (May 1969). "These are
was detailed enough to excite his interest. absolutely human, and are like those seen in a heavy jowled,
In December 1968 Sanderson and Heuvelmans descended older white man."
 THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS
JOHN A. KEEL

requested permission to inspect and X-ray the specimen.

The neck was so short that it hardly was a neck at all. The face
This request wasflatiy refused by Mr. Hansen in a letter in
and forehead were hairless.
which he also stated that the specimen which we have
Sanderson was of the opinion that the being had been killed
inspected had been removed by the owner and would never
somewhere on the North American Continent very recently.
again be exhibited, while a manmade copy was being pre-
Another member of the team, geologist Jack Ullrich, concurred.
pared for the coming show season. Why such was needed
"It can be stated categorically that this corpse is only a few years
when a copy was allegedly already on hand is not clear.
old," he said.
However, the Smithsonian was led to a professional model-
Dr. Heuvelmans prepared a scientific paper on the find, com-
maker who stated that he had made just such a copy in April
paring the corpse with the known characteristics of the suppos-
of 1967. Meantime, we had traced to another professional
edly extinct Neanderthal man. He gave the creature a scientific
model-maker who stated just as categorically, and for the
label: Homo pongoides ("Ape-like man").
record, that he had made another in April of this year. Both
What happened next is best told in Ivan Sanderson's own
parties asked that their names not be divulged, but our man
words, in a statement published in Pursuit (July 1969), the journal
did say that he had been so requested by Frank Hansen!
he edits:
Hansen then turned up with the new model on exhibit in St.
Paul, Minnesota, with a new track containing a 'something'
Mr. Hansen told us that he was not the owner; that he did not
on ice. This, however, did not resemble the thing we saw,
know what the thing was; and that he didn't want to know as
and in five essential points. Further, the new signs on the
it was a better exhibit for fairs and midways when advertised
trailer called the exhibit 'SIBERSKOYA CREATUREA
as a mystery. Later, he told us that he had been led to it, in a
Manmade Allusion' (sic); and it had a large notice saying
deep-freeze plant in Hong Kong, and had subsequently
'As investigated by the FBI.'
bought it, on the request of the owner. He refused to say who
this person was or how the object was imported into the Incidently, the FBI did not investigate the matter since, as
country. He further told us that said owner had had a copy they stated officially to the Smithsonian, they had no
made in Hollywood by a professional model-maker (for film grounds for doing so. In view of these facts, the Smithsonian
makers and wax museums) "just in case something like this decided to drop the matter; and in this we heartily concurred
happened." The 'this' was the possibility that a scientist of because there would be no use in examining a wax or latex-
Heuvelmans' stature, who happens to have spent over rabber model clothed in bear fur and stuffed with sawdust!
twenty years investigating the possibiUty of such ultra- However, there are a number of points left up in the air, and
primitive hominids still existing, examining it, and then pub- we can almost guarantee that you have not heard the last of
lishing a scientific paper on itwhich he did in the Bulletin this case by a long shot.
of the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Belgium in Feb-
ruary of this year. So the find of the century turned into the hoax of the decade.
As a result of this publication, the world press became What happened to the specimen Dr. Heuvelmans and Ivan
alerted, and many scientists and notably the Smithsonian Sanderson originally examined? And why would the mysterious
Institution became interested and the latter formally owner go tiirough the trouble and expense of constructing two
 JOHN A. K E E L

possibly even three^fake models (such models do not come

cheap)? He will have to sell a lot of thirty-five-cent-tickets to
recover his investment. If the original body was real, who shot it
and where? TEN
This promising bit of physical evidence collapsed before our
eyes. But we still have another kind of solid evidencethe cor-
roborative testimony of hundreds of eyewitnesses from all over
the world. There may be no ABSM encased in a block of ice in
Minnesota, but diere seem to be plenty of live specimens dashing
Creatures From the
about all over the world.
Black Lagoon

hunter is splashing alone through a swamp. Suddenly

his dog begins to howl, flips his tail between his legs,
Land runs off. The brush ahead of the startled hunter
stirs and a great hoary shadow rises up, uttering an unearthly
screech. It towers above the man by two or three feet. He is too
surprised and too paralyzed with fear to raise hisrifle. The thing
shuffles off into the blackness of the swamp.
This drama has been acted so many times over the years that
the basic job of simply cataloging such incidents is almost impos-
sible. The swamp creature is not necessarily a special breed of
monster, though. In most cases the descriptions are very similar to
our mountaineering Abominable Snowman. We shall call him the
Abominable Swamp Slob, or A.S.S., for short. While the ABSM
thrives in forests and high places, the A.S.S. prefers low-level
marshes and bayous. There's hardly a respectable swamp in the
Deep South that does not boast at least one A.S.S. As usual, our
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

local historical expert;s, the Indians, have many legends and sto- there, and it had a very muscular structure. The head sat directly
ries about the swamp creatures. It would seem that all wet, dark, on the shoulders and the face was dark black, with hair which
forbidding places are inhabited by unspeakable monsters of some stuck out on the back of its head; had eyes set close together and a
sort. Frequently our Swamp Slobs blunder onto highways, drip- very short forehead. It was all covered with hair except for the
ping with water and an ungodly stench, and try to flag down pass- back of the hands and the face. The hands looked like normal
ing motorists. Perhaps one of these Slobs served as the original hands, not claws."
inspiration for the popular horror movie of some years ago. The George was transfixed with shock and fright for a moment,
Creature from the Black Lagoon. then he made a move to get into the family automobile parked
Swamps have also provided a strange attraction for flying nearby. The creature made "a strange grunting sound," turned,
saucers. There have been some spectacular sightings in and jumped over a ditch, and ran down the road at high speed, quickly
around swamps in recent years. The ABSM episodes discussed in disappearing out of sight. Footprints were found in the dirt by the
die previous chapters may appear to have httle or no relationship ditch. They showed three toes plus a big toe. Plaster casts were
to unidentified flying objects, but as we move along you may later made of these prints.
receive some rude shocks. UFOs have a habit of chasing automo- A neighbor of the Kaisers', Mr. Charles Rolfing, reportedly
biles like naughty puppies. So do our hairy humanoids. UFOs like watched an unidentified flying object for about eight minutes,
to sneak up on and scare lovers parked in isolated places. So do shortly after 10:15 P.M. on May 20. He studied it through binocu-
our ABSM and A.S.S. UFOs seem to be able to cause power fail- lars and described it as being a glowing greenish-white.
ures, auto stallings, and radio interference. So, incredibly, do our So here we have a sequence of interesting coincidences. A
smelly freaks! local power failure on May 18; a creature sighting on May 19; and
On Sunday evening. May 18, 1969, the lights went out in a a UFO sighting on May 20. As Ian Fleming's Goldfinger remarked,
small area outside of Rising Sun, Indiana (Ohio County). The "Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; three times is enemy
home of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Kaiser was without power for two action." If you read the rest of this book carefufly you will become
hours. They thought nofliing of the incident at the time, although aware of many surprising coincidences. As they mount up they
strange lights and weird flying objects had occasionally been become correlations. The correlations, in turn, mount to become
sighted along a nearby ridge. evidence. The only way to feed you all the evidence is to bury you
At 7:30 P.M. on the foUowing evening. May 19, young George in the data. We intend to give you enough data so that you may
Kaiser was walking towards a tractor on the farm when his dog draw your own conclusions. Imagine that you are sitting on a jury
began to growl and bark. He looked up and saw a grotesque figure and we are lawyers parading our witnesses before you.
standing about twenty-five feet away. Whatever it was, it was the Type B scientists, the viUains of this book, have a pat explana-
size of a man and covered with black fur. tion for each type of anomalous occurrence. Their standard
"I watched it for about two minutes before it saw me," young answer to the local United States ABSM sightings is that an ape or
Kaiser told investigator Bonnie Roman. "It stood in a fairly a gorilla has "escaped from a zoo or circus." They have wheeled
upright position although it was bent over about in the middle of this one out in scores of events, despite the fact that energetic
its back, with arms about the same length as a normal human reporters and police carefully checked all known zoos and cir-
being . . . I'd say it was aboutfive feet seven or eight, in between cuses and always learned that no such escapee was at large. But if
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

a group of people should see a hairy humanoid near your home- afterwards a farmer three miles away called in to report seeing the
town tomorrow you can almost be certain that the next day some thing. Pohce found tracks at both places and tried to follow them,
college professor or self-styled "expert" will sagely announce that losing the trail in the nearby woods. That was supposedly the end
"obviously a gorilla has escaped from the zoo"even if there is of the Long Island "ape."
no zoo in your area, or, if there is, it has never had a resident Or was it? This particular section of Long Island, with Hunting-
gorilla. As we stated earlier, real experts have estimated that the ton in tiie north. Minela in the east, and Babylon in the south, con-
entire gorilla population worldwideincluding those in zoosis stitutes a very interesting UFO "window." We have spent many
four hundred. The Type B scientists have got them outnumbered. days there in the past three years, talking toflying saucer witnesses
Back in 1931 an "escaped ape" ("obviously") was running and collecting some very odd information. There have been numer-
around Long Island, only a few minutes from New York City. In ous monster sightings in a rather desolate hilly and wooded section
June of that year half a dozen persons at Lewis & Valentine's south of Huntington since 1966. Neckers parked in an area known,
nursery near Minela, Long Island, excitedly reported the sudden appropriately enough, as Mount Misery claim to have been terrified
appearance and disappearance of afleet-footed "ape-like animal, by a giant seven-foot, human-shaped something. It tiims up period-
hairy creatureabout four feet tall." "Monster mania" struck ically in a place where many low-flying, glowing, saucer-shaped
Long Island. The pohce received so many alarmed calls that the and cigar-shaped objects have been seen. The leading expert in
Nassau County Pohce Department sent out ape-hunting details Mount Misery is a young lady named Jaye R Paro. Miss Paro is a
armed with shotguns. No circus was in town. A head count was reporter and radio broadcaster and has been studying the history of
taken of the gorillas in the nearest zoos. Nobody was missing. tie area for years. She has made efficient and responsible investiga-
Still, the hairy httle fellow kept pouncing out of bushes, scaring tions into many of the UFO and creature sightings, and in January
Long Islanders half to death. On June 29, Captain Earle Comstock 1969 she succeeded in photographing a very unusual being in the
organized a dozen heavily armed police patrols. They were joined secluded woods on the top of the Mount. Fortunately she had a wit-
by twenty hardy citizens armed with pitchforks and other weap- ness with her and he signed the following statement:
ons. The-four-foot-tall hairy thing must have seen the mob com-
ing, and all the monster busters found were a lot of footprints: At 8 A.M. on Sunday, January 12, 1969,1 drove with Jaye P.
"The prints seemed to be solely those of the hind feet and were Faro and Barbara LaMonica of Huntington, New York, to
about the size and shape of a man's hand, though the thumb was the area of Mount Misery for the purpose of taking photo-
set further back than would be the case with a man's hand." graphs of the landscape. We pulled our car into a partial
Just to keep the pohce on their toes, Mrs. E. H. Tandy of clearing on the left side of Mt. Misery Road, then decided to
Mlveme, Long Island, reported seeing a lion in her back yard! It continue on foot. We decided to photograph an area which
took the police three hours to locate a lion gun, so by the time they was located aboutfive hundred feet from our car.
reached the Tandy s' the animal had ambled off, never to be seen Jaye was ready to take herfirst shot, when through the cor-
again. ner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a moving black object.
The "ape's" final appearances were in the middle of July. A Knowing we were completely alone in this desolate area, we
nurseryman named Stockman reported that his family had seen a were very scared. Immediately Jaye Urnied and snapped the
gorilla thrashing about in the shmbbery near Huntington. Soon first two pictures. The three of us were horrified to see the fig-
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

ure of something that resembled a human, disfigured face, original reports cover many pages. Some have included photo-
long wild black hair, and dressed in a long black garment. It graphs, plaster casts, and lengthy tape recordings of the witnesses.
retreated immediately fiirther into the bushes, made no Others are based upon detailed newspaper stories written and
sounds, and made no attempt to communicate with us. Frozen published by competent local reporters. Devout monster collec-
in her tracks Jaye dropped her camera. I picked it up and shot tors will recognize some of these items. Some may complain
the two remaining pictures. Barbara started to run to the car. because we have found it necessary to be so terse. This catalog is
Jaye and I followed and we took off in a cloud of dust. by no means complete. There have been literally diousands of
[SIGNED] RICHARD DIMARTINO sightings reported in the years 196090 so this is just a sampling.
We haven't attempted to list the almost countless sightings in
What was it? A practical joker lying in wait on a bitter cold Canada. Those would require another book twice the size of this
Sunday at 8 A.M.? Not very likely. A hermit? There are no rumors one. Author Brad Steiger once compiled a whole book centered
of a hermit living around Mount Misery. The photo depicts a dark around hairy monster events that occurred in the vicinity of UFO
blob with a very bushy head of hair extending a pale, long- sightings. Add up all this material and it appears as if these smelly
fingered hand. (This picture was published in Beyond Magazine giants have us outnumbered.
[July 1969], together with an article by Miss Paro on other
unusual incidents around Mount Misery.) The residences around
Mount Misery are mosdy estates owned by officials from the Alabama
United Nations and by other dignitaries. The late Henry L. Stim-
son. Secretary of War during World War II, maintained a mansion 1. A "Booger," as the locals called it, created quite a stir around
on the very summit of the Mount. Clan ton, Alabama, in the fall of 1960. Several witnesses reported
To demonstrate our conclusion that these events tend to recur seeing a tall, hairy creature around Walnut Creek. A posse was
in the same "window" areas year after year and even century after formed and found footprints which resembled those of "a giant
century, we will present a catalog of monster sightings summariz- ape." Shortly after the posse quit the chase, the Reverend E. C.
ing many of the major and minor incidents of the past few years. Hand saw the monster near Liberty Hill, grabbed his shotgun, and
Further on we wiU show you how the details in these varied cases pursued it. But it got away.
correlate and suggest a solution to the overall mystery. This mate- "I can make my dogs catch a mule," Reverend Hand said, "but
rial has been collected from a great many sources, including the I could not get them to venture out toward the 'Booger'."
massive files of Ivan T. Sanderson, Roger Patterson, Loren Cole- As time passed there were more reports. Some witnesses
man, Mark Francis, Mark Opsasnick, The INFO Journal, Pursuit, claimed the animal made a sound "like a woman screaming." Oth-
The Fortean Times, FATE, Strange, and, of course, our own ers said it sounded more like an elephant. It also prowled peach
swelling files. We have organized this material by states, to give orchards, apparently sampling peaches.
you some idea of the geographical dispersion of these reports. Five years later, on August 30, 1965, the Union-Banner at
Unlike the cult publications, we have not tampered with these sto- Clanton carried this illuminating story: "Some six years ago sev-
ries in any way. We try to present the facts as originally reported. eral people out on Walnut Creek a mile or so from Clanton
But necessity has forced us to condense each item. Some of the reported seeing some animal like a bear. It made some curious
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

sounds at night kindly [i/c] like a woman in distress. It ranged up

and down the creek for a distance of some ten miles. 3. "It ran upright like a man, swingin' long, hairy arms," said Ray
"Then some four years ago something made tracks in peach Kerr of McKinleyville, Cahfomia, as he described his sighting of
orchards some three miles south of Clanton, near large swamps. It "Big Foot" on Sunday, October 12, 1958. He was near Bluff
was supposed to vanish into the swamps at night. A cement cast Creek when he saw it. "It happened so fast, it's kinda hard to give
was made of the track, about the size of a person's foot but look- a really close description. But it was covered witii hafr. It had no
ing more like a hand. The cast is still somewhere in Clanton." clothes. It looked eight to ten feet tall to me."
Roy Wallace, said he had seen a similar creature a short time
earher. It was hairy, walked stooped over, had long danghng arms,
California and was "four feet across the shoulders."
The mutilated bodies of four dogs were found in the area by
2. The following account was pubhshed in 1896 in a booklet Curtis Mitchell, an Indian, on the evening of Kerr's sighting.
titled The Hermit of Siskiyou by L. W. Music: "They looked as if they had been ripped apart," he said. "One of
them had apparently been slammed against a tree. The bodies
Note 1. A Del Norte Record correspondent writing from were still warm when they were discovered off the Elk River road
Happy Camp, Siskiyou County, Jan. 2, 1886, discourses as about five miles south of Eureka, California."
follows: "I do not remember to have seen any reference to
the 'Wild Man' which haunts this part of the country, so I 4. Charles Wetzel was driving home in Riverside, California, on
shall allude to him briefly. Not a great while since, Mr. Jack Saturday night, November 8, 1958, and as he neared the point
Dover, one of our most trastworthy citizens, while hunting where North Main Stteet crosses the Santa Ana River something
saw an object standing one hundred and fifty yardsfrom him leaped in front of his car.
picking berries and tender shoots from the bushes. The thing "It had a round, scarecrowish head," he said, "hke sometiiing
was of gigantic sizeabout seven feet highwith a bull out of Halloween.
dog head, short ears and long hair; it was also furnished with "It wasn't human. It had a longer arm than anything I'd ever
a beard,' and wasfree from hair on such parts of its body as seen. When it saw me in the car it reached all the way back to the
is common among men. Its voice was shrill, or soprano, and windshield and began clawing at me.
very human, like that of a woman in great fear. Mr. Dover "It didn't have any ears. The face was all round. The eyes were
could not see its footprints as it walked on hard soil. He shining like something fluorescent, and it had a protuberant
aimed his gun at the animal, or whatever it was, several mouth. It was scaly, like leaves."
times, but because it was so human would not shoot. The Wetzel reached for the .22 pistol he carried m the car and
range of the curiosity is between Marble Mountain and the "stomped on the gas."
vicinity of Happy Camp. A number of people have seen it "The thing fell back from the car and it gurgled. The noise it
and all agree in their descriptions except some make it taller made didn't sound human. I think I hit it. I heard sometiiing hit
than others. It is apparently herbiverous and makes winter the pan under the car."
quarters in some caves of Marble Mountain." There were long sweeping scratches on his windshield but
 14 JOHN A. KEEL THE C O M P L E T E G U E TO M Y S T E R I O U S B E I N G S 15

nothing was found at the site. The next night a six-foot-tall black miles nortii of Riverside, site of tiie 1958 Wetzel sighting. There
thing leaped out of the bushes near die Wetzel site and frightened has also been considerable UFO activity in this particular area over
another motorist. The Wetzel story was widely circulated by the the past few years.
wire services and has become a monster "classic."
8. A treasure hunter, Harold Lancaster, was prospecting in the
5. Walking home in late evening, a resident of Hoopa Valley, Borrego Sink near Borrego Springs, California, in July 1968,
identified only as Peters, saw a strange creature jump out, utter a when he saw an "apeman."
surprised grunt, jump afive-foot fence in one agile leap, and dis- "I was camped up on a mesa one morning when I saw a man
appear into the darkness. It was not a bear, appeared not too much walking in the desert," Lancaster reported. "The figure came
taller than a man, but was of tremendous width.' closer. I thought it was anotiier prospector. Then I picked up my
binoculars and saw tiie strangest sight of my tife.
6. Five witnesses reported that a tall, haity creature was discovered "It was a real giant apeman!"
ransacking their car while diey were picnicking in a forest outside Lancaster fired his .22 pistol in die ak. "I was afraid the beast
San Diego, Cahfomia, in July 1966. It growled and ran off, they might get too close," he said. "The 'sandman' jumped a good
said, hiding behind a tree and springing at diem as diey later drove three feet off the ground when die sounds of the shots reached
past. It tried to reach into the window of the car, they claimed. Fur- him. He turned his head, looked toward me and then took off run-
ther on tiiey saw anotiier tallfigure sitting by die side of the road, ning in die other direction."^
apparently watching tiiem go by rather nonchalantly. They said
these beings were covered widi reddish hair and were well over six-
feet tall. They were not bears or odier known animals.^ Colorado
7. Late in July 1966 two frightened teen-aged girls reported they 9. Rush Limbaugh, a popular radio/TV personality, received a
had been in a car near Lytie Creek outside of Fontana, California, phone call on October 24, 1990, from a man who claimed he had
when a "bush beast" suddenly stood up beside their vehicle. They seen a giant, hairy, man-like being near Pike's Peak. It looked at
described it as being seven-feet tall, widi brown hair and covered him, then calmly turned and walked away.
with moss and sUme. Their report kicked off a monster epidemic
and over 250 people, most of them armed to the teedi, poured into
the area on a massive monster hunt. The Bernardino County sher- Connecticut
iff's office said that amateur "bush beast" hunters were swarming
nightly over the barren foothills, filling the night with wild gunfire. 10. On October 29, 1989, a large, upright hairy creature was seen
The shme-covered A.S.S. got away. Fontana is only about twenty near a target range outside Bristol, Connecticut.

'Humboldt, California Times, July 20, 1963.

'Courtesy APRO. ^Saga magazine, July 1969.
106 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

Florida "The dog kept biting at its ankles and feet, and the creature
very slowly and methodically turned and started walking down
11. In 1963 several persons on a ranch outside of Holopaw, the road that leads back to the swamp and the river," Chambers
Horida, said they had seen an ape-like creature running across a reported.
field. A "prominent cattleman and citrus grower" claimed he was
in a group that been within a few feet of the creature and that "it 14. An alleged UFO landing had occurred in Brooksville,
was definitely an ape of some kind." Florida, in 1965. There has been much UFO activity throughout
In 1966-67, the Holopaw "ape" was back. Eugene Crosby said it Florida in the past twenty years. During the peak "flap" period of
wasfive feet tall, hairy, very broad, and walked on two feet. It threw MarchApril 1966, Mrs. Eula Lewis of Brooksville reported that
a tire tube at him. Other stories described how a six-foot-tall "ape" local residents were being disturbed by inexplicable "shrill
attacked two hunters on the Desert (Mormon) ranch. They are sup- screaming" sounds. She heard her dogs barking one night, and
posed to have shot at it and it went screaming into the darkness. when she looked out the window she saw a "big hairy thing stand-
Later an unoccupied tent house on the ranch was broken into, fur- ing in the yard. The thing was swinging its arms and the dogs
nishings were broken and scattered, and blood stains were found. were yapping to beat hell trying to get it. It started going back into
the woods with the dogs still chasing it."
12. A harsh, coughing sound made Ralph "Bud" Chambers of
Elfers, Florida, look around as he was walking in some woods 15. There were several hairy monster reports around Brooksville in
near the Anclote River in the summer of 1966. He saw a giant 1966-67. In May 1967 Joan Whritenour was invited to a ranch near
hairy thing standing in the trees. "The thing had a rancid, putrid New Port Richey where strange three-toed tracks had been found.
odor like stale urine," Chambers said. The county sheriff revealed that cattle were disappearing. No truck
He hurried away and brought back a friend. They followed the tracks or other evidence had been found to lead to the rustlers. "Just
creature's tracks into a swampy area. Chambers' dogs refused to where does a rustler put a full grown cow?" a sheriff's deputy asked
follow the scent, but whined and could not be coaxed into going Mrs. Whritenour. "Sure as hell not in his back pocket!"
near the creature's trail.
Later Chambers had another sighting. He said the thing was 16. A young woman was changing a tire on a lonely stretch of
over seven feet tall, and "at least four feet wide" at the chest. highway outside Brooksville, Florida, on Wednesday night,
November 30, 1966, when she heard a noise in the bushes and
13. In the summer of 1967 Chambers was awakened by the howl- became aware of a most unpleasant odor. Then a huge thing with
ing of one of his dogs. He looked out and saw the creature stand- large green eyes and an eerie greenish glow on one side of its
ing in his back yard. hairy torso stood up beside the road and studied her. She was ter-
"The thing just seemed to stare straight ahead. This time the rified. The creature walked off into the woods when another car
dog was so mad that it did attack the creature, probably because came along and stopped.
the dog felt the thing was invading home territory. The dog started
snapping at its legs, but the thing did not take any notice at all of 17. "There's a terrible smell around here. Can't you smell it?" the
the dog. girl complained. She was one of four teenagers parked in a
 1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

Lovers' Lane near Elfers, Florida, in January 1967. As die others Illinois
took deep breaths "an animal about the size of a large chim-
panzee" sprang onto the hood of the car. 20. The Reverend Lepton Harpole was taking a stroll one evening
in 1941, near his home outside of Mt. Vemon, IlUnois, when he
"Then we panicked!" the driver later told investigator Joan paused to Ught his pipe. Suddenly a beast leaped from a nearby
Whritenour. "The thing looked like a big chimp, but it was green- tree, knocking off his hat and knocking the pipe out of his mouth.
ish in color, with glowing green eyes. I started the motor and the Harpole said it jumped up and down while "making a very queer
thing jumped off and ran back into the woods. We tore like blazes sound." It was, he felt, of "the ape family," about three feet tall
back to the dance we were supposed to be attending." and dark brown in color.
A police officer from New Port Richey later visited the site and "This is as tme a story as was ever told," Harpole's brother said.
found a sticky green substance which remains unidentified.
In 1941^2 scores of people near Mount Vemon, Illinois reported
seeing a large, hairy humanoid, usually described as "a large
Georgia baboon." When farmers tried to pursue it they said that it was able
to leap ditches twenty feet wide with ease. It killed at least one
18. In August 1956 Joseph Whaley, an employee of the Georgia dog near Bonnie, Illinois. Large posses of armed men searched
Department of Forestry, was driving an open jeep about thirty the region in vain. Although it left a trail of footprints and dead
miles outside of Edison, Georgia, when a six-foot-tall, dark gray, animals, it seems to have vanished into thin air.
hairy man-shaped creature blundered out of the brush and chased
him. It grabbed at him, apparently trying to haul him from the 21. In an interview with Loren E. Coleman in November 1962,
jeep, scratching his arm. Whaley said, "It looked Hke a gorilla Steven Colhns said that he, Robert Earle, and two unidentified
except it had claws and long pointed ears." He was not anxious to men had seen a large gray animal standing upright in the middle
go back for a closer look. of a creek east of Decatur, Illinois, off East WiUiam Street Road.
They felt it was definitely not a bear.
19. A man named Tant King was walking in afield near Edi-
son, Georgia, one night in 1956, when he was frightened by "a lit- 22. "It looked tike a half-man, half-horse," said James McKinney
tie naked hairy man about three feet high" who came out of a of Centerville, Illinois, when he tried to describe the creature he
nearby woods and walked along the edge of a fence. Otiier men had seen in May 1963. Centerville police received more than fifty
called to the scene found tracks and strips of white curly hair calls within a few days, all reporting the strange animal. Police
about three inches long on the fence. The hair was analyzed at a searches failed tofind anything.
local crime lab and found to be human. A young reporter covered
the story and wrote a yam about a creature "eight feet tall," much 23. Four young people were parked in a car in the Montezuma
to Mr. King's annoyance. A zoologist named O. K. Fletcher spec- Hills outside of Decatur, Illinois, on September 22, 1965, when a
ulated it could have been a kangaroo! black, man-like monster approached their car. The young people
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

fled, but later the boys retumed to the spot alone and again saw the thing when it attacked and mauled his dogs, one a CoUie, the
monster. Pohce officers searched the area fruitlessly. "We don't other a German shepherd. He described it as black, six feet tall,
know what they saw," one officer said, "but they appeared to be with hanging arms that reached to its knees. On June 8 Siles
well-frightened." McKinney claimed the creature kiUed one of his calves. The
calf's carcass was found fifteen feet outside of its enclosure and
24. Tim Bullock and Barbara Smith were in a car parked near Chit- the gate was still shut. Claw marks were found around the bam
tyville, Ilhnois, (north of Herrin) on August 11,1968. At 8:30P.M. a and traces of black hair were also discovered. Examination of the
giantfigure suddenly appeared from the bushes, badly frightening calf indicated it had been killed by a blow on the head. Other ani-
the couple. They said it was ten feet tall, "with a head as large as a mals in the area disappeared or were found mutilated.
steering wheel and a round, hairy face." It threw dirt at them Sheriff Curtis Clem took the matter very seriously. Seven poUce
through the window. Bullock retumed to the spot the next day and dogs, a helicopter, and a posse scoured the area. Large footprints
found a large depression in the grass. People claimed that dogs in were found, Uke those of a giant dog. But various eyewitnesses
the area had been "carrying on" for the previous two weeks. attested that it was a large ape or bear. "A gorilla or a big
The editor of the Herrin, Ilhnois, Spokesman did not publish something-or-other with reddish hair" was the general description.
the story. He felt it was the work of some local practical jokers. J. Dan Webster, professor of zoology at Hanover, Indiana, said,
"I suspect it was a Great Dane, of which there are several in the
area."
Indiana Simultaneous with the Trimble County scare, citizens in Hazel,
Kentucky, were out hunting for a snake twenty-eight feet long
25. In 1962 a group of young people in a graveyard at Blue Clay which had been seen there.
Springs, Indiana, (near Richmond) reportedly saw a seven-foot-
tall creature with red eyes. It stood on two feet but ran on all fours,
ape-like, and was covered with white or silver hair. Footprints Maryland
found showed four long front toes.
27. A man named Pete Smith saw a six-foot-tall being covered
Hoosier National Forest. "Big Foot" sightings and tracks have with red hak near Dickerson, Maryland, on June 27, 1990. It
been reported throughout the Hoosier state, notably around Du walked-away casually.
Bois, French Lick, Bedford, WiUiams, Indian Springs, and Bum Researcher Mark Opsasnick has collected 219 critter reports,
City, all on the fringes of the Hoosier National Forest. most of them tall, hairy types, from 1882 to 1987 in the tiny state
of Maryland. Some have received national attention in the press.
The area from Virginia to Maryland has also spawned such
Kentucky infiiguing monsters as the Snallygaster, the Goatman, and Rabbit-
man. See Mr. Opsasnick's handy The Maryland Bigfoot Reference
26. Trimble County, Kentucky, was plagued with "monster Guide.
mania" in June 1962. A farmer named Owen Pike said he saw the
 112 JOHN A. KEEL
THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 113

Michigan "It didn't look like a man," Joyce said. Patsy described it as
being about seven feet tall with "a black face."
28. There is a swamp near Charlotte, Michigan, called "Gorilla
John Utiup told the Cass County sheriff that he had seen the
Swamp" because several years ago people there reportedly saw a
monster several times. One night as he was driving into his yard
huge gorilla wandering around. At least, it walked on two feet and
he saw it standing behind a bush. "It had big, bright shining eyes,"
was covered with hair. Data is skimpy.
he said. Mrs. Utrup told of how one of her shepherd dogs chased
the monster one night and came back with the pupil of one eye
29. This is one of the shortest stories in the files of Loren Cole-
turned a pale blue color. Weeks later the eye returned to normal.
man. "In the year 1937, Saginaw, Michigan, a fisherman sitting on
Many other witnesses came forward and were named in the
the banks of the Saginaw River is reputed to have seen a manlike
extensive newspaper accounts. Hundreds of people flocked to Sis-
monster climb up the river bank, lean upon a tree, and dien return
ter Lakes and the usual futile monster hunt took place. Local
to the river. The man suffered a nervous breakdown."
drive-ins did a big business selling "monster-burgers" and radio
station WSJM had a sponsored program of new monster reports
30. Two young men. Otto Collins and Philip WiUiams, claimed
and special "monster music."
that they ran into a giant, hair-covered, ape-like tiling outside of
Professor Frank E. Eggelton of the University of Michigan
Marshall, Michigan, in May 1956. According to their story, the
Zoology Department announced that he thought the monster was
creature picked them up, one under each arm, while their alarmed
a gorilla. Dr. WiUiam H. Burt, another zoologist at the university
companion, Herman Williams, scrambled for his gun. The beast
dropped them and "ambled off." They said that "it had big green disagreed.
eyes. They were as big as tight bulbs." And it smelled "like some- "It could be a black bear," Dr. Burt said. "The only trouble is
thing rotten." they usually don't wander that far south in Michigan. Bears are
about three feet tall at adult height, standing on all fours. When
they get up on their hind legs, which they occasionally do to look
31. Beginning around 1962 folks living in die vicinity of Sister
around, they might be five or six feet.
Lakes, Michigan, started seeing something nine feet tall tiiat made
"If it's tine that the 'monster' has been roaming around this
a whimpering sound. Then, in May 1964 "monster mania" hit the
area for-two years, it certainly wouldn't be a gorilla since they
region full force. A man named Gordon Brown told how he and
couldn't survive that long in this climate out-of-doors," Burt con-
his brother had seen the creature one night and followed its tracks.
cluded.
"We come to a tree," Brown said. "Well, I knew there weren't no
tree there before. Well, woweee! This thing was a-standing there.
32. In August 1965 the monster returned to Michigan, this time to
Well, we hightailed it right out of there."
the placid httle community of Monroe, due east of Sister Lakes in
Three teen-aged girls met the creature in broad daytight while
Cass County. We must add that this entire area is also one of the
walking along a side road in Silver Creek Township. Joyce Smith
major UFO "windows" in the United States. The celebrated
fainted on the spot. Patsy and Gail Clayton stood motionless, par-
Michigan flying saucer sightings of March 1966 took place at
alyzed with fear, as the tiling charged off into the underbrush.
Hillsdale, which ties directly between Monroe and Sister Lakes.
 114 - JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUlOE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 115

There have been thousands of UFO sightings in this immediate

area since 1896! A major UFO path goes through the state of Michigan. The Great
Sixteen people reportedly encountered the monster in June and Wave of March 1966 began there. But, as you can see, Michigan
July 1965. Things really got serious when two attacks occurred in also has more than its share of "Big Foot" incidents. These seem
a single week. On Wednesday, August 11, David Thomas was to be concentrated in Oscoda County, particularly around the
driving a group of women home from a neighborhood baby lakes and Foley Swamp.
shower when the thing jumped in front of their car. Author John Fuller wrote a book about the accident at the
Thinking that it was a neighborhood prankster, Thomas got out Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant, mentioned above, titled "We
of the car to take a swing at it. When he discovered that it tow- Almost Lost Detroit."
ered above his six-foot frame he prudently decided to return to
the car.
It struck him in the back, he said, throwing him against the Mississippi
auto. He leaped back into it and drove off as the hairy arms
thumped on the roof and fenders. Other people in the immediate 33. Lost Gap, a heavily wooded area about five miles east of
area saw the creature that same night. Keith Mercure said he fired Meridian, Mississippi, was gripped with "monster mania" in
his shotgun at it. Some witnesses described it as "smelhng 1962. It began when a group of teen-agers reported seeing a
moldy." Most agreed that it was at least seven feet tall, hairy, and green-eyed monster six to nine feet tall. Soon there were dozens
had very long arms. It "grunted and growled like a mad dog." of other corroborating witnesses. Chief Deputy Alton Allen said
On Friday night, August 13, Mrs. Rose Owen and her daughter he was convinced that the monster existed, and a huge search
Christine Van Archer, said the monster ran alongside their car, party was organized. Bloodhounds and a hehcopter were brought
jumped on the side of it, reached through the open window, and into play but nothing was found. Nine years earher, according to
grabbed Christine by the hair. one story, raihoad men working in the area where the monster
"We both screamed but the monster kept beating her head was later seen found that their compasses would not work.
against the door until Christine fainted," Mrs. Owen said. "I
jumped out of the car and ran to a house for help." 34. Two-truckers, Wilham and James Cagle, were headed for
Christine had a black eye from that adventure, and her photo Marietta, Georgia, on the Tuesday night, November 8, 1966. As
was widely pubhshed, even in Time magazine. they rounded a curve near Winona, Mississippi, a strange creature
Another giri, Shirley Morrin, of Temperance, Michigan, said ran down a slope towards their vehicle.
that the giant hairy thing jumped on her car, too, breaking her "When my headlights picked him up, he was on our left side,"
windshield and scratching her arm. James Cagle explained. "He was aggressive, angry, and ready to
Once again armed posses combed the area in futile search. It attack The face looked like a mixture of a gorilla and a
had vanished. human. The arms and legs were very large. The chest was at least
All of these incidents were, coincidently, in the vicinity of the three feet thick. His eyes glowed in the dark and did not seem to
Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant. A few months later the plant have pupils.
was shut down temporarily because of mysterious sabotage. "It looked us over, then slowly raised an arm like the Indians do
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

when they greet someone. I had seen all diat I wanted. 1 floor- Missouri
boarded the accelerator and we moved out of tiiere.'"'
35. In the late 1940s a cow-kifling animal is supposed to have
Rumors were flying around Winona, Mississippi, in the fall of tumed up in the "Nigger Wool Swamps" in southeast Missouri. It
1966. A seven-foot-tall monster witii bright red eyes and covered was said to rip apart full-grown cows and horses, abandoning the
with hair was allegedly on the prowl. One man claimed it had carcasses without eating them. Someone shot the animal, and the
four-foot shoulders which tapered to a narrow waist. It was the flimsy reports state that it looked "something like a gorilla."
size of a Kodiak bear, he said. Local rumors that the thing had Unfortunately, we know nothing more about this incident.
been shot or captured proved groundless.
36. A bear-like animal stepped out of some woods in Kinloch, a
The North American Bigfoot Information Network summarizes suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, in July 1968 and grabbed a four-
this part of the country as follows: "The Mississippi waterweb, year-old child playing in a backyard. The child's aunt screamed
stretching over a vast, fertile habitat flourishing with wildlife and and the family dog went after the animal. It dropped the child and
pristine beauty, has provided a large number of reports over the retumed to the woods. The boy was later shown a model of a
years. It includes some of the most desolate, forbidding swamp- gorilla and he said the animal had resembled it. Police searched
lands in the United States and extends from southem Iltinois and the woods and found no tiacks, and no sign of the animal.
Missouri through Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Several
tributaries off the Mississippi River have hosted dozens of sight-
ings, specifically the Bmsh Creek area near Pacific, Missouri. Montana
There have been repeated sightings of 'Mo Mo' or the 'Missouri
Monster' from the small town of Louisiana. The 'Big Muddy 37. Harold E. Nelson was driving across country when he pulled
Monster' is often seen near the Big Muddy River at Murphysboro, his camper off the highway to settle down for the night outside of
lUinois; in the Honey Island Swamp, where the Pearl River flows Billings, Montana, on Wednesday, September 11, 1968. As he
from the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico; and in the Sulphur was gulping down a can of beans he heard a noise outside the
River Bottoms thatflow through north central Arkansas into East camper, so he picked up a flashlight to take a look. When he
Texas. The best-known beasts are the 'Fouke Monster' of Fouke, opened the door he found a huge thing staring straight at him.
Arkansas, who shows his face occasionally and tiie 'Hawley Him' "It had an ape-like face but it was definitely not a gorilla," Nel-
of the Sulphur River Bottoms thatflow near Peerless, Texas."^ son said later. "The head was slightiy pointed, sloping down hke
the sketches of cavemen. The whole body was covered with
reddish-brown hair. There were a few spots of white hair along the
edge of the enormous shoulders. It stood erect, tike a man, and
must have weighed six hundred to eight hundred pounds. He was
bigreal big."
'Saga magazine, July 1969. After a long moment of total immobility. Nelson scrambled
'The INFO Journal, February 1992. back into his camper to find his gun. The creature peered in the
1 JOHN A. K E E L THE C O M P L E T E G U E TO M Y S T E R I O U S B E I N G S 11

door curiously and then tumed and shuffled off into the dark- The quartet became hysterical and drove to the entrance of the
ness."" park where they stopped cars and wamed people that there was a
"monster" on the loose. Todd stopped a car driven by a young
lady (name withheld by request) and had her msh him to the Mor-
Mew Jersey ristown Municipal Hall where he reported the encounter to the
poUce. The pohce said that his fear and hysteria were genuine.
38. Five students from the Spring Garden Institute at Philadel-
phia reportedly heard unearthly screams while camping near Lake 41. By a strange coincidence the young lady substantiated Todd's
Atsion in Burlington County, New Jersey, in 1960. "We were story widi one of her own. She said that she and three others had
pretty much on edge," said Berle Schwed, "after finding four large seen a similar "monster" in the same area a year earUer. Her group
tracks earlier in the underbmsh near our camp. They were about had been parked in the dark when they heard a thumping on the
eleven inches long and tiiey looked something like a large bird back of the car. They looked out the rear window and saw a huge
print with the heel dug in and the toes spread out." form standing over the car. It was very tall and had very broad
shoulders. They could not see its head. They drove away in a state
39. On April 15, 1966, the Trenton, New Jersey, Evening Times of panic but did not report the episode to the authorities. The girl's
carried a story asserting that a new wave of animal disappearances mother urged her not to mention the incident to anyone.'
was taking place in Burlington County. Mr. Stanley Silcoch said
he thought he had solved the mystery when he shot a raccoon on
April 8. But his two dogs disappeared a short time later. A state New York
trooper named Alfred Potter found a footprint "so large a man's
hand could not cover it." Several mondis later an investigator 42. Letterfrom a young man in Sherman, New York: I am writing
denounced the whole affair as "a particularly vicious hoax." because about three or four years ago, [circa. 1965-66] I saw a
white monster in a swamp beside our house. I have been seeing
40. Towards dusk on the evening of May 21, 1966, Raymond these things ever since then and close to our house. One night it
Todd and three friends were parked in an automobile in the Mor- came down in our yard. It stands between twelve and eighteen
ristown National Historical Park, Morristown, New Jersey, when feet high, it has a long tail between six and eight feet long. It is all
they saw a very tall ("at least seven-feet tall") entity ambhng covered with hair. They are always white. I have seen them alone
across the lawn. They described it as being faceless, covered with or two at a time. It can walk on two feet or four feet. It is almost a
long black hair, and with scaly skin. What impressed them most double for a Prehistoric Sloth. My whole family has seen this
was the breadth of the creature. It had huge shoulders, they said, thing and I know of two more men who have seen them . . . I am
and walked erect with a stiff, rocking movement. They were fifteen years old and I am not kidding. I have seen these things
absolutely certain that it was not a bear or other known creature. and they are real.

"^Saga magazine, July 1969. ''From the files of the Morristown, New Jersey police department.
 120 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 121

43. Hearsay reports of a giant hairy humanoid blundering about Another boy claimed the thing grabbed him, ripped his jacket,
in the woods near Ithaca during a major UFO "flap" in the area in and left deep scratches in his shoulder.
the fall of 1967. One story claims that a group of teen-aged UFO The word got out quickly, and within a few days the woods
buffs searching the woods encountered the creature and that it tore were filled with teen-agers armed with flashlights, baseball bats,
a boy's jacket. and ropes. A white sheet with bum marks in it, and some chicken
feathers were discovered in the area, but, as usual, the hairy Unbe-
lievable eluded his pursuers and disappeared without a trace.
Ohio Local pohce remained skeptical of the whole affair.^

44. On March 28, 1959, three teen-agers, Michael Lane, Wayne 47. Two people werefishing in WiUis Creek Lake in June 1991
Armstrong, and Denny Patterson, were badly frightened by some- when they heard a sound like a baby crying or a high-pitched
thing near the Charles Mill Reservoir outside Mansfield, Ohio. "opera-hke waiUng." A large, hair-covered humanoid appeared in
They said a giant seven-foot-tall being seemed to rise up off the a thicket and walked away on two legs. It was described as "tall
ground in front of them. It had glowing green eyes and no arms and slender, with arms that hung past its knees."
were visible. Strange tracks were later found at the site.
Southeastern Ohio has produced so many sightings of tall, hairy
45. In 1963 the "thing" paid another visit to Mansfield. Many bipeds going back several decades that the area is known as
witnesses reported seeing a creature seven to eight feet tall cov- Sasquatch Valley. Investigator Mark Francis notes: "This area and
ered with gray hairs and having large, luminous eyes. "It was def- the Chestnut Ridge [in Pennsylvania] are probably the two most
initely not a bear," said C. W. Cox. "It was more like a gorilla." active areas in the country producing sohd, credible reports." We
The usual fruitless search was held. might also observe that Ohio has long been a leading UFO state,
generating almost constant sighting and landing reports.
46. A "monster man" has reportedly been living quietly in a tun-
nel in Cleveland, Ohio's Riverside cemetery for the past twenty-
five years. One of the people who claims to have seen it, Mrs. Oklahoma
Grace Lewis, describes him as "a big hairy man weighing four
hundred pounds." According to local theorists, the "monster man" 48. A ten-foot-tall hairy creature was reported near Tahlequah,
was obhged to move when a highway construction demolished Oklahoma, in August 1990. A woman told the Cherokee County
his haven. For his new home he picked a very logical place . . . a Sheriff that the thing had walked around her trailer. Officers found
woods directly behind the Cleveland Zoo. large five-toed tracks in the area. Other people living nearby
On Monday night, April 22, 1968, a couple of youths came reported seeing a similar animal around the same time.
face to face with something weird in those woods.
"It's eight feet tall and covered with hair," Wilham Schwark
said later. "I chased it Monday and it knocked me down a slope." ^Cleveland, Ohio Plain Dealer, April 24, 1968.
 12 JOHN A. KEEL
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 12

Oregon "It ran off screaming like a cat, but louder," he said.
Police found human-hke tracks fourteen inches long showing
49. Twenty-eight people in and around Yankton, Oregon, report- five toes. The boys were certain it was not a bear.
edly saw tall, hairy humanoids in 1926. One ran alongside a mov-
ing truck, looking into the cab. Sheep and children are supposed
53. Did you hear the one about the walking tree stumps? The
to have disappeared mysteriously in the area that year.
Spokane, Washington Spokesman-Review carried this on Novem-
ber 18, 1966:
50. In the summer of 1942 Mr. Don Hunter, head of the Audio
Visual Department of the University of Oregon, and his wife were Newport, Ore. (A?) People in this coastal logging area
vacationing at Todd Lake, Oregon. One afternoon they were sit- didn't beUeve sixteen-year-old Kathy Reeves when she told
ting in their car, waiting for a rainstorm to pass over, when they them about "the three little stumps that walked across the
suddenly saw an unusually tall figure striding across a meadow pasture."
about a quarter of a mile from the lake. "It was not humped over
Not only did they move, said Kathy, but they also were of
but very erect, with a military bearing," Hunter said later. "The
different colorsorange, hght blue, white, yellow, and
legs seemed very long. He did not run, he walked. Giant strides
watermelon-colored.
very quickly . . . In getting out of the car we must have been heard
That was six months ago.
because it took off for the trees with giant strides."
Since then, twenty-five persons have seen the unidenti-
fied flying objects and fifteen statements were taped by
51. In the fall of 1957 Gary Joanis and Jim Newall reportedly
newsmen...
saw a giant human-like figure while hunting near Wanoga Butter,
Oregon. Mr. Joanis had just shot a deer and the tall being came
Later the Reeves home on Pioneer Mountain was haunted by
out of the bushes suddenly, picked the dead animal up with one
strange balls of light whichflitted from room to room. Investigat-
arm, and walked off quickly with tremendous strides. The crea-
ing pohce officers and reporters also saw the hghts. The family
ture was "not less than nine feet tall" with very long hair on its
finally moved out.
arms. It made a noise like "a very strange whisthng scream."
Several others in the same area told pohce they had been seeing
giant humanoid figures with a single eye in the middle of their
52. Two boys from Rosenburg, Oregon, told state police that
foreheads.
they had seen a fourteen-foot man-hke creature in a nearby
woods on Wednesday, July 29, 1959. They said it was covered
with hair, walked upright, and had human characteristics. They
Pennsylvania
saw it first on the previous Friday but did not tell thek parents
because "we didn't think anyone would believe us." They
54. In a letter to the editor in REAL magazine (August 1967), Mr.
retumed to the spot again, armed with a rifle. The monster re-
Mario W. Pinardi claimed that he and another person saw and
appeared and one of the boysfired five shots at it from a range of
tracked a nine-foot-tall, gorilla-like creature in an open field near
aboutfifty yards.
Alhson, Pennsylvania.
 12 J O H N A. K E E L THE C O M P L E T E G U E TO M Y S T E R I O U S B E I N G S 12

55. A six-foot-tall "person or thing" was seen by seven persons on utter any sound. The creature then took a step towards the wit-
the shore of Edinboro Lake, Edinboro, Pennsylvania, Wednesday nesses, who quickly climbed back into their vehicle. It tumed
night, August 17, 1966. "The witnesses fired at the figure on two awayfrom them and loped into the woods.^
occasions with weapons they had taken along . . . Apparendy the
creature was not hit," said the Erie, Pennsylvania Times (August The Chestnut Ridge area, aboutfifteen miles west of Johnstown,
19, 1966). A heavy UFO "flap" was taking place in the area at the has produced dozens of "Big Foot" reports in recent years, some
time. Another tall unidentified creature had been seen on Presque with tracks. Massive searches have yielded nothing.
Isle, July 31, some eighteen miles from Edinboro. One report
claimed that a man had come face to face with the Edinboro mon-
ster near tiie lake and had been so badly frightened that he was Tennessee
unable to speak for three days. Hoarseness and loss of voice has
occurred in a number of close UFO sightings in recent years. 58. "Wild Man of the Woods" was allegedly captured in Ten-
nessee in 1878 and placed on exhibition in Louisville, Kentucky.
56. A series of high-pitched screams alerted a man living on a He was described as being six feet five inches tall, with eyes twice
farm near Ligonier, Pennsylvania, in March 1990. When he inves- normal size. His body was "covered withfish scales.'"
tigated with a flashlight he saw a four-foot hairy creature with
blazing red eyes. It screamed several times more and ran off. The 59. Two Clapps Chapel Road residents outside of KnoxviUe,
witness and his wife heard the scream numerous other times com- Tennessee,fired a shotgun at an apparition eight to ten feet tall on
ing from a nearby woods. September 24, 1959. The creature had come up to the window on
the front porch of Earl Taylor's house. John Rosenbaum joined
57. On June 7, 1991, two young men were standing next to their Taylor infighting "It" off. They heard thumps on Taylor's car and
car in a mountainous area of White Deer Township, Pennsylvania, later found two long scratches on the hood which had not been
when they saw afigure which theyfirst assumed to be a jogger. As there when he polished the car earlier in the day. The creature dis-
it drew closer, they realized it was not human. "It was a tall, hairy appeared without a trace.
creature walking erect on two legs. They could hear its heavy
breathing as it stopped at the edge of the forest road thirty feet 60. Brenda Ann Adkins reported meeting a hairy creature on
away. They estimated that it weighed 450 pounds. The creature Monteagle. Mountain, north of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the
put its hand on its hip 'as if to strike a pose,' but instead ran its spring of 1968. She had stopped near the edge of a ctiff to take
hand down its hip to its thigh. Its arm hung to about two inches some pictures when she became aware of a nauseating odor and
above the knee. It appeared to have afive-fingered hand. The wit- heard a noise in the woods behind her. Turning, she saw the thing
nesses claim that the creature stood seven and a half to eight feet lumbering towards her.
tall and was completely covered with long, stringy brown hair
'the color of muddy creek water.' It had a 'sour, sweaty aroma.' It
stood and glared at the men for about a minute, as if it wanted to 'From the files of Paul Johnson.
say something, but never opened its mouth to show any teeth or '"From a report in the Louisville Kentucky Courier-Journal, October 24, 1878.
 12 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 12

"I was absolutely frozen with fear," she said. "This thing was at cats and monsters than he was with the hordes of trigger-happy
least seven feet tall and must have weighed several hundred motorists who began patrolling the lake with loaded weapons.
pounds. I'll never forget his enormous chest and those huge arms The seven-foot, three hundred-pound half-man, half-goat was
and legs. His body was completely covered with blackish-red hafr. seen throughout 1969.
The face was a mixture of an ape and a human. I still have night-
mares about that afternoon. He seemed to be angry and was
growhng. I thought he would push me off the cUff or something. Washington
Then, he stopped about six feet from where I stood, cocked his
head in a quizzical way, and just stared at me. He studied me for a 62. "Reports of a tall, hairy man bouncing across Highway 112
few moments, then seemed to smile, made a httle blubbering recently have stirred up the West End of Clallam County," the Port
noise, and walked back into the bush."" Angeles, Washington, Evening News announced on July 3, 1964.
"It was reported that an Air Force man from Neah Bay was driv-
ing between Neah Bay and Sekiu and saw the 'tall, hairy man
Texas cross the highway in three bounds.'
"Footprints were reportedly found in the area. The serviceman
61. Lake Worth is the major reservoir for Fort Worth, Texas. A
is also reported to be a teetotaller."
haiiy monster lives there. Back in 1967 something described as "a
Satyr-like ogre" was scaring folks around Mosque Point at the 63. A lady in the area, Mrs. George Wright, wrote to tell us that
lake. A band of teen-agers searched the area but never even caught she and her husband had come across some giant footprints on a
a glimpse of it.
logging road the day after Thanksgiving 1964. Interestingly, Mrs.
"Greer Island is where about a dozen people say they recently Wright reported, "There was only one print, ahnost directly in the
saw a monster," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on July 12, center of the twelve-foot stretch of soft mud and my own foot-
1969. "Descriptions of the monster have ranged from a half-man, printsno others."
half-goat thing with fur and scales to a seven-foot, three-hundred- She continued, "The sighting of Bob Harrison was a year or
pound hairy, hoary being that throws auto tires five hundred feet." two earlier, during hunting season, when they were all out to then-
The first 1969 report came on Wednesday night, July 9, 1969, cabin on forest land at Pysht. He was hunting when he and the
when three couples told pohce that the creature had pounced on 'creature' both looked over some bushes and into each other's
their car and left scratch marks on the hood. Another motorist said faces. When asked why he didn't shoot, he said it looked too
he saw a "big and hairy" thing which emitted a "squall" and then
human. Later on his story changed to where it could have been a
tossed a tire and rim more thanfive hundred feet.
bear with a very scarred up face. They backed away from each
A local "naturahst" suggested that the culprit might have been other and took off in different directions."
a playful bobcat. Sheriff Lon Evans was less concerned with bob-
64. Late Monday evening, September 19, 1966, Ken Pettijohn
was driving home outside of Yakima, Washington, when he
"Saga magazine, July 1969. rounded a bend and came upon a huge man covered with silvery
 12 JOHN A. K E E L
THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO M Y S T E R I O U S B E I N G S 12

white hair standing in the middle of die road. There was a driz-
and pointed his spotiight at the animal. It was, he said, eight feet
zhng rain. Pettijohn slammed on his brakes and his engine stalled.
tall, with a human-like face, but was covered witii hair except for
The creature raised an arm as if to shield its face from the bright
the feet and the hands. He estimated that it must have weighed
headhghts. While Pettijohn frantically tried to start his engine die
about three hundred pounds. Somewhat dismayed he drew his pis-
tallfigure walked around to the back of die car. The engine finally
tol but the animal ran off into the woods.
tumed over, and Pettijohn could see diefigure in his rearview mir-
PoHce searched the area for footprints the next moming but it
ror as he drove off, silhouetted by the hghtning.
was "too gravelly." Sheriff Pat Gallagher said he tiiought it could
have been a bear. Deputy Sund gmmbled, "It sure didn't look
65. At 4:00 A.M. on Wednesday, March 5, 1969, Don Cox drove
like one."
around a bend on Highway 14 near Beacon Rock State Park in
A former Hoquiam resident now living in Seattie, Mr. Richard
Skamania County, Washington, when a monstrous creature
Hoyd, declared, "There is a serious possibiUty here of pohce bm-
appeared on the road in front of his headlights. It was, he said,
tality . . . This blatant intimidation of what appears to be a visitor
eight to ten feet tall, widi a "face like an ape."
from our neighbor to tiie north must stop." Mr. Floyd announced
"It ran like a man and was covered with fuzzy fur," Cox stated.
plans to form a protective organization to be called Don't Upset
"I had just come out of a fog bank diat had caused me to slow my
Poor, Excitable SasquatchesDUPES, for short.
car when Ifirst saw what I diought to be a tree leaning toward die
middle of the road.
"I slowed my car fiirther and tumed my headlights to high
West Virginia
beam and it was ien tiiat I saw tins fur-covered human form witii
tiie face of an ape. He ran across tiie road in front of tiie car,
67. hi die summer of 1960, a group of young men were camping
leaped up a forty degree slope and disappeared in the woods."
in the woods near Davis, West Virginia. One night one of them was
Deputy John Mason investigated and found smears which indi-
cutting wood for thefire when he heard a noise and felt someone
cated tiiat the creature had made an eight-foot jump up die
poking him in die ribs. He tiiought one of his friends was tiying to
embankment... a feat beyond tiie capabilities of any bear.
scare him and tumed around, annoyed, tofind himself confronted
In April 1969 tiie Skamania County Board of Commissioners
witii a "horrible monster." He described it: "It had two huge eyes
passed an ordinance making it illegal to kill a Sasquatch, providing
tiiat shone like big balls of fire and we had no tight at all. It stood
a ten-thousand-dollar fine and up tofive years imprisonment.'^
every bit of eight feet tall and had shaggy long hair all over its
body It just stood and stared at us. Its eyes were very far apart."
66. At 2:30 A.M., Sunday, July 27, 1969, Deputy Floyd Sund was
By tiie time the boys had recovered from tiieir shock the crea-
driving along a deserted wooded road north of Hoquiam, Wash-
ture had shuffled off into the darkness. They broke camp early the
ington, when he had to slam on his brakes to avoid colliding with
next moming. Gigantic footprints were found where the creature
an animal standing directiy in front of him. He got out of his car
had been but die witnesses didn't feel like following them.''
'^Fate magazine, July <6 August 1969.
"From a personal letter dated January 7, 1961.
 10 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE UIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

68. A West Virginian named W C. "Doc" Priestley claimed that a Stover came upon a "monster, standing erect, with hair all over its
hairy humanoid ruined the electrical system of his automobile in body." Stover said that he almost hit the thing and stopped his
1960. That summer numerous people around Parson, West Vir- bakery truck a short distance away to look back. The hairy, six-
ginia, allegedly saw a gruesome eight-foot-tall thing covered with foot-tall, man-shaped figure stood beside the road watching him.
shaggy hair and equipped with two huge eyes which "shone like He stepped on the gas and finally stopped at a restaurant-filling
big balls of fire." In October 1960 Priestley was driving through station where he told his story to a group of men. They immedi-
the Monongahela National Forest about three miles north of Mar- ately armed themselves and went to the spot. They found strange
lington. West Virginia, when his car, which had been "purring hke marks on the ground and that large rocks had been overturned by
a kitten," suddenly sputtered and stopped. something. Scattered residents in the area said they had been hear-
"Then I saw it," Priestley later told reporters of the Charleston, ing unusual cries in the woods for several weeks.
West Virginia, Daily Mail (January 5, 1961). "To my left beside The Stover story is another "classic" in monster lore.
the road stood this monster with long hair pointing straight up
toward the sky."
A group of Priestley's friends were driving on ahead in a bus. Wisconsin
When they noticed that he was no longer dkectly behind them,
they turned around and drove back to look for him. 70. A large, powerfully built "man" covered with hair was seen by
"I don't know how long I sat there," Priestley continued, "until three men in the Deltox Marsh in Wisconsin on October 17, 1968.
the boys missed me and backed the bus back to where I was. It The same men, together with nine others, encountered it again on
seemed this monster was very much afraid of the bus and November 30. On the first occasion they tried to follow it but it
dropped his hak (which had been standing on end) and to my sur- eluded them in the thick underbrush. On November 30 the twelve
prise as soon as he did this, my car started to run again. I didn't men were combing the swamp looking for it. They found it but
tell the boys what I had seen. The thing took off when the bus didn't shoot because "it was too man-like." Again it got away.'"*
stopped."
Priestley again started to follow along behind the bus and then
his car started to act up a second time. "I could see the sparks fly- Burma
ing from under the hood of my car as if it had a very bad short," he
noted. "And sure enough, tiiere beside the road stood the monster 71. Our favorite wire service, Reuters, reported the following
again. The points were completely burned out of my car." datehned June 12,1969, Rangoon, Burma:
The bus backed up again and as soon as it appeared the monster
melted into the forest. Two giant "monkey men" recently sighted roaming the jun-
gles along the Mekong River near the Thai-Burma-Laos
69. At 11:00 P.M., Friday, December 30, 1960, when, as he
rounded a curve on a lonely, backwoods road near Hickory Flats,
West Virginiabetween Braxton and Webster CountiesCharles "See Argosy magazine, April 1969for further details and additional cases.
12 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

border have been terrifying local villagers. According to upon a small lake about two hundred yards across. They were
press reports, the two creatures are said to be about ten feet amazed to see "an ape" standing on the other side of the lake,
tall. The "monkey men" were first sighted by a group of looking at them. They watched the animal for half an hour, and
hunters led by a local preacher in the Taimilek area. How- finally decided to leave the area as quickly as possible. Later they
ever, the hunters were so frightened by the creamres that retumed and found footprints in the snow which they pho-
they ed without firing a shot. A few days later a farmer tographed.
reported seeing the two creatures by moonlight in his fields.
He said they made sounds like diose of a child crying. A 74. From the Powell-River News, British Columbia (Febmary 29,
Rangoon daily newspaper. The Light of Burma, said a third 1968):
sighting was made by a group of Lahu guerrillas. The guer-
rillas had run for their hves after one of the creatures hurled Alert Bayfishermen Tom Brown and Harry Whonnock were
a rock at diem. The newspaper gave no dates on when the digging clams on the south shore of Broughton Island, about
sightings were made but said the creatures had "khaki" col- twenty-five miles N.E. of Alert Bay, and only a short swim
ored hair on their bodies. from the mainland, when, they say, they encountered the
hairy monster.
"There was still plenty of hght to see that it was not an
Canada animal," Brown said. "It was hairy, about six feet tall, and
was looking at us. That's about all we saw of it. Harry and I
72. Commercial artist John Osborne was sitting on a dike at the ran as fast as we could for die boat and the Sasquatch headed
foot of No. 3 Road in Richmond, British Columbia, on Thursday into the bush. I don't know how the Sasquatch took it, but all
July 21, 1966, when a large creature appeared on the edge of a we wanted to do was get away."
nearby woods.
"It wasn't ape-like," Osborne said. "It was like a big hairy man, 75. A logger in British Columbia, Gordon Baum, reported seeing
about six feet eight to seven feet tall." a hair-covered man-like animal leap over a four-foot pile of logs
He watched it for ten orfifteen seconds then it walked behind a at Salmon Arm Inlet on Thursday, June 27, 1968. "It must have
tree and disappeared. He looked the spot over but could find no been a Sasquatch," Baum was quoted as saying in the Vancouver
footprints. Province. "It moved on two legs like a man; it ran like a man but
A week earlier Don Gilmore reported seeing "a big woolly ani- no man can move that fast. He was gone in two seconds. He was
mal" stampede about a hundred head of cattle on No. 8 Road in aboutfive feet tall, very stocky, and heavily built."
Richmond. Osborne drew a sketch of his hairy man, and it was
pubUshed in the Vancouver, British Columbia, Sun (July 22, 76. Undated clipping from the Mid-Day Standard, England
1966). (August 1969):

73. In the fall of 1966 two engineers engaged in a geological sur- GIANT STRIDES OVER RAVINE
vey between Vancouver and Chilliwack, British Columbia, came Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Saturday. Three work-
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

men at the Big Horn dam site claim they have seen a the house of the witnesses. Itfled, leaving in the clay soil a num-
humanoid figure almost three times the size of an average ber of great footprints forty centimetres long and resembling
man. those of a plantigrade being (i.e., one that walks on the whole sole
Two of the men said they saw the figure, about fifteen feet of the foot). These footprints agree with description given by the
tall, striding across a ravine. The third saw it watching the motorist Ruperto Juher, who said that he had seen, near Hostal-
site from a hill. rich a few days ago, an animal with a large hairy body and long
Indians believe there is a family of four of the creatures arms, that crossed the highway in front of him, walking with a
living in the area. weary sort of gait."
No gorillas or bears were missing from any zoos or circuses,
the newspaper reported. A major panic mounted in the region and
South America massive searches were held, with the usual negative results. A
number of interesting comparisons can be drawn from the forego-
77. Between 1952-65 there were eighteen documented cases of ing. Viewed cumulatively these random sightings reveal several
people in Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil being attacked and hitherto hidden aspects. We can now categorize these events and
injured by unidentified hany creatures in human form. Some of speculate that there are two main groups. Group 1 consists of real
these cases have been widely conmiented on in UFO hterature. animals possessing common characteristics of appearance and
In 1964 a truck driver named Alberto Kalbermatter was driving behavior. Group 2 are "monsters" in the true sense of the word
along a deserted road outside of Resistenca, Argentina, late at and seem to be part of a paranormal phenomenon, like ghosts and
night when a nine-foot-tall creature suddenly stepped in front of flying saucers. That is, they are a problem for parapsychologists
him and uttered a loud, terrifying cry. He said it had long black rather than biologists. They are "something else."
hair and a human-like face. He stepped on the gas, nearly running Actually, our pre-1960 data is scanty since the subject was not
over the creature as he fled. too well-known or pubHcized until Ivan T. Sanderson pubhshed
A strange luminous object had been sighted in the trees at the his article, "The Strange Story of America's Abominable Snow-
very same spot a few days earher, according to the local police. man," in True magazine (December 1959). Before that, the sub-
They said that Kalbermatter was an extremely frightened man ject was almost entirely in the hands of the very small group of
when he reported his "monster" to them. enthusiasts who collected "Forteana," andflying saucer buffs who
pounced upon every oddity that appeared in the press. Almost
single-handedly, Sanderson brought these events to the pubUc
Spain attention and created broader interest. Before 1960 only those
very few events which created major "scares" or received wire
78. In Spain, the Vilovi district near Barcelona, suffered an service attention were preserved by the tiny monster buffery. Thus
onslaught of Unbehevables in February 1968. The original reports we have only a total of eight reports between 1956 and 1959, and
were made by frightened children but soon many adults had also fifty-two reports from the ten years which followed.
seen a giant hairy creature. According to the newspaper Arriba Until 1966 there was no organized effort to keep close tabs on
(February 27, 1968), "The animal was drinking from a pond near flying saucer sightings and professional researchers were forced
1 JOHN A. K E E L THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

to rely upon the superficial, often erroneous tables and statistics have been dehberately attacked. Similar hostitity is apparent in
compiled by the United States Air Force. There was a great surge many UFO reports, but these hostile aspects are played down or
of UFO activity in die early 1960s, and 1962 was a "flap" year. suppressed by tiie UFO coterie which prefers to beheve that flying
That year produced five "monster" sightings for our table. There saucers are benevolent. In Table 10.1 we summarize the forms of
was another massive UFO surge in 1965 and an almost over- hostitity encountered. It is significant that automobiles were con-
whelming wave in 1966. These "flaps" attracted more people to cerned in sixteen of these cases or approximately twenty-five per-
the UFO coterie and reporting improved greatly. So the year 1966 cent of the total. This ratio is even higher in the UFO reports.
produced fourteen "monster" cases. (There were really many more
than that. We have detailed some of the others in the general text.)
Flying saucer sightings remained high in 1967-69, although the TABLE 1 0 . 1
new events received little or no publicity. The United States Air
Force received only 38 UFO reports in March 1968, compared Hostility: Attacks on Humans, Animals, and Automobiles
with 165 in March 1967 and 158 in March 1966. It has been reti-
ably estimated that fewer than two percent of all UFO sightings
are reported to the Air Force at all. So even if the statistics were Nature of Hostility Totals
accurate, which they're not, they would not fully represent the Automobiles approached and/or attacked 16
overall situation. Autos damaged by claws, etc. 4
Witnesses to "monsters" very rarely report to the local newspa- Human beings attacked and injured 8
pers or police, and never to the Air Force. In our travels around the Animals attacked, injured, killed or mutilated
Animal disappearances 6
country we have uncovered many spectacular cases which had
Tires thrown at witnesses 2
never received any pubticity of any kind. Often, when the witness Total number of hostile acts 36
tells his family and friends about the incident he is so heavily
ridiculed that he shuts up. In most cases, the man or woman who
does report to the police or newspaper is not taken seriously. We A great many of our "monster" sightings occur in Lovers'
have to keep repeating this vital point throughout this book. If you Lanes, when tiie creatures suddenly shuffle out of the bushes and
encountered a ten-foot-tall creature covered with moss and slime, terrify young people. A majority of our low-level UFO sightings
with two huge, luminous red eyes, who would you tell? And do also take place under similar conditions. There is a built-in silenc-
you think anyone would take you seriously? ing factor in these cases, since, very often, the young lovers are
These events are being taken more seriously now by larger num- not supposed to be there in thefirst place, or they are adults cheat-
bers of people. Our channels for communicating these experiences ing on their mates. They cannot reveal their sighting without
have improved greatly. The handful of well-equipped researchers exposing thek indiscretion. This is the main reason why so many
involved now have more and better data to work from, and we are of those witnesses who do report their sightings insist on total
finally getting very close to a solution to all these mysteries. anonymity.
One of the most disturbing factors in the "monster" cases is tiie One of the most puzzling aspects of the monsters' behavior is
high ratio of hostile events in which human beings and animals their penchant for chasing moving automobiles and attempting to
 1 JOHN . KEEL THE COMPLETE G I D E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 13

reach and harm the drivers. Neither bears nor gorillas would rather than further away from it. They are coming down from the
behave in this fashion. This auto-chasing, repeated in so many northwest to parade around California.
cases, is an unintelligent act. Yet, in many of the other cases the From these reports and the other cases described in the general
creatures seem to display high intelligencealmost human-like text, we can draw a fairly complete picture of some of these ani-
intelligence. There is obviously a very great difference between mals. In Table 10.2 we have isolated the general descriptive data.
the intelhgent "Big Foot" of the West Coast and the auto-chasing In no less than forty-four of our sample cases the witnesses were
Abominable Swamp Slobs of Michigan and Florida. A close certain that the creatures were taller than a good size man. The
study of these cases indicates that the creaturesor apparitions usual estimate ranged between seven and ten feet tall. Only a few
which openly pursue vehicles are paranormal entities rather than of the United States cases described the creatures as being less
real animals, t h e ABSM may occasionally blunder into the path than six feet tall. Many witnesses also commented on the fact that
of a car in a forest in Washington, but his reaction is usually one the animal seemed to be very broadmuch broader than a man.
of curiosity, not hostihty. Four-foot-wide shoulders have been described. This broadness is
It almost seems as if these paranormal types are being used to a common factor and rules out bears and gorillas.
frighten people away from specific areas, or, conversely, to attract
hordes of people to those areas. We have found in a number of
instances that, while mobs of monster-chasers were combing one
forest or swamp, UFOs were engaged in covert activities only a TABLE 1 0 . 2
few miles away. They went almost completely unnoticed because General Descriptions in Reports
everyone in the area was off in the other direction. So we can offer
one tentative conclusion: the "monsters" are engaged in what
magicians call misdirection. While you watch the waving right Descriptions Total
hand, the left hand is doing the dirty work unnoticed. While Hairy humanoids taller than an average man 44
everyone is out beating the bushes around a Lovers' Lane, cattle (usually from 7 to 10 feet tall)
are disappearing a few miles away. Hairy humanoids from 3 to 6 feet tall 4
Automobiles frequently stall suddenly when UFOs are present, Broad shoulders; broader than a man's 5
Unusually long arms 4
so we are particularly intrigued by Cases 64 and 68 in which this No visible arms 1
electro-magnetic (EM) effect may have occurred. "Bull dog" head 1
Water plays a very important role in UFO activity, and a major- "Bear with scarred face" 1
ity of our monster sightings have taken place around lakes, rivers, Face like a cross between a gorilla and a human 2
and swamps. It is, of course, natural for animals to be attracted to Human-like face 2
"Protuberant mouth" I
water. If the ABSM is an intelhgent, human-like animal, perhaps Beard 1
civilization has been driving him deeper and deeper into isolated Eyes
forests, national parks, and swamps. The puzzle here is that in a. Luminous eyes 4
recent years the creatures seem to be moving closer to civihzation b. Green eyes 4
c. Redeyes 3
 10 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

TABLE 1 0 . 2 "baby crying." The phenomenon is weU known to ghost hunters,

(continued) and there are many cases in which the sounds were heard in ceme-
teries and "haunted" houses all over the world. The "woman
Descriptions screaming" sound is definitely related to our monsters. This can
Total
be reproduced mechanically. For years, phony mediums used to
Round face reproduce this sound in seances by stroking a warm silver dotiar
Ears over a piece of dry ice. It creates a shriU, unearthly scream. We
a. Short ears 1
b. Pointed ears
have pulled this trick on a number of monster witnesses and they
1
c. Earless 1 reacted with alarm and recognition, saying that it was almost
Scaly skin 2 exactly what they had heard during their experience.
Greenish or greenish-glowing 2 Here in Table 10.3 we run down some of the general character-
istics reported in the monster events.
There is only one case (25) in which the creature dropped from
With a few notable exceptions, the witnesses most often
an erect position and ran off on all fours like a bear. Other aspects
described die creatures' faces as being either "human-like" or a
of tiiat report take it out of the ABSM category. In Cases 22 and
cross between a human and a gorilla or ape. The "protuberant
61, we have a couple of oddballs: One described as a "half-man,
mouth" in Case 4 may indicate a paranormal entity, as do the
half-horse" (a Centaur?), die otiier as "half-man, half-goat" (die
luminous eyes in eleven of the cases. Some animal eyes are highly
classic Satyr?). These could have been merely subjective impres-
reflective, of course, and seem to glow when a headlight or flash-
sions, or perhaps the reporter writing the story either misinter-
Hght strikes them. But many witnesses claim that the creatures'
preted the witnesses' descriptions or added a few embeltishments
eyes were self-luminous and very brightbrighter than a reflec-
of his own. (In a 1957 "tittle man" case in New Jersey a local
tion. There are very few ABSM reports which mention luminous
reporter touched up the story by saying that the creature was
or self-luminous eyes. On the other hand, luminous eyes are a
wearing a jaunty tam o'shanter. This detail has duly been bandied
characteristic in many of the UFO "occupant" reports.
about in the UFO titerature ever since.)
In Case 13 the witness said that the creature seemed to be more
"mechanical" than alive. It moved stiffly and methodicafly, ignor-
ing the dogs snapping at its heels. Our Sasquatch would certainly
have reacted differentiy.'^ In forthcoming chapters we wiU outtine TABLE 1 0 . 3
several other cases in which the creatures appeared to be robots
rather than living entities. General Characteristics of Creatures Sighted
Throughout this book you willfind incidents in which the wit-
nesses described hearing a sound "like a woman screaming" or a Characteristics Total
Sounds
"See Brad Steiger and Joan Whritenour, New UFO Breakthrough, pp. 88-89, for a fuller a. like a woman screaming 6
description of Case 13. b. Whistling scream 1
 12 JOHN A . K E E L THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

TABLE 1 0 . 3 werewolf stories and providing fodder for the numerous "tabloid"
(continued) television shows that were multiplying Uke swamp fimgus.
Slowly, more and more people began to entertain the stomach-
c. Child crying 1 wrenching possibiUty that maybe there really are temporary trans-
d. Gurgling and/or blubbering 2 mogrifications with fangs and fiir haunting our httle blue planet
Displayed extraordinary agility; made great leaps 5 and, most frightening of all; it may be that we only hear about the
Droppedfrom erect position to all fours 1
Appearance accompanied by an unpleasant odor 5 victims who get away.

Five of our sample cases mention a pungent, nasty odor similar

to the smell described in so many of the Asian accounts.
The Group 1 type is, as we said, an animalor even several
different kinds of animalsstill unknown to science. It is hostile
only when threatened or attacked. It seems to be intelligent; per-
haps it even has a high order of intelligenceas high, say, as that
of the dolphin. This intelhgence had made it almost as elusive and
cunning as man himself The footprints and other physical evi-
dence accumulated over the years lend further credence to the
eye-witness testimony. This creature exists. But he does not want
anything to do with man. And who can blame him?
Group 2 comprise the real mystery. They appear and disappear
suddenly, as if they never existed at all. They rarely leave foot-
prints or other physical evidence behind. They seem to be more in
the nature of paranormal or paraphysical apparitions. They attack
people and automobiles, causing scratches, bruises, and black
eyes. They chase cars and carry off cattle. They scream Uke ban-
shees (maybe they are the original banshees of folklore), and
despite their great height, weight, and girth, they meh into noth-
ingness when the posses turn out. There was Momo, the Missouri
Monster, who scared a lot of folks in Missouri in the early 1970s,
leaving a wretched stink in his path. In the late 1980s a Lizardman
appeared briefly in South Carolina, covered with scales and
spooking teen-agers. Wisconsin became the turf of a giant wolf-
like critter that waUted on its hind feet in the early 1990s, sparking
 THE COMPLETE 6UI0E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS ^ 145

have also reported encounters with the mysterious flying saucer

peopleif they are people in the real sense of the word.
Although tile UFO coterie has generated a mountain of litera-
ELEVEN
ture (the UFO bibtiography published by the Library of Congress
in 1969 listed more than 1,600 UFO books and articles), there
are very few objective and meaningful studies of these landing
cases. You can count on one hand die few qualified researchers
Those Silly 'Tiying who have attempted to sort out the UFO mess. They include
Aim Michel and Dr. Jacques Vallee of France, Gordon
Saucer" People Creighton and Charles Bowen of England, and Coral Lorenzen
and Ivan T. Sanderson in the United States. Others, such as Isabel
Davis, a mainstay in the Washington, D.C. office of the National
Investigation Committees on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), have
quietiy kept track of these "humanoid" reports for years. Ironi-
cally, NICAP's official poticy has been to downgrade, ridicule,
and reject nearly all UFO landing cases, devoting their main
efforts to a twelve-year campaign to prove the retiability of UFO

H
witnesses. For some pecutiar reason a majority of all UFO buffs
have long neglected the overwhelming mass of landing reports,
air covered giants and midgets in human form ride perhaps because many of these reports seem to refute the popular
around in flying saucers. There are now over two betief that flying saucers are the product of a marvelously
thousand documented reports of UFOs landing and advanced technology from a super-civilization in the sky. Actu-
picking up or discharging passengers. The descriptions of those ally, when you carefully interview the landing witnesses in
passengers vary wildly and include transparent entities (even with depth, as we have done in many cases, it seems as if flying
their bones showing!), weird glowing gentlemen with one solitary saucers are really a subjective phenomenon which is merely part
eye smack in the middle of their forehead, kindly Venusians with of the broader world of psychic phenomena. The UFO entities, in
long flowing blond hair, and diminutive fairy-like people only a most cases, behave like idiots, animals, or brainless robots of
few inches in height. Since so many of these descriptions are so some kind. Many witnesses have commented on their bewilder-
ridiculous, they rarely receive much pubhcity, and only a very ing impression that the saucers, themselves, were somehow
small handful of patient researchers have made any effort to "alive" and that the entities merely seemed to be an extension of
gather all of these disparate reports together. that life form.
Children often make the best witnesses, and many of the UFO That ace monster sleuth, Ivan T. Sanderson, commented in his
landings are best represented by the reports of children. But wry British way on the UFO coterie's reluctance to accept the
police officers, doctors, lawyers, pilots, and other "rehable" types landing reports in his book Uninvited Visitors:
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

Just imagine what would happen on some other planetary If the UFO buffs prefer gruesome nonhuman BEMs (bugeyed
body if one of our space probes was manned by (I) a monsters), we have many cases of those, too. Here is an INS dis-
middle-aged Bushman woman, (2) a six-foot-six-inch Ni- patch which was widely pubhshed in 1954:
gerian from somewhere around Katsena, with his near black
skin color and his flowing white robes and turban, (3) a Garson, Ontario, July 7 (INS). A young Canadian miner is
blond, buxom, Swedish girl, (4) a blue-black-skinned Mela- insisting he saw a flying saucer and its crew of three"all
nesian with a full mop of branching red hair, (5) a Japanese thirteen feet tall with ears like spurs and three sets of arms."
child, and (6) a Neapolitan man, with shiny, black, wavy Ennio La Sarza, twenty-five, told his story yesterday to
hair and ivory skin. I can imagine the inhabitants of such a Royal Canadian Airforce authorities. The RCAF started an
planet, if intelligent at all, going into near hysterics and their investigation but refused to comment.
authorities immediately locking up any who said they had La Sarza claimed he saw "a huge disk" descend from the
encountered such a coterie coming out of a space vehicle sky north of the nickel mining center of Garson last Fri-
and collecting plants and domestic animals. The situation daythe day on which the planet Mars was nearest to the
would become more confounded if only one or two of these earth's orbit.
six types happened to be seen manning a space-traveling La Sarza said he asked the creatures, from a distance,
vehicle. And, if only one of the types was seen at a time in who they were and they "fixed me with a hypnotic stare until
various places and by different people, the debate among the I fainted; when I came to they and the ship had vanished."
witnesses as to which was telling the truth and which imag-
ining things could well lead to bloodshed. This is just about The year 1954 produced a woridwide UFO "flap," with heavy
the situation in which we (terrestrial man) are today. So let concentrations of landings in France, Italy, and South America.
us try to be a bit more logical. Dr. Jacques Vallee collected two hundred of the 1954 reports and
studied them very systematically. In eight of these cases the wit-
Logic has, alas, played a very small role in the infant pseudo- nesses had claimed that the UFO occupants were "httle men" or
science of UFOIogy. Speculation and bhnd behef have been the giants, wholly or partially covered with hair. In many instances
orders of the day. An astronomer observes aflash of light on Mars the witnesses claimed they suffered paralysis or "fainting spells"
lending "proof that flying saucers come from Mars. A radio in the presence of the entities. Yet, incredibly, the numerous phys-
astronomer announces that he has picked up a wave of static com- ical (medical) effects of UFOs upon human beings have never
ing from some distant point in space, and immediately the UFOl- been property studied, even though there are now thousands of
ogists tell us that some great cosmic civilization is beaming such cases.
messages at us. But when a flying saucer lands on a highway Dr. Vallee's book Passport to Magonia sums up hundreds of
twenty miles outside of Washington, D.C., and a human-looking landing cases covering the past hundred years. Yes, this sort of
man in coveralls dismounts to chat with a passing motorist, the thing has been going on, largely unnoticed, for a very long time,
UFOlogists all look the other way. It could not be. Yet there have perhaps throughout history.
been scores of such highway landings in recent yearsmost of There were woridwide UFO "flaps" in 1896-97, 1905, and
them ignored. 1909. One of the many odd UFO habits came to light in those
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

early cases. The UFO's were fond of scattering ordinary debris in In the fall of 1965, a time when stifl another massive UFO
their wake, tossing newspapers, shoes, and even peeled potatoes "flap" was engulfing Mexico and the rest of the world, Mexican
overboard as they cruised about our then-virgin skies. Rumors newspapers carried accounts of three unnamed women in a south-
and stories of "secret inventors" were widely circulated. Even em suburb of Mexico City who claimed they encountered a group
today UFOs often have perfectly ordinary rubbish in their path, of beings at least ten feet tall with glowing red eyes. The wit-
particularly after landing. This appears to be a simple psychologi- nesses said the creatures were wearing shiny gray garments and
cal warfare gimmick. The discovery of mundane materials at a boots, but had no discemible noses or mouths. They did not linger
landing site usually leads investigators to conclude that the wit- to study the beings but ran to the potice.
nesses were wrong or were lying. After all, the Martians and The UFO buffs either suppress such stories (by not publishing
Venusians are not likely to spill pieces of ordinary aluminum, them in their tittie joumals) or they try to explain them away with
sparkplugs of known manufacture, and pristine newspapers speculative nonsense often more outiandish than the original
around the countryside. tales. The late Frank Edwards, author of two widely-read UFO
At 11:00 P.M. on the night of May 18,1909, a man named Leth- books, solved the problem by merely altering the details to suit
bridge was strolling along a road in Caerphilly, Wales, when he whatever theory he was pushing. He converted many giants into
came upon a large cylindrical object. According to his account in the more acceptable "littie men."
the London Daily Mail (May 20, 1909), there were two men next One of the many giant stories almost lost in the shuffle was the
to it, both wearing bulky fur coats and fur caps. When they saw account of a badly frightened tmckdriver named Eugenio Douglas
Mr. Lethbridge watching them, they babbled excitedly to each who allegedly tried to fight off three "shiny metal robots" some
other in a language he could not understand, then jumped into the fifteen to twenty feet tall with a revolver in Argentina on October
object which thenflew off into tiie night sky. Later, as in so many 18,1963. He told police dvat he drove his ti\ick into a ditch after a
other cases, assorted junk was found at the site, including a metal brilhant white tight engulfed it near the town of Monte Maix. The
machine part which was clearly stamped "Made in France." Natu- light, he said, came from a twenty-five-foot disk parked in the
rally everyone concluded that Mr. Lethbridge had obviously middle of the highway. He leaped from his cab and, as the three
encountered a pair of secret inventors from France who had per- "indescribable beings" got out of the saucer and approached him,
formed the incredible featincredible for that periodof flying flourished the revolver he carried to ward off hijackers. He fired
the channel unnoticed and at night. They landed in Wales, had a four shots at them and ran wildly toward the town. The saucer
midnight snack, made repairs, and flew off again. Since their made several passes at him, he said, and each time he felt a "wave
passports were not in order, Mr. Lethbridge had alarmed them and of terrible, suffocating heat." The police examiner later found that
they hadfled. Apparently neither the men in "bulky fur coats" nor Douglas had suffered several unusual bums, unlike anything he
their marvelousflying machine were ever seen again. had ever seen before.
The exact size of the men is not given. If they were of unusually The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization. (APRO) in
large dimensions perhaps the editor decided to exclude that bit of Tucson, Arizona has stmggled to investigate and keep track of
information, just as modem editors frequently leave out the wilder UFO creature reports since 1952. Except for their efforts, many
details of the modem UFO reports because they might tend to dis- important landing cases would have gone entirely unnoticed and
credit the witness or make his story seem even more ridiculous. unrecorded. In the fall of 1967 an APRO investigator in Brazil,
10 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

Mrs. Irene Granchi, interviewed the witnesses to a strange inci- Richard Greenwell on October 4, 1967twenty years after the
dent that took place outside of Rio de Janeiro on November 24 of event. He came upon a grounded shiny disk on a highway outside
that year. A high-pitched whine had alerted a fourteen-year-old of Lima one night, and when he approached it on foot, he was met
boy, Carlos Alberto do Mascimento, and led him to look out of the by two incredible amoeba-like creatures. They looked like
eighth-floor apartment on the Rua Gomes Caneiro where he was bananas joined together. Their skin was sandy-colored with a
working. He saw a brilliant metallic-looking disk descending into towel-hke texture, and they were aboutfive feet five inches tall. A
some nearby trees. The object brushed one tall tree and the tree voice came at him "as if it came from a speaker," addressing him
"seemed to explode." Carlos called Mr. Ugo Battagha to the win- in Enghsh, a language he could understand. The voice told him
dow, and they both saw three men in white coveralls chmb out of that the creatures were sexless and they demonstrated by suddenly
the grounded saucer and walk stiffly around it. Both witnesses dividing themselves like amoebae. After conducting him on a
noticed that the men held then- arms tightly to their sides (a fea- quick tour of the rather barren interior of thefr flying saucer, they
ture noted in several of the 1954 European cases). After about five departed.
minutes the trio reentered the object. Later, when Carlos and Mr. The whole story deserves more attention than we can give it
Battagha left the apartment house, they looked up at the hill and here. One of the significant details is the fact that the man felt a
the object was still there. But after they had turned a comer and loss of vohtion. "I was in a state where I was not under my own
looked back, the thing was gone. command," he said. Later he suffered the classic "contacte"
The next day Carlos, Mr. Battagha, and Hildebrando de symptoms of anorexia (loss of appetite) and total exhaustion.
Moraes decided to visit the place where the object had landed. Such symptoms often indicate that the witness suffered a halluci-
The grass in the area was flattened, and thefi:ee Carlos had seen natory experience somewhat akin to hypnosis and that somehow a
"wrenched apart" was bare of leaves. The tmnk was bumed and confabulation, or falsified memory, was fed into the brain. The
charred but all of its neighbors were intact except for a few broken brain is an electrical organism and there is evidence that the phe-
limbs. nomenon is able to manipulate electrical energies and, possibly,
Hildebrando discovered that the grass and shmbbery in that even plant a false memory, complete with all sensory data, into
immediate area were so high that he went out of sight when he the mind. Such confabulations are so convincing and so deeply
walked through them. He is five feet eight inches tall. Yet both entrenched that the witness can pass a he detector test and can
Carlos and Battagha had noticed that the three men in coveralls recall every detail even twenty years later.
were only knee-deep in this same grass as they walked around It will take years of sfiidy, medical tests, and continuous obser-
their craft. If all this is true, then both the object and the beings vation of UFO witnesses before we can conclusively understand
must have been gigantic in size. this confabulation factor or prove conclusively that it is the main
Mrs. Coral Lorenzen of APRO has written a series of popular explanation for many of these puzzhng cases.
books on UFOs discussing dozens of perplexing UFO monster There are, of course, many other cases which cannot be so eas-
stories. In UFOs Over the Americas she devotes a full chapter to ily explained (although confabulation is hardly an "easy" answer).
an interview with a witness in Lima, Pern, who claimed an In many UFO landings identical markings have been found on the
extraordinary UFO encounter back in 1947. The witness, identi- ground, indicating that a sohd mechanical object had actually
fied only as Mr. C. A. V., was interviewed by APRO investigator touched down. Bum marks, traces of chemicals and metals, and
12 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE U I E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

other kinds of hard physical evidence have been discovered in the only recognized scientific journal devoted to the subject,
innumerable cases over the past twenty years. recently wrote:

We have known virtually everything there is to know about What is going on? Did these witnesses, widely dispersed on
UFOs since the early 1950s. By 1990 there were over 500,000 earth, and in time, all have experiences with solid creatures
recorded sightings throughout the world and several basic char- from another world or from another dimension of reahty?
acteristics are repeated over and over again in this data. For Or did they all suffer hallucinations of a similar kind, where
example, the objects frequently appear and disappear in front of the dream creatures were strikingly similar in many
groups of witnesses, almost as if they had been invisible at first respects? . . . I pondered over the idea that the frightening,
or suddenly become invisible. As part of this process, they pass spooky creatures described by some witnesses could be
from the invisible fringes of the electromagnetic spectrum into some sort of psychic projection. There are noticeable dream-
the visible frequencies, from infrared and red at one end of the hke quaUties about the incidents described in these cases. Is
spectrum to ultraviolet or purple at the other end. These changes it possible that something from somewhere is coming here
have been observed throughout history giving origin to the word and by means incomprehensible to usalthough it could be
"specter." Since these multicolored objects frequently change by a form of radiation, as in radar wavesis pumping styl-
shape as well as color, and since they make little or no noise, ized pictures into the minds of humans who inadvertently
they fit neatly into the long recognized categories of psychic phe- stumble upon sohd enough objects surreptitiously going
nomena. They do not look like or behave like "spaceships." about tiieir business? . . . And while die human witnesses
Lights moving in triangular formations (such as the heavily pub- areridiculedby their fellows, die interlopers get on widi die
licized aerial phenomena seen and photographed in Belgium in job unhindered.
1991) can split up suddenly and dart off in different directions.
These things do not have a permanent physical form but are more Mr. Gordon Creighton, a gifted linguist who has served in key
hke die "specters" of old, changing color as they float through positions in the British Foreign Service, has this to say: "If and
the visible spectrum. when we have grasped what these tales of 'landings' and 'con-
In Europe UFOlogists have recognized these paraphysical tacts' with entities mean, we may (perhaps) be on the road to
characteristics for years and have made considerable progress by understanding some of the larger aspects of the problem.
discarding the ET myth and the other aimless controversies that "One thing at least is certain. These stories of alleged meetings
have bogged down their American counterparts for generations. with denizens of otiier worlds or realms or levels of existence con-
The late Dr. Edward Condon, who headed a team of scientists at stitute a fascinating social, psychologicaland possibly also a
Colorado University in a government-sponsored UFO study in para-psychological enigma... If a new brand of psychosis is
1967-69, observed that maybe there should be a "magic agency" loose amongst us, then, instead of wasting so much time on why
to examine these matters. The correlations between psychic phe- we hate our fatiiers and love our mothers, our mental experts and
nomena and UFO manifestations is a weU-established fact to psychologists ought to be in there right from the start, studying
everyone except the hard-core flying saucer buffs. and combating this new plague since its outbreak nearly twenty
Mr. Charles Bowen, editor of Britain's Flying Saucer Review, years ago! Valuable time has been lost."
 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1
1 JOHN A. K E E L

This book's main purpose is to present the many monster and pupil-less eyes, glowing eyes, eyes as big as saucers, tiny beady
creature sightings with a minimum of theorization, but we cannot eyes, wraparound slit-eyes, cat-hke eyes, and even no eyes at all.
ignore the many correlating details in the cases we have already There have been noseless entities and mouthless entities. Ears
discussed. Those details suggest that many of these events may have covered a wide rangefrom being pointed to being
have been somehow interrelated and may, when viewed in toto, elephant-like. Have all these people been seeing the same thing?
represent a larger whole. Witnesses of the hairy monsters and wit- Hardly. The skeptics prefer to beheve that none of them have seen
nesses to UFO events and psychic manifestations have experi- anything at all.
enced many of the same things. It now seems possible that many Gordon Creighton focused his attention on the numerous land-
of the ghost tales and monster stories of folklore and demonology ing reports from South America in 1965, and he broke the cases
may have had a real basis in fact but were subject to misinterpre- involving descriptions of the UFOnauts into the following cate-
tation. Instead of dealing with mere extraterrestrial visitants, as gories:
the students of the UFO reports like to believe, we may be dealing
with brief glimpses of something far broader and infinitely more TABLE 1 1 . 1
complex.
UFO Occupant Descriptions in South America (1965)
One of the paradoxes of the UFO data is that the sheer weight
of it negates its validity. There have now been millions of UFO
sightings and thousands of landings and contacts. Yet it has all General description Number of cases
come to naught. We know as little now about the real phenomena
Giants 6
as we did when the first flying saucer craze swept the country
Tall men 9
overfifty years ago. The carefully investigated and reported sight- Medium or normal-sized men 5
ings and events are filled with obvious contradictions and impos- Small men 10
sibilities. Magnificently designed machines of apparent solidity Tiny men (less than 3 feet high) 12
have been described by witnesses of high reliability such as gen- Hairy, bellicose dwarfs 5
Greenish creamres (green skin, green lights) 3
erals, top officials, scientists, astronomers, pilots, and police offi- Hairy giant 1
cers. Now, if other equally rehable witnesses had reported
identical machines in other parts of the country and the world, we SOURCE: The Humanoids (1969), p. 86.
could say with certainty that such machines are real and do exist.
But this has not happened. The same description rarely appears
again in another report. The general configurationssaucer- Mr. Creighton also commented on the fact that five cases
shaped, cigar-shaped, etc. are uniform, but closeup witnesses involved creatures with only one visible eye. Two of these were
and there have been manyjust do not seem to agree. The reportedly over six feet in height; the other three, all from Peru
descriptions are as varied as the reports themselves. Correlations within a period of less than thirty days (August-September 1965),
are difficult. were supposedly less than three feet tall.
The reported UFO entities are also a mixed bag, not only in Early in February 1965 five luminous, transparent objects
size but in general appearance. There have been UFOnauts with landed outside of the village of Torrent in the Province of Corri-
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

entes, N.E. Argentina, and five six to seven feet tall, creatures all On September 19, 1963, four children playing behind a school
with only one eye in the center of their forehead, reportedly in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, reportedly saw an oval-
attacked the villagers. They entered a farmhouse, according to the shaped Ught descend from the sky after ch-cling overhead. A
report of Rodrigo de Riana, and tried to grab a man. He and his "box" seemed to fall from it and hover a few feet away. The chil-
friends fought back (noting that the creatures seemed extremely dren cautiously approached it and were startled when a "man"
fragile and weak), and the entities withdrew. But a day or so later stood up, appearing suddenly. "After tiiat we didn't see any box,"
they were back, and once again they tried to catch a specimen for Brian Whitehead, eleven, later told investigators.
their zoo. This time the villagers tumed out in force withrifles and The children estimated that the "man" was about ten feet tall,
shotguns and blasted away, apparently without effect, and the dressed in clotiies "like a monk's" which were "white Uke a
creatures left again empty-handed. crayon." "Sometimes I could see right through him," Brian said.
Another one-eyed giant, this one with a vivid red complexion, The "man" made a moaning sound, held out his hands, floated
no ears or nose, and a strange mouth, reportedly descended into a towards the youngsters. They ran in terror. One of die gkls in the
garden in the residential suburb of FamiUa Sagrada, Belo Hori- group became so hysterical that she actually had to be hospital-
zonte, Brazil, on August 28, 1963, and approached three boys. ized. Their parents and the local poUce were impressed with their
One of the boys grabbed a brick and started to fling it but the genuine fright and took their story seriously. UFO-type tights
entity shot "an orange beam" at him from a square lamp on its were seen in the district.
chest and "paralyzed" the boy's arm. But not aU UFOnauts are "ghosts."
Fortunately, the boys emerged unscathed from this encounter. In his study of the 1954 cases. Dr. Vallee discovered tiiat a
They were later closely interrogated by Professor Hulvio Brant majority appeared to be air breathing creatures. A few were
Aleixo and other competent investigators who said they "found no described as wearing some form of hehnet or breathing apparatus.
reason to believe that the boys were not telling the tmth." Some witnesses claimed tiiat the UFOnauts, particularly tiie "tittle
In Arequipa, Southem Pern, Julio Lopez de Romana and Anto- men" types, were wearing "diving suits." In ten of die two hun-
nio Chaves Bedoya claimed they narrowly missed mnning over a dred 1954 cases, the UFO occupants were described being of nor-
tiny one-eyed being on September 29, 1965. It was eighty cen- mal human height and appearance.
timeters high (thirty-one inches), they said, and seemed to have Could it be possible that normal-looking human beings are rid-
silver and golden stripes around its body. A UFO appeared a few ing around in flying saucers? There are now hundreds of cases in
minutes later andflew along with their car for some distance. That which this seems so.
night others in the area reported seeing a low-flying UFO, too. As far back as 1897 there have been innumerable stories of
A good many flying saucer reports seem to overlap into the UFO occupants who resembled human beings physically. In
realm of psychic phenomena. In August 1966, for example,five dif- many of these events the UFOnauts were described as slight of
ferent people in Malvern, Arkansas, reported encounters with a stature, usually betweenfive feet five andfive feet nine inches tall,
luminous, unidentified waUdng object which was described as eight with dark olive complexions, angular faces with pointed chins,
feet tall and multi-colored^red, orange, and yellow. Many a ghost high cheekbones, and slanted. Oriental-tike eyes. This has
tale is probably based upon the appearances of these Incomprehen- become a very common description. There is also an interesting
sibles. They seem to assume form, sometimes only temporarily. body of reports, several hundred cases from all parts of the world.
1 JOHN A. K E E L THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

in which the "httle men," the "normal sized" types, and the giants doctor's wife became panicky, and they sat there for twenty
were all described in this same way. Another interesting feature minutes... The doctor had at last decided to get out and
which turns up in many reports, both historical and modem, is that investigate when suddenly he saw somebody approaching.
the fingers of these entities seem to be extraordinarily long, much The doctor had his revolver at the ready, when he heard a
longer and more slender than normal human hands. soft voice ask: "Qu le pasa, amigo?" ("What's the matter,
To compound the confusion, we also have a large file of fasci- friend?"). The doctor replied that he had been trying to start
nating "man in black" cases, largely unpubhshed, which describe his engine again but couldn' t. The voice replied: "Why don't
entities of this exact type, dressed in black, who turned up in the you try it again?" He did so, and the engine started. Then he
homes of witnesses throughout the country, dressed in conven- put his lights on, and he saw that the object infront of him
tional clothing and driving conventional cars. In some cases these was something unknown, something the like of which he
persons strongly advised the witnesses to keep silent about what had never seen before. I will continue the account in the doc-
they had seen. For years the UFO buffs have assumed that they tor's own words: "Then the man standing near the car
were representatives of the Air Force or even of the CIA. The testi- glanced at me with a smile and said, 'Don't be frightened.
monial evidence, the descriptions of the witnesses, indicates, how- I'm a terrestrial. I have a mission to complete here on earth.
ever, that these "men in black" are not a part of the government at My name is R D , myfriend, and you can tell
all but are, instead, directly related to the UFO phenomenon. Mankind about it, in your own fashion.' "
One of Argentina's leading newspapers Cordoba told (on Nov. "The doctor added that the man then walked off slowly
29, 1964) how a doctor and his wife were driving from Cordoba towards two beings, both dressed entirely in gray, who were
to Rio Ceballos on the night of June 5, 1964, when they saw waiting for him. All three got into the machine, which then
something flying towards them. They were about thirty kilome- took off swiftly, leaving a violet-colored trail.
ters from the Paja Blancas Airport so they assumed it was an air-
plane: Shortly after this a blinding light appeared on the road in You can see that the possibilities are boundless. The UFO phe-
front of them. nomenon gives us a monster for every occasion; creatures with six
Translator Gordon Creighton describes the incident in Flying arms, amoeba-like blobs, one-eyed giants, hairy "httle men"
Saucer Review: you name it and somewhere in UFO lore you willfind that some-
body has seen it. As if all this isn't trouble enough, we have
Thinking it was the headUghts of an approaching vehicle, apparent UFO entities driving around in black Cadillacs, and
the doctorflashed his own lights as a signal to the other to seemingly normal human-beings popping out of purple Impossi-
dip his, for the light was so powerful that it was impossible bles on isolated highways.
to see the road at all. But the light remained undimmed and
continued to approach, so the doctor gave up and pulled in to
the side of the road and stopped.
The unknown vehiclefinally halted only one meter (yard)
in front of his car, its bright light now fading slowly to vio-
let, and they were able to perceive an elongated object. The
 THE COMPLETE 6UI0E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

ries, I'm still convinced that no space men have landed on earth.
Still, people keep insisting that they 've seen little green men."
South America seems to have been inundated with "litde green
TWELVE men" in recent years. Afifteen-year-old boy named Alberto San
- Roman Nuez told the police in Lima, Pern, that he had been on
the roof of his home, taking in the wash on August 1, 1965, when
a saucer-like thing landed near him and discharged a three-and-
one-half-foot tall being who had "greenish lights on his skin that
The Big Joke from made him look Uke a frog." Terrified, Alberto ran for the stairs. As
he did, a red Ught from the object enveloped him for a moment
Outer Space and then it flew away, heading for the ocean. Police later found
four circular marks, each a foot in diameter, on the roof.
Another rooftop landing, also in Lima, occurred on August 24,
1965, when twenty students and their adult teachers heard some
strange sounds on top of their school. They went to the roof and
discovered a throbbing, disk-shaped object which took off as they
all ran for cover. There have been many landings and sightings
around schools all over the world. The sensational, much-
publicized sightings in Hillsdale, Michigan, in 1966 took place
wo police officers in Gaffney, South Carohna, had a directiy in front of a dormitory on a coUege campus. And hun-
brief and not very informative chat with a httle man in dreds of children, teachers, and nearby adult residents saw circu-
a tight-fitting gold suit early on the moming of lar, seemingly metallic objects hovering low over the Crestview
November 17, 1966. They didn't know it, but scores of other Elementary School in Miami, Florida, on April 6, 1967.
apparendy sober and reliable people have been reporting identical From all the reports it is painfuUy obvious that the UFOs and
experiences for many years. These "little men" are an important their strange occupants have a specialand perhaps unsavory
part of flying saucer lore. They have also been the butt of many interest in children.
jokes ever since the New Yorker published a cartoon some years On October 4, 1965, three hysterical children charged into the
back depicting a "httle man" from a flying saucer addressing a office of the headmaster of the Liberator General San Martin
horse in afield, "Take me to your leader." School in Salta, Argentina, and told him that several shortj ugly
The United States Air Force apparently received a rash of "ht- greenish monsters had attacked them and tried to catch them
tle men" reports in die early 1950s, for in 1955 Captain Robert while they were walking to school. The story was nothing new to
White, then Pentagon spokesman for the official UFO-chasing the headmaster. He told reporters he had heard the same sort of
Project Blue Book, told the press: "In the past three years I've thing beforeabout two years eartier.
heard all kinds of descriptions [of UFOnauts], but die most fre- There are now hundreds of cases in which the UFOnauts have
quent are httle, green, luminous smelly types. Despite all the sto- reportedly spoken to witnesses in the local language, and have
12 JOHN . KEEL
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 13

even made bids for publicity. Argentine shopkeeper Felipe Mar-

over to the laboratory of the National Polytechnic Institute and
tinez claimed three separate encounters with a "httle man" a yard
nothing further was said about it.
high, who wore a "diver's costume" and helmet and spoke Por-
Flying saucer "flaps" have occurred repeatedly around reser-
tuguese slowly, with difficulty. Martinez said that "they" asked
voirs, lakes, and rivers indicating, perhaps, that water plays an
him to help them gain recognition but he told them that all he
important role in the UFO mystery. For example, hundreds of
could do was to report the meeting to a radio station. Later, after
people saw all kinds of mysterious aerial objects around the
another alleged meeting, he said he was taken aboard a saucer
Wanaque, New Jersey, reservoir in 1966. Afisherman named Jos
with four crewmen all less than a meter in height [less than 39
Alves of Pontal, Brazil, identified as a hard-working, quiet man
inches], while afifth occupant was a blond man about six feet tall.
who has never even heard of flying saucers before his experience,
On that occasion, he said, the crewmen put a "space suit" on him
said that he saw three little dark-skinned men get out of a flying
but it caused his heart to pump so rapidly that he had to take it off.
object on November 4, 1954, and one of themfilled a shiny metal
That was in 1965.
tube with water from the River Pardo.
On August 14, 1965, Joao do Rio, a railway worker, was fish-
Numerous Indian tribes in westem United States and Canada
ing on the River Paraiba near the village of Cruzeiros in Brazil
have legends about "little men" who come to specific lakes and
when a saucer-hke object landed nearby and a tiny man seventy
rivers for water year after year; these places have been avoided by
centimeters high (28 inches) with big luminous eyes addressed
the Indians and regarded as sacred. In Mexico there are extensive
him in perfect Portuguese. He said he was from "another world"
legends about the "Wachoqs," httle people who visited Mexican
and authorized Rio to tell whomever he pleased. Then he handed
streams and lakes in the distant past, walking underwater in glit-
the astonishedfisherman a small metal disk, said he would return,
tering "diving suits."
hopped back into his saucer, and flew off. The young witness
The Irish have always told us of "httle men" in tight-fitting
reportedly turned the disk over to the authorities for analysis, and
green or brown costumes who frequent lakes and rivers on the old
that's the last we ever heard of that.
sod. While most of us tend to dismiss the Leprechaun lore of Ire-
Another piece of metal, this one bearing a "peculiar inscrip-
land as folk tales and myth, there are a number of impressive and
tion," was apparently dropped in front of two students near the
well-documented books relating the numerous appearances of
National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City, Mexico, on August
these tiny, elusive beings. In many of these accounts the witnesses
19, 1965. The students, Yago and Payo Rodriguez, said that at
allegedly encountered Leprechauns on the banks of a stream or
8:30 A.M. that moming a luminous, domed disk landed on tripod
lake where they werefilling a receptacle with water. Like most of
legs near them, and two small creatures about eighty centimeters
our UFOnauts, the Leprechaun is supposed to be skittish and flees
(about thirty-one inches) tall and wearing "gas masks" got out,
from human beings. And, also like our UFOnauts and monsters,
dropped the metal plate in front of them, andflew off again. Inves-
the Leprechauns are supposed to be capable of leaping great dis-
tigators found the grass was bumed at the alleged landing site, and
tances and disappearing into thin air.
there were marks where the tripod legs had rested. Drops of a
strange fluid were also found. Similar fluid has been found at In Sweden and Denmark we hear about trollsgnome-like
many other UFO landing sites. It consists of alumina and sihcon, beings who live in the earth and who are physically deformed.
both mundane earthly substances. The metal plate was tumed The Leprechauns are supposed to hve underground, too, and woe
to anyone who tries tofind their hiding places. From time to time
 1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE UIDE TO MYSTERIOUS B E I N S 1

they are said to kidnap children and whisk them away forever. In moving about inside the machine." These were nighttime sight-
UFO lore we have the "Deros" (detrimental robots) who are sup- ings. Suppose these same objectsflew over your house during the
posed to Uve underground in secret caves, or even in die day; would you be able to see them at all?
hollowed-out center of the earth. Variations on this underground- The human eye can be compared to a radio receiver: It is tuned
dweller theme can be found in ancient Oriental legends going to detect only a very small portion of the electromagnetic spec-
back thousands of years. trum, the middle range of electromagnetic waves known as visible
Not all of the "Utde people" mydiology is baseless. Archaeo- light: Thus, any wave tuned to a frequency above or below that
logical evidence of a sort does exist. The ruins of ancient cities in range is invisible to the naked eye: The evidence indicates that
South America have been found honeycombed with tiny tunnels, occult and UFO activities are largely conducted in those frequen-
staircases, and passageways so small that normal men have to tra- cies beyond human perception: Man-made instruments, such as
verse them on their hands and knees. Who built these things and radar, are tuned to those higher, unseen frequencies and can occa-
why? Even in the United States, in New Salem, New Hampshire, sionally intercept objects unseen to the human eye.
not far from Exeter, site of a UFO "flap" in 1965, fliere is an Invisible flying saucers are possible!
ancient construction of tunnels and tiny chambers built long "They [UFOs] are invisible to the human eye," a spokesman
before the Indians arrived. They say "the httle men" constructed from the British War Office told the London Sunday Dispatch in
the place. Another elaborate system of tiny tunnels lies outside of October 1954. Radar installations in Great Britain had repeatedly
Cusco, Peru, home of many intense saucer "flaps." A large num- picked up whole formations of unidentified objects that Septem-
ber of people reported seeing two luminous dwarfs get out of a ber, some of them passing overhead at low altitude. Military per-
disk near Cusco on August 20, 1965. And the Lt. Governor of sonnel scrambled outside their offices to take a look and were
Santa Barbara, Peru, solemnly declared that he encountered two much puzzled tofind the skies clear and empty. "Every time, they
tiny humanoids walking in the snows near Lake Ceulacocha on have foflowed the same pattern, always around mid-day," the War
September 12, 1965. They disappeared, he said, in the midst of a Office spokesman continued. "All our radar sets in the area have
"deafening noise." picked them up." The fufl story is told in Major Donald E. Key-
This unfathomable abiUty to vanish instantly into thin air is hoe's book. The Flying Saucer Conspiracy.
described in many reports. During the August 1965 "flap" six wit- At least one "contacte" has been told that flying saucers are
nesses in Grand Forks, North Dakota said they saw a Winking normally invisible to us. The witness, Gary Wilcox, was a hard-
transparent circular object resting on a golf course and that it con- working young man alone on a three-hundred-acre farm outside
tained "httle figures inside . .. moving hke a siUiouette." When of Newark Valley, New York. Around 10:00 A.M. on Friday, April
some of the witnesses ran towards the object, it disappeared with 24, 1964, Mr. Wilcox was out spreading fertilizer when he saw a
a loud bang. "It just blew up," one of them observed. Oflier trans- flash of hght, like a mirror reflection, and discovered an egg-
parent objects have been seen many times over the years. On shaped object hovering a few feet off the ground nearby. It was, he
August 28, 1962, three people encountered a brightly Ut object on said, about twenty feet long and twelve tofifteen feet wide with
die ground three hundred yards from National Highway No. 2, rounded ends. Puzzled, he walked over to it and touched it. "It
near the city of Delores, Argentina. It was, they said, about thirty was just like touching an automobile," he later told investigators,
feet long andfifteen feet high and tiiere were "human-like figures "and there was a sound tike a motor idling."
 1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

Suddenly two small figures dropped to the ground from the ests" not to talk about the incident. When they finally got back
underside of the object. Although they were human in shape, they into the object, it ghded upward a short distance and suddenly
were only about four feet tall and both were encased in silvery seemed to vanish. A reddish jelly-like substance remained behind
one-piece suits. Their heads and faces were also covered by the on the groHnd. Wilcox said he couldn't seem to get hold of it with
same opaque material, and they were holding trays on which they his hands to pick it up. It melted away in a day or so.
appeared to have soil samples. Their hands were out of sight Dr. Berthold E. Schwarz, a leading psychiatrist, visited Mr.
under these trays. Wilcox in 1968 and carefully examined him. 'There was no evi-
"Don't be afraid," Wilcox was told by one of them. He spokein dence for any undue preoccupations, trends of thought, patholog-
a deep voice that seemed to come from his chest rather than his ical thinking, or inappropriate effect," Dr. Schwarz later noted in
head. "We have talked to people before." his report in the Flying Saucer Review.
They were somewhat surprised that he could see them, Wilcox Another young farmer, Carroll Wayne Watts, came up with a
reported, and they told him that their craft was normally invisible somewhat more horrifying story in 1967. He received nationwide
at distances beyond one hundred feet. Furthermore, they did most publicity in March 1968, after failing a he detector test in Amar-
of their work in the daytime because their vehicles were harder to illo, Texas. The Watts story is filled with "mystery men" and the
see then. At night, they said, then- craft tended to glow in the dark other ingredients so unpopular with UFOlogists who prefer to
and betray their positions. think in straightforward terms of benevolent Big Brothers from
Wilcox, a sober, well-educated, articulate young man, dutifully outer space.
reported his story to the local sheriff and signed a sworn statement For Carroll Watts the nightmare began at 10:30 P.M. on Friday,
on May 1, 1964. We have a copy of that statement in ourfiles. In March 31,1967. He was driving home towards Loco, Texas, when
it, Wilcox stated that the UFOnauts had told him that astronauts he saw a strange light near an abandoned house. He tumed off the
John Glenn, Vkgil Grissom and two Soviet cosmonauts would die road and headed for the light. When he got closer he saw an object
within a year due to "exposure to space." This prophecy was not he said was about a hundred feet long and eight or ten feet high.
too precise. John Glenn shpped in his bathtub and damaged his He stopped and got out of his car to investigate. There was a door
inner ear which affected his sense of balance for several months. on the side of the thing which shd open, and then a detached voice
Coincidentally, Yuri Gagarin, Russia's first man into space, suf- spoke to him. "It was an unemotional voice," he said, "neither
fered an identical accident around the same time. masculine or feminine. It asked me if I would be wilhng to submit
In January 1965 Virgil Grissom was among the three astronauts to a rigorous physical examination. I asked them why I would
who died in the disastrous fire aboard an Apollo space capsule want to take a physical and they told me that if I passed it, I would
undergoing testing. Four months later, on April 24, 1967, exactly be able to make aflight with them. They said any man who passed
three years after Wilcox's encounter, Russian cosmonaut Colonel the physical could make aflight, but no women or children would
Vladimir Kosmarov died when his space capsule crashed. be taken.
Gagarin was killed a year later in a plane crash. "They pointed out a machine against the opposite wall from
Wilcox said that the "httle men" talked to him for about two where I was standing," he continued. "They said all I had to do
hours, discussing many things that were beyond his comprehen- was stand before the machine to take a physical.
sion. They warned him, he said, that it would be "in his best inter- "About two or three feet forward from the machine was a map.
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

It was about a yard square and began about a foot from thefloor. It mit to the test. Near Hedley, Texas, on Route 287 he came upon a
appeared to be a large-scale land mapbut I couldn't teU what it 1957 Plymoudi which was apparently in trouble. A woman stood
was a map of. next to it, and he stopped to see if he could help her. Two mgged
"Then diey informed me that they had a machine that, when the men carrying rifles suddenly popped up from under a nearby cul-
shipflew within three hundred yards of a building, could tell how vert and threatened him, he claimed. He said fliey struck him
many people were in the building and their ages. about the shoulders with their weapons and wamed him that if he
"They, whoever 'they' were, said they were stationed all over passed the he detector test he would never retum home alive.
the world and could come and go as they pleasedno one could A very frightened Carroll Watts entered the Amarillo Security
stop diem . . . When I declined the physical, they told me that sev- Control Company that aftemoon. He submitted to the test but
eral people had taken the test and had made flights." deliberately hed, he declared later, so that the results would be
Mr. Watts said "No, thanks" and retumed to his car as the negative.
object rose noiselessly andflew away. He reported the incident to When he retumed home that evening he noticed a car parked a
the Air Force and local authorities and was taken seriously. His short distance away. It began to craise back and forth in front of
reputation was described as "beyond reproach" and three others, his house. He dug out an M-1 rifle, loaded it, and hid behind a
including an Air Force man, had reported sightings in that same storm cellar next to the house. The car was passing back and forth
area only a few days before. without headhghts. On itsfinal pass there were three loud reports,
Two weeks later, on Tuesday, April 11,1967, Watts said he saw as if the occupants of the car were shooting at the house. Watts
anoflier light near his home, and the engine of his pick-up tmck fired back witii his M-1, shooting at the retreating car three times.
stalled. When he got out, he found an egg-shaped object direcfly Then he called the local police. Investigators found six spent car-
behind him. A door opened and four smaU men appeared. They tridges next to the storm ceUar but there were no marks of any
were less than five feet tall, he said, seemed muscular, had elon- kind on the house.
gated eyes and slit-like mouths which did not move when they A former Air Force officer. Captain Robert B. Loftin, author of
spoke. They were dressed in "white coverall-type suits." They Identified Flying Saucers performed afirst-hand study of the case.
asked him again to go with them and this time he went. He He was impressed with the harassed witness who, incidentally,
claimed that he was flown to a much larger craft where he was had hinted that he suspected the CIA was behind it all and was
examined by some sort of machine which probed his body with trying to "hush him up." The story is now being circulated among
wires. UFOlogists as "another CIA silencing."
In the months which followed, he saw the "litde men" again The UFOnaut stratagems are varied and seemingly pointless.
and took eleven photographs of them and their craft. Six of these Sometimes they threaten witnesses. Sometimes they pass along
were eventually tumed over to the FBI and one of the pictures prophecies which later come tme. And sometimes they just seem
went to Dr. J. Allen Hynek. Dr. Hynek was quoted in the press as to drop in for a meaningless chat witii whatever earthman happens
taking the whole story seriously. to be handy.
In Febmary 1968 Carroll Watts consented to take a lie detector Two pohce officers in South Carolina participated in one of
test. On Sunday, February 25, he started out for AmariUo to sub- these chats back in 1966. Their story appeared in only a single
 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1
1 JOHN . KEEL
on it. It was completely dark, reflecting a dull gold color in the
local newspaper, and months later it was briefly mentioned in the headlights of the police car. Their car did not stall.
pages of Fate magazine. In that account the two men described the As the object settled to within a few feet of the ground, both
"little man" as having "a greenish complexion." men got out of their car in a state of benumbed amazement. Later
Had two pohce officers really seen a "httle green man?" In Hutchins estimated that the object must have been about twenty
November of 1967 wefinally had the opporttmity tofind out. We feet in diameter. A small door suddenly opened noiselessly on the
gave a lecture in Atlanta, Georgia, and then rented a car and drove underside of the sphere, he said, and a short ladder, four to six feet
to Gaffney, South Carolina, to chase the story down. long, dropped down. White hght poured out of the opening, but
Patrolman Charles Hutchins, one of the witnesses, tumed out neither man could see anything in the interior. A figure appeared
to be an ebullient man, stocky, aboutfive feet ten inches tall, in his in the doorway, descended the ladder, and walked slowly and
early thirties. He regarded us with some suspicion at first, asking deliberately toward the two pohce officers. When the figure
for assurance that we were "not with the govemment." Like most reached a point aboutfifteen to twenty feet from the two men, it
of the country, he had heard of the well-pubhcized tt-agedy of the stopped.
Ohio pohce officer. Dale Spaur, who had lost his job and suffered "He didn't move stiffly," Officer Hutchins told us. "He moved
all kinds of unpleasantness after being involved in the celebrated just hke anybody else, but kind of slow . . . like he was taking his
Ohio UFO chase of April 1966. time. He wasn't scared of us or anything like that."
We adjoumed to an empty room in the pohce station, and he In appearance "he was about the size of a twelve-year-old
began with a confession. The "little man" had not had a "green boy . . . maybe four feet." He wore no helmet or headgear and was
complexion" as was reported in the newspapers, he said. When he dressed in "a gold suit with no buttons or zippers." His costume
and officer A. G. Huskey had first told their story they had been was shiny, like metal, in the reflection of the headhghts. It was not
subjected to so many jeers that they impishly added the "green self-luminous.
complexion." Actually, he admitted, the creattare's face seemed "We were both kind of shaky and scared," Hutchins admitted
rather ordinary and human-like and neither man was able to tell frankly. "So he did most of the talking. When we asked questions,
whether his complexion was light or dark. he wouldn't answer us, but just went right on talking."
Hutchins had been on the Gaffney pohce force for about six Hutchins could not remember seeing the feet of the creature. It
months at the time, and Huskey had been a pohceman for five was standing in high grass and the feet must have been hidden.
years. Sometime after 4:00 A.M. on the moming of November 17, Unfortunately, our interview took place a full year after the inci-
1966, the two men were making a routine patrol along the isolated dent, and both men had understandably forgotten small details.
and unpopulated road through an outlying section of Gaffney They could not even remember the full context of the "conversa-
known as the West Buford Street Extension when, as they neared tion."
a right-angle bend in the road, they suddenly saw a metalhc object "He talked real g o o d . . . Uke a college graduate," Hutchins
du-ectly in front of them. This object was descending when tiiey claimed. "Didn't have any accent or anything. He acted Uke he
first saw it, Hutchins said, and was about twenty feet above the knew exactly what he was saying and doing . . . didn't make any
ground. He described it as being spherical, like a ball, witii a quick moves or false moves. He just stood there and talked to us."
wide, flat rim around it. There were no hghts or portholes visible
12 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

What exactly was said? Officer Hutchins recalls that he stam- before the incident, nor do they seem very interested in such liter-
mered out a question hke, "What are you doing here?" The crea- ature now. They were not aware of the numerous other far-flung
ture didn't reply, but asked a question of his own. "He wanted to contacte stories in which the witnesses also reported that the
know why we were both dressed ahke," Hutchins said. "So 1 UFOnauts declared they would retum at a specific time (as a num-
guess we told him we were police officers." ber of the South American cases cited eartier).
"His speech was very . . . very precise. He pronounced each Both men revisited the landing site nightly for two weeks after
word very carefully. I can't remember everything he said now . . . the incident without seeing anything unusual. However, they did
but it wasn't anything very important. I asked him where he was see a large orange ball saihng across the sky a few days later.
from but he didn't answer. He just laughed. He had a funny kind "Anyway, we don't know how long his days are," Hutchins
of laugh." observed sagely.
The confrontation was brief, perhaps only two or three min- When the Soviet Union experienced a rash of UFO sightings in
utes. Then, Hutchins said, the creature announced: " I . . . w i l l . . . the 1960s, Communist officials accused the U.S., particularly the
retum . . . in . . . two . . . days" He tumed, walked slowly back to CIA, of being behind it all as part of a sinister "capitalist plot,"
the ladder, and chmbed into die object. The door closed quietly according to TASS, the official Soviet news agency. They were
and the craft began to whirr. "It wasn't tike those whirring sounds particularly suspicious of the outbreak of retigious phenomena in
in science-fiction movies... there was no screeching to it," Tashkent when smaU children excitedly reported seeing visions of
Hutchins observed. "It was soft, like an engine with a muffler on a beautiful lady. Atheism was the official Communist poticy and
it." The object rose slowly and vanished into the sky. appearances of BVMs (Blessed Virgin Mary) were darkly
The two poticemen said they stood there for a few minutes in frowned upon. But when a new flying saucer blitzkrieg occurred
stunned silence before theyfinally pulled themselves together and in the mid-1980s, the Russians changed their tune and started to
retumed to the pohce station. take the subject very seriously. There were UFOs everywhere in
They went back to the site the next day with a local councilman an eerie repetition of the great waves that engulfed America in the
named Hiti and found several fresh footprints in the exact spot 1950s ^ d '60s. All of the old famitiar manifestations swept Rus-
where tiie "littie man" had stood. "They looked like children's sia. There were powerful beams of hght scanning the ground from
footprints," Hutchins said. No casts were made. some unknown source in the sky. Multicolored Ught forms danced
Hutchins appeared to be a straightforward, honest witness. and froUcked across Siberia while a wide variety of unspeakable
There were many details he could not remember, and it seemed he monsters stomped about the landscape often leaving mundane
did not attempt to embeUish his story at all. His reputation in substances in their wake as proof of their presence.
Gaffney was excellent. Careful cross-examination failed to un- SchoolchUdren in Voronezh created worldwide headUnes in Sep-
cover any discrepancies in his narrative. Later we spoke to A. G. tember 1989even the staid New York Times printed the story
Huskey on the phone (we did not meet him). He confirmed when they told of seeing giant three-eyed creatures clambering out
Hutchins' story, but said he wanted to forget the whole thing. He of a circular object in a park. Impossibles and Incomprhensibles
had left the force and now operates his own business in Gaffney, a were aU over the place. Scores of reputable, skeptical Soviet scien-
town of about ten thousand. tists suddenly became avid UFOphiles. Scientific symposiums
Neither Hutchins nor Huskey had read any UFO literature were organized to discuss the arrival of frightening freaks from
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

outer space. Flying saucer magazines appeared on Soviet news- In fact, it is probable that many of the earher cemetery "ghost"
stands. Nobody blamed the CIA anymore. sightings were actually UFO manifestations.
There were some cynics, of course, hke Konstantin Feoktistov, Our funny creatures also seem to be dispersed among and even
a Russian Cosmonaut, who noted: "As should have been expected, interchangeable with our more bizarre monsters. When they are
the miracle in Voronezh appeared to a pure and innocent adoles- not hanging around atom bomb factories and garbage dumps, they
cent of around ten or twelve. Ordinary boys of this age are usually are sniffing around oil wells and refineries, even in the heart of
eagerly looking all over for pkatic exploits. But our laddie is cities. One puzzling creature report which seems to be a mixture
enth-ely different. of many things took place in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1966.
"They say that the Voronezh regional Party subcommittee has On the night of July 31, 1966, a glowing object chose to land
set up a special commission on aliens. But to my mind, it would on a deserted beach in Presque Isle Park, Erie, Pennsylvania,
be much better to erect a monument to the smart adolescent..." whilefive young people, in a car stuck in the sand a few hundred
An article in the official Soviet Military Review, June 1989, as feet away, watched. After it landed, the object projected strange
quoted in Antonio Huneeus' UFOs, Psychic and Paranormal Phe- beams of light into a nearby woods. Then a tall, darkfigure shuf-
nomena in the U.S.S.R., stated: "We believe that so far the study fled up to the car and terrified the witnesses, leaving a scratch on
of UFOs has not paid due heed to some specific features, as well the roof of the vehicle. The next day quantities of silicon were
as the mechanism of human perception of the world around us. found at the landing site, along with some peculiar cone-hke
Frequency parameters of UFOs and the limited speed of pro- indentations in the sand. The Presque Isle police vouched for the
cessing information in the eye-brain system breed so-called meta- witnesses, and said that they were sincerely frightened. Scores of
phoric deformities. Eyewitnesses see not the object itself, but other people in Erie reported seeing unusual aerial hghts that
their own individual or accepted idea of it." same night.
Metaphoric deformities. That was a new term for all this. When we went to Erie to investigate this case we found a curi-
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 did not spell the col- ous note in the pohce files. A woman had called them to report
lapse of Russian UFOIogy. Symposia and conferences are still another monster sighting. This one on West Third Sfreet, facing
taking place in the major cities, with the participants sharply Erie Harbor and directly across from Presque Isle. The woman,
divided about extraterrestrials from outer space or ultraterrestrials Mrs. Julie Helwig, told us that she was awakened by barking dogs
from inner space. New sightings and landings continue to occur. at 5:30 A.M. on the moming Wednesday, August 3, 1966, and
New mysteries continue to unfold. when she looked out the window she saw a human-shaped being
The whole UFO/monster phenomenon is like a Chinese nest of aboutfive feet six inches tall. It was clothed, she said, in a yellow
boxes. Open one and you find another one inside. Since the early jacket and yellow frousers with no discemible pockets, belts, or
days of the flying saucer scare UFOlogists have carefully noted other features. The head, she said, was huge, moon-shaped, and
that UFOs seem to spend a lot of time around our atomic energy when seen from the side the back appeared to be flat. This head
installations and other sites of sfrategic importance. But it is also was covered with "sfraggly" brown haira muddy color. The
true that an equal number of UFO sightings and events seem to be creature had very big shoulders and a slender build. It moved with
concentrated around gravel pits, garbage dumps, and cemeteries. a stiff, jerky mechanical motion, holding its arms close to its
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

sides. The arms did not move at all. Its legs did not bend at the and dwarfs were found together in the vicinity of a single UFO
knees. "He moved," she said, "like a mechanical wind-up toy." touchdown. It happened on December 24, 1960, outside of
Local dogs were barking at its heels but it ignored them. Durango, Colorado. On that Christmas Eve over a dozen wit-
The sight of this creature frightened her and she woke up her nesses saw a huge, intensely-lighted object swing down from the
husband. He looked out the window but, since he was not wearing sky and disappear among the trees on a nearby peak. "At the top
his glasses, he said he only saw "something moving." The crea- of it you could definitely see a circle or dome," Wade Folsom later
ture appeared across from the United Oil Storage Tanks on West told the Durango Herald, "and every foot or so apart were
Third Street and walked stiffly out of view. lights . . . I wouldn't call them windows, because they didn't look
Another woman in the area saw a similar creature that same like ordinary windows . . . They seemed to revolveto flop over,
week. This woman, who wants to remain anonymous, said she one row after another."
was driving down Third Street late at night when she saw the crea- The next day the Folsom's pet dog dashed into the house in a
ture. She stopped her car. It came up to the car, "pounded on the state of terror and died at their feet. Members of the family went
hood," then moved off into the darkness. up the mountainside and discovered an area where overhanging
Like so many other witnesses to the unbehevable, Mrs. Helwig tree limbs had broken off. They found a vast number of footprints,
felt very alone because no one took her story seriously. She had unlike anything they had seen in the mountains before. Under-
never heard of any similar stories herself. Now she knows that she sheriff Myron Darmour and Deputy Bill Hiser later visited the site
has plenty of company.' and reported that one set of prints were "deflnitely human" even
Who or what are all these assorted spacemen, monsters, beasts, though they werefifteen inches long. They were accompanied by
and bogeymen? It does look as if some of themperhaps all of other human-like footprints only five inches in length. These
themhitch rides aboard flying saucers. If so, do they all come tracks led to a deserted mountain cabin, circled around it, and
from a single place, or are we being invaded by a hundred differ- retumed to the touchdown site.
ent groups from a hundred different unknown places? A dog belonging to a neighbor of Folsom's reportedly disap-
Most of these monsters and humanoids obviously breathe our peared on the night of the sighting and was never seen again.
atmosphere without any trouble. Some of them seem to be able to Could it be that the "little men" and the giants are preparing to
speak our languages. If they come from another planet, then it gang up on us?
must have environmental conditions almost identical to our own. We have made a grave but human mistake in trying to lump all
The odds, our astronomers keep teUing us, are against this possi- these things together into a simple frameworkassuming, for our
bility. peace of mind, that the unidentified flying objects are visitants
Do all of these characters know each other? Could it be that from another planet, here merely to survey us before establishing
they are working in unison to accomphsh tiieir goalswhatever contact. If all of this is the work of a superior inteltigence from
those goals might be? somewhere out there, it is infinitely more complicated than the
In one little-publicized incident the footprints of both giants UFO buffs have dreamed of. The deeper you plunge into this sub-
ject, the more complex it all becomes. One answer raises one hun-
dred more questions.
'Compare Mrs. Helwig's description with Cases 13 and 14 in Chapter 10. Many of tiie objects and their occupants are openly hostile to
178 JOHN A. KEEL

us and have proven this in case after case. Almost all of the thou-
sands of reports prove that "they" are conducting a vast program
here as secretly as possible. Perhaps they occasionally plant
"monsters" in "flap" areas and stage absurd events just to rein-
THIRTEEN
force our skepticism and disbelief.
Are they buying time with our stupidity? 4 ^

Cattle Rustlers from

the Skies

n 1897 a farmer named Alexander Hamilton signed an affi-

davit swearing that he and his family had seen an illumi-
nated "dirigible," occupied by very strange-looking beings,
carry off one of his heifers. The animal's hide was said to have
been found in a nearby field the next day. This story has been
written up in almost every UFO book on the shelf Unfortunately,
it has proven to be a hoax, something Mr. Hamilton contrived to
entertain the local Liars' Club (such clubs were once a popular
rural diversion). However, it is a sobering fact that real animal dis-
appearances and mutilations occur with disturbing regularity in
UFO "flap" areas, just as they seem to be an integral part of the
general "monster" scene.
Three farmhands outside of Twin Falls, Idaho, told police that a
glowing elliptical machine settled in a field near an isolated steer
on September 7, 1956. The men started to run towards it but it
shot upwards and disappeared. The steer apparently went with it.
10 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

for it was gone. Another case, later discounted as an April Fool's seemed more reasonable for an inteUigent pig thief to confine his
Day joke, appeared in west coast newspapers in 1963. A bewil- activities to one pen.
dered farmer in Chileno Valley, California, was supposed to have At 10:00 P.M. on February 5, 1968, many people in Farming-
reported that a flying saucer had stampeded his herd of cattle. dale proper said that a large luminous sphere had appeared over
Aroused by the rumpus, he reached the scene just in time to see a the town.
group of "short men in white coveralls" grab a calf and haul it into West Virginia and Ohio have had all kinds of animal mysteries
the object. since their UFO "flap" began in 1966. Shortly after sundown on
A farmer in Isola, Italy, accused "three dwarves in metalhc div- the evening of November 14, 1966, Newell Partridge of Salem,
ing suits" of steahng several of his pet rabbits on November 14, West Virginia, was watching television when suddenly the set
1954. He claimed he caught the thieves red-handed near his "began to make noises like a generator." As he decided to take a
hutches. He said he had seen a bright cigar-shaped machine land look outside, his thoroughbred German shepherd. Bandit, "started
nearby and had grabbed his rifle. But when he confronted the carrying on something terrible." He flashed a tight into a neigh-
rustlers therifle not only failed tofire but became so heavy he had boring field and saw what he described as two bright red glowing
to drop it. Then he found himself paralyzed, unable to move or objects. Bandit growled and ran into the field. The hghts van-
speak, while the httle men carried his rabbits off to the object and ished, and the dog was never seen again.
flew away. A week later another West Virginian, a man who asked to
In South America that UFOlogist paradise, pohce officials in- remain anonymous "because people think those who see tiiis
vestigating extensive flying saucer reports in Barcelos, Brazil, in thing are crazy," reported that a cigar-shaped object that "sounded
September 1962, learned that seventeen chickens, six pigs, and like a Washington time signal" landed in his yard. His dog ran
two cows had all vanished during the UFO wave. A man also dis- toward the object and was apparently attacked by something
appeared during that "flap." His name was Telemaco Xavier, and before the object flew off. The animal timped back bloody and
he vanished near the viUage of Vila Conce9"ao late on the night badly frightened.
of September 1, 1962. Three plantation workers testified that they Across the Ohio River, William Watson's German shepherd
had seen a lone man walking down a deserted road that night, disappeared early in November and was found a week later in the
when an illuminated circular object spraying sparks swept down center of an isolated field on Georges Creek Road outside of Gal-
from the sky. Three men leaped out, grabbed the lone stroller, and lipolis, Ohio. The knee-high grass around the dog's body was
dragged him off. Whether or not Seor Xavier was that man pressed flat in a perfect circle twenty feet in diameter. Although
remains unproven. But he was never seen again. there was no sign that the dog had been attacked by any known
Minutes away from New York City several pigs reportedly van- animal every bone in its body was crushed and there was
ished from their well-protected pens at the Agricultural College in absolutely no blood in evidence.
Farmingdale during August 1967. There had been repeated power When we visited Gallipolis in December of that year, we dis-
failures in the area throughout the summer, and many flying covered that many people had seen unidentified flying objects
saucer sightings had taken place there. We visited the college and around Georges Creek Road. Mrs. Marilyn Taylor told us that she
learned that single pigs had been removed from several different had been driving there at 7:15 P.M. on the evening of December 9,
pens. Since the pigs were enclosed by high fences, it would have 1966, when a circular reddish-orange hght appeared in front of
12 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

her car at telephone-pole-height. It bobbed up and down, she said, the house, unable to move, and felt a wave of almost overpower-
and flashed beams of light towards the road. "It was the size of a ing heat as she heard the kitchen door open. She had double-
hehcopter, but it was no hehcopter," she declared. She said she locked it before going to bed, she assured us. While she lay there
followed it for about a mile until she reached a well-hghted area helplessly, she said she saw a tall figure walk through the kitchen
near a transformer installation. Then the object shot into the air and apparently go out another locked door on the other side. That
and disappeared. Her four children were with her in the car, and door, we discovered when we visited the house, led to nowhere.
her six-year-old boy expressed great fear of the object. There were no steps outside it; only a steep drop to the ground.
A nurse who hves on a farm with her two teen-aged children Other strange sounds pervaded the house, she claimed. She had
outside of Galhpohs, sought us out and told us a long and heard heavy footsteps on the roof and loud metalhc clangs.
involved story about her experiences with the objects and their The house is situated on a hill far back from a narrow dirt road
occupants. She keeps cows on her farm and she claimed that and commands a good view of the surrounding area. Mrs.
someone was butchering them in her fields. She had seen the Bryant's twelve-year-old son told of his own sightings and he also
"rustlers" on several occasions and had gone after them with a remarked about the big Air Force "flying boxcar" cargo planes
shotgun. "They're tall men in white coveralls," she explained. which frequently flew over the area at treetop level.
"And they can certainly run and jump. I've seen them leap over A year earher we would have put Mrs. Bryant down as para-
high fences from a standing start." noid. Her story smacked of a persecution complex gone amok.
This woman, whom we will call Mrs. Bryant, had seen large But we had heard too many similar tales in our travels to take hers
luminous spheres at treetop level around her home. Furthermore, lightly.
she claimed that an elderly couple who had hved on her property Have you ever awakened in the middle of the night with the
for years had often told her about the strange hghts in the area. uneasy feeling that there was a stranger in the room, or in the
Sightings went back thirty years. The couple had described them house? This has happened to nearly everyone at some time or
as being like "a lantern on a stick that somebody waves back and another, excluding, of course, the incidents in which that someone
forth in the hls." proved to be a real burglar or prowler. But it seems to happen too
Mrs. Bryant's troubles with cattle "rustlers" had started back often with UFO witnesses and "contactes."
around 1963-64. Her house had bumed to the ground during that On a warm June evening in 1962, Gregory Sciotti, eighteen,
period and she built a new one-story ranchhouse on the same site. woke up around 11:30 P.M. with that feeling. He was alone in the
The cattle "mstlers," she explained, had mthlessly butchered a little house near Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, for his mother
number of her animals very expertly. But they didn't seem to want worked on the night shift in a nearby factory.
the choice steak cuts. Instead they rather pointlessly removed the "There was a hght in die room," Mr. Sciotti wrote to us in
brains and other organs of httle commercial value. And there was 1967. "I quickly tried to get up and found it impossible to move. I
never any blood in evidence. She had complained repeatedly to tried to tum my head to see where the light was coming from.
both the pohce and the FBI. This I also found impossible. It seems as though the only control I
Her children confirmed that strange things were also happening had was over my eyehds. The feehng I had was something like
to their telephone, and Mrs. Bryant was convinced that someone when you're very tired; you know, just too tired to move. Then I
was tapping it. She also said that she had once awakened alone in heard something on the steps just outside the door. Something like
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

a heavy breathing sound. I heard it moving around. I tried to tackle. Then they picked up their poles and vat and left. Somehow,
scream to find out if I was dreaming . . . but I couldn't do any- it is easier to believe that "little green men" did it.
thing but move my eye hds. Then, just like it started, it stopped. Whoever killed Snippy left an ordinary terrestrial-type ther-
The hght went out and it was Uke I was pushing on something mometer behind.
heavy and it suddenly moved." Another rather circumstantial case took place in Ontario,
He ran down the stairs, badly frightened, grabbed a rifle and Canada, early in November 1967. Two young men, Terry Good-
loaded it. He caUed for his dog Teddy, a colUe, who, he knew, was murphy and Steven Grexton, said they encountered a circular
somewhere in the house. But Teddy was gone. He searched the object about a hundred feet in diameter on Highway 17, outside of
grounds around the house with aflashUght. He had another dog Livingston, Ontario. It was surrounded by an orange glow, they
which was kept tied in the yard. That animal was also gone. said, and "went down towards the highway, stopped for a while,
The next night, he continued, he was sitting in his car in the then came straight up and began traveUng towards us. It appeared
driveway, taUdng with a girl friend, when a strange object rose up to be about a hundred feet up." The boys were so frightened that
from the woods behind the house. Four windows were visible on they slammed their car into reverse and backed down the highway
a dark oval shape as it passed between the moon and the young in a panic. When officers of the Ontario Provincial PoUce visited
couple. It was not an airplane, he declared. the area, the object was gone, but they noted the smell of sulfur in
"I feel rather silly discussing this," he concluded. "And have the air. That same week two horses belonging to Lome Wolge-
never mentioned it to anyone but my mother and my wife. My muth in nearby Sowerby, Ontario, suffered strange cuts. A
mother sort of laughed at me and told me I was dreaming . . . but favorite riding horse. Fury, came to the bam one moming with a
there is not a doubt in my mind that the incident took place. We long, clean cut on its neck. When a mare, Susie, failed to turn up
never didfind a trace of our two dogs." for breakfast, its owner went searching and found the animal dead
The best-pubUcized animal case of 1967 involved Snippy, the in afield with its jugular vein deftly cut. That night, another horse
pet horse of Mrs. Berle Lewis, which was found mysteriously owned by R. Boyer in Thessalon "went wild."
butchered near Alamosa, Colorado, that September. Flying sau- We have collected other animal mutilation cases from Pennsyl-
cers had been reported consistentiy in the area for overfive years, vania, Washington, Oregon, Ohio, and West Virginia. In Decem-
according to Alamosa County Sheriff Ben PhiUips. But he theo- ber 1967 another cow was found near Gallipolis, Ohio, with the
rized that Snippy was the victim of a stray lightning bolt. A unkindest cut of allit had been neatly severed in two "as if it
pathologist from Denver examined the horse's carcass, however, had been chopped in half by a giant pair of scissors." The organs
and found that all of thefluid had been drained from the brain in and blood in the lower half had all been removed.
some manner. He rejected outright the lightning theory. This par- Farmers in central Pennsylvania were so upset by their losses
ticular case was badly muddled by an amateurish investigation to the phantom animal mutilators that in 1968 they formed a local
and became the center of a totally meaningless controversy. organization to try to catch the culprits.
NICAP's final conclusion was that some hoaxsters had hauled a Even though strange lights and mysterious black helicopters
vat of acid out to thefield where Snippy was prancing, sUt die ani- were seen in the "mutes" areas, the UFO buffs resisted the notion
mal's throat with a scalpel, built a huge tripod with long, heavy that there might be some Unk. They ignored the phenomenon even
poles, and lowered the horse into a vat of acid with block and as the mutes began to spread slowly and systematically westward.
1 JOHN A. K E E L THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

By 1973 the mutilators were at work in the central states and in Other countries around the world, including Australia, Swe-
Puerto Rico where newspapers began to headhne the advent of den, China, parts of Africa and South America, began reporting
"vampires" who were killing domestic livestock and draining mutes, all sharing the characteristics of the U.S. mutilations. In
blood from the animals. Prior to his death in 1973, Ivan Sander- 1980 the mutilators moved into Canada where the Canadian
son was receiving reports of mysterious vans cruising through the Royal Mounted Police lowered a curtain of censorship on the
hills of New Jersey where pet dogs and cats were disappearing in news reports for a few months, perhaps in the erroneous assump-
large numbers. One area in Connecticut lost seven hundred dogs tion that they could solve the mystery. In the U.S. a govemment
in a brief six-month period. Irate pet owners all over the Northeast grant of $30,000 was given to Kenneth Rommel, an ex-FBI agent,
were holding meetings and demanding govemment action. The to perform a study of the mutes. He concluded it was all the work
popular theory was that organized gangs were stealing animals to of "predators." Not satisfied with this, a New York paperback
sell to sinister laboratories for use in grisly tests and experiments. house doled out $100,000 to a Greenwich Village bartender and
Investigators found, however, that such labs were few and they he spent a month visiting westem ranchers. His book, which
were able to get all the animals they needed free from pounds and appeared years later, suggested the ranchers were exaggerating
other legal sources. the number of mutilations and that it was mostly the fault of over-
When the mutilators moved into cattle country in the westem enthused UFO buffs . . . the same buffs that had flatly refused to
states, ranchers armed themselves and formed posses in a futile recognize the problem until the mutes began to appear almost at
effort to solve the mystery. The news media was very slow in rec- their front door.
ognizing the epidemic. For the first few years only the local news- In Colorado a petite bmnette TV anchorperson, Linda Moulton
papers bothered to mention what was happening. Sheriffs and law Howe, visited ranchers and produced an award-winning docu-
enforcement authorities grambled impotently about "Satan wor- mentary, Strange Harvest, in 1980. She became so fascinated with
shipers" making animal sacrifices. In most cases, as we have the subject that she put her career on hold and toured the world,
already noted, only the tongues and sex organs were removed, investigating new mute cases and lecturing about them. The muti-
usually with such surgical precision that investigating veterinari- lators remained busy throughout the 1980s and farmers were
ans were astonished. In a couple of starthng incidents, the cows shooting ineffectively at the black hehcopters that often appeared
were still alive when found even though their anuses and other silently overfields where dead animals were found.
organs had been neatly snipped out. In every case, blood was Mute reports were still coming in from Canada, Oklahoma, and
absent from the site andfrom the carcasses. scores of other places in the early 1990s. When the pohce in
Newspapers, news magazines, and the TV networks finally Fyffe, Alabama, were accused of engaging in a mute "cover-up"
began to pay attention in 1974-75, as the numbers of dead ani- in 1993, Marshall County Sheriff Ben Gamel responded: "Why in
mals steadily increased. Estimates vary widely but several thou- the Lord's name would we have anything to cover up? We have
sand were certainly slaughtered in those years. Twenty-three had surgically mutilated animals in this county. I've never denied
states were affected by 1976 and even tiie sullen UFO buffs that."
grudgingly admitted that maybe something untoward was hap- Pohce officer Ted Oliphant said he had investigated thirty-five
pening . . . even though the saintly space people certainly couldn't cattle deaths since October 1992, and only three of those could be
be blamed. explained as the work of buzzards or coyotes. People in Fyffe
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

have been seeing strange lights in the sky for over thirty years, wrap a pincer-like device around the vehicle. The nurse went into
along with black hehcopters that bear no markings or Ucense hysterics, understandably, and Shertzer opened the engine up
numbers. wide, trying desperately to outmn the thing. Apparently they were
We know that animal mutilations have been taking place saved by the sudden appearance of headhghts from approaching
almost continuously for decades and not one single person has traffic. As the other cars neared, the object retracted the arms and
been arrested for any of them. Some pohce departments favor the hastilyflew off.
Satanic cuh explanation but no cults have been located and no To this day Beau Shertzer refuses to drive along that highway.
cultists have been caught in die act. The sheer numbers of mute Was this a case of a UFO making a deliberate attempt to pick
cases seems to preclude that theory. In any case, cults usually sac- up a Bloodmobile and carry it off to some secret place? We can
rifice small animals like chickens. In some cases, such as Piano, only speculate but it all sounds very ominous.
Texas, in 1991, six cats were found after they had been dissected Some UFO theorists have speculated that terrestrial animal
widi a sharp instrument. They may have been the victims of some matter is important to the UFOnauts as raw material for the con-
magical ritual. stmction of solid physical entities.
Human beings have been found mutilated in a few instances in An altemative to collecting animal matter for the creation of
New Jersey and in the western deserts but pohce found it easy to physical beings would be to entist the aid of terrestrials sexually
trace these crimes to local cults. for the purpose of crossbreeding and creating a new species that
What's the total score over the years? We can only guess. would be neither human norwhatever "they" are. There are a
Some of the affected ranchers have estimated that around 10,000 number of astounding incidents which seem to suggest that such
animals are mutilated annually. This is probably much too high. biological experiments are actually taking place.
But if only two hundred were killed every year for the past thirty- In occult lore there is a well-known historic phenomenon
five years that would be a total of 7,000. That's a lot of animal which has been heavily documented for centuries and has
blood! involved thousands of people, both male and female. This phe-
It seems that animal blood is not all that "they" are after, either. nomenon involves the appearance of nonhuman entities who
In the wee hours of a rainy moming early in March 1967, a Red seduce and have sexual intercourse with their victims. An incubus
Cross Bloodmobile, laden with freshly collected human blood, is a male "demon" who attacks sleeping females and fomicates
was driving along Highway 2 next to the Ohio River, en route to with them. In many cases these entities retum night after night.
Red Cross headquarters in Huntington, West Vkginia. The driver Such "demon lovers" are discussed in ancient literature and psy-
was Beau Shertzer, and he was accompanied by a young nurse. As chiatrists are weti famitiar with the phenomenon. It seems to
they hit a completely deserted stretch of road, a large glowing extend beyond mere sexual fantasy. There is sometimes physical
object lifted from a nearby hill and swooped over the vehicle. evidence that the victim has experienced actual intercourse.
Shertzer rolled down his side window and looked up. He was hor- One weird case is fully described in a book titled UFO Warning
rified to see that some kind of arm or extension was being lowered by New Zealander John Stuart. He became obsessed with the
from the ghstening machine cmising only a few feet above the UFO phenomenon in the early 1950s and was assisted in his
Bloodmobile. The nurse saw another arm reaching down on her research by an attractive young lady he catis Barbara. After mak-
side of die tmck. It looked as if the flying object was trying to ing some close UFO sightings in 1954 and receiving anonymous
10 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

threatening phone calls ordering them to discontinue their UFO and close by themselves. Busy poltergeists also seem to be directly
studies, Barbara claimed that she retumed home one night to find hnked to the UFO phenomenon, as we shall see further on.
a foul odor in her apartment. Then she was brutally attacked by a If the UFOnauts are essentially alien but human in form, it
creature she could not see. She said that it had a skin the texture of might make sense for them to conduct crossbreeding experiments
sandpaper. It raped her and left her body covered with small in an effort to produce beings with the full capability of breathing
scratches. Later both Stuart and the girl saw a weird, loathsome and fxmctioning in the earthly envh-onment. Such experiments
monster with spindly limbs and covered with hair. "It had no have purportedly been going on for several years, although the
hands, the long fingers jutting from the arms hke stalks," Stuart victims are very reluctant to reveal their identities for perfectly
wrote. obvious reasons.
From time to time cases of this type receive worldwide pubhc- In these cases, young men, usually from college communities,
ity. A Reuters dispatch from Pretoria, South Africa, examined one are taken aboard the objects and introduced to alien females. A
such case in April 1968. A widow named Mrs. Anna de la Rovera student from a West Virginia college underwent this type of
protested to authorities that her house was haunted. In Febmary experience in the spring of 1967. Immediately after he was
1968 she retumed home one evening and found a man dressed in released from the UFO he went to a local hospital and submitted
gray sitting on her front porch. When she asked him what he himself to a thorough examination which confirmed his claims.
wanted, he "simply stood up and walked into the house through Two young men on Long Island also told me the same kind of
the closed front door!' The mysterious stranger appeared fre- story in the sunmier of 1967. One claimed to have performed as
quently after that, often invading her bedroom and "making a voluntary breeder several times. He later suffered a spell of
amorous advances" to her. amnesia.
"About a month ago after I had gone to bed one night," she told The best known case of this type occurred in Brazil in 1957 and
reporters, "I saw a dark apparition coming out of the kitchen. It was carefully investigated by Dr. Olavo T. Fontes, a prominent
was covered with long hair, and I particularly remember its long, physician in Rio and one of the world's leading UFOlogists. Dr.
curved fingemaUs." Fontes filed a very long and detailed report with APRO at the
Her children also saw this specter. Mrs. Rovera appealed to the time, but since the case was so unusual, it was not pubhcly
Pretoria City Council for new housing. revealed until 1966.
The female counterpart of the incubus is known as a succubus; The "victim's" name was Antonio Villas Boas, a twenty-three
a female entity which materiaUzes in the bedrooms of males and year old farmer in the state of Minas Grais. He told Dr. Fontes
seduces them. The succubus phenomena is very real to priests and that four small men in gray one-piece suits and helmets took him
monks, and there are innumerable instances in which ravishing aboard a saucer-shaped craft late on the night of October 15,
ladies supposedly materiahzed in their cells and tried to lure them 1957. There a sample of blood was extracted from him and he was
into enjoying the sins of the flesh. placed in a chamber containing a couch. Smoke came from vents
Often the appearances of these entities are accompanied by around the ceihng, he said, and created a gaseous mixture which
ghost-like manifestations. Objects move of their own accord, pic- smelled like "burning oil cloth" and made him sick to his stom-
tures are wrenched from walls by unseen hands, and doors open ach. After he had adjusted somewhat to this new kind of atmo-
12 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

sphere, the door opened and a nude girl entered. She was very being, either male or female, or else he forms with other materials
pale, short, had high cheekbones, elongated eyes, a very pointed a new body for this purpose."'
chin, and very thin lips. Her hands were "very long and narrow." If there is any vahdity to this theory, then we can speculate that
The healthy farmer did what comes naturally. Twice, in fact, he Boas' strange mate was somehow constmcted from the blood
bragged. At the conclusion of the proceedings his strange mate which the "spacemen" first extracted from him. In studying per-
patted her stomach and pointed towards the ceiling. Boas came cipients who have made similar claims, we have detected factors
down with symptoms of radiation poisoning after he was released, which indicate that allor a large partof what they remem-
and these symptoms were still present when Dr. Fontes examined bered was a confabulation or dream-like hallucination. While they
him a month or so later. Many of the smaller details of his once- had a vivid memory of their experiences aboard aflying saucer, it
utterly preposterous story have now been verified by more recent is probable that they actuaUy had a different kind of experience
events in odier parts of the world. His description of both the enti- altogether, the memory of which was somehow erased and
ties and some writing he saw on a door in the craft matches the replaced by aflying saucer iUusion.
descriptions of Betty and Barney Hill, the New Hampshh-e "con- Our problem is therefore comphcated by the necessity for find-
tactes," and they could not possibly have ever heard of Boas. ing a method to get at die forgotten experience. It is futile to
Mrs. Hill recalled under hypnosis that a long needle was driven record and preserve the endless details in the remembered halluci-
into her navel by the UFOnauts, and Barney complained that nations. The seemingly strongest UFO evidencethe landing and
some cold instrument was placed over his genitals (he later devel- contact storiesthus become the weakest hnks in the chain.
oped a ring of warts in that region).
One of the American males who told me of having an out-of-
this-world sex experience said that the female he met was about
five feet two inches tall, spoke httle Enghsh, and had very thin sil-
very hair. No nauseous gas was injected into that saucer boudoh-
but he was given something "thick and syrupy" to drink before he
was introduced to the girl.
Dr. Jacques Vallee has researched this type of event in depth,
burrowing into the records of the Catholic Church and the demon-
ological literature. Incubi and succubi have traditionally been
regarded as manifestations of the devil. In the Celtic countries the
"litde people" have been credited with bizarre sexual activities
often accompanied by hallucinations just as intriguing as the
modem stories of hanky-panky aboard flying saucers. "The devil
does not have a body," Dr. Vallee writes. "Then, how does he
manage to have intercourse with men and women?... All the
theologians answer that the devil borrows the corpse of a human 'Dr. Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, Chapter Four.
 THE COMPLETE U I E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 15

watching the glowing object cavort above the reservoir. There had
been a number of aerial sightings in the vicinity of Ehzabeth the
previous week, apparently clustered around the New Jersey Turn-
FOURTEEN pike which shces through that city. New Jersey newspapers from
one end of the state to the other werefilled with UFO reports dur-
ing that period.
The two boys, James Yanchitis and Martin "Mouse" Munov,
The Grinning Man were walking home along Fourth Street and New Jersey Street
when they reached a comer parallel to the tumpike. The tumpike
is elevated and there is a very steep incline dipping down from the
busy thoroughfare to Fourth Street. A very high wke fence mns
along the street, making it impossible for anyone to scramble up
the inchne to the tumpike. There are bright street hghts on that
particular comer. It was on this comer that the two young men
encountered "the strangest guy we've ever seen."
Yanchitis spotted him first. "He was standing behind that
fence," the youth said later. "I don't know how he got there. He
was the biggest man I ever saw."
"Jimmy nudged me," Mouse reported, "and said, 'Who's that
blazing white light "as big as a car" nearly scraped the guy standing behind you?' I looked around and there he was . . .
550-foot-tall television tower outside of Pompton behind that fence. Just standing there. He pivoted around and
iLakes, New Jersey, site of the large DuPont explosives looked right at us . . . and then he grinned a big old grin."
factory, on the night of October 11, 1966. A pohceman and his Three days later we visited Ehzabeth, accompanied by UFO
wife watched the object move slowly northward and disappear lecturer James Moseley and actor Chuck McCann. We inter-
beyond the neighboring hills. viewed the boys separately at length in the home of Mr. George
On the other side of those hills. Sergeant Benjamin Thompson Smythe and they both told the same identical story. The man was
and Patrolman Edward Wester, of the Wanaque Reservoir Police, over six feet tall, they agreed, and was dressed in a "sparkling
observed the same hght at about 9:45 P.M. as it swooped low over green" coverall costume that shimmered and seemed to reflect the
the reservoir. "The hght was brilhantly white," Thompson said. street lights. There was a wide black beU around his waist.
"It lit up the whole area for about three hundred yards. In fact, it McCann, who was the star of his own TV series in New York, is a
blinded me when I got out of the patrol car to look at it, and I very large man about six feet two inches tall, but both boys said
couldn't see for about twenty minutes afterwards." the person they saw was bigger than McCann and much broader.
Forty miles south of Wanaque, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, two He had a very dark complexion and "httle round eyes . . . real
boys had a frightening experience that October 11, at approxi- beady... set far apart." They could not remember seeing any
mately the same time that Officers Thompson and Wester were hair, ears, or nose on thisfigure, nor did they notice his hands. He
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

was standing in the underbrush behind the fence and his feet were never moved, yet Derenberger distincdy heard a voice and con-
out of sight. versed with this odd gendeman through "mental telepathy." Thek
There had been some incidents of violence in the neighbor- discussion was brief and rather pointless. The man said his.name
hood, and the boys did not stop to study this strange character. was "Cold" and that he was from "a country much less powerful"
They ran home. Later there were rumors in the area that "a tall than the United States. He asked Derenberger who he was, where
green man" had chased a middle-aged resident down the same he was going, and a few other simple questions. Then he said he
street that same night. We were unable to track those rumors down. would be back, retumed to the object, and itflew off.
The big mystery seemed to be: how did this man get behind Woodrow Derenberger, who had never read any UFO litera-
that fence and what was he doing there? We considered the possi- ture, thus entered the world of the "contactes." A year later he
bihty that it might have been a driver whose car or truck was in had divorced his wife after having changed jobs and addresses
trouble on the turnpike overhead but it seemed unlikely that he several times and having repeatedly changed his untisted phone
would have struggled down the very steep embankment and then number. Finally, in December 1967 he fled to another state and
just stood fixedly behind the fence. He certainly would have hid for several months, during which time he married another
called to the boys and asked them to make a phone call for him or "contacte"a girl many years his junior.
fetch help. But the boys seemed convinced that he was just quiedy We have interviewed Derenberger several times and have
watching a house across the street. appeared on Long John Nebel's radio show with him. Gray
A giant grinning man stood behind a high fence on a street cor- Barker, pubhsher of Saucer News, accompanied us on our first
ner in EUzabeth, New Jersey, on die night of a "flap." It hardly trek to Mineral Wells, and that night we saw some small hghts
proved anythingbut we have heard about "the grinning man" bobbing around in a field behind Woody's house. Being intiepid
over and over again in our travels. UFO investigators, we went into the field to take a closer look.
A sewing machine salesman from Mineral Wells, West Vir- Woody, unfortunately, had failed to tell us two thingsboth
ginia, Woodrow Derenberger, was driving home from Marietta, rather important. First, the fence around the field was electrified.
Ohio, on the rainy Wednesday night of November 2, 1966, when We discovered this quickly enough and went sailing over it into a
an object "shaped like the chimney of a kerosene lamp" dropped large mud puddle. Our sudden flight discouraged Gray from try-
out of the sky and landed on the highway directly in front of the ing to ctimb the fence. A few minutes later we leamed that there
West Virginian's truck. Derenberger slammed on his brakes and was a very bad-tempered bull in that field. Our years as butifight
stared in astonishment as a man emerged from the object and aficionados in Spain came in handy. Instead of trying to outmn
stroUed towards him. He described the man as being about six feet the bull, we stood our ground, flashed our flashlight in his
tall, with a dark complexion and slightly elongated eyes. He wore unhappy face, and bluffed him long enough to stage a dignified
a dark coat and blue trousers which were "quite shiny and had a retreat.
glistening effect." We never did find out what those little lights were. Deren-
As the man neared the door of the truck, Derenberger heard a berger claimed they were being projected from "Cold's ship"
voice ask him to roll down his window. The man stepped up to the somewhere overhead. According to his complicated story,
door with his arms crossed over his chest and his hands hidden "Indrid Cold" and his friends frequently visited the farm, often
under his armpits. He grinned fixedly at Derenberger and his lips arriving by automobile, for long, friendly chats. Innumerable wit-
1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

nesses did see strange unidentified objects throughout the area We stopped by to see Woody again in the spring of 1967 and
and quite frequently directly above Woody's house. found him hiding behind drawn curtains, trying to avoid the hun-
The night of hisfirst contact, two other men also reported iden- dreds of UFO believers, skeptics, and the just plain curious who
tical incidents to the Parkersburg police. We eventually tracked invaded his property every night and every weekend.
them down and spoke to them (they were not from Parkersburg). Sixty miles south of Parkersburg, in the httle town of Point
They confirmed our information but said they did not want their Pleasant, hundreds of people were quietly living in fear. About
names used. "We don't want to get involved," one of them said seven miles north of the town there is an expansive World War II
flatly. ammunition dump known locally as the TNT Area. This consists
Woody, however, agreed to a press conference and appeared on of several hundred wooded acres filled with concrete domes used
radio-and TV. The local NICAP subcommittee zeroed in on him, to store explosives manufactured at nearby plants. Residents of
urging him to tell his story to no one but NICAP. He voluntarily this thinly populated sector have been seeing strange things in the
submitted to an extensive physical and psychiatric examination sky and on the ground since the summer of 1966.
arranged by NICAP. A leading local psychiatrist conducted the One family in particular, Mr. and Mrs. James Lilly and their
tests. NICAP was nonplussed when the psychiatrist himself children, have had the full range of UFO activities around their
became a "contacte" a month later and now admits to both home on Camp Conley Road, just south of the TNT Area. They
person-to-person confrontations and telepathic conununications first began seeing low-flying luminous objects early in March
with the UFO entities. While he talks freely about these contacts 1967 but kept theh sightings to themselves for several weeks. Mr.
and his claims conform to all of the patterns, he naturally does not Lilly, a no-nonsense riverboat captain on the Ohio, was skeptical
want his name used. But he has talked anonymously on radio pro- atfirst and tried tofigure out a rational explanation.
grams and backed Derenberger to the hilt. "It didn't take us long to leam that when our TV started acting
There were many other "contactes" in the Ohio Valley area, up it was a sure sign that one of those lights was passing over,"
most of whom were completely unknown to Woody. Only Deren- Jim Lilly told us that April. "I didn't think much of all the flying
berger's story of November 2 received any pubhcity (the wire ser- saucer talk until I started seeing them myself. You've got to
vices circulated it nationwide), but his later experiences are not beheve your own eyes."
even known to the hard-core UFOlogists. It is certainly startling Automobiles in the vicinity of the Lilly home began to display
when "contactes" hundreds of miles from West Virginia recite an odd tendency to stall without cause. By mid-April the word
details identical to the things Woody had told us privately. had leaked out that the "Martians" were visiting Camp Conley
Derenberger is not a leamed man. "Indrid Cold" and his funny Road every night and carloads of teenagers and aduhs swarmed
companions told him they were from a planet called "Lanulos" over the area. Few were disappointed. Reporters, policemen, and
which was in "the galaxy of Genemedes." (Actually Ganymede is Mason County Sheriff George Johnson were among the countless
a large satellite of tiie planet Jupiter.) Woody claims that he has witnesses.
been there and visited a number of cities where the people wear "We've seen all kinds of things," Mrs. Lilly said. "Blue lights,
"colorful shorts" and all signs, posters, etc. appear to be written in green ones, red ones, things that change color. Some of them have
a squiggly Oriental-like writing. The ah: and the temperature are been so low that we thought we could see diamond-shaped win-
identical to Earth's. dows in them. And none of them make any noise at all."
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

During our in-depth interview with all the members of the Lilly "He walked around the bed and stood right over me," Linda
family we uncovered a number of significant incidents which had declared. "I screamed again and hid under the covers. When I
seemed totally unrelated to UFOs. In die fall of 1966 the Lillys looked up again, he was gone."
started hearing odd noises around their little ranchhouse. They did "She came running into my room," Mrs. Lilly said. "She said,
not discuss these things outside theu" family, but they wondered if 'There is a man in my room! There is!' She's refused to sleep
dieh" home had not suddenly become haunted. Kitchen cabinet alone ever since."
doors slammed in the middle of the night. Mrs. Lilly heard sounds When we asked for a full description of this man, Linda said
"like a baby crying." "It sounded so plain," she said, "that I looked she thought he had been wearing "a checkered shirt."
around the house even though I knew there was no baby here. It Occult literature is filled with references to ghosts wearing
seemed to come from the living room . .. only a few feet away "checkered shirts" but the occultists tend to skip over this seem-
from me." ingly irrelevant detail.
Their daughter-in-law, Mrs. Doris Lilly, who lived in the soudi Completely unknown to the Lilly family, the "man in the
end of Point Pleasant, began to receive strange phone calls early checkered shirt" had appeared frequenfly in the home of Mr. and
in March 1967. Each evening around 5:00 P.M. her phone would Mrs. George Glines of Pensacola, Florida, starting around 1963.
ring, and when she answered she heard only a bizarre metalhc During a hurricane that year Mr. Ghnes said, "1 was lying on the
voice speaking in an incomprehensible language. It was guttural couch in the living room with just one dim hght on. I had the feel-
and rapid. These calls came only when she was alone. ing that someone was in the room and looked up and saw a heav-
"It was as if they knew when I came home," she noted. ily built man about six feet tall wearing a plaid sports shirt.
The same thing happened night after night. Finally she was "I got up and took a couple of steps toward him. As I did, it
afraid to stay alone in the little bungalow. The phone company looked like he took a step backward and disappeared. I tumed on
examined her lines and could not explain the calls. the light and he was gone. I checked the doors, and they were all
Part of our investigative routine includes a discussion of the locked. I didn't mention it until my son-in-law saw it, because I
witnesses dreams during the "flap" periods. And one of our care- didn't want to upset my wife."
fully phrased key questions is: "Did you ever dream there was a The Glines son-in-law, James Boone, revealed that the man had
sfiranger in the house in the middle of the night?" When we tumed up in his bedroom in the same house. "I saw a large man,"
directed this question at the Lillys, Mrs. Lilly urged her quiet he said, "a laboring type person, standing at the foot of the bed. I
sixteen-year-old daughter, Linda, to teU about die nightmare she couldn't see his face. When I started to get up, he went away."
had had that March. Linda was reluctant to discuss it, but with a Several witnesses heard knockings on the wall of the living
litde coaching from the sidelines she told how she woke up one room. They finally tore the wall out but could find nothing
night and saw a largefigure towering over her bed. unusual. George, Jr., then only two years old, began to talk about
"It was a man," she said. "A big man. Very broad. 1 couldn't see his friend Puki, whom he described as a very big man in a color-
his face very well but I could see that he was grinning at me." ful shirt. Mrs. Glines reported that little George "told me that he
"Jim was working on the river," Mrs. Lilly added. "And Linda couldn't see Puki's face. It wasn't clear."
woke me up with a terrible scream. She cried out there was a man Several relatives andfriends heard footsteps in the house when
in her room. I told her she was dreaming. But she screamed again." there was no one tiiere. In May 1964 the home bumed to the
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

ground. "Puki doesn't like the house all bumed," httle George chasing a giant, broad-shouldered grinning man with an unmly
told his mother. "But he said he would come back when it was shock of silver hair. He was over six feet tall and when pursued he
fixed up." displayed remarkable agility, making impossible leaps across
Burning houses and mysterious fires go hand in hand with the wide ditches. Witnesses, some of whom claimed face-to-face con-
UFO mystery. The sudden destmction of witnesses' homes has frontations with him, said he had small eyes and a fixed grin. A
been so frequent that mere coincidence must be mled out. similar, if not identical, giant prowler appeared repeatedly in
A "contacte" in New Mexico, Paul Villa, part Indian, had his Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1966-67.
little home bum to the ground soon after he released some photo- The most recent case of this type comes from Springdale,
graphs he had taken of UFOs hovering low over his land. In West Arkansas. At 11:00 P.M. on September 6, 1969, a man stared into
Virginia an abandoned building in the TNT Area bumed to the the bedroom window of Mrs. Barbara Robinson. She called pohce
ground in the midst of a pouring rain, much to the bewilderment and Officer Ken Speedhn "discovered that anyone who looked
of the localfire department. Grassfires often empt in empty fields through the bedroom window would have to have been at least
hours or days after a UFO has reportedly touched down there. seven feet tall. .. There was nothing in the area of the window on
In some cases thefires might occur weeks or months before the which a prowler could have stood."'
UFO activity begins, as in the case of Mrs. Bryant, the Ohio In the spring of 1966, an Air Force WAF retumed to her
woman mentioned earher. The home of the Jaroslaw family at ground-floor apartment on the edge of McGuire Air Force Base in
Lake St. Clair, Michigan, was gutted by fire two years before New Jersey, one evening and heard a sound in her bedroom. She
Grant Jaroslaw and his brother Dan took some controversial UFO went to investigate and found her window open and a pair of very
photographs over the lake on January 10, 1967. The family con- pale hands with extraordinarily long fingers resting on the win-
tinued to hve in the basement of the bumed-out house, and when dowsill, as if a man were about to climb in. She screamed and the
UFO investigators later tried to check into the story behind the hands withdrew. She found the Air Police and they searched the
pictures they found that the Jaroslaws had changed their unlisted area. Later they told her that they had seen and pursued a
phone number twice and refused to discuss the photos any further. prowlera very tall man "with his sweater pulled up over his
Air Force Major Raymond Nyls, operations officer at the nearby head." This WAF, a master sergeant whom we have known for fif-
Selfridge Air Force Base, told the press, "These are the most teen years, was puzzled by our interest in this "sweater" detail.
amazing flying saucer pictures I've ever seen. You can even make We asked her if she had ever seen any monk-like figures, and she
out some sort of tail and antenna on the back." Dr. J. Allen Hynek recounted an incredible incident which she had almost completely
stated that he thought the pictures were authentic. But the forgotten.
Jaroslaws became incommunicado. Why? What kind of night- Several years before she had been staying in a motel in New
mare were they actually hving? Mexico when she woke up one night tofind a giant cowled figure
From Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to the tip of Florida, we have standing over her bed. Not a man in a checkered shirt, but a being
heard of unidentified prowlers roaming the countryside at night. in a monk's robe. It extended one arm above her, she said, and she
In Point Pleasant, West Virginia, strange unearthly faces peered
into the windows of homeswindows too high for ordinary men
to reach. In 1968 farmers in New York's Delaware County were 'Northwest Arkansas Times, September 8, 1969.
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE UIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

reached out to touch it. The second her fingers touched the arm the land in northwestem Minnesota is veryflat, their visibil-
the whole thing crumbled and disappeared. "It felt powdery, like ity was almost unlimited. So they were understandably
ashes," she explained. shocked and surprised when in their headlights they caught
What have "powdery ghosts" got to do widiflying saucers? three large men walking abreast and toward themfi-om the
Such stories are not uncommon, and in several cases the objects odier lane of the highway. The men were dressed in black
themselves have reportedly disintegrated into powder when struck. cowls that covered the upper half of their faces; there were
On August 18, 1966, a disk-shaped object discharged some pieces slits for the eyes. The strangers, whoever or whatever they
of flaming metal direcfly over some telephone poles near Lions were, paid no attention to die car and continued on as if it
Lake, New Jersey. The witnesses retrieved some of this substance had never passed.
which proved to be a honeycombed, aluminum-hke casting. The second incident allegedly occurred here in Canby
Aldiough diey stored it carefuUy in a jewel box, it rapidly disinte- [Minnesota] several years ago. An acquaintance of mine was
grated, shrinking to the size of a pea. Since a thorough chemical taking a short cut home through an alley several blocks from
analysis can cost upwards of one thousand doUars the metal has where I live. He was not paying any particular attention to
never been tested. die direction he was going and almost walked into anotiier
Large, broad-shouldered men wearing capes and hoods have person in the alley. The stranger seemed quite startled and
been seen all over the world, usually walking along desolate tumed to stare in surprise. The man was very tall and mas-
roads in thinly populated areas. Like many of die other creatures sive and was dressed in a black cape that covered the top
and characters involved in this mystery, they have an uncarmy half of his face; he seemed to be carrying something that
habit of disappearing without a trace. In October 1967 three men resembled a large black bag.
were driving along Route 2 in West Virginia when they saw a
large, caped man walking beside the road. They stopped and Perhaps these are the same kind of entities frequentiy reported
looked back and he was gone. There were open fields on both as ghosts around deserted monasteries and seminaries. Certainly
sides of the road. if you saw one of these characters stalking through a cemetery
A group of eight men wearing thick black cowls startled and disappearing suddenly into thin air you would report it as a
motorists near Caterham, England, on July 28, 1963. Witnesses ghostif you reported it at all.
said that the mystery men departed by "mnning and leaping The Paraphysical Laboratory in Downton, Wiltshire, England,
across the road . . . Their actions were silent and most odd." carefully records all of the paranormal and supematural events in
Mr. Jerome Clark sent us the foUowing report in March 1967: England and issues an annual Classified Directory of Spontaneous
Phenomena. Their 1968 directory includes many incidents which
"I have been told of two similar cases in Minnesota . . . The could be catalogued as either ghost sightings or UFO sightings.
first incident occurred last April. According to what the wit- For example, on the evening of Saturday, September 21, 1968,
ness told me, he and a friend had been driving along the Mr. E. Bennett and hisfifteen-year-old daughter were retuming to
highway about 11:30 P.M. They were miles from the nearest their Whipsnade, Kent home when at the bottom of Bison HiU a
town and diey could not see any other cars on the road; since conical-shaped mass rose slowly out from a field about twenty-
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

five yards in front of them. It was six feet tall, they said, with a Other men in hoods and cloaks stroll the moors of Scotland and
glowing aura surrounding it and it seemed to vanish into a sohd, the plains of Minnesota, travehng about on mysterious missions
impenetrable hedge.^ in isolated places late at night. Still others step out of unearthly
Mr. Sidney Webb of Pulham Market, Norfolk, reported that he flying objects to chat idly with passing motorists.
was walking home along Mill Lane in February 1968 when he Who are these "people"?
saw a tall luminous shape ghde from an entrance in a hedge,
travel slowly along the road, and then disappear. It was about half
the height of a telephone pole.
In Otley, Yorkshire, four young gfrls were taking a short cut
home past a churchyard in January 1968 when a tall, dark shape
appeared. Though they were very close to it, they could not dis-
cern its face and despite the frosty weather no breath came from
thefigure. One of the girls screamed but thefigure took no notice
and walked away with no sound of footsteps.
The Church House Inn in Torbryan, Devonshire, is said to be
haunted for a "ghost" dressed like a monk has been seen there,
and all kinds of strange sounds, manifestations, and power fail-
ures have taken place there in recent years.
Are ghosts really UFOs and UFO entities, or are UFOs really
ghosts? Take your choice. In July 1968 three schoolboys in Cum-
berland, England, were camping out when they saw a bright
UFO-type hght bobbing and weaving over the barren hills of
nearby Cumberland Fells. One of the lads, Owen Moran, had a
camera and snapped some pictures. When thefilm was developed
everyone was amazed to find that the object appeared as a pale
hght resembling the head of a woman in profile, wearing a bonnet
or cloak tied under the chin!
From Malvern, Arkansas, to Mill Lane in Norfolk, strange and
inexphcable things have been roaming freely and with a mini-
mum of pubUc notice. They walk through walls and sohd hedges,
appear and disappear at random and without apparent purpose.

^Dunstable Borough Gazette, September 27, 1968.

 THE COMPLETE U I E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

by oral traditions for generations before they were finally

recorded on sacred scrolls, describing things in the sky, mysteri-
ous entities who guided mankind, and dark, invisible forces.
FIFTEEN For example, in the Book of Zechariah (5:1-3) we are told how
Zechariah was chatting with an "angel" when a flying cylinder
soared overhead. The angel nodded sagely and said: "This is the
curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth."
So whenever an ancient wanderer saw one of those cytinders,
Cherubs, Angels and he would just shrug and mumble, "There goes another one of
those curses." People in Connecticut, Spain, and Scandinavia are
Greys still seeing those strange torpedo-like objects, according to recent
reports. Some skim along beaches, a few feet above the sand. If
you touch one, as a boy in London, Ontario, did in the 1960s, you
can get a severe bum.
The issue here, however, is who were all these "angels" that
were buzzing the deserts back in the bibtical days? Rehgious
artists usually depict them as lovely females in white gowns with
big feathery wings and brightly glowing halos around their heads.
But in the retigious scroUs they are described as looking like nor-
hat grand old UFOlogist of the seventeenth century, mal human beings dressed in contemporary fashions. Yet some-
Bill Shakespeare, didn't know what he was starting thing set them apart from us and they had information about our
when he picked up his quill pen to write The Tempest. future as weti as magical powers. When tiiey visited Abraham and
Centuries later that play about dark magical forces inspired a his wife who was beyond the childbearing age she became preg-
movie set far in the future where a group of hardy astronauts bat- nant. They seemed so Uke us that the Bible warns us: "Be not for-
tled an evil invisible demon. The movie. Forbidden Planet, was getful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained
the forerunner of the popular television series Star Trek. In other angels unawares."
words, if Bill had not existed all those Trekkies out there would A man named Zoroaster is generally credited with the creation
have had tofind another glorious obsession. of the concept of devils and angels some 2,500 years ago. He was
Even four hundred years ago many scholars and thinkers rec- first drawn into a study of the unknown because of the widespread
ognized and carefully studied the very things you have been read- animal mutilations that were occurring in Persia. Soon he was
ing about in this book. Shakespeare was clearly famihar with the being visited by a luminous entity identified as "Mazda" who was
concept that invisible forces were at work on this planet, shaping considered to be a god. Zoroaster's theology dominated the Mid-
our very lives, perhaps even controlling us by constructing our dle East for centuries.
behefs and manipulating our emotions. Turn to almost any page The angel population burgeoned. According to ttadition, an
of the Bible and you will find startling statements, handed down angel named Gabriel impregnated Mary. Some cynics view this as
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

a religious variation on the Incubus phenomenon. In the 1990s described the room where the meeting was held and each man
these ancient "demon lover" manifestations are being absorbed who was there. Then he laid out the wholefiendish plan that was
into the UFO lore as more and more women come forward with discussed. It was very complex and sounded very real. His uncon-
complaints of attacks by invisible entities and spells of pseudo- scious mind had a ball constructing the fantasy and implicating
cyesis (false pregnancies). Two men, Budd Hopkins, a painter, the mild-mannered technician in the evil scheme. Someone tuning
and David Jacobs, a history professor, have revised these ancient into the show late might have been led to beheve that CBS was,
mysteries in the context of flying saucers, speculating that extra- indeed, getting ready to take over the world.
terrestrial beings are poking and probing unwary people on Two other subjects have become embroiled in the hypnosis
remote back roads, perhaps as part of some kind of celestial gene- controversy in the 1990s. One is child abuse. The other is satanic
tic research program. Beginning with Betty and Barney Hill, hyp- cults. Thousands of people are now claiming that they were sub-
nosis has been the main tool used to extract evidence of these jected to sexual abuse when they were small children, usually by
shenanigans from the darker reaches of the unconscious mind. a parent. While they have no conscious memory of this abuse,
Ever since Dr. Anton Mesmer was run out of Vienna in the their unconscious mind has whipped up a complete scenario
nineteenth century, we have known of the problems involved in under hypnosis, sometimes accusing their father, mother, or
using mesmerismor hypnosisas evidence of anything. In the grandparents of taking liberties with their private parts even while
mid-1950s, with the advent of the Bridey Murphy craze, millions they were in their baby cribs. Numerous psychologists and psy-
of people began hypnotizing each other to explore their past lives. chiatristsfind it profitable to claim that, based on the hypnotic evi-
Reincarnation became the subject of the day and, not surprisingly, dence, millions of people may be affected. Meanwhile, other
most of us discovered that we had been noble kings and princesses shrinks are now studying claims that patients were exposed to
in another age. The unconscious mind is a notorious prankster wicked satanic rites when they were tiny tots. They supposedly
and, under hypnosis, delights in producing the kind of informa- witnessed horrifying murders and sacrifices that scarred them for-
tion being sought by the hypnotist. In many cases the hypnotized ever . . . until it all came out under hypnosis. An article in the New
subject is actually able to read the hypnotist's mind and tailor his Yorker magazine. May 17, 1993, states that police were recently
or her "evidence" to whatever the hypnotist beheves in or is seek- informed "that satanic cults were sacrificing between fifty and
ing! This is why testimony produced by hypnosis is not permitted sixty thousand people every year in the United States, although
in a court of law. If the hypnotist believes in ghosts, flying sau- the annual national total of homicides averages less than twenty-
cers, or some weird pohtical idea, the subject will come up with five thousand."
material to support that belief and will even weave a whole fan- Meanwhile, Hopkins, Jacobs, and thek contemporaries have
tasy world around the hypnotist's thoughts. Some of these fan- conducted opinion polls which, they feel, indicate that milhons of
tasies can become very elaborate. people have been abducted by UFOs and subjected to insidious
When CBS did a TV special on hypnosis back in the 1960s, a physical exams and alien sexual abuse or cosmic rape. Therapy
television technician was hypnotized on camera and told that CBS groups for victims of alien abduction are springing up everywhere
executives were conspiring to take over the world. That's all he and amateur hypnotists are working day and night to get to the
was told. He immediately launched into a long and very convinc- bottom of all this. The alien abduction/child abuse/satanic cult
ing narrative about attending a meeting of the plotters. He murders craze may outdo the old Bridey Murphy mania as we
 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 213
212 > JOHN k. KEEL

perhaps as racial memories from the distant past. A New York

barrel towards die millennium. Opinion polls, which are totally
artist, Duncan Laurie, has had a carved bust of a classic grey in his
subjective and usually very unscientific, are now used to support
backyard for decades, a product of a stiange episode in his life
all these notions. According to diese polls, as many as sixty per-
when he was traveUng through South America. Variations on the
cent of die population have had experience widi angels. Ninety
greys appe^ everywhere, in comic books, in bad science fiction,
percent now beheve in flying saucers, mostly becausefliey heard
even on the old Star Trek series. That angular face witii its staring
about die saucers on TV or in die movies.
eyes and tight mouth has become a part of all of our hves, so
One dissenting voice infliis garbled maze isfliat of famed nov- strange, yet so vaguely famitiar. Some people remember it as a
ehst Whitley Strieber. In the mid-1980s Strieber found himself in threat, Uke our fear of spiders and other creepy crawly things. A
the Twihght Zone when he was made aware of die presence of few even get hysterical when they see it on the covers of books or
small beings in his mountain cabin hideaway. He underwent a in the illustrations in tabloids and cult magazines. Retigious foUc
series of extraordinary experiences, including die usual light phe- recognize greys as minions of the devil.
nomena and sexual attacks, which hefinally put into a nonfiction Back when homy angels were busy in the Middle East, people
book called Communion. Although his agents and editors advised were also seeing chembs or chembims. Here again the religious
him to forget the whole diing, he finally got the book pubUshed artists have done us aU an injustice by portraying the chembs as
and it proved to be a bombsheU. The cover was illustrated by a cute tittle babies with rosy cheeks and happy smiles. Actually,
painting of a being with a triangular head, lipless mouth, and authorities on the Scriptures think that chembs were really mon-
dark, elongated eyes. A creature known as "a grey" to die hard- sters, sometimes with wings, often with animal-like faces or the
core UFO buffs. The book jumped off die shelves and sold hun- angular countenances of our greys. In the Book of Enoch we are
dreds of thousands of copies. It revived die then dying field of told how Enoch visited a distant landmaybe another planet
UFOlogy (although actress Shiriey MacLaine helped with her where he saw grim Gregori, described as looking very much like
New Age books and TV shows) and Strieber made generous the greys, mumbling as they trooped past. Our greys do a lot of
financial contributions to the various UFO clubs and to some of senseless mumbting, too, according to percipients who remember
the UFOlogists diemselves. They in turn behaved in tiieir usual under hypnosis being dragged aboard then-flying machines.
manner and tumed on him, attacking him in their littie newsletters
While angels, hke fairies, can come in all sizes and appear-
and slandering him. ances from the very small to normal human size, the greys are
By 1991 Mr. Strieber had had enough. He pubUshed a three- usually described as being diminutive but unusually stiong. Like
page letter in which he announced: "I am not a UFO researcher leprechauns, they are sometimes accompanied by normal-sized,
and do not wish to endure the continued media attack tiiat is asso- normal-looking human beings. In the 1980s there was a great
ciated with being involved in this field. In addition, the so-called upsurge in sightings of a female entity who was often described as
'UFOlogists' are probably the cmeUest, nastiest, and craziest peo- having extraordinarily long fingers and a sharply angular face
ple I have ever encountered." similar toif not identical tothe classic greys. These entities
As for the bizarre abduction accounts, he dismissed them as tend to appear before small children and are usually called BVMs.
"artifacts of hypnosis and cultural conditioning." There has been a worldwide epidemic of BVMs in Ecuador, the
Those ghoulish gray-faced characters observed by Strieber and PhiUppines, Europe, Russia, Yugoslavia, and many parts of the
many others seem to be lodged in the memories of many of us.
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

United States. The messages they convey are identical to the mes- and unconscious minds, manipulated into forms that are accept-
sages of the godlike UFO creatures of the 1950s and '60s. They able to our particular behef systems. If we are young and living in
warn of impending doom and urge mankind to clean up our act a Catholic community. It becomes a BVM. If we are atheistic and
before it is too late. Another characteristic that hnks the BVMs immersed in science and technology. It appears in a mechanical-
with the UFO types is their penchant for appearing on the thir- looking contrivance in the guise of a being from some distant
teenth and twenty-fourth of the month. The BVM in Medjugoije, galaxy.
Yugoslavia, who received extensive worldwide publicity just We have not come very far since Shakespeare's day. A large
before the outbreak of the genocidal war there, first appeared on part of the human race is still dueling with invisible forces that
June 24, 1981. can scramble our perceptions, juggle our emotions, and play all
It can all get very confusing. In the closing years of this centiuy kinds of games with our fragile psyches. In the closing years of
the greys are the subjects of a literature that threatens to become the twentieth century more and more people are becoming aware
as vast as the fairy lore of the Middle Ages, and perhaps just as of the trae nature of these games through people like Whitley
meaningless. None of it is new. A professor of psychology inves- Strieber. More and more young scientists are beginning to take a
tigated a classic case in the 1890s, when a woman named Helene serious look at once forbidden subjects hke magic and the super-
had a long series of experiences with little greys which became natural. They are redefining reality itself.
the core of the book From India to the Planet Mars, pubhshed in
1900. Today Helene would be considered a channeler or UFO
contacte.
Transmogrification is a ten-dollar word that has been used for
centuries to define the process that occurs in many of these cases.
It means change. In case after case the percipient reports seeing a
bright light which comes closer and closer, suddenly changing
into an apparently solid object or entity. Much of our UFO and
rehgious lore is based upon the appearances of such hghts. They
tum into angels, fairies, hooded beings, greys, ugly monsters,
even into black automobiles and flying machines. They transmo-
grify. In reality, the witness lapses into a trance induced by the
hght and then hallucinates. When they emerge from this hypnotic-
like hallucinatory "altered" state they note that a considerable
amount of time has suddenly passed and their immediate sur-
roundings may even have changed. This transposition of time and
space then becomes part of the "mystery."
There is something out there that we can't see except under
special conditions. We probably never see It in its real form. We
see only what It wants us to see, filtered through our conscious
 THE COMPLETE U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

O'Brien remarks, "Barbara's hallucinations are not, however, the

gods and devils common to another age; they are the horrors of
Organization Man; they are reactions to forces blocking attempts at
SIXTEEN creativity in work and attempts to enjoy relationships of tmst with
others." Miss O'Brien's book is the account of her real and halluci-
natory experiences after the bedroom invaders entered her life.
She begins the book:
The Bedroom Let us say that when you awake tomorrow, youfind standing
Invaders at your bedside a man widi purple scale-skin who teUs you
that he has just arrived from Mars, that he is studying the
human species, and that he has selected your mind for the
kind of on-the-spot examination he wants to make . . . It is
possible that the Man from Mars may actually disappear
within a few days or a few weeks. There is about a .05 per
cent chance of this happening. You are physically exhausted
after the Man has gone back to Mars, and your mind, which
had been racing like a jet plane while the Man was with you,
slows down and ahnost refuses to function at all.
he man in the checkered shirt seems to be just another
variation on a phenomenon well known to those who She was, of course, describing some of the common physical
delve into the psychic and occult world. Bizarre bed- and psychological reactions to UFO contact. Because the UFO
room phantoms are commonplace everywhere in the world, buffs themselves have been actively ridiculing and suppressing
although they are seldom reported; the pubUshed material repre- such contacts no proper medical studies have ever been under-
sents only a trifling residue. When we discovered that many sane, taken, and we know practically nothing about the medical aspects.
sober UFO witnesses were receiving visits from tiiese bedroom A very important clue to the whole monster/UFO/ghost phenom-
apparitions mmiediately after (or, sometimes, immediately before; ena may be buried in these cases. MilUons of people have been
their UFO experiences, we tumed our attention to the great mass of affected at least temporarily by UFO contact. Thousands have
neglected reports of this nature. We also interviewed psychiatrists gone insane and ended up in mental institutions after their experi-
and doctors who have maintained a peripheral interest in die phe- ences with these tilings began. It is scandalous that the only full
nomenon. Detailed medical studies of the overaU problem seem psychological study of a "contacte" case was carried out by a
to be nonexistent. There is no chnical explanation for these maiu- Swiss psychologist in the 1890s and pubtished in 1900.'
festations. But some psychiatrists, such as L. J. Reyna of Boston
University, tend to hnk them with schizophrenia. Mr. Michael
Maccoby, in his introduction to Operators and Things by Barbara 'T- Fluomoy, From India to the Planet Mars.
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

In the past three years we have pubhshed two popular maga- only to categorize the descriptions of the objects which are, as we
zine articles on these bedroom invaders and we were amazed by pointed out earher, so varied that the data negates itself We must,
the amount of mail those pieces drew. Many readers wrote to tell to be successful, tum our attention to studying the witnesses and
us, sometimes in absorbing detail, of then- own experiences with the psychological and physiological effects they experience. The
this uncanny phenomenon. In most cases these experiences were, answer to the whole mystery probably lies in that direction, not in
not repetitive. They happened only once and were not accompa- the stars.
nied by any other manifestations. In several cases the witnesses The late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes,
experienced total paralysis of the body. The witness awoke but was an avid investigator of psychic phenomena and in his book
was unable to move a muscle while the apparition was present. As The Edge of the Unknown (1930), he described a personal experi-
we have already pointed out, this very same kind of akinesia has ence with noctumal akinesia. "It was in my bedroom in Crowbor-
occurred in many UFO landing cases. It is a slender thread, per- ough," Sir Arthur wrote. "I awakened in the night with the clear
haps, on which to hang a theory, but we do have more than consciousness that there was someone in the room and that the
enough data now to suspect that both the UFO and bedroom expe- presence was not of this world. I was lying with my back to the
riences are unreal visions and hallucinations induced while in a room, acutely awake, but utterly unable to move. It was physically
half-awake state. Such visions could possibly be created by some impossible for me to tum my body and face this visitor. I heard
kind of hypnotic process or by waves of electromagnetic energy measured steps across the room. I was conscious (without seeing
which beam thoughts and impressions directly to the brain. This it) that someone was bending over me, and then I heard a voice
would mean that the experience was not entirely subjective but saying in a loud whisper, 'Doyle, I come to tell you that I am
was caused by some inexphcable outside influence. sorry.' A minute later my disability disappeared, and I was able to
The mind is unquestionably involved in many UFO and psy- tum, but all was black darkness and perfectly still. My wife had
chic experiences, and, very probably, in a number of our more not awakened, and knew nothing of what had passed."
bizarre monster sightings. Thus we only see what the phenome- A man in Phoenix, Arizona, wrote to tell us about waking at
non wants us to see and we only remember what it wants us to 1:00 A.M. on Febmary 26, 1968, because of a sharp knock on his
remember. If this is eventually proven then a large part of our door.
descriptive data is completely false and worthless, and all the "1 saw a man standing in my room at some distance," he
charming stories we have recounted here do not mean a thing. reported, "wearing dark clothing . . . I couldn't see his face . . . he
Back in 1954, UFO buffs were enraged when the subject of fly- was slender and not tall, perhapsfive feet nine. He changed posi-
ing saucers was brought up at a White House press conference tion a few times . .. and then he was gone."
and President Eisenhower stated flatly that UFOs existed only in On May 25, 1968, another young man reported that he woke up
the minds of the witnesses, implying that the whole business was in his bedroom in Superior, Wisconsin, and saw a huge shape
hallucinatory. standing over the bed. "It appeared to be almost six feet six inches
Hallucinations would not, however, account for the many radar tall," he said. "A massive head with huge broad shoulders is the
sightings, photographs, and landing events which left physical only way I can describe it. It moved from the right side of the bed
evidence on the ground. to the left and then disappeared."
The buffs tend to lump everything hopelessly together and try In some cases these apparitions are accompanied by vile odors
220 JOHN A. KEEL
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

(hydrogen sulfide again?) and die witnesses often get out of bed motivated to spend a fortune to harass teen-aged UFO buffs and
and search the house trying in vain to locate the source of the httle old ladies collecting clippings about John F. Kennedy.
smell. In other cases physical sensations occur. A woman in We have investigated dozens of harassment events in depth and
Maine reported being awakened one night by a slap on her face. have been collecting and studying identical reports from many of
She looked up and saw a group of dark figures standing around the other groups mentioned above. The same techniques are
her bed, staring at her. She sat up and tried to talk to diem. A vis- employed, and it is now apparent diat we cannot blame die Com-
iting neighbor was staying with her that night and the talking munists, the Martians or the CIA. Some of these events are, of
woke her up. The neighbor saw nothing. course, purely subjective; that is, as the researcher mires himself
A man in the same area (the witnesses have, unfortunately, deeper and deeper into his subject, he begins to misinterpret many
requested anonymity in these strange cases) claimed that he was ordinary coincidences and easily explained events. To a UFO
dozing in his locked car outside the plant where he works when he buff, every black Cadillac becomes a CIA vehicle spying on him.
awoke tofind his loaded revolver on the seat beside him, aimed at Those same black Caditiacs hold Communist spies or agents of
him cocked, and ready to fire. A black form was hovering over the Ku Klux Klan, depending on the cult that looks at them.
him. He said he could notfigure out whether the phantom was try- In earlier times phantom horsemen were prevalent in the ghost
ing to shoot him or save him. stories. Today mysterious automobiles that have the uncomfort-
There is still another curious aspect to all of these visions. The able talent for appearing and disappearing suddenly into thin air
phenomenon seems to be "reflective." It zeros in on people who have replaced them. The phenomenon, it would seem, is keeping
become interested in almost any esoteric subject. There are all pace with our technological development.
kinds of cultists and buffs in the United States,-advocating all In 1969 a seemingly sensible young man in Massachusetts
kinds of bizarre behefs. Most of these groups have tittle or no developed an interest in UFOs and began investigating cases in
contact with each other. The quiet groups stiti investigating and his area. Soon he was seeing mysterious men at every turn. Black
researching the assassination of President Kennedy have been Caditiacs containing sinister-looking types parked in front of his
suffering strange harassments identical to those experienced by suburban home, apparendy studying him. At first he made an
UFO buffs and psychic researchers. Their telephones go haywire effort to record ati these events and investigate them logically. But
(electromagnetic phenomena?), they are followed by mysterious then it began to affect him, and he suffered fits of paranoia and
automobiles and suspicious Oriental-looking gentlemen. Their schizophrenia. We sent a highly quatitied psychiatrist to examine
mail gets fouled up. Students of witchcraft, members of fanatical this researcher, and the doctor found the young man sitting near
retigious groups, and even members of civil rights movements his kitchen door with a loaded shotgun, "waiting for the Men in
and both right and left wing political groups all become victims of Black." Finally, the poor fellow developed an hatiucinationan
this harassment. And each group tries tofind a cause or culprit to alligator with antennae which followed him wherever he went.
explain itthe most popular being the CIA or die FBI. Actually, This was all a part of the "reflective" aspect and a demonstration
thousands of people are undergoing this kind of harassment con- of how the human mind sometimes crumbles when faced with the
tinually and no government agency is big enough, has enough unknown and the inexphcable.
personnel or a big enough budget to be tiie blame for all these
In Coventry, England, a UFO investigator named Brian
incidents. Nor would any responsible government agency be
Leathley-Andrew terminated his UFO activities after suffering a
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

series of bizarre experiences in the fall of 1968. One October eve- encounters, when I passed from terror to trance, from inti-
ning he was returning home when he encountered this: "I was by mations of realms unguessed at to the uneasy conviction
myself Suddenly I noticed a man standing by the next-door that, beyond the reach of our senses, beyond the arch of all
garage. Nobody had been there before. His face was glowing our experience sacred and profane, there was onlyto use
orange and as I watched, the face changed to that of an old man an expression of Paul's in I Timothy 4"fable and endless
before my eyes. You could not describe the first face in normal genealogy."
terms. It had eyes, nose, and mouth in the proper places but not of
the shape that we associate with the human figure." The most fearsome monsters of all may inhabit the dark cor-
Soon after this entity vanished, Mr. Leathley-Andrew began to ners of our minds waiting for us to release them through our
experience strange problems with his telephone. "Every time I beliefs and gullibihty. The phenomenon feeds on fear and belief;
tried to speak to someone on this subject," he told the Coventry sometimes it desfroys us altogether, other times it leads us
Evening Telegraph (December 3, 1968), "the phone went dead. upwards into the labyrinth of elecfromagnetic frequencies which
Since I have given it up I do not have any trouble." form a curtain between us and some other unperceived reahty.
He also had problems with local power failures and threatening From time to time the playful inhabitants of that other world
phone calls. Identical things have frequently happened to UFO climb through the curtain in the areas we call "windows," and
researchers throughout the United States and in Canada. We have they stalk us to drink our blood and create all kinds of mischie-
hundreds of cases in ourfiles. Could all of this be the work of ran- vous behefs and misconceptions in our feeble little terrestrial
dom practical jokers or of the CIA? We think not. minds.
Author Gustav Davidson devoted several years of his hfe to the In the end the sad tmth that may set us free could very well be
study of angelsnot UFOs or Communist conspiracies. But that the phantasmagorical world constmcted by generations of
angels. In 1967 he pubhshed a very comprehensive Dictionary of occultists, rehgionists, UFO buffs, and monster hunters does not
Angels. In the introduction to that work he mentions some of his really exist at all. We have merely been led to think that it exists.
experiences with this "reflective" factor: Something else obviously does exist.
That something else is driving a lot of us nuts.
At this stage of the quest I was Uterally bedeviled by angels.
They stalked and leaguered me, by night and day. I could not
teU the evil from the good . . . I moved, indeed, in a twihght
zone of tall presences . . . I remember one occasion^it was
winter and getting dark^returning home from a neighbor-
ing farm. I had cut across an unfamihar field. Suddenly a
nightmarish shape loomed up in front of me, barring my
progress. After a paralyzing moment I managed tofight my
way past the phantom. The next moming I could not be sure
whether I had encountered a ghost, an angel, a demon, or
God. There were other such moments and other such
 THE COMPLETE U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

these winged men seem to have some tenuous relationship with

flying saucers. Perhaps they, too, are part of the bewildering UFO
phenomenon. Or maybe they attract UFOs for some reason, just
SEVENTEEN as UFO activity seems to increase in areas where the hauy
humanoids appear.
There are two known Unbelievables that could offer an expla-
nation for the homo avis sightings. Unfortunately one may be
nothing more than an old Indian legend, and the other is a creature
Winged Weirdos which has been extinct since the Mesozoic periodapproxi-
mately nine mitiion years ago. It was not really a bird; it was a
giant reptile with great leatiiery wings. Reconstructions from fos-
sils indicate that it had a wingspread up to twenty feet. It is known
as the Pterodactyl.
The Indian legend told of a gigantic bird called the "Thunder-
bird." It is a name that has been immortalized by an automobile, a
resort hotel, and a wine.
The best description of a Pterodactyl appeared in the Illus-
trated London News (February 9, 1856). Here is that fascinating
account in its entirety:
here are creatures which canfly on wings too short to
A discovery of great scientific importance has just been
support flieir bulbous bodies. We call them bumble-
made at Culmout (Haute Mame). Some men employed in
bees. Tiny hummingbirds can hover, shift into reverse,
cutting a tunnel to unite the St. Dizier and Nancy Railways,
and execute other remarkable maneuvers patently impossible for
had just thrown down an enormous block of stone by means
such tiny creatures. You have seen pictures and movies about
of gunpowder, and were in the act of breaking it to pieces,
these foohsh fliers and you know they exist. Your old high school
when from a cavity in it they suddenly saw emerge a living
science teacher told you about the spiders who spin a parachute-
being of monstrous form.
like strand and fly for miles with the breeze. And, as we have
already pointed out, there are also flying squkrels, flying snakes, This creature, which belongs to die class of animals hifli-
flying fish, and even, perhaps,flying cats. erto considered to be extinct, has a very long neck, and a
moudi filled with sharp teeth. It stands on foiu- long legs,
Our skies seem to be inhabited by a variety of Unbelievables,
which are united together by two membranes, doubtiess
including a diing that looks like a man with wings. Since no Type
intended to support die animal in the air, and are armed with
B scientist has bothered to study our flying man homo avis, the
four claws terminated by long and crooked talons. Its gen-
"bird man," Mr. Homo Avis is probably responsible for many of
eral form resembles that of a bat, differing only in its size.
the "angel" stories of the past two thousand years. Surprisingly
2 OHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

which is that of a large goose. Its membranous wings, when There are, of course, innumerable stories about frogs and other
spread out, measurefrom tip to tip three metres twenty-two small animals found encased in stone and concrete for years and
centimetres [nearly ten feet seven inches]. Its color is a livid springing to hfe again upon liberation. Vampire bats have been
black; its skin is naked, thick and oily; its intestines only found during hibemation, hanging upside down in their caves and
contained a colorless liquid like clear water. On reaching the covered with ice from dripping water. But when the thaw comes
hght this monster gave some signs of hfe, by shaking its they revive, none the worse.
wings, but soon after expired, uttering a hoarse cry. This Several years ago, scientists in the museum in Cairo, Egypt,
strange creature, to which may be given the name of a living put some dry palms found in ancient tombs into vats of water and
fossil, has been brought to Gray, where a naUiralist well were amazed when the water was soon ahve with tiny insects that
versed in the study of paleontology, immediately recognized had, apparently, been in a dehydrated state of suspended anima-
it as belonging to the genus Pterodactyl anas, many fossil tion for three thousand years.
remains of which have been found among the strata which So it is possible for some creatures, particularly cold-blooded
geologists have designated by the name Lias. The rock in reptiles like the Pterodactyl, to hibemate for very long periods of
which this monster was discovered belongs precisely to that time. But nine milhon years!
formation the deposit of which is so old that geologists date Five years after the appearance of the Illustrated London News
it more than a million years back. The cavity in which the story, the discovery of a fossilized feather in Germany set off a
animal was lodged forms an exact hollow mold of its body, scientific uproar. Workmen at a stone quarry in Solenhofen
which indicates that it was completely enveloped with a sed- unearthed some pecuhar bird-like indentations in a bed of chalky
imentary deposit. slate. Feathers and fossilized bone fragments stunned the paleon-
tologists, for it had long been assumed that no feathered creatures
Did a Pterodactyl the size of a goose actually stagger out of a had existed during that particular period. A gentleman by the
tunnel in France, shake its wings and die at the feet of astounded name of A. Wagner decided to call the creature Gryphosaurus,
workmen? Charles Fort, Robert Ripley, and several other authors after the legendary Greek myth of the gryphon (griffin). Eventu-
and collectors of trivia have repeatedly enthralled their readers ally, however, it was identified as the Archaeopteryx, one of the
with the story. It turns up every few years in the magazines earliest known feathered fliers from the Mesozoic Age, which had
devoted to the strange and the supernatural. One of our teeth and hzard-like claws.
researchers supphed us with a photostat of the story from the orig- Another group of bird fossils were found in the Solenhofen
inal source and we spent several days wading through musty quarry in 1872. These seemed to represent a somewhat smaller
books from the period, trying to find some other reference to it. A bfrd (the Archaeopteryx was the size of a pullet), also with teeth.
discovery of this kind should have ehcited great excitement in the The remains of teethed-bird have also been found in Kansas in the
scientific joumals of the period. The carcass of the beast should Mesozoic layers.
have been carefully stuffed and mounted in some museum for all The Solenhofen finds generated considerable comment in sci-
the world to see. Instead, the scientific worid greeted the news entific pubhcations and launched a controversy that raged for sev-
with stony silence. eral years. Scientists rarely agree on anything anyway and they
 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2
2 JOHN A. KEEL

basilisk and the gryphon may all have been variations of the same
certainly did not appreciate the discovery of a winged creature
creature. Surviving paintings and rehefs from many cultures
widi feathers from a period when no such creature was supposed
depict a reptitian creature with an alhgator-type head bearing a
to exist.
mouth filled with sharp teeth and leathery bat-like wings. The
If a fossihzed feather could cause such a stii, dien we must ask Chinese, in particular, seemed to identify glowing cigar-shaped
why die alleged French Pterodactylus anas was ignored. The objects as dragons, while the Egyptians and Europeans were more
answer may be that some announcement of an earher find came concemed with the ferocious flying monsters which popped out of
from Solenhofen, Germany (fossils of ancient plants were discov- caves periodically to terrify the population.
ered in die same quarry), and some loyal French journalist, deter- We originatiy planned to write a detailed dragon section for
mined not to be outdone by die historic enemy across die border, this book but after wading through such books as The Evolution of
decided to give France an even more glorious discovery. The the Dragon by G. Eltiot Smidi (1919), The Chinese Dragon by
Pterodactyl did not stumble out of a block of stone, but came, L. N. Hayes (1923), and many other scholarly works, we con-
instead, from a fertile mind in Paris. ceded that we had bitten off more than we could comfortably
However, some of our dragon lore could be based upon die chew. The only way to summarize it all is to conclude that some
occasional appearances of Pterodactyls in earher times. The Pterodactyl type creature may have survived well into 2,000 B.C.
dragon phenomenon is tremendously complex. Detailed dragon and that its appearances, coupled with UFO phenomena, created a
stories can be found in ancient Chinese records, and almost iden- mass of folklore. When the dragons finally died out, people con-
tical stories appear in the literature of northern Europe. These tinued to see them anyway, misidentifying large snakes and birds
accounts can be mapped out on a "dragon belt" which sti-etched for the earlier creatures. In addition, anomalous paraphysical
from Japan to England and Ireland. Strangely, mytii-ridden India creatures were frequently seen throughout the Middle Ages, many
was completely bypassed. It seems that die dragon route was fur- of them similar to our Abominable Swamp Slobs, and these were
tiier north, north of the Himalayas. Some of tiie ancient Chinese nearly always identified as dragons. It would take years of hard
paintings and statues of dragons bear a remarkable resemblance to work to sift all of the dragon material, categorize it properly, and
die descriptions of the dragons diat once haunted England. Since arrive at some responsible conclusions.
there was no commerce or information exchange between these
One modem traveler in Africa claims to have heard about a liv-
two widely separated areas in ancient times, this astounding coin-
ing Pterodactyl. In his article "Do Extinct Animals Still Survive,"
cidence might be evidence that dragons actually existed.
published in Popular Science back in 1959, Everett H. Ortner
During one long period nearly everything seen in the sky was
relates the following:
identified as a dragon, although much of the lore describes what
were obviously UFO-type hghts rather than living creatures. The
. . . Frank H. MeUand heard from the natives of Northern
dragon was said to inhabit caves, and it was most often described
Rhodesia of afierce creature that lived in a nearby Jiundu
as a winged reptile of some sort. A number of the descriptions
swamplike a bird, but not exactiy a bird; more like a lizard
sound like Pterodactyls while others sound like snakes with
with wings of skin like a bat's.
wings. The fire-spitting dragon of modem children's stories may
MeUand noted this down, but only later did he reahze its
be based upon a combination of UFO manifestations and tiie
hair-rising implications. Then he renewed his questioning.
winged reptiles. The Egyptian phoenix, the Greek draconta, tiie
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

The beast's wing span, they said, was between four and people who could not mn fast enough to get away. As the name
seven feet; it had no feathers at all; its skin was bare and implies, the bird was often accompanied by a thunderous noise
smooth; its beak was full of teeth. a factor which lends some credence to explanation three.
Melland was staggered. What he had was a complete A fourth possibihty is that a dragon-like creature may have
description of a pterodactyla giant flesh-eating flying existed on the North American continent in early times and that
dragon known only to paleontologists, and supposedly the Thunderbird stories were based upon ancient encounters with
extinct for tens of milhons of years. dragons.
When Melland showed the natives pictures of a recon- In any case, the early settlers heard the Thunderbird stories and
struction of a pterodactyl, they nodded and muttered excit- helped to perpetuate them. Then, during a slack news period, the
edly: "Konamato!" Tombstone, Arizona, Epitaph (April 26, 1890) published a mar-
velous Thunderbird tale which has become a classic and has
It is not very hkely that Pterodactyls are still crawhng occasion- delighted several generations of monster fans.
ally out of ancient caves to ghde over Coney Island and terrify the It seems that two cowhands were out on the Arizona desert one
citizens of the Ohio valley. But some winged Unbelievable has day when they came upon a weird apparitionfloundering about in
been doing this. the sand. It had a long, snake-like body mounted with unbeliev-
Could it be the mighty Thunderbird? ably long wings. Two bony claws extended in front of the wings,
Indian tribes from Mexico to Alaska hand down ancient stories and its head was hke an alligator's with eyes the size of plates. It
about a bird so huge that it darkened the sun when it flew over. was ill or wounded and dragged around on the ground while the
There have been a few scattered modem reports of some flying cowboys' horses snorted and tried to bolt.
behemoth buzzing isolated ranches in the southwestem United By the time the men got their horses under control, the thing
States but these have been reported in fragments and very poorly had made a clumsy take-off, flown about half a mile, and col-
investigated, when investigated at all. As with most of these sto- lapsed again on the sand. The cowboys pursued it and pumped
ries, we are faced with a series of possible explanations. their rifles into the quivering giant, finally killing it. Then they
measured it by pacing it off. It was, they reported, ninety-two feet
1. The stories are pure myth and legend and have no basis in fact.
long andfifty-two inches in diameter. The wings had a span of
2. The actual phenomenon was misjudged and misinterpreted by the 160 feet (a B-52 bomber has a wingspan of 185 feet), and the head
observer(s). Thus, an Indian who wandered too close to a nest was was eight feet long. Its enormous jaws were lined with razor-
attacked by an angry eagle, and when he retold the story later and it sharp teeth. The wings were of a thick translucent membrane and
was repeated by others, the size of the bird grew . . . and grew. had no feathers, scales, or hair. The body itself was smooth.
3. Some of these stories were based upon appearances of UFOs. Since
the Indians could not conceive of any machine-like object in the air, After making these scientific measurements, the cowboys
they interpreted it as being some kind of great bird. sliced off a tip of a wing and headed for Tombstone. The newspa-
per said that plans were being made to go back out and skin the
The Thunderbird is supposed to have had a wingspread of thing so the hide could be shipped off to a museum.
twenty or thirty feet and enjoyed dining on small children and old That was the end of the story. All efforts to locate followups.
 JOHN A. KEEL

unearth additional information, possible surviving witnesses, and

locate the ultimate fate of that wing tip have failed.
We hesitate to call the leamed editor of the Epitaph a liar, but
there are just a few too many microscopic details in his narrative. EIGHTEEN
We can only assume that the Thunderbird wing tip is in a glass
cage in the same museum which harbors the stuffed French Ptero-
dactyl.
The Man-Birds

sk yourself this basic question: If you saw something

in the sky that looked hke nothing more than an over-
ilarge bird, would you bother to report it to anyone?
Probably not. You would reason that it was an eagle, perhaps, and
dismiss it from your mind. People simply do not report things that
seem to have a plausible explanation. Just as nature abhors a vac-
uum, the average human mind abhors a "mystery." When you do
have an unusual experience you usually begin to rationalize as
time passes. You were overtired. You had had too much to drink.
Or there had to be a sensible down-to-earth explanation for it.
That is the way our minds work.
However, on September 18, 1877, one W. H. Smith saw some-
thing unusual in the skies over Brooklyn, New York. It was some-
thing so odd that he felt compelled to sit down and write a letter to
the New York Sun about it. It was, he reported, "a winged human
form."
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

Three years later a "marvelous apparition" appeared over strange story in a 1922 edition of the Lincoln, Nebraska, Daily
Coney Island, right next to Brooklyn. "Many reputable persons" Star. The witness, who remained anonymous in the account,
saw it, according to die New York Times (September 12, 1880), claimed that a large circular object landed near his home and an
"and they all agree that it was a man engaged in flying toward eight-foot-tall being stepped out. Gray relates the story:
New Jersey."
This thing was described as "a man with bat's wings and A deeply religious man, the witness was certain that this
improved frog's legs." It passed over Coney Island at an altitude huge being must be none other than Satan himself. Remem-
of about one diousand feet, making movements which "closely bering his Bible teachings, he mumbled, "Get thee behind
resembled those of a frog in die act of swimming." A man's face me, Satan," and nimed his back on the creature. As he
was clearly seen attached to the monster and it "wore a cruel and tumed he noticed another disk coming down from the sky,
determined expression." and it hovered above him as if to protect him from the
Various experimenters were toying with crude gliders in those landed creature.
days but not over water or populated areas. They considered a Next, the witness heard voices emanating from the air-
flight a great success if they managed to gUde downhill for a few bome saucer, appropriately quoting Biblical texts.
yards. The creature on the ground, which the wimess definitely
Our next winged man was a headless "angel." Four young felt was hostile in intent, became discouraged, as if the
shepherdesses playing along a ridge near Cabeco, Portugal, in the voices had a deterring effect upon it. It took off on foot, rap-
summer of 1915 reportedly saw "a figure like a statue made of idly disappearing. The witness tracked "the devU" to where
snow which the rays of flie sun had tumed somewhat transparent" the disk had landed.
hovering in the air. One of the girls, Lucia Abobora, later became Further adding fire to the diabolical theory was the fact
a cenfi-al figure in die events at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, when a that the thing left tracks similar to hoofmarks, and went
large luminous disk circled over the heads of seventy thousand through a barbed wire fence, which was left burning hot, and
people gathered in a field. severed as if it had been bumed through with a welding
In his book on this famous "miracle," WiUiam Thomas Walsh torch.
states: "Senhora Maria de Freitas, a Portuguese writer and daugh-
ter of a famous editor of O Seculo told me in the summer of 1946 We have quoted this quaint account from Gray Barker's Book
that long before she had heard anything about die apparitions at of Saucers because Dr. Jacques Vallee found a remarkably similar
Fatima, a woman in the disfiict repeated to her an apparently report from Nebraska in that same year, 1922, in a letter buried in
absurd tale brought home by her daughter, who said she and some the Air Force UFO files at Dayton, Ohio. The letter writer,
others had seen a 'white man widiout any head floating in the Wiltiam C. Lamb, was hunting near HubbeU, Nebraska, when, at
air'."i 5:00 A.M. on Wednesday, Febmary 22, 1922, he heard a high-
Mr. Gray Barker, a prominent UFO researcher, uncovered a pitched sound and saw a large, dark object pass overhead, blotting
out the stars. He hid behind a tree, he said, and watched as the
object landed. Next he saw "a magnificent flying creature" which
'William Thomas Walsh, Our Lady of Fatima, p. 22.
landed hke an airplane and left tracks in the snow. It was at least
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

eight feet tall. It passed by the tree where Lamb was hiding, and On Tuesday, January 6, 1948, Mrs. Bemard Zaikowski of
he tried to follow its tracks but never managed to catch up with it. Chehalis, Washington, heard a "sizzhng and whizzing" noise. She
This evidence is hardly very substantialan old, undated looked up and saw a manflying about two hundred feet above her
newspaper chpping and a yellowing letter in the Air Force files. bam. He appeared to be equipped with large silver wings held
Not much proof that marvelous winged beings eight feet in height onto his body by straps, and he seemed to be manipulating some
were riding around the Nebraskan skies inflying saucers in 1922. kind of controls on his chest. After hovering and maneuvering for
Two or more types of winged Incomprehensibles are involved a few seconds, he shot upwards and his wings retracted close to
here. One is a man-hke creature equipped with either real wmgs his body as he rose. They did notflap in flight.
or mechanical wings of some sort. The other is a beasta latter "I know most people don't believe me," Mrs. Zaikowski said
day Pterodactyl. Or maybe the two types form some kind of com- later, "but I have talked to some people in Chehalis who tell me
bination in that zone of fantasy and the fantastic. they saw the man, too, and that he flew south from Chehalis and
Our records of anomalous winged creatures yield very little apparently came in from the north or west.
between the years 1922 and 1946. Then, in the summer of 1946, "It was about 3:00 P.M. on the Tuesday after New Year's Day,
somebody left that door to the unknown open again, and northem and there were a lot of small children coming home from school
Europe was engulfed in a new wave of inexplicable events and at the time. They saw the man, too, and asked if they could go into
phenomena. "Ghost rockets" appeared over Scandinavia in great my back yard so they could watch him longer as he flew toward
numbers. Over two thousand reports were collected by flie the south end of the city."
Swedish General Staff alone. Finland, Norway, Denmark, and the A report in Portland's Oregon Journal (January 21, 1948),
British Isles were also affected. The phantom objects were seen as added: "PoUce Chief Tom Murray declined to investigate. An
far south as Greece. Strange glowing cylindrical objects weaved army official at McChord Field commented that it 'sounded like
through the valleys of the Swiss Alps. one of those saucer dealsI just can't put any stock in it at all.' "
Everybody blamed the Russians. The Russians denied it. The One-man hehcopters and other conventional explanations were
newly founded Central Intelhgence Group, foremimer to the CIA, mled out by the officials. In their account of the affair, the Port-
sent General Jimmy Doohttle to Stockholm to find out what in land, Oregon Oregonian noted, "Chehalis is not far from where
hell was going on. the originalflying saucers were reported about a year ago."
All of this was a full year before any Americans had even heard Four months later, on Friday, April 9, 1948, a trio of mysterious
of flying saucers. "Birdmen" put in an appearance at Longview, Washington, which
The Swedes were not only seeing cylinders and saucers in their lies in a straight line about forty miles due south from Chehalis.
skies, they were also seeing enigmatic birds of some kind. Huge Mrs. Viola Johnson and Mr. James Pittman were outside the
winged creatures without heads. The "ghost rockets" cornered laundry where they both worked when three Buck Rogers-types
most of the headlines in the European press, and the strange head- flew past. They were not wearing wings but seemed to be some-
less "birds" were given only a passing mention. howflying without benefit of rotor blades, rockets, or propellers.
In June 1947 the first flying saucer scare struck flie United "They looked hke three men in flying suits flying through the
States, with the earliest publicized sightings occurring in the state air," Mrs. Johnson recalled. "They wore dark, drab flying suits
of Washington, home of the Sasquatch. and as far as I can judgeI'm not very good at judging dis-
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE U I E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

tancethey were about two hundred andfifty feet high, circhng "Immediately afterwards," Mrs. WaUcer continued, "we heard a
the city. loud swoosh over the housetops across the street. It was Uke the
"They were going at about the same speed as a freight train, whiteflash of a torpedo-shaped object."
and had some kind of apparatus at their sides which looked like "He was dressed in a uniform Uke a paratrooper wears," Mr.
guns, but I know it couldn't have been guns. Phillips added. "He was encased in a halo of Ught."
"I couldn't see any propellers or any motors tied on them, but I They aU agreed that the personage was about six and a half feet
could hear motors which sounded about Uke airplane motors tall, wearing a black cape, skin-tight pants, and quarter-length
only not so loud. boots.
"When they first came into sight, I thought they looked Uke "I could see him plain and could see he had big wings folded at
gulls, but as they got closer I could make out that they weren't his shoulders," Mrs. Walker declared. "There was a dim gray Ught
guUs and I knew they were men. I could see plainly that they all around him."
were men. "I saw it," Judy told reporters from the Houston Chronicle "and
"I couldn't make out their arms but I could see their legs dan- nobody can say I didn't."
gUng down and they kept moving their heads Uke they were look- "I may be nuts, but I saw it, whatever it was," Mr. PhiUips con-
ing around. I couldn't teU if they had goggles on but theu* heads cluded.
looked Uke they had helmets on. I couldn't see thek faces." Ten more years slipped by before die "Bkdman" chose to
Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Pittman called for their co-workers to reappear, this time in Kent, England. Four young people were
come out and take a look, but by the time others reached the spot walking home from a dance along a quiet country road near San-
the strange trio hadflown off. dUng Park, Hythe, Kent, on the evening of November 16, 1963.
The next stop on the "Bkdman" itinerary was Houston, Texas, John Flaxton, seventeen, was tiie first to notice an unusually
in 1953. Three people were sitting on the front porch of an apart- bright star moving dkectly overhead. They watched it with grow-
ment house on East Third Street at 2:30 A.M. on Thursday, June ing alarm as it descended and gtided closer and closer to them. It
18, 1953. It was a hot nighttoo hot to sleep. seemed to hover and then dropped out of sight behind some
"We were just taUdng idly," Mrs. Hilda WaUcer said, "when I nearby trees.
looked up and about twenty-five feet away I saw a huge shadow "I felt cold all over," Flaxton recalled. He and his friends had
across the lawn. I thought atfirst it was the magnified reflection of seen enough. They started to run. The Ught bobbed into view
a big moth caught in a nearby street light. Then the shadow again, this time much closer, floating about ten feet above the
seemed to bounce upward into a pecan tree." ground in a field some two hundred feet from the panic-stricken
She pointed the shadow out to Howard PhiUips and Judy Mey- quartet.
ers. Later they described it as being "the figure of a man with "It was a bright gold and oval," one of them reported. "And
wings Uke a bat. He was dressed in gray or black tight-fitting when we moved, it moved. When we stopped, it stopped."
clothes. He stood there for about thirty seconds, swaying on the Once more it went out of sight behind the trees along the road.
branch of the old pecan tree. Suddenly the Ught began to fade out Then suddenly there was the snapping of twigs and branches and
slowly." a huge blackfigure shuffled out of the bushes towards them.
Judy cried out as thefigure melted away. "It was the size of a human," Mervyn Hutchinson, eighteen.
 THE COMPLETE U I E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21
20 JOHN A. KEEL

just as the events we are about to recount in the next few pages
told police later. "But it didn't seem to have any head. There were
definitely overlap into the UFO category.
huge wings on its back . . . like bat wings."
As we have now stated repeatedly, we do not subscribe to the
They didn't wait for it to announce, "Take me to your leader."
popular speculation that flying saucers are from outer space.
All four started to run with renewed vigor. Later, all of their
Rather it seems that they, and their occupants, are inter-
descriptions were identical. Pohce and reporters were impressed
penetrating into our space-time continuum from some extradi-
by their genuine fright. Apparently they really had seen some-
mensional universe beyond the range of our human perception
thing tall, black, headless, with broad wings. Something that had
and our instrumentation. Kent, England, is a "window" area, as is
come from the general direction of an unidentified flying object.
the valley of the Ohio River.
Charles Bowen, editor of England's esteemed Flying Saucer
Sometime in 1960-61 (the witness no longer remembers the
Review, summarized the case in FSR's casebook, THE
exact date) a lady in West Vkginia (who is most prominent in
HUMANOIDS, and mentioned three other interesting reports
civic affairs and has requested anonymity) was diiving on Route 2
from the same area:
along the Ohio River on the West Virginia side with her elderly
father. As they passed through a sector on the edge of a park
On November 21, 1963, Keith Croucher, aged seventeen,
known as the Chief Cornstalk Hunting Grounds, a tall manlike
reported seeing a solid oval light in the center of a golden
figure suddenly appeared on the road in front of them.
mist crossing a football pitch near Sandling Estate. And on
the night of November 23/24, John McGoldrick and a friend
"I slowed down," she said years later, "and as we got closer we
went to Sandhng Woods to investigate the previously
could see that it was much larger than a man. A big grayfigure. It
reported sightings. They found "a vast expanse of bracken
stood in the middle of the road. Then a pair of wings unfolded
that had beenflattened": they also found three giant foot-
from its back and they practically filled the whole road. It ahnost
prints, clearly defined, an inch deep, two feet long, and nine
looked hke a small airplane. Then it took off straight up . . . disap-
inches across.
pearing out of sight in seconds. We were both terrified. I stepped
on the gas and raced out of there.
On December 11, McGoldrick and his friend went back
to the site with two newspaper reporters, and found the
"We talked it over and decided not to tell anybody about it.
woods illuminated by a pulsating Hght. They watched the
Who would beheve us anyway?"
light from a safe distance for half an hour: they were too
The Ohio winds down to Cairo, Ilhnois, where it joins the Mis-
scared to go closer.
sissippi River. About 2:00 P.M. on the afternoon of Thursday, Sep-
tember 1, 1966, Mrs. James Ikart of Scott, Mississippi, was
astonished to see a man flying around above the Pine Land Plan-
You will note that in the Nebraskan, Texas, and Kent cases our
tation.
winged entities were accompanied by UFO manifestations. None
of these events were well-pubhcized outside of UFO research cir- She telephoned the Delta Democrat Times, Greenville, Missis-
cles. The three incidents were widely separated by time and dis- sippi, and a reporter armed with cameras was rushed to the
tance. It seems reasonably safe to conclude that all of these scene. He found several people staring at the sky, all claiming
winged entity sightings, with the possible exception of Portugal's that they had seen an object shaped like a man maneuvering
1915 report, were directly related to the UFO phenomenon, itself. overhead.
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE U I E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

"It got down pretty low and then would go up," Mrs. Ikart told A cream-colored Mustang passed him, pulled over to the
him. "I have never seen anything Hke this before." shoulder and stopped. Morse stopped behind it and ran up to the
It was not long before John Hursh, a meteorologist at the driver, a young man in a dark blue suit.
Stoneville weather station, offered a solution to the mystery. "He was as excited as I was. He said, 'Did you see that?' and
"It's apparently somebody's research balloon that's gotten we agreedfliat we had bodi seen the same thing."
away," he announced. They watched the flying birdcage continue northward until "it
The beloved weather balloon explanation cannot really be was about over Bay Meadows Race Track when die hght on it
applied to the object seen by a California pohce officer on the went out, just as if somebody had tumed a switch."
night of Saturday, December 3, 1966. Shortly after 11:00 P.M. Around diat same time Mr. Donald Bennett, die Federal Avia-
patrolman Vem Morse and his wife Charmion were driving along tion Ak Traffic controller at San Francisco Airport, was relaxing
Bayshore Highway, retuming to San Francisco after spending a at his home in nearby San Mateo.
day in Redwood City. Suddenly Mrs. Morse gasped and pointed "My daughter and son-in-law had just retumed from a movie,"
upwards, exclaiming, "What's that?" Bennett said, "and fliey called me outdoors. Heading west,
"At first it looked like a parachute flare," Morse said. "I thought dkectly overhead, were three red-orange glows in the sky. I got
that it would land in those buildings east of the Southem Pacific my binoculars and studied them. They were at an altitude of about
Depot and start a fire. two diousand feet, moving at a speed of about two hundred and
"When it crossed the highway direcdy in front of me, it fifty miles per hour. I could not make out any shape, but they were
stopped descending at an altitude of about two hundred feet and definitely not aircraft."
began climbing. My wife said, 'Somebody's guiding it.' " "I took a ribbing from die troops," Officer Morse admitted
He pulled into a closed service station, tumed off his engine, later. "After the story appeared in the papers, diey were sailing
and stepped out of the car for a closer look. Now he could see that paper airplanes around and saying, 'Hey, Vem, diere goes another
it wasn't a parachute but a glowing cylindrical object about three one.' I even had a message to call Alcoholics Anonymous. Funny
feet in diameter and eight or nine feet long, moving at an angle of part is, I don't drink at all."
about fifteen degrees below vertical. Morse had been a police officer for twenty years.
There was a man in it.
"What had first appeared to be parachute shroud hnes," he Our studied conclusion from all these reports is that somebody
explained, "were plainly struts connecting the solid lower portion has been flying around Brooklyn, Texas, Califomia, and many
of the cylinder with the upper portion which was topped by a nose other places since 1877, with a minimum of gear and a maximum
cone resembling a crash helmet. of moxie. Whofliey are and why they do not share dieir wonder-
"It looked like a flying platform with somebody standing up ful flying apparatus wifli us earthbound creatures wiU probably
inside it. It passed over at about three hundred or four hundred never be fully known. It is easier to call diem "weaflier balloons"
feet and it didn't make a sound." and forget about them.
Morse jumped back into his car and tried to follow it. He got
back onto a freeway, caught up with it, and clocked it for a mile or
so. It was moving at betweenfifty and sixty miles an hour.
 THE COMPLETE U I E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 45

In the summer of 1966 another woman in the Ohio valley, the

wife of a doctor, was in her backyard when a six-foot-long thing
soared past her very rapidly. She thought it resembled a "giant
NINETEEN butterfly" and she dared to mention the incident to only a few peo-
ple. But all of these random, anomalous events were only the pro-
logue to the "monster mania" which would grip the whole
westem edge of West Virginia in November 1966.
Earher we discussed how Newell Partridge had seen two glow-
West Virginia's ing red objects in afield near Salem, West Virginia, on the night of
November 14,1966. His dog. Bandit, a German shepherd, had run
''Mothman" into thefield and vanished. The very next night around midnight,
two young couples, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Scarberry and Mr. and
Mrs. Steve Mallete, were driving through an abandoned Worid
War II ammunition dump known as the TNT Area, seven miles
outside of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, when, as they passed an
old deserted power plant, they saw a weirdfigure standing beside
the road staring at them.
"It was shaped Uke a man, but bigger," Roger Scarberry said
later. "Maybe six and a half or seven feet tall. And it had big
ive men were digging a grave in a cemetery near Clen- wings folded against its back."
denin, West Virginia, on November 12, 1966, when "But it was those eyes that got us," Linda Scarberry declared
something that looked like "a brown human being" flut- with a shudder. "It had two big red eyes, like automobile reflec-
tered from some nearby trees and maneuvered low over their tors."
heads. "It was gliding through the trees," witness Kenneth Dun- "For a minute we could only stare at it," Roger continued.
can of Blue Creek said, "and was in sight for about a minute." "Then it just tumed and sort of shuffled towards the open door of
The men were baffled. It did not look like any kind of a bird but the old power plant. We didn't wait around."
seemed to be a man with wings. They discussed it with a few Roger stepped on the gas pedal of his souped-up jalopy and
friends and would have forgotten about it if others in West Vir- headed out of the TNT Area for Route 62 which leads into Point
ginia had not also started seeing the enigmatic flier. Pleasant. As they shot down the highway ("We were doing better
About a year earlier, a woman living on the Ohio River, some than a hundred miles per hour," Roger claimed), his wife cried
miles from Clendenin, was amused when her seven-year-old son out, "It's foUowing us!"
ran into the house one day and excitedly told her that he had seen AU four swore that the "Bkd" was low overhead, its wings
"an angel... a man with wings." She assumed it was just his spread out to about ten feet. It seemed to keep up with the car
imagination and thought no more about it. effortlessly even though its wings were not flapping.
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

"I could hear it making a sound," Mrs. Mallette, an attractive manufactured in nearby plants. A network of tunnels laced
eighteen-year-old brunette stated. "It squeaked... like a big throughout the area but most of these are now sealed off and are
mouse." filled with water. Immediately adjoining the area is the McChntic
"It followed us right to the city limits," Roger went on. "Funny Wildhfe Station, a 2,500 acre animal preserve and bird sanctuary.
thing, we noticed a dead dog by the side of the road there, but Both sectors are filled with artificial ponds and dense woodlands.
when we came back a few minutes later, the dog was gone." Steep, heavily forested, almost inaccessible hills rise in the back-
The panic-stricken quartet drove directly to the office of the ground. The entu-e area is open to hunting and fishing every year
Mason County sheriff and excitedly poured out their story to and nearly every male in the county knows every inch of the
Deputy Millard Halstead. place. Its winding, poorly kept dirt roads are also popular Lover's
"I've known them all then- lives," Halstead told us during our Lanes, and one stretch serves as a drag strip for local hot rodders.
first visit to Point Pleasant. "They've never been in any trouble. I Only a few homes were scattered throughout the area. One of
took them seriously." these was the residence of the Ralph Thomas family. Their httle
Deputy Halstead retumed to the TNT Area with them. As he house stood on a slight rise surrounded by woods and igloos. It
parked outside the abandoned power plant the pohce radio in his was here that the next act in the "Mothman" (the name the press
car suddenly emitted a strange sound like a speeded-up phono- tagged onto the "Bird") drama took place. At 9:00 P.M. on
graph record. He shut the radio off. The "Bird," however, was Wednesday, November 16, 1966, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wams-
nowhere to be found. ley and Mrs. Marcella Bennett and her baby daughter, Tina, drove
The next day a press conference was held in the County Court- out to visit the Thomas'.
house and the four young people repeated their story. One of the "On our way to the house we were watching a funny big red
reporters there, Mrs. Mary Hyre, Point Pleasant correspondent for hght in the sky," Mrs. Bennett recalled. "It seemed to be moving
the Athens, Ohio, Messenger and local stringer for the Associated around over the TNT Area. It wasn't an airplane, but we couldn't
Press, later told us, "I've heard them repeat their story a hundred figure out what it was."
times now to reporters from all over and none of them have ever Most of the crowds of would-be monster hunters had con-
changed it or added a word." verged around the old power plant, some distance from the
News of the Scarberry-Mallette sighting was flashed around Thomas home. When Raymond Wamsley drove up to the house he
the world. It even appeared in the Pacific edition of the Stars & decided he would play a prank on his friends by tapping surrepti-
Stripes. Television camera crews from Huntington and Charleston tiously on their window. He never had the chance to play the joke.
invaded Point Pleasant, and that night the normally deserted TNT They parked in front of the Thomas home and Mrs. Bennett
Area resembled Times Square on New Year's Eve. But Steve Mal- climbed out of the car, gathering up her sleepy two-year old in her
lette announced, "I've seen it once. I hope I never see it again." arms. Suddenly afigure stirred behind the parked car.
The TNT Area was to become the home grounds for the "Bird" "It seemed as if it had been lying down," Mrs. Bennett told us.
in the months ahead, and it could not have picked a better base. "It rose up slowly from the ground. A big gray thing. Bigger than
The area consists of several hundred acres of woods and open a man, with terrible glowing red eyes."
fields filled with large concrete domes called "igloos." During the Mrs. Bennett was so horrified she dropped httle Tina to the
Second World War these igloos were used to store high explosives ground and collapsed, transfixed.
2 JOHN . KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

"It was as if the thing had her in some kind of trance," Mr. has a wingspread of six or eight feet," West reported excitedly. "It
Wamsley said. "She couldn't move." has great big red eyes."
Panic engulfed the group. The Wamsleys ran for the house as "Did itfly?" Tucker asked.
Mrs. Bennett pulled herself togedier, grabbed up her bruised "Stiaight up, just like a heticopter," West answered.
child, and followed. They locked themselves in. Ralph and Vu"- In St. Albans, West Virginia, just outside of Charleston, Mrs.
ginia Thomas were not home, but diree of diek children, Rickie, Ruth Foster claimed that "Mothman" appeared on her front lawn
Connie, and Vickie, were. Hysteria swept over them as die strange on the evening of November 26.
creature shuffled onto die porch and peered into die windows. "It was standing on the lawn beside tiie porch," she told
Raymond Wamsley grabbed die phone and called the pohce. By reporters. "It was tall, with big red eyes that popped out of its
the time help arrived, the thing had disappeared once more. face. My husband is six feet one and the 'Bird' looked about the
Mrs. Bennett would not recover fully from this terrifying expe- same height, or a httie shorter, maybe.
rience for many months. And more months passed before she was "It had a funny little face. I didn't see any beak. AU I saw were
able to discuss what she had seen with anyone, even her own fam- those big red poppy eyes. 1 screamed and ran back into the house.
ily. Her trauma was so real that she had to start seeing a doctor on My brother-in-law went out to look, but it was gone."
a weekly basis. She was plagued by frightening dreams and The day before, on November 25, Thomas Ury was driving
believed that the monster repeatedly visited her home, a small along Route 62 just north of the TNT Area. The time was 7:15
house somewhat isolated on die outskkts of Point Pleasant. A.M. He noticed a tall, gray man-like figure standing in afield by
"I know it has been here," she told us in the fall of 1967. "I can the road. "Suddenly it spread a pair of wings," Ury said, "and took
feel it when it's around. And I've heard it." off straight up, like a heticopter.
"What does it sound like?" we asked cautiously. "It veered over my convertible and began going in circles three
"It makes a terrible sound that goes right dirough your bones. It telephone poles high," he continued. "It kept flying right over my
sounds like a woman screaming." car even though I was doing about seventy-five."
No one in Point Pleasant had ever heard the story of the 1959 Mr. Ury rocketed into Point Pleasant and went straight to Sher-
monster seen in Mansfield, Ohio (Chapter Ten, Case 41). That iff George Johnson. "I never saw anything like it," he confided to
luminous-eyed apparition also seemed to rise up off the ground. Mrs. Hyre later. "1 was so scared I just couldn't go to work that
"Mothman" cut crazy capers all over West Virginia that day. This thing had a wingspan every bit of ten feet. It could be a
November. Sightings were reported in Mason, Lincoln, Logan, bird, but I certainly never saw one Uke it. I was afraid it was going
Kanawha, and Nicholas Counties. Most of the population to come down right on top of me."
remained skeptical but tiie near-hysteria of the rapidly multiply- Miss Connie Carpenter, a shy, studious girl of eighteen from
ing witnesses was very real. Police in the city of Charleston, West New Haven, West Virginia, had an identical encounter at 10:30
Virginia, received an excited phone call from one Richard West at A.M., Sunday, November 27. She was driving home from church
10:15 P.M., Monday, November 21. Patrolman D. L. Tucker han- when she saw what she thought at first was a large man in gray
dled the call. West insisted that a "Batman" was sitting on a roof standing on the deserted tinks of the Mason County Golf Course
next to his home. "It looks like a man. It's about six feet tall and outside of Mason, West Virginia, on Route 62. Those ten-foot
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

wings suddenly unfolded, the thing took off straight up and the area has reported seeing such a crane, and members of the
headed for her car. zoology department of Ohio University pointed out that the crane
"Those eyes! They were a very red and once they were fixed on inhabits the plains of Canada and has never been seen in the West
me I couldn't take my own eyes off them," she declared. "It's a Virginia-Ohio region.
wonder I didn't have a wreck." We carried photos of sandhill cranes and other birds (including
She said the creature flew directly at her windshield, then the Pterodactyl with us during our investigations in West Virginia.
veered off and disappeared. Connie stepped on the gas and raced "That's not the thing we saw," Roger Scarberry scoffed when he
home in hysteria. She was so upset that she was unable to go to saw the pictures. "This thing could never chase us like it did."
school for several days and required medical attention. She was "I just wish Dr. Smith could see the thing," Mary Mallette
the only "Mothman" witness to suffer from a common UFO ail- added.
mentklieg conjunctivitus or "eyebum." Her eyes were red, All those who reported having seen "Mothman" sneered at the
swollen and itchy for two weeks afterwards. Many witnesses to crane theory, but the skeptics, and they were in tiie majority,
low-flying UFOs suffer this same thing, apparently caused by quickly accepted it and dismissed the mystery. Three groups of
actinic (ultra-violet) rays. witnesses contributed to the confusion by declaring that they were
Miss Carpenter was also one of the few to claim a close look at convinced that the "Bird" was really some kind of giant ornitho-
the "Mothman's" face. "It was horrible . . . like something out of logical oddity and not a "monster from outer space" as some were
a science-fiction movie." beginning to imply.
Like our Abominable Swamp Slobs, "Mothman" was fond of Captain Paul Yoder and Benjamin Enochs, both volunteer fire-
pursuing automobiles and people on foot. On the same night as men from Point Pleasant, revealed that they had seen a very large
Miss Carpenter's sighting, the creature reappeared in St. Albans. bird in tiie TNT Area on November 18, 1966. "It was definitely a
Sheila Cain, thirteen, and her sister were walking home from the bird," they statedflatly, "with big red eyes. But it was huge. We'd
store that evening when they saw an enormous something stand- never seen anything like it."
ing next to a local junk yard. Seventy miles north of Point Pleasant as the "Bird"flies, four
"It was gray and white with big red eyes," Sheila said, "and it people outside of Lowell, Ohio, spent a fascinating Saturday
must have been seven feet t a l l . . . taller than a man. I screamed afternoon watching a group of gigantic birdsflutter about the trees
and we ran home." near Cat's Creek. They saw no glowing red eyes, witness Marvin
The creature is supposed to have taken wing and flown low Shock offered, but tiiey did see four very strange winged creatures
over the running girls. and kept them in view for two hours on November 26, 1966.
Shortly after thefirst "Mothman" stories hit die local papers, a Shock, who was accompanied by his two children, Marlene and
wide variety of explanations were expressed by assorted experts. Phillip,first noticed the birds in some tree branches.
Dr. Robert Smith of the West Virginia University Biology Depart- "They looked about as big as a man would look moving around
ment declared that everyone was obviously seeing a rare sandhill in the trees," Shock said later. "When we started walking toward
crane. A bu-d whose long neck and long legs can give it a height of them for a closer lookwe were about one hundred yards from
six feet, and it has red patches around the eyes. Yet no hunter in themthey took off andflew up the ridge."
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

The trio followed die birds by car and saw them settle on the nal "Mothman" witnesses, was near Tiny's drive-in restaurant on
edge of the woods about two hundred yards from the home of the outskirts of Point Pleasant when shefirst saw the "Bird."
Ewing Tilton. Tilton joined them. Both men agreed diat the birds "I thought it was an airplane, then I realized it wasflying much
stood from four to five feet tall and had a wingspread of at least too low," she reported. "It was brown and had a wingspread of at
ten feet. least ten feet." Then she added an interesting detail. "I thought I
"They had dark brown backs with some light flecks," Tilton could see two legs . . . like men's legs . . . hanging down from it.
observed. "Their breasts were gray and they had five- or six-inch It circled over Tiny's and thenflew off." She did not see any head
bills, straight, not curved like those of hawks or vultures." or neck. The wings were not moving and there was no sound.
Shock thought there was a "reddish cast" to their heads. The The McDaniel family had been living in the twilight zone ever
birds kept their distance andfinally flapped off into limbo. To this since their daughter and the others hadfirst ghmpsed "Mothman."
day we can't identify the giant species seen by these people. Linda had repeatedly heard the sound "of a speeded-up phono-
At the GallipoUs, Ohio, au^iort, just across the river from Point graph record" around her own home after the incident, and pecu-
Pleasant, five local pilots got an unexpected look at the "Bird" at har manifestations indicating the presence of a poltergeist began.
3:00 P.M., Sunday, December 4, 1966. When they first saw it, they Finally she and Roger moved into the basement apartment in the
mistook it for an airplane. McDaniel's home. The poltergeist followed them. Strange lights
"Look at that crazy character coming in downwind in that appeared in the house, objects moved by themselves; and the
plane," Eddie Adkins commented. heavy odor of cigar smoke was frequenfly noted. No one in the
Everett Wedge of Point Pleasant, Henry Upton of Leon, West family smokes. (The smefl of cigar smoke is commonly reported
Virginia, and Leo Edwards, Ernie Thompson, and Adkins, all of in many poltergeist cases throughout the world.) One moming
GaUipohs, stared at the winged form ghding low over die river. It Linda woke up and distinctly saw the shadowy form of a large
was about three hundred feet up, they all agreed, and it was trav- man in the room. The house was searched. AU the doors were stiU
eling about seventy miles an hour effortlessly, withoutflapping its locked. There was no sign of a prowler.
wide wings. Meanwhile, Connie Carpenter was having some peculiar prob-
As it sailed majestically past the airport the men noted that it lems. Early in Febmary 1967 she married Mr. Keith Gordon, and
seemed to have an unusually long neck and was turning its head they moved across the river to a two-family house in Middleport,
from side to side as if it were taking in the scenery. Ohio. They did not get a telephone immediately. At 8:15 A.M.,
"It was like something prehistoric," one of them remarked Febmary 22, Connie left the house to go to school. As she started
later. "I don't think it was any crane." to walk down the street a large black car pulled up alongside her.
Wedge grabbed his camera, jumped into his plane, and took off She later identified it as a 1949 Buick. The occupant of the car
after it. But it had disappeared somewhere down river. This was opened the door and beckoned to her. Thinking that he was seek-
the only sighting in which a neck was observed at all. ing directions, she approached him. He was a young, clean-cut
A mondi later anoflier witness thought she was seeing an aii- man of about twenty-five, wearing a colorful Mod shirt, no jacket
plane, too, when she first noticed a large winged thing zipping (it was bitter cold), had neady combed hair and appeared to be
along above Route 62 at 5:00 P.M. on January 11, 1967. Mrs. suntanned. There was a very interesting detail: she said the car
Mabel McDaniel, the mother of Linda Scarberry, one of die origi- appeared to be brand new inside and out even though it was a vin-
2 JOHN . KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

tage model. This detail has cropped up many times in our "Men in owner of an apphance store at Cross Lanes, West Virginia. At 9:05
Black" cases. Some of these cars even smell new inside, accord- A.M. on the moming of January 19, 1967, Mr. Jones was driving
ing to various witnesses. along Interstate Highway 64, when he came upon a large metal
When she reached the automobile, the driver suddenly lunged sphere hovering about four feet above the road. Since it was broad
and grabbed her arm, ordering her to get in with him. She fought dayhght, and since the object remained in view for about two
back and there was a brief struggle before shefinally broke away. minutes, he was able to give a very good description of it. The
She ran back to the house and locked herself in, completely terri- sphere was about twenty feet in diameter, he said, and was the
fied. color of dull aluminum. There were four legs attached to it, with
Connie remained indoors the following day, February 23. At caster-like wheels on the bottom of each one. He could also see a
3:00 P.M. she heard someone on the porch and there was a loud small window about nine inches in diameter and there was a "pro-
knock on the door. She went to it cautiously and found a note had peller" undemeath the object which was idling when he came
been shpped under it. It was written in pencil in block letters on a upon it. This propeller began to spin rapidly, and tiien the object
piece of ordinary notebook paper. "Be careful gkl," it read, "I can rose and disappeared into the sky.
get you yet." Mr. Jones is an impressive witness, a teetotaler with afine rep-
That night Connie and Keith went to the local pohce. They utation. He reported his sighting after thinking it over very care-
tumed the note over to Officer Raymond Manly. Neither the car fully, and the local news media carried his story. The next day a
nor the young man was seen again. note was shpped under the door of his home in Dunbar. It was
A short time later Connie and Keith moved in with her mother, written in block letters and was singed around the edges. It read,
Mrs. Faye Carpenter, in New Haven. Mrs. Carpenter had received "We know what you have seen and we know that you have talked.
no pubhcity of any kind, but, like nearly everyone in New Haven, You'd better keep your mouth shut. You want [sic] be wamed
she had seen unidentified flying objects. The Carpenter house was again." He considered the notes a prank. Dunbar is about sixty
soon beset with poltergeists. On March 22, 1967, Connie was miles southeast of Middleport, Ohio.
awakened in the middle of the night by a loud beeping sound When we visited the exact spot of the Jones sighting we found
which she said appeared to be coming from directly outside her that the object must have been hovering directly above a major
window. gas line which passes under the road. Furthermore, we found a
Back in Point Pleasant, both Mary Mallette and Linda Scar- series of very strange footprints in the mud beside the road. We
berry were visited by a mysterious couple who claimed to repre- had found identical tracks behind the abandoned power plant in
sent a firm which would take free annual photographs of their the TNT Area. These looked Uke huge dog tracksexcept that
famihes, no strings attached. The man was exceptionally large and they were not dog tracks and were so deep that the animal which
odd looking. The woman had red hair and kept in the background, made them must have weighed from two hundred to three hun-
hiding her face as much as possible. This couple did not visit any- dred pounds. In addition, at the Jones site there was one single
one else in Point Pleasant with theu* unprofitable proposition. footprint of what appeared to be a naked human foot of unusually
Another mysterious note tumed up in Dunbar, West Vkginia, large size. The spacing of these tracks was most pecuUar. They
just outside of Charleston. The recipient was Mr. Tad Jones, the did not start anywhere, and they did not lead anywhere.
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2
2

There were various rumors around Cross Lanes diat "Moth- over the TNT Area as if they were foUowing a regular flight
man" had been seen, but we were busy with another investigation schedule. Thousands of people invaded the section again to view
and did not have time to track them down. this new wonder. Sheriff Johnson and most of his men were
among the witnesses but soberly refused to comment on the phe-
When we first visited Point Pleasant in December 1966 we were nomenon.
nonplussed to find tiiat die police and local newspapers had not An off-duty police officer, Harold "Sonny" Harmon, was cmis-
received anyflying saucer reports, but we quickly discovered that ing around the dismal, unUt ammunition dump one night in early
thousands of people up and down the Ohio valley had been seeing March 1967, when he suddenly came upon a large, dark eUptical
unidentified flying objects all year but were reluctant to report form hovering a few feet above a small pond.
them. One group of witnesses, including the wife of a potice offi- "It was definitely a soUd machine of some kind," he later
cer, had seen a ckcular object hovering directly above Tiny's explained. "I could even see what appeared to be windows in it. It
restaurant in the summer of 1966. Another woman claimed she rocked Uke a boat hitting waves, and then it floated silently away
had seen a large metallic disk hovering over the Point Pleasant over the trees."
high school in March 1966. She had not told anyone because she As the UFO activity seemed to increase, the "Mothman"
knew no one would believe her. She not only saw the object, she reports dwindled off. An Ohio man claimed tiiat a huge winged
said, but a door was open in it and a man was fully visible. He was something pursued his car up Route 33 on a rainy night in March
wearing a tight, silvery suit and had longflowing hair. 1967, and two women swore they saw a "Mothman"fly to meet a
Most people have a distorted impression of West Virginia. UFO on May 19, 1967.
Point Pleasant is part'of the highly industrialized Ohio Valley and "We were drivmg past die TNT Area on Rou|e 62 around 10:30
P.M.," Brenda Stone said, "when we saw two bright red Ughts on a
is on the edge of the Bible Belt. Its six thousand inhabitants sup-
port twenty-two churches. There are no bars in the town itself. shadowy form high in a tree just off the road. Suddenly this big
Most of the witnesses there are very devout, well educated, and red Ught appeared and approached the tree, and the form rose up
own late model cars and color TV sets. Their rehgious convictions towards it and disappeared. Then the big Ught took off to the
make them exceptionally honest witnesses. north."
Beginning in the fall of 1966 tiie TV sets and telephones in die That same night a group of witnesses reported seeing a bril-
region began to go wild, as strange blobs of crystaline white tight Uantly Ughted object land briefly in a field next to Ohio River
appeared in the night skies. Many of these hghts moved at tree- Junior High School in Point Pleasant.
top level. There were also many dayhght sightings of strange cir- After Mrs. Hyre began pubUshing some of these reports in the
cular objects, particularly in the TNT Area. By the end of 1967 Athens, Ohio, Messenger, she was swamped with calls from other
over one thousand UFO sightings by responsible witnesses had witnesses. She received as many asfive hundred caUs and reports
been recorded throughout the Valley. Cars passing along the on a single "flap" weekend. Obviously, she could only pubUsh a
Camp Conley Road, soudi of the TNT Area, stalled inexplicably. very small percentage of them. By the end of 1967 she had given
Television sets and radios, some brand new, bumed out suddenly up tiying to keep up with the reports at all and rarely pubUshed
without cause. In March-April 1967 die UFO sightings hit an those she received. Nevertheless, the reports continued to pour in.
incredible peak with the objects appearing nightly at low level Shortly after noon on November 2, 1967, Mrs. Ralph Thomas
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

heard a sound "hke a squeaky fan beU" outside her home in the joined her and they spoke together to the httle man. "He seemed
TNT Area. She stepped onto her porch and saw what she later to know more about West Virginia than we did," she declared.
described as "a tall gray figure, bigger than a man" moving At one point the telephone rang, and while she was speaking on
swiftly among the neighboring igloos. It didn't appear to be walk- it the httle man picked up a ball-point pen from her desk and
ing, she said, rather it was shding or gliding along the ground. She looked at it in amazement, "as if he had never seen a pen before."
was positive it was not a man or a bear. Since it was the hunting She gave him a pen and said he laughed in a loud, strange way as
season, no man in his right mind would wear gray there, she he took it. Then he ran out into the night and disappeared around
noted, but would wear a red hunting jacket. a comer.
During our frequent visits to the Ohio Valley we uncovered Being a good newspaperwoman, Mrs. Hyre later checked with
several poltergeist cases, particularly in homes on the higher hills the pohce tofind out if there was any mentally deficient person on
in the region. Locked doors would open and close by themselves. the loose whofitted the little man's description. There wasn't.
Strange thumps would be heard against the walls and roofs of iso- Several weeks later Mrs. Hyre was crossing the street near her
lated homes late at night. Some people heard the sound of a baby office when she again saw this very same man. He appeared star-
crying inside their houses and could not locate the source. The tled when he noticed her watching him, tumed abmptly, and ran
James Lilly family on Camp Conley Road, south of the TNT Area for a large black car which suddenly rounded the comer. It was
(discussed in Chapter Fourteen) experienced so much poltergeist driven by a very large man. The httle man sprang into it and it
activity throughout 1967-68 that they finally sold their home and sped away.
moved to another neighborhood.
Mrs. Hyre received a long line of very strange visitors after her At 5:05 P.M. on the evening of December 15, 1967, the seven-
UFO and "Mothman" stories began to appear in the press. Early hundred-span linking Point Pleasant with Ohio suddenly col-
in January 1967 she was working late in her office across from the lapsed laden with msh hour traffic, carrying forty-six vehicles into
County Court House when a httle man entered. He was about four the dark waters of the Ohio River. That night the Lilly family on
feet six inches tall, she said later, and had very strange eyes cov- Camp Conley Road divided their attention between their TV set
ered with thick-lensed glasses. His black hair was long and cut and the eerie hghts that were racing at tree-top level over the
squarely "hke a bowl haircut." Although it was about 20 F out- woods behind their home. They counted twelve UFOs altogether,
side he was wearing a short-sleeved blue shirt and blue trousers of more than they had ever seen on a single evening before. No
thin material. He kept his right hand in his pocket at all times. UFOs were reported in Point Pleasant proper on that tragic night.
Speaking in a low, halting voice, he asked her for directions to The collapse of Silver Bridge made headhnes everywhere, and
Welsh, West Virginia. She thought atfirst that he had some kind of most of the reports you read in your own newspaper had been
speech impediment, and for some reason he terrified her. "He kept tapped out on the teletype in the office only yards from the site of
getting closer and closer," she said, "his funny eyes staring at me the disaster by Mrs. Mary Hyre.
almost hypnotically." Sheriff George Johnson and his tiny band of deputies acted
Alarmed, she ran into the back room where the newspaper's with admirable dispatch and efficiency, seahng off the roads into
circulation manager was working on a telephone campaign. He the town and setting up rescue operations. Mrs. Hyre went with-
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

out sleep for days as hundreds of newsmen and TV teams from all description of his features and his erratic behavior he sounds more
over the country descended on Point Pleasant. The local citizens hke one of the mischievous idiots who pop out of flying saucers.
were stunned widi horror and disbeUef, and there were many Mr. Brown expressed some rage over various magazine articles
vacant chairs around Christmas tables in Point Pleasant that year. we had written. "They [UFOs] are not hostile," he had gmmbled
Christmas week, while divers were still searching for bodies in repeatedly.
die wreckage, a white station wagon pulled into die town and a
short dark-skinned man entered Mrs. Hyre's office. He was During our five lengthy visits to Point Pleasant we interviewed
dressed in a diin black suit, with a black tie, and looked Oriental, over one hundred monster witnesses, plus scores of UFO sighters.
with high cheekbones, narrow eyes, and an undefiinable accent. We began to suspect that "Mothman" was represented in only a
He was not interested in the bridge disaster but professed concern small percentage of the incidents. It seemed that an Abominable
about UFOs. Mrs. Hyre was too busy to spend any time with him. Swamp Slob was also loose in the area. The witnesses to the real
She handed him her file folder filled widi UFO clippings, but he "Mothman" never saw any arms on the creature and their descrip-
did not seem especially interested in them. tions were impressively consistent. Others had been surprised by
That night he drove to New Haven and visited Connie Carpen- a giant, hair-covered, headless thing with broad shoulders.
ter at her mother's. Later, he invaded the McDaniel home. All of In the majority of all the "Mothman" cases, the witnesses man-
the people who met him felt very uneasy about him. When we aged only a brief gUmpse of the creature. Its most outstanding
interviewed the witnesses separately they all described him in feature seemed to be its glowing red eyes. Self-luminous eyes
exacdy the same way, and all mentioned that one of his most usually suggest a paraphysical entity rather than a real animal.
striking features were his excessively long fingersso long that About half of the witnesses appeared to be people with latent or
they seemed freakish. active psychic abihties, prone to having accurate premonitions,
He identified himself as Jack Brown from Cambridge, Ohio. prophetic dreams, extra-sensory perception (ESP), etc. Few wit-
But when a reporter from Columbus, Ohio, stopped by the nesses were able to describe the "Bird's" face, but most noted the
McDaniel's while he was there, it became apparent that Mr. eyes and were admittedly terrified by them. The eyes seemed to
Brown did not even know where Columbus or Cambridge was have been more terrifying than the tremendous size of the crea-
(they are only a few miles apart). ture. While some people claimed that "Mothman" was brown,
It also became quickly apparent to all the witnesses that he was most have described it as being grayish in color. All witnesses
not at all interested in UFOs or "Mothman" but confined most of agreed that the wings did not flap in flight, making its incredible
his questioning to the activities and whereabouts of the author of speeds all the more unaccountable. Those who saw it walk said
this book. that it shuffled or "waddled" penguin-like. Those who claimed to
Mr. Brown promised to retum to Point Pleasant "in about two have seen it take off said it rose straight up hke a hehcopter.
weeks" but he was never seen again. Considering its reported size, the ten-foot wingspread does not
Who or what was Mr. Brown? Some UFO buffs might con- make sense. A normal-sized man would require wings twenty to
clude that he was really a spy from the CIA playing pointiess thirty feet wide in order to glide and support his weight. Most
games widi honest American taxpayers. But from the general large birds must make a mnning start to get akbome.
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

Table 1 is a composite description of this Unbehevable. disturbed by the presence of the witnesses. Moreover, something
The following composite description of West Virginia's "Moth- that looked like nothing more than a giant bird would be more apt
man" has been compiled from more than one hundred eye-witness to evoke curiosity instead of terror. It is also puzzling that no one
accounts: else in Ohio or West Virginia even glimpsed such a bird. But it is
possible that the gravediggers in Clendenin may have done so.
1. HEIGHT: Between five and seven feet tall. Usually described as Two unusual birds were caught in the area, however. In late
taller than a goodsized man." December 1966 a rare Arctic snow owl was shot by a farmer in
2. BREADTH: Broad at the top with shght taper downwards.
Always described as "very broad, much broader than a man." Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia. This was two feet tall and had a
3. COVERING: Witnesses have been unable to determine if it is five foot wingspan. "Mothman" witnesses converged on the
clothed or covered with skin. Generally described as being gray, farmer for a look at the owl and all of them declared that it in no
though some thought it was brown. One witness thought it was way resembled what they had seen.
covered with gray fur. Dayhght sightings of others do not sub-
stantiate this. In July 1967 another rare bird tumed up. This one was a turkey
4. HEAD: Seen from the back it appears to have no head. Few wit- vulture and stood a foot tall. It was found by a group of boys near
nesses reported seeing any face at all. New Haven, West Virginia. Again, the "Mothman" witnesses
5. EYES: Self-luminous, bright red, approximately two to three looked and shook their heads.
inches in diameter, set wide apart. Witnesses say the eyes are set
We do suspect that a few alleged "Mothman" witnesses did
in near the top of shoulders.
6. LEGS: Man-like. No witness has ever been able to describe the mistake owls for "Mothman." While driving through the TNT
feet. Area late one night in November 1967, we were startled ourselves
7. ARMS: None. No witness has ever reported seeing arms. when a huge owl suddenly flapped into the air next to the road. It
8. WINGS; Fold against the back when not in use. Wingspread, was so big that it was carrying a full-grown rabbit in its talons.
everyone agrees, is about ten feet. Bat-like. Do notflap in flight. Perhaps if a similar owl suddenly fluttered in front of a car filled
9. CARRIAGE: Animal walks erect hke a man. Does not stoop like a
bear or ape. Moves its legs in a shuffling manner. Some said it with teenagers they might mistake it for something larger and
"waddled." more dramatic.
10. SOUND: Loud squeaks, like a mouse. One witness said it In Table 19.1 we have outlined twenty-six of the more respon-
sounded "like a squeaky fan belt." Two wimesses testified they sible "Mothman" sightings. Full details of several of these cases
heard a mechanic^ humming sound as the creature flew over-
appear in the main text. Like our A.S.S. and UFOs, "Mothman"
head.
11. SPEED: It is said to have kept pace with automobiles moving displayed special delight in pursuing automobiles, a habit that is
seventy to one hundred mph. Few birds can achieve this in level definitely not birdlike.
flight. Pilot witnesses estimated it wasti-avelingat least severity
mph in levelflight withoutflapping its wings. We also carefully explored one other possibihtybears. We
The anomalous bird hypothesis is strongly supported by the leamed that bears are rarely seen in Mason County, but in
Lowell, Ohio, sighting and by the report of thefive pilots in Gal- November 1966 Mr. Cecil Lucas saw three bear-like creatures
hpohs. However, if the "Mothman" was the Ohio bird, then its sniffing around an oil pump in hisfield. His farm is located on the
behavior would have been different. It would not have been so banks of the Ohio, just off Route 62. When he came out of his
illusive, since the Ohio creatures did not seem to be particularly house to investigate, the dark, hairy forms ran off erect towards
 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2
2

sons heard a humming sound, similar to that of a plane or

the river, disappearing into a diicket. No bears had been seen
helicopter.
before or since by anyone else in the region.
One person said the object stayed above his car while he was
We carefully avoided mentioning any theories or speculations,
travehng home from his job.
assuming that if there were Abominable Swamp Slobs in the
A Letart man reported that the object circled the area there
neighborhood we would eventually receive better descriptions of
for thirty-five minutes.
them. Our hunch was right. Throughout 1968 Mrs. Hyre received
People on Thomas Ridge said it stayed for thirty minutes or
a series of reports of tall hairy creatures with luminous eyes. In
more in that area and was circling the area using an
incident after incident these creatures approached parked cars in
extremely bright searchlight on the ground.
Lovers' Lanes, or stepped in front of vehicles on back roads. They
Manyfirst thought it was a pilot in trouble, trying tofind a
stood erect, six to seven feet tall, and were usually reported as
place to land, but the Mason County airport was lighted. The
holding out then: arms, or pointing diek arms upwards. A place
object went over it several times.
called Jerrico Road seemed to produce most of these reports. Mrs.
Hyre pubhshed very few of them. One teen-ager said that he saw a "big thing" recendy that he
could not identify. He said he was in the TNT Area. He
A winged giant was also seen on a few rare occasions in
tumed a curve and on the bank was a creature about six feet
1968-69. In September 1968 there was a massive but httle-
tall. It was white and had red eyes. He said he stopped his
pubUcized UFO "flap" throughout northeastern United States.
car but the creature ran. Others have reported seeing similar
Across the border in Canada there were several UFO landings and
creatures in the area.
"httle men" reports beginning on September 15. All hell broke
loose in Point Pleasant diat night. The sheriff's office was inun-
Point Pleasant, West Virginia, is a typical "window" area.
dated widi phone calls, and Mrs. Hyre estimated diatfive hundred
There are hundreds of others throughout the United States, each
people had seen somediing unusual tiiat weekend. Here is part of
marked by continuous UFO activity over long periods of time,
the story she pubUshed in the Messenger on September 18, 1968:
bizarre monster sightings, and the mysterious comings and
goings of unusual persons. It is completely erroneous to blame
Three teen-age boys saw an object in the TNT Area and said
the collapse of the rickety old Silver Bridge on flying saucers or
that die object's white hght focussed on diem was so bright
"Men in Black." But the intense UFO activity in the TNT Area
they could not look at it. The 'round object' was about titfee
on the night of the disaster does suggest some intangible rela-
hundred feet long.
tionship.
One time it appeared over die hilltop on Jerrico Road. Wit-
Our in-depth investigations in several other "windows" in the
nesses reported it had long and short prongs.
United States have uncovered manifestations and phenomena
In the same area there was an object flying first fast, then
identical to the things we found in Point Pleasant. When the flying
slow. It would hover, displaying green, red, and white hghts.
saucers arrive they bring with them strange invisible forces,
Timmie Clendenin and Johnny Love said they saw a bright
frightening screams in the night, and luminous phantoms.
hght at Ordnance School. When tiiey went to investigate, it
"took off." They chased it to Route 2.
The winged "Mothman" never left behind any footprints, drop-
No one who saw the object detected any wings. Some per-
pings or other physical evidence. The only traces of any kind that
266 JOHN A. K E E L

were found were diose giant dog tracks. Similar tracks have been
found at other monster sites around the world '
People in Point Pleasant continued to see monsters and UFOs
diroughout 1969, but Mrs. Hyre pubhshed very few of dieu* re-
ports. One moming in April 1969 Mr. Emest Adkins stepped from
his home on a farm near New Haven, West Virginia, and found his
eleven-week-old beagle pup dead in his yard. "There was no evi-
dence that the dog died in afight," Adkins said. "But there was a
large, very neat hole in its side, and the animal's heart was lying
outside the body. It looked as if something chewed it out. There
were no other marks on the body."
No known animal would, or could, tear the heart out of a dog
without leaving other marks on die carcass. And any animal that
might attempt such a thing would certainly have eaten the heart or
some part of the dog.
We investigated the situation in Point Pleasant as dioroughly
and as carefully as was humanly possible. But after all of our
interviews and all of our experiences we were still left widi the
basic, disturbing question: What is really on the loose in West Vnr-
ginia?

'Re-examine Case 24, Chapter 10.

 TWENTY

Unidentified
Swimming Objects

omething is going on at the bottom of the oceans, and

even in placid lakes and streams all over the world.
Strange objects and creatures frequently have been
observed on top of the water and deep within it. The United States
government has been taking these sightings far more seriously
than the now-routine flying saucer appearances in our skies. In
January 1969 the Navy revealed the existence of a top secret
nuclear submarine called die NR-1. It cost nearly 100 milhon dol-
lars and carries a crew of seven. A conventional nuclear sub car-
ries a crew of over one hundred. Why do we need a seven-man
submarine worth 100 milhon dollars? The Navy says "to explore
commercial and military possibilities of the ocean floor."
The NR-1 is equipped with a vast array of underwater hghts,
television and motion picture cameras, and numerous other space-
age gadgets including mechanical arms. The sub can operate at
depths down to two thousand feet. Originally it was supposed to
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

cost a mere 30 million dollars but it tumed out that the sub itself coverers, said, "because this brings up the problem of how it
finally cost 67.5 milhon dollars to build. Another 11.8 million would get there!"
dollars went to "research and development." And those TV cam- Other expeditions equipped with similar cameras have pho-
eras and mechanical arms ran to 19.9 milhon dollars. Then the tographed giant three-toed footprints in the shme of the ocean
whole project was classified "Top Secret" and we can only floor. Something huge and unknown seems to be strolhng about
assume that seven men are riding around in it somewhere out there almost completely unnoticed.
there, probing the ocean's bottom and photographing the strange We have developed a supposedly foolproof gadget known as a
creatures which live there. It is even possible that they are looking Simrad which is a sophisticated form of sonar and is used to map
for other super-submarines of unknown origin. There is plenty of the ocean bed. Early in 1969 the M/V My lark was cmising Rasp-
evidence that such super-subs do exist. berry Strait off Alaska when the screen of the Simrad device
Numerous oceanographic expeditions have picked up perplex- formed a startling image. Somewherefifty-five fathoms (around
ing underwater anomalies on their instmments throughout the three hundred feet) below the boat a creature two-hundred feet
1960s. Glistening metallic objects larger than any known sub- long roughly in the shape of an extinct dinosaur was moving
marines have surfaced off the coasts of Austraha and South Amer- about. Electronic specialists checked out the equipment and
ica, inspiring extensive, fmitless military searches by sea and air. could find notiiing wrong with it. The scientists were forced to
Some of the underwater objects intercepted by sonar were travel- shmg in dismay; the object or animal must have been real. But
ing at impossible speeds, too fast for any knownfish or man-made what was it? It may be a long time before we have an answer to
submarine. that one.
We now know more about the moon than we do about the The navies of Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela have fi:equently
Atlantic Ocean. Four-fifths of this planet is water, and we have been called out on frustrating searches for mystery submarines.' The
only explored and mapped a minute section of it. For all we know, same sort of unidentified craft have appeared near Austraha and
the ocean could be filled with enormously complex hving organ- New Zealand, baffling expert witnesses who could not identify them
isms of a size and nature which would dwarf the imagination of as being any known American or Soviet submarines. On January 12,
our sciencefiction writers. There is even one small UFO cult who 1965, die pilot of a DC3 saw a strange, elongated object in a shallow
actually believe that survivors of "Lost Atlantis" are living in harbor near Helensville, New Zealand. He swooped down for a
splendid cities on the ocean's bottom. closer look, thinking at first that it was a gray-white whale that had
The existence of Atlantis will remain debatable, but we do been washed ashore. But when he got closer to it he realized it was
know that there are strange mechanical objects and animal forms some sort of metalhc structure. Here is his description:
in the ocean depths. Scientists about the oceanographic ship
Eltanin sent a special camera to the bottom in a series of expedi-
tions in 1964, west of Cape Hom, and at a depth of 13,500 feet,
'Britain's Flying Saucer Review (FS/?j hits published several well-documented articles on
they photographed a bizarre piece of technology which remains these mysterious submarine objects. Here is a partial listing: "Crew of Argentine Ship See
unexplained to this day. It was a comphcated-looking machine Submarine UFO" by Oscar A. Galindez, FRSMar./Apr. 1968; "More About UFOs and the
with rods or antennae jutting out from it. "I wouldn't like to say Sea" by Antonio Ribera, FSR, Nov./Dec. 1965; "UFOs and the Scottish Seas" by W. S.
Robertson, FSR, May/June 1965; "UFOs and the Sea" by Antonio Ribera, FSR, Nov./Dec.
that the thing is man-made," Dr. Thomas Hopkins, one of the dis- 1964; "Argentina 1962" by Gordon Creighton, FSR, July/Aug. 1964.
 2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

1. It was perfectly streamlined and symmetrical in shape. episodes in which mystery submarines have indulged in such dar-
2. It had no external control surfaces or protrusions.
3. It appeared metallic and diere was a suggestion of a hatch on top,
ing maneuvers and have been hunted by the whole navies of
streamlined in shape, not quite halfway along die body as mea- South American countries. In several of these cases, those navies
sured from the nose. were convinced that they had trapped the sub in some cove or har-
4. It was resting on die bottom of die estuary and headed towards die bor only to have it melt away as mysteriously as it had appeared.
south as suggested by the streamlined shape.
Early in September 1969, according to Reuters, the Swedish
5. The shape was not diat of a normal submarine.
6. Its lengdi was an estimated one hundred feet, widi a diameter of navy was called out to hunt "a mystery submarine sighted in a
fifteen feet at die widest part. prohibited area of Stockholm's archipelago." Destroyers and
7. The object rested in no more than thirty feet of water and the craft coast guard vessels sealed off the area, convinced diey had some-
was very clearly defined. thing completely tiapped. Whatever it was, it got away.
Scandinavian waters became the favorite haunt of the phantom
Naval authorities said the object could not have been a conven- submarines throughout the 1970s and '80s. In November 1972 the
tional submarine because the estuary was inaccessible. Norwegian govemment faced a serious crisis when the Norwegian
Writing in Spaceview magazine (February/March 1966), Mr. navy comered an unidentified sub far inland in the SogneQord and
H. J. Hinfelaar outlined several other sightings of these enigmatic tried to force it to the surface in a "battle" that lasted several days.
non-submarines in New Zealand waters. Two fishermen, R. D. Unidentified helicopters cmised around the area and then all the
Manning and W. J. Johnson, said they had seen one of these things electrical equipment aboard the Norwegian fleet malfunctioned
a few hundred yards off Bugged Islands in the southem part of mysteriously and the sub escaped from the fjord. The incident
New Zealand at 11:30 A.M. on November 13, 1965. It rose up out supplied the European press with headlines for two weeks and the
of the water about three hundred yards away from their boat Norwegian govemment was almost forced to resign.
Eleoneai, and "its tapered stmcture" lifted aboutfifteen feet above In the years that followed, the subs retumed to the fjords of
the water. No periscope, railing, or other conventional configura- Sweden and Norway year after year, usually making their first
tion was visible. After a few seconds the water started to chum appearances in the month of June and, not surprisingly, often
and the thing disappeared. The witnesses dutifuUy reported this picking June 24 to surface somewhere and drive the navies of both
event to the naval authorities. The Deputy Chief of Naval Staff countries berserk. Littie Finland also had its share of underwater
later said that "it was most unlikely that the objectwhatever it interlopers. At the same time, unmarked black hehcopters were
might have beenwas a submarine, because it would have been frequently sighted in the hostile Arctic Circle where weather con-
operating in an area where tiiere are rocks, a definite submarine ditions made it difficult for ordinary anplanes to operate.
hazard. Besides, there was no logical reason for any submarine tg
Older Swedes were familiar with phantom ships and aircraft
be in that area."
because something or someone started invading northem Scandi-
Soviet and United States submarines carefully obey intema- navia back in 1930. Both auplanes and boats appeared with great
tional law. They are not likely to invade tiie sovereign waters of regularity above the thinly populated Arctic Circle area from 1930
neutral countries, and they certainly would not sneak into busy to 1936. Sometimes theyflew in perfect formations during snow-
harbors, attract attention, and become the subjects of massive sub- storms and they performed feats that were impossible for the
marine hunts. Yet, over the past few years, tiiere have been several known airplanes of that day. The Swedish and Norwegian news-
 2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

papers speculated they were hquor smugglers (the sale of booze is sending U-2 spy planes to Russia from that remote point. The
tightly controlled in both countries) while the sage old New York affected areas were sparsely inhabited and it didn't make sense
Times decided they were piloted by Japanese! Similar craft were that any submarine from any country would bother to cmise up
being seen in the northem reaches of the Soviet Union, triggering the ^ords.
such paranoia that a large part of the Soviet air force was moved Swedish officials were openly blaming the Soviet Union for
to the Kola Peninsula in 1936, in a futile effort to deal with the these intmsions in the late 1970s. Tension mounted between the
unwelcome visitors.^
two countries even though the Soviets repeatedly denied any
Things were relatively quiet during World War II, but months responsibility. On October 27,1981, the fan was hit when a Soviet
after Germany surrendered Scandinavia was revisited by "ghost submarine ran aground at Torumskar, near an important naval
rockets." Throughout 1946 thousands of people reported seeing base in southem Sweden!
cylindrical objects darting about the skies. It was suspected that The Swedes were apoplectic and the Russians were wretchedly
the Russians had captured some German rocket scientists and apologetic. The Soviet commander claimed that all of his elec-
were firing test rockets at neutral Sweden. tronic gear was at fault. Europeans heaved a sigh of rehef The
Meanwhile, submarines were popping up all over the world mystery of the phantom subs was solved at last, or so they
where no known subs were supposed to be. Newspapers theorized thought.^
that renegade Nazi submarines were responsible, even though Forteans were hardly surprised, though, when the subs contin-
submarines require a lot of logistical support for fuel, food, etc. ued to appear in the ^ords. The Soviets pointedly released a long
Sailors just home from the war were also telling strange tales list of over ninety incidents in their own waters as proof of their
about seeing submarine-like objects in the Pacific. Some of these innocence. It became common knowledge that the CIA (those
reportedly bubbled up out of the ocean and took off into the sky guys again) had three nuclear-powered subs of their own, staffed
like airplanes. Since they never attacked our ships, sea captains by specially trained personnel, which would occasionally sneak
assumed the objects were top secret "flying submarines" that we into Russian rivers to pick up important political defectors.
must have developed and they wamed their crews to keep mum Most readers are aware that submarines are designed to make
about what they had seen. as little noise as possible because sound travels a great distance
By 1976 so many phantom subs had been sighted in the frigid underwater and can be easily picked up on sonar and otiier mod-
fjords that we made a special trip to the arctic to investigate the em devices. We have spent milhons to develop propellers that
situation firsthand. We didn't catch any subs but we did have some make almost no sound as they lash through the water. You may
chilling experiences. A large group of civihan submarine chasers also know that we now have special torpedoes which are equipped
had spmng up and they were hving in a dark world of imagined to track and destroy subs just as om- "smart" rockets can pursue
espionage straight out of the pages of James Bond. To comphcate and blow up an airplane.
matters, the CIA was operating an air base in northem Norway, Nevertheless, there seems to be something down there that

^See Operation Trojan Horse by John A. Keel, Chapter 7, for more complete details of this
strange wave. ^See Soviet Submarine Operations in Swedish Waters by Milton Leitenberg, 1987, pub-
lished by The Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C.
 20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

must make a terrible racket. A submarine with tractor treads like unfathomable motives is now being blamed. From all the data that
those on a tank, apparently so it can be driven along the sea bot- has been collected over the years we know that there are at least
tom, clanking and clattering as it goes. Tracks from one of these twenty-two submarines involved, along with underwater vehicles
mysterious things was found on the bottom of Sweden's HarsQord equipped with caterpillar tracks, and anywhere from seven hun-
in 1982. (Incidentally, some of these Qords are as deep as six hun- dred to one thousand men to operate all this in the barren, bitter
dred feet.) One military officer was quoted as saying theflord bot- cold, rather unimportant regions north of the Arctic Circle. What
tom looked like "a barnyard that had been crisscrossed by are they up to? Are they another curse going forth over the whole
tractors." earth?
On the other side of the world, in August 1983, the Japanese There are now tiiousands of reports of unidentified flying
discovered diat the bed of the Tsugaru Strait was covered with objects plunging out of the sky to dive into lakes, rivers, and
similar tracks. oceans. Many of these incidents set off massive searches for
The Soviets continued to be blamed for these things no matter crashed airplanes but, without exception, no trace of the sub-
where they happened. Russian officials continued to deny every- merged object was ever found. In a typical case, the witnesses
thing. Sub sightings actually escalated throughout the 1980s. The would see a large, briltiantiy illuminated object suddenly hurtle
navies of Sweden and Norway threw everything they had into the into the wateroften without even a splash. In innumerable
search, filhng the fjords with depth charges and firing those instances large crowds of people have observed this phenomenon.
"smart" torpedoes at the shghtest provocation. But the subs Even stranger, the phenomenon has a habit of repeating itself at
always got away. the very same spot. Meteors and other natural objects would not
FoUowing the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the and could not be so selective.
Swedish Commander in Chief, Bengt Gustafsson, held a press Monster-plagued Nova Scotia has produced a long line of these
conference and announced that the USO mystery was over. The sightings over the years. The numerous sightings of peculiar aer-
Soviet navy was practically dismantled and in dry dock. Russian ial lights around Nova Scotia in September 1967, seemed to reach
authorities had opened all theirfiles and there was no record of any a climax on Wednesday, October 4, when witnesses around Shag
submarine funny business. The case was closed . . . supposedly. Harbor saw a group of flashing hghts descend and hit the water. A
So, naturally, 1992 became the biggest year ever for USO crowd gathered along the beach to watch one of the lights bob in
sightings. Periscopes and conning towers popped up everywhere. the black waters. Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted
One sub boldly surfaced in the middle of the Swedishfleet out on Potice arrived on the scene and saw the tight themselves.
maneuvers! A "smart" torpedo (each one costs three milhon kro- "After it hit the water we were catied to the scene," Constable
nor) was fired at a sub near the Havringe lighthouse. It not only Ron O'Brien told a reporter from the Halifax Mail-Star. "1 saw a
failed to explode, it disappeared! They are probably stiti searching hghtfloating on the water about half a mile offshore."
for it. Depth charges were dropped in several places, aU without Boats were sent out, supposedly to do some rescuing, but all
effect. they found was a patch of bubbling water and foam about eighty
Since the Soviets are no longer likely suspects, the mihtary the- feet wide. Captain Bradford Shand said it was yellowish in color
orists are lapsing into the never-never land of UFOlogy. A covert and he had never before seen anything like it. Other witnesses
intelhgence organization with unhmited funds, secret bases, and came forth, telling corroborating stories of seeing a dark sixty-
 2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE U I E TO M Y S T E R I O S BEINGS 2

foot-long object bearing a series of lights strike the surface of the tures than with unusual objects. You will find many other refer-
water,float for a few minutes, and then sink out of sight. ences to interesting water cases in the vast mass of UFO hterature
Divers were brought into the area and a thorough search was now available. There are many solid reports describing how huge
held. Nothing was found. objects, particularly cigar-shaped objects, were seen to rise up out
Fort, Farish, and many other researchers have uncovered of the water where they had been apparently submerged, circle a
reports of water-entering UFOs going back to the nineteenth cen- ship filled with amazed witnesses, and then fly off into the stars.
tury and even earlier. But, like most of the other aspects of the There was an interesting wave of such events in the 1930s, seem-
UFO phenomenon, this data has never been properly collected, ingly concentrated in the northem latitudes.
catalogued, indexed, and placed in proper perspective. Cultists All of this indicates that solid metallic objects of unknown ori-
of rehgious orientation use flie Bible and tum to Revelation gin and purpose are openly operating in all of our oceans, perhaps
(8:10-11) for thek explanation: even hiding out there. In recent years the United States has instm-
mented several elaborate and expensive oceanographic expedi-
. . . and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it tions, some of them sending astronauts, off on missions to the
were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of therivers,and bottom of the oceans! These projects will certainly expand our
upon the fountains of waters; knowledge of the earth's bodies of water and might even eventu-
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third ally provide us with some unexpected answers to these other mys-
part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died teries.
of the waters, because they were made bitter.

On May 23, 1969, according to pohce on Nun's Island three

eyewitnesses saw "a round shining object withflashing red hghts"
plunge from the sky and disappear into the waters of the St.
Lawrence River. A superficial search was held and, as usual, noth-
ing was found at the site.
Down in South America, many rumors were flying around
Cusco, Pern, always a busy UFO "window." Vague reports stated
that over thirty UFOs had been seen plunging into a lake near
Cusco. It may be coincidental that famed oceanographer Jacques '
Cousteau arrived in the area in 1969, complete with his tiny sub-
marine. He spent several weeks diving in the mountain lake to
take a look at the local fish, but his presence excited a new wave
of UFO mmors. Some enthusiasts claimed that the govemment
had hired Cousteau to look for sunken saucers. Apparently he did
notfind any.
This book is necessarily more concemed with unusual crea-
 THE COMPLETE U I E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 5

whale. Soon afterwards, people from Litde Neck Bay, Queens,

reported seeing the thing. Harbor Pohce dashed off on a futile sea
serpent chase, according to the Bronx Journal News.
TWENTY-ONE
Ever since man leamed to sail he has been seeing sea monsters
and ocean-going Unbelievables. The earliest maps were covered
with drawings of grotesque reptiles and notations asserting, "Here
there be monsters." Whole crews of ships have seen the creatures,
Scoliophis Atlanticus and marine joumals going back two hundred years arefilled with
carefully recorded reports giving full descriptions of the beasts,
the exact latitudes and longitudes they were sighted, and other
pertinent details. Five or ten new sea serpent sightings tum up in
the daily press every year.
Still, science treats sea serpents as humorous myths. And when
the carcass of one washes up on a beach, and many have, the Type
B scientists soberly offer explanations that border on insanity.
UFOs are "meteors," Abominable Snowmen are fugitives from a
zoo, and sea serpents are elephants according to our leamed men
of science.
Dr. Bemard Heuvelmans, one of the few scientists to make a
large group of students from Hong Kong University
serious study of sea serpents, has speculated that there may actu-
were on a beach late one night in March 1969, when
idiey heard a "crying noise." Benjamin Chae said, "I ally exist at least seven different types of unclassified sea mon-
looked out to the sea and about twenty yards from us, a big black sters. With his usual wry British style, Ivan T. Sanderson has
creature was rising from die water. I yeUed out Kai Kwai [sea labeled one group of beached behemoths Globsters. They are,
devil] and all die odiers saw it too." indeed, grotesque globs of something.
Whatever it was, it was black, twenty to thirty feet long, and Some of the earlier sea serpent sightings could very well have
had big green eyes. It wailed something like a baby crying and disappointing explanations. Giant squid could supply the answer
sank again into die water after about diirty seconds. "It was fan- to a few cases. These enormous, multitentacled creatures have
tastic," Lulu Chow said. "It had a big head. It wasn't afish, diat's been known to attack small boats from time to time. In the 1920s
all I can say . . . " some film makers operating in a diving bell off the coast of
Bermuda were attacked by one of these things. It was so big that it
That same month fishermen on City Island Bridge in the
actually picked up the heavy diving bell and shook it until the
Bronx, New York, many thousands of miles from Hong Kong,
cameramen inside were knocked unconscious.
were gaping in disbehef at a huge, slimy, black-and-grey creature
swimming unconcernedly upriver, past one of the largest cities in Science regarded the giant squid as a legend of the sea until
die world. The witnesses said diat it was much bigger than a around 1880. But drawings of the creature can be found on
ancient Greek ums and in old Japanese woodcuts. The squid has a
 2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

huge, cigar-shaped body with eyes as big as saucers, a beak like a weed, and I don't know what else besides. But if an island can
parrot, and ten tentacles lined with suction cups, two of the arms travel at the rate of fourteen knots, or if a string of porpoises can
being somewhat longer than the others. It would be very unpleas- standfifteen feet out of the water, then . . . I give in."
ant to meet one while taking a moonhght dip. Those tentacles can The squid can travel very fast underwater, using a kind of jet
grow as long asfifty feet, and if a submerged squid chose to flut- propulsion, spewing out streams of water. But when it is moving,
ter one or two aboveflie surface you might think you were seeing its body goes first and its long tentacles follow. They would not
a serpent of some kind. stick out of the water and resemble a serpent's head.
One of these squid apparently attacked a ship captained by It is also believed that the serpents sighted are really the oarfish
Jean Mangus Dens back in the 1730s. In his report Captain Dens or eels. The oarfish is a long, serpentine thing and is rarely caught.
said fliat a "monster so horrible as to defy description" grabbed It swims like a fish, however, and in no way duphcates the often
tiiree of his men in its frightening tentacles. The crew fought it off observed undulating motions of sea serpents. Eels, on the other
with harpoons, and itfinally released its victims and dropped back hand, come in a wide variety of sizes and some of them are minor
into the sea. Incomprehensibles. At least one type could be the source of a few
Sea serpents became a vogue in the nineteenth century, and sea serpent stories.
many spurious reports are widely pubhshed. Others were seem- Something estimated to measure between 60 and 140 feet long
ingly very legitimate. One of the classics is the sighting made by put in an appearance off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts,
the crew of the H.M.S. Daedalus, a nineteen-gun corvette com- in the summer of 1817. Mr. Amos Story said he saw it at noon on
manded by Captain Peter M'Quhae. While in the South Atlantic Sunday, August 10, 1817, and watched it swim about for an hour.
something sixty feet or longer appeared three hundred feet from It had a "turtle-hke head" and was as big around as a man. He
the ship, rapidly swimming in the other direction. Its head, which estimated that it sometimes moved as fast as thirty miles an hour.
resembled that of a snake, jutted about four feet out of the water. Other people around Gloucester allegedly saw the thing during
On December 4, 1893, the steamer Umfuli encountered and the next two weeks. Finally, according to Bert Groth's account in
chased a sea serpent. It was a calm, sunny day and the Umfuli was Fate (May 1969), a baby sea serpent was found, killed, and exhib-
saihng about thirty miles off the coast of West Africa when the ited in the Essex Coffee House in Gloucester. It was three feet
thing surfaced suddenly four hundred yards to the starboard. long, brown, and had thirty-two humps on its back. It was named
Three massive humps were visible in the water and the creature's scoliophis atlanticus, "theflexible snake of the Atlantic."
head and neck were aboutfifteen feet aboveflie surface. Captain If the scoliophis atlanticus had been discovered in a later, more
Cringle ordered his helmsman to tum and try to follow the crea- sophisticated period the whole sea serpent controversy might have
ttire. He chased it for twenty minutes at a speed of fourteen knots been resolved once and for all. But in 1817, science was not even
and the filing outran him! Cringle filed a detailed report and the ready to accept the existence of the giant squid, and there were no
press had afield day with it. Years later, in 1929, Captain Cringle scientists to scurry to Gloucester and examine the three-foot,
told Captain Ruppert Gould, a pioneer monster hunter, "I've been multi-humped baby sea serpent.
so ridiculed about the filing that I've many times wished that In 1930 the nets about the research ship Dana reeled in another
someone else had seenfliat sea monster rather than me. I've been Incomprehensible. The Dana was only a few miles from the spot
told that it was a string of porpoises, that it was an island of sea- in the South Atlantic where the Daedalus had sighted a sea mon-
 2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

ster nearly a century before. Dr. Anton Bruun was somewhat almost made of fluid glass. It wasfrom forty tofifty feet long and
amazed by die six-foot-long tiling in his net. He dissected and five to seven inches in diameter."
studied it carefully and his amazement grew. The thing was a This same thing was seen a short time later off the coast of
larva! If it was six feet long in the larva stage, tiien it was capable Asbury Park, New Jersey. If it was a larva, we had rather not meet
of growing up to 100 or even 180 feet long! From his study of the it after it grows up.
creature's structure, Bruun concluded tiiat it was some kind of
giant eel. Hairy things with unbetievably tough hides, several times larger
The conger eel can grow up to ten feet long, and the record than tiie largest known whale, with tusks sometimes as long as
moray eel was sixteen feet long. But tiiek larva are only three or twenty feet, wash up on beaches. Crowds gather to mutter in con-
four inches in length. A larva six feet long could grow to thkty fusion. And then Type B scientists resolve the mystery by caUing
times tiiat length. Dr. Bruun was convinced tiiat he had solved the them whales anyway. Another explanation in vogue is to say that
sea serpent mystery, but his larva was anomalous. Later expedi- they are the remains of elephants or even ancient mammoths
tions to the same spot failed to find dupticates. In his book n e which have recently beenfreed from floating icebergs.
Mystery Monsters Gardner Soule quotes Bruun as saying: "If the The "iceberg" hypothesis is not merely unscientific, it is
monstrous larva exist, the monstrous adults must exist, tooas moronic. So far as is known, no animalmodem or prehistoric
terrifying as any sea serpent ever painted. I shall search for tiiem has ever been found encased in afloating iceberg. If it were even
again, and some day tiiey will be found . . . I am a man who rather remotely possible for an ancient beast to emerge from a melting
believes in sea serpents." iceberg, it would certainly drift ashore in the northem climes. But
On June 11, 1930, Dr. Wiltiam Beebe was 550 feet down in tiie our hauy beasts have a habit of turning up on beaches in Florida
Atiantic in his famous bathysphere when he also saw some kind and Mexico many thousands of nules south of the iceberg belt.
of giant larva. "A big leptocephalus undulated past," he wrote Perhaps this pseudoscientific myth springs from the fact that
later. "A pale ribbon of transparent gelatin with only the two iri- some prehistoric saber-toothed tigers and mammoths were found
descent eyes to indicate its arrival. As it moved, I could see the frozen in muck in northem Siberia around the tum of the century.
outiine faintiyten inches long at leastand as it passed close, Muck is frozen soti completely unrelated to icebergs. Apparently
even the parted jaws were visible. This was the larva of some those animals were caught in landshdes or some other catasttophe
great sea eel." and their bodies were quick-frozen. One theory is that the earth
In July 1963 a transparent submersible had the gall to appear shifted suddenly on its axis long ago, with tropical areas suddenly
directiy off the East Coast of the United States, just south of New ending up in the northem latitudes.
York City. It had the further affrontery to swim past die research We have located only one story about a frozen monster in more
ship Challenger loaded down witii scientists. One of them. Dr. recent times. In 1930 a skeleton and a pile of flesh were atiegedly
Lionel A. Walford of tiie Sandy Hook Marine Laboratories, discovered on Glacier Island, Alaska. The creature was twenty-
described it this way: "It resembled a transparent sea monster. It four feet long and covered with hak or fur. Its head was fifty-nine
looked hke so much jelly. I could see no bones and no eyes, nose, inches long, and it had a thkty-nine-inch snout. No long-snouted,
or mouth. But there it was, undulating along, looking as if it were twenty-four-foot furry Incomprehensible is known to paleontol-
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

ogy, not that this means very much. There are several types of appearance resembling that of a horse of chestnut color, well-
bedbugs that have never been classified and catalogued either. groomed and shining. It had four distinct legs. It traveled by
In September 1808, something with six arms, and paws or boundingi.e., by arching its back and gathering up its body, so
wings washed up on a beach in the Orkney Islands. One Dr. Bar- that the footprints of the forefeet were level with those of the hind
clay observed it and announced that it was "without the least feet. These showed circular impressions with a diameter of nine
resemblance or affinity to fish." When it tumed rancid it was inches, and the marks of claws about seven inches long, extending
hauled out to sea again. outward from the body. There was no evidence for or against web-
Twelve miles south of St. Augustine, Rorida, a massive pink bing."
thingfloated ashore on December 1, 1896. Professor A. E. Verrill Perhaps if this same animal were swimming and using the
looked it over. It was twenty-one feet long, seven feet wide and same "bounding" movements it would resemble the classic sea
four and a half feet high, he reported, and weighed an estimated serpent. Maybe Davies and Harris saw a sea serpent on shore
seven tons. It did not appear to be the remains of an octopus or a leave.
whale. "The hide is of a hght pink color, nearly white," said the Anomalous sea creatures are constany being caught, reported
New York Herald (December 2, 1896), "and in the sunshine has a upon briefly, and then completely forgotten. A Mexican shrimp
distinct silvery appearance. It is very tough and cannot be pene- boat Xchitl Elena came upon a floundering thing in the Gulf of
trated with a sharp knife." Mexico in May 1954. Long heavy harpoons bounded off of its
In a book called Battles with Giant Fish F. A. Mitchell-Hedges tough hide, but finally the crew managed to spear it and haul it
described a huge something that washed up on a beach on Cape aboard. It was four feet long, six feet wide, had long sharp teeth
May, New Jersey, in November 1921. It was supposed to have and stubby fins, tipping the scales at 550 pounds. It remains
weighed an estimatedfifteen tons and was as large asfive fully unidentified.
grown elephants. The late Charles Fort took an interest in this one One Joseph Korhummel was walking along the shore near
and tried to collect more information. He did manage to locate Redwood, Cahfomia, in July 1955, when he saw something
some photographs of the thing. It had two six-foot-long tusks. splashing about just offshore. He chmbed onto some rocks for a
On October 24, 1924, another Incomprehensible floated onto a better look and saw what he described as a snakelike creature six-
beach in Natal, Africa. It was forty-seven feet long and was cov- teen to eighteen feet long. It was brownish-green, had a fin just
ered with white hair, like a polar bear's. behind its head, and was at least a foot in diameter.
Tasmania has given us a number of interesting animal oddities, A few months later, in December 1955, an eight-hundred-
as we have already noted. On April 20, 1913, two miners named pound, snake-like thing washed ashore at Venice, Califomia. It
Davis and Harris reported seeing a very strange creature near was sixteen feet long and fourteen inches in diameter, and came
Macquarie Harbor. It may have been some kind of sea-going complete withfins and a snakish head.
amphibian. Over in Girvan, Scotland, a hairy, thirty-foot long Incompre-
"The animal was aboutfifteen feet long," they said. "It had a hensible washed up in September 1953. This one had a ten-foot
very small head, only the size of the head of a kangaroo dog. It giraffe-like neck, four short legs, a pointed tail twelve feet long,
had a thick, arched neck, passing gradually into the barrel of the and a coat of heavy dark brown hair. The official scientific opin-
body. It had no definite tail and no fins. It was furred, the coat in ion, sight unseen, was that it was a shark! When it started to pol-
2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE UIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

lute the good Scottish air the local citizens poured oil on it and what the thing was, where it came from, or, strangely, where it
cremated it. finally went.
Bordeaux, France, became the unwilling host to another smelly Each year brings more Globsters and carcasses to isolated
carcass in January of 1960: It was thirteen feet long, ten feet wide, beaches all over the world. On Febmary 10, 1968, a fisherman
with aflat head about three feet in diameter. It had huge six-foot named Vincenzo Croce was walking along a beach near Campo-
flippers and was covered with thick black hair about four inches bello, Sicily, when he noticed some bones sticking out of the
long. No one ever found out what it was. It was stinking up Cape sand. They proved to be the remains of a giant hzard which had
Ferrat Beach so it was hauled out to sea unceremoniously and measured between twenty-three and tiiirty feet long. Some pieces
dumped. of flesh still clung to the bones and the spinal column was intact,
In the summer of 1960 a storm regurgitated an immense hair- indicating that the creature had been alive only a short time
covered Globster onto an obscure beach in Tasmania. Three men, before. The head was flat and "duck-shaped." Thousands of
Ben Fenton, Jack Boote, and Ray Anthony, were rounding up cat- tourists descended on Campobello to take a look at this thing
tle in the area that August when they stumbled across it. They said before it was finally carted off to a museum. Assorted scientists
it was circular and was covered with short, soft fur. They left it soberly informed the world that it was not a whale, tuna, dolphin,
there. or shark. But no one could say what it was. It really could not
Nearly two years passed before rumors of this find reached have been a thirty-foot hzard, you see, because there was no such
Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, and a naturalist named G. C. animal.
Cramp took an interest. In March 1962 he chartered a plane, There is now.
located the beach, and found the decaying remains half buried in In July 1968 the Associated Press revealed that Japanese fisher-
the sand. In the weeks that followed, various teams of scientists men had hauled up another Incomprehensible in the Pacific. It
visited the spot and inspected the creatureif it was a creature. was six feet long, weighed two hundred pounds, had two side fins
The mass was eight feet long, three feet wide and ten inches "sharp as hatchets," and there were nine "thoms" scattered on its
thick. It contained no bones, spine, or other hard substance, but head and back. Oh, yes, it was also covered with polka dots.
was made of tough, fibrous material. The scientists were puzzled Finally, here is a widely printed news story from Tecolutla,
and tossed around all the classic theories: it was whale blubber; it Mexico, March 6, 1969:
was the remains of a squid; it was an unidentifiable; it was the
carcass of a prehistoric animal recently freed from an Arctic ice- Villagers have found a thirty-five-ton sea creature which has
berg. The press in Tasmania and Australia headlined the story washed up on the beach here. The carcass of the creature
belatedly in 1962, and the govemment lowered a rather pecuhar was described as about thirty feet long and eighteen feet
curtain of secrecy over the whole affair. All kinds of idiotic expla- wide, with a "serpent-like body," covered with hard armor,
nations were mouthed by Type B scientists and politicians. Ivan jointed so it would swim. It was also reported to have a ten-
Sanderson collected all the clippings and corresponded with some foot tusk. The creature washed up on Febmary 28 and
of the men involved. Thefirst ten pages of his book Things (1967) marine biologists are studying it in an effort to determine if
are devoted to the case. The only possible conclusion is that no it belonged to the age of dinosaurs. Mexican authorities on
one was able to reach any rational conclusion. We do not know prehistoric sea life say that the sea monster could be fifty
 JOHN A. KEEL

thousand years old. Dr. Bernardo Villa of the National Uni-

versity of Mexico said the creature may have been trapped
and preserved in an Arctic iceberg and discovered when the
icebergfinally melted. Superstitiousfishermen recovered a TWENTY-TWO
fin, two tusks, and large portions of hide before scientists
arrived but authorities have recovered most of the pieces cut
from the animal and tumed them over to scientists. The fish-
ermen who sighted the animal insist the animal was alive
when theyfirst saw it and only died later. Scientists say the The Great
body has not become too decomposed because it still is in
salt water. Sea Serpent of
This story certainly has the ring of authenticity. The creature
Silver Lake, New York
weighed thirty-five tons (how did they ever weigh it?), it was
50,000 years old but still ahve when first seen, and it came out of
a melted iceberg thousands of miles north of Mexico. Members of
the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU)
zeroed in on this case and quickly smelled whale blubber. The
creature was, in fact, a rotting sperm whale and the "tusks" were
the lower jaw of the mammal. Apparently a wire service oys, that thing is moving!"
"stringer" had collected together some rumors and knit them into Those excited words launched one of the most cele-
a story that wasflashed around the world. brated sea serpent events of 1855, although it has now
Despite hoaxes and misinterpretations of this sort, the evidence been long forgotten. At 9:00 P.M. on the evening of Friday, July 13,
for the existence of all kinds of unknown sea creatures is impres- 1855, four men and two boys were in a boatfishing on Silver Lake
sive. There are scores of fascinating books devoted exclusively to in the northwestern part of New York State. It was shortly after
sea serpent sightings covering the past several hundred years. dusk and the stars brightly illuminated the waters. Suddenly, off
Leading scientists and oceanographers have seen these things. We the stem of the boat, a long object appeared. Atfirst it looked hke
know that giant squid and eels of unbelievable size lurk in the a log eighty or one hundred feet long and the group did not pay too
ocean depths. We do not know what else is down there. Occasion- much attention to it until it disappeared abmptly and reappeared
ally these monstrous sea creatures do wriggle to the surface, and moments later in another position.
from time to time they drift ashore and rot on beaches from Sicily "Its headit could no longer be called a logwas now within
to Tasmania, or visit deep water lakes all over the world. three rods of the boat," The Wyoming County Times reported on
July 18, 1855, "and, as it approached, the waves parted on either
side as if a boat were leisurely approaching."
The fishermen were somewhat dismayed and Alonzo Scribner
 2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

wasted no time in trying to cut die anchor rope. But he dropped his
John John. The Indian soberly stated that tribes encamped on the
knife into die water and had to haul the anchor up by hand while
shores of the lake had been frightened a number of timesby a ser-
his comrades put dieir backs to dieu- oars. The thing bobbed
pent or monster. As a result the Indians avoided the place and
beneadi the waves again, and again reappeared behind diek stem.
would not fish or bathe there. The monster was "as big as a flour
"All in the boat had a fair view of the creature," the Times story
barrel," John John said.
continued, "and concur in representing it as a most horrid and
A Vigilance Society was quickly formed in the nearby town of
repulsive looking monster... On die opposite side of the boat,
Perry, New York, a mile or so from tiielake, and armed men began
about a rod and a half to die northeast, die odier extremity of die
to prowl the shores day and night, hoping to bag die biggest game
serpent was in full view, lashing the water with its tail. When the
of ati. The serpent wisely laid low for a few days and tiien, unlike
forward part descended upon the water it created waves that nearly
lightning, chose to strike in the same place twice, again frighten-
capsized the boat and suspended regular operations at die oars.
ing one of the original witnesses, Mr. Charles Hall and his family.
"The party reached shore in safety, but frightened most out of They were out on the lake on Friday, July 27, when the thing
their senses."
popped up near their boat. According to the swom affadavit later
The very next night anodier group of young men were out on signed by the witnesses, they "all sat quietiy in the boat and
the lake when they heard a noise "like a tow hne being raised looked at it. It appeared to be of a dark color at first, but as it
from die water." They looked around and saw "the form of a bow moved off going into the water, it was of a tighter color, of a cop-
upon the water, its center projecting a trifle above die water hne,
per color . . . Its head and forward part was above water at least a
but both ends concealed from view." This thing was ten to twelve
yard, and upon its back it appeared to have afin as wide as father's
feet long and at least a foot in diameter (the earher witnesses had
hand . . . Its head was as much asfifteen or sixteen inches around
described it as being as big around as a flour barrel). The young
and its back was much larger . . . it [the head] was as large as a
men vowed on the spot never to venture out onto die lake again
calf's head . . . "
after dark.
By the end of July Silver Lake was mobbed. "The well-
Wordfliat a mighty sea serpent had taken up residence in placid
authenticated statements of HaU, McKnight, John John, and oth-
Silver Lake spread throughout the area and hordes of eager mon-
ers have attracted to this village many of the citizens of the
ster hunters descended upon it. Silver Lake is located about fifty
adjoining towns and villages, and quite a number of visitors from
miles south of Buffalo, New York, and is about four miles long
cities have taken quarters with their friends or are located at
and three-quarters of a mile wide. In 1855 the area was mstic and
Walker's weU-kept hotel," the Times remarked on August 1, 1855.
largely undeveloped. A few water miUs operated along die shores
Whalers came with harpoons. The mania mounted. The Times
and the lake was a popular fishing spot for local sportsmen.
even promised to pubtish a daily edition to keep up with the flow
Mohawk and Seneca Indians had originally roamed the region but
of reports. Business boomed in Perry.
die white man began to push them out around 1800.
The sea serpent displayed intelligence by tuming up during
It was inevitablefliat foUowers of the "monster mania" should
times when the weather was bad and no boats were out, or appear-
tum to the Indians for an explanation. The Wyoming County Times
ing briefly in isolated spots before very small groups of startled
reported on July 25, 1855, diat "a reverend gendeman weU known
witnesses.
infliis community" had interviewed afifty-year-old Indian named
On Wednesday, August 1, 1855, the monster was seen at high
 2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

noon by at least half a dozen different persons from different aboutfifteen rods from where I was standing, a monster of a ser-
points of view. There were no boats out. The parties who saw it pent rose out of the water, exhibiting at least eight feet of the for-
did not know each other. The Times regarded the sightings as con- ward portion of its body above the water. In a few seconds he
clusive proof and stated that "the existence of a monster fish or disappeared; in about three minutes afterward he again came to
serpent species in the quiet waters of Silver Lake was estabhshed the surface, about the same length being exposed as before. He
beyond reasonable doubt, if indeed there has been room for doubt remained on the surface of the water at least three minutes, mak-
in the past week." ing revolutions similar to those of a snake. His body was as large
Newspapers throughout westem New York were now hawking as a large barrel; his head about a foot in diameter at the largest
this wonder. The pubhshed accounts carefiilly noted that a monster point. He spouted water from his mouth at least four feet high and
had been "repeatedly seen during the past thirty years in Silver it would fall back upon him like the play of water from a fountain.
Lake." Newspapermenflocked to Perry to join tiie harpoon-carrying His length I should think was at least one hundred feet."
whalers and the teams of earnest men who were busily constmcting A tower was erected at the north end of the lake and sentries
decoys in the shape of ducks and chickens to lure the creature into were posted around the clock to watch for the enigmatic reptile.
captivity. One man, Mr. Joshua Jenks, was out on the lake, armed to the
A few years previous Perry, New York, had been named teeth, when the monster surfaced aboutfifteen feet from his boat.
Mudville. It was renamed to honor Commodore Peny, "the hero He was so taken aback that the frantic shot hefired missed com-
of Lake Erie." The streets of the little town were crawling with pletely. In September a group of local businessmen organized a
tourists, journalists, and monster hunters that August. The only company to catch the creature and raised one thousand dollars
hotel in town. Walker House, was packed to capacity. In the 1840s capital (a lot of money in 1855). They called themselves The
Mr. A. B. Walker had managed a stagecoach route between Perry Experiment Company. It seems that the monster was somehow
and Batavia, New York. But the development of railroads wrecked aware of all these preparations and his appearances became fewer.
the stagecoach business. For a time Walker managed the National While the searchers were clustered at one end of tiielake, the ser-
Hotel in Perry, then he purchased the property for Walker House pent would suddenly bob up a mile away. When bad weather
and estabhshed what was apparently afine hostelery. A surviving lashed the lake and rendered small boats useless, the playful mon-
photo of Mr. Walker shows a white-bearded man with twinkling ster would rise up in the center as if to mock the teeming throngs
eyes. The history of tiieperiod suggests that Mr. Walker had suf- on the shores. The perimeter of the lake must have looked like an
fered various business setbacks in his younger days, but the mon- army fortification, bristling with campers armed with bows and
ster mania of 1855 promised to make his fortune.' arrows, shotguns,rifles, and harpoons. One story even implies that
On Wednesday, August 15,1855, Edwin Fanning was strolhng a cannon was either implaced, or was going to be implaced, near
along Chapin's Landing at Silver Lake when the sea serpent sur- one of the inlets where the creature had been seen most frequently.
faced again. Fanning signed the usual swom affadavit, giving this Sightings tapered off in 1856 but the crowds still came.
studied description:"... in the range of the mouth of the inlet and Then, in 1857, the Walker House was destroyed by fire. The
volunteer firemen fighting the blaze were dumbstruck to find a
huge, suspicious object in the attic of the hotel. It proved to be a
'Frank D. Roberts, History of the Town of Perry, New York (1915). giant mbber sea serpent. Those were rough-and-ready days, you
 0 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

must remember, and shootings, lynchings, and tar-and-feathering other to the marsh at the north end; the serpent to be pro-
were common practices. Mr. Walker did not even hnger long
pelled in any direction by the aid of these ropes.
enough to collect hisfire insurance. He departed immediately for
Many nights were spent by diese friends in its construc-
Canada.
tion. It is said that the serpent was made in the old Chapn
tannery, which it wiU be remembered, was situated in the
Frank Roberts of the Perry Record (now defunct) pieced the story oudet ravine. At last it was completed and taken at night to
together this way:
the lake and sunk in about twenty feet of water. One of the
men went across to the shanty to operate the bellows, the
Business had been very quiet in die hotel hne in Perry for others remaining near the spot where the serpent was sunk,
several reasons. Various schemes for improving conditions to note the results of their labors. They did not have long to
had been considered, and to die late A. B. Walker is credited wait, for suddenly the head of the serpent appeared and rose
die plan of creating die Silver Lake Sea Serpent. Confiding gracefully to a height of about eight feet above the water.
die proposition to a few of his intimate and trustworthy Other portions of the monster became visible and the entire
friends, he found diat it met widi instant approval. Of vari- construction was so lifelike that it sent the shivers coursing
ous plans discussed, die following was deemed die most through the bodies of the builders. It was towed about by
practical and surest of ultimate success. The serpent was to the men for a time to be certain that it would remain upright
be constructed of a body about sixty feet long, covered with and work well generally. Then the signal was given, the bel-
a waterproof canvas supported on die inside by coiled wire. lows stopped forcing the air, and the monster which was to
A trench was to be dug and gas pipe laid from die basement place Perry and Silver Lake 'on the map' forever sank rap-
of a shanty situated on the west side of die lake, to die lake idly and soon disappeared from view. Its tryout proved a
shore. A large pair of bellows such as were used in a black- great success, even more so than the builders had antici-
smith shop, secreted in the basement of the shanty con- pated.
nected totiiatend of die pipe, and a small hght rubber hose
The thing to do now was for them to wait for a favorable
from die lake end to die serpent. The body was to be painted
time to 'spring it' upon the people. On Friday evening, July
a deep green color, widi bright yellow spots added to give it
13, 1855, one of the men reported a boafload of men
a more hideous appearance. Eyes and moudi were to be col-
engaged in fishing not far from where die serpent was
ored a bright red. The plan of manipulating die serpent was
secreted. Other conditions being favorable, it was decided
simple. It was to be taken out and sunk in die lake, and dien
that the proper time to open the show had arrived. It was des-
when everydiing was ready the bellows were to be operated
tined to be a larger and more nerve-racking entertainment
and air forced into die serpent, which nattirally would cause
than any of them had dreamed.
it to rise to the surface. Weights were to be attached to die
After a period of several weeks of genuine excitement,
different portions of die body to insure its sinking as die air
pleasure, and a greatly increased business at the hotel, it
was allowed to escape. Three ropes were to be attached to
began to dawn upon the men that things would be mighty
the forward portion of the body, one extending to die shore
hot for them in this section of the country if their mischief
where die ice house now stands; one across die lake, and die
were found out. On two or three occasions only a miracle
 JOHN A. KEEL

seemed to have prevented discovery, and finally, after one of

these narrow escapes, it was decided that the sea serpent had
done its full duty, had accomplished the purpose for which it
was constructed, and now must disappear forever. Accord- TWENTY-THREE
ingly, it was taken from the lake and stored in the attic of the
hotel.

Eleven years later, Mr. Walker retumed to Perry. People had

decided that he was really a hero instead of a villain, after all,
The Yellow
and he ran another hotel there until his death in 1889. Periodi-
cally the Perry Chamber of Commerce stages a Sea Serpent Fes-
Submarine Caper
tival in honor of one of the greatest hoaxes of the nineteenth
century. If you write to the Chamber of Commerce in Perry,
New York 14530, they will send you a pamphlet summarizing
the story.
The Silver Lake affair points up several interesting things. First
of all, the witnesses generally gave a very accurate description of
what they had seen. Their stories tallied. The newspapers of 1855
did a responsible job of reporting what the witnesses had
described, and the general situation. Later events proved that the arly in 1969 the good citizens residing around Lake
spectators had, indeed, seen exactly what they thought they saw. Catemaco in Mexico began to see their pet monster
Only Fanning claimed that it spouted water from its mouth . . . ' again. Fishermen described it as being a huge black ser-
and this may have been an effect caused by leaking air. All of the pent with two horns jutting out from its ugly forehead. It waddled
witnesses seemed to have missed the yellow spots on the serpent. ashore late at night but leapt back into the lake when discovered.
Or, perhaps, the newspaper editors felt that "yellow polka-dots" Local Indians insist that "a giant crocodile" has always hved in
were a bit much and deliberately deleted that detail from the pub- the lake.
lished accounts. Lake monsters comprise our final category of Unbehevables.
On the other hand, our old rehable Indian John John must have Placid little bodies of water all over the world proudly lay claim to
been filled with hot ak. Or maybe he was indulging in the well- the dubious distinction of serving as the habitat for one or more
known Indian pastime of "putting on" his white brother. sea serpents. A few of them sound disturbingly like the Silver
The case also proves that a sea serpent hoax is possible and was Lake hoax; that is, the creatures cleverly surface very briefly just
possible even in the year 1855. It's too bad there were no psychol- before the annual tourist season begins. But in most cases, pub-
ogists and sociologists in 1855 who could have visited Silver lished sightings can be traced back fifty or even one hundred
Lake and made a thorough study of the "monster mania" that years. And, as usual, the descriptions remain remarkably consis-
developed there. tent. Sometimes several years will pass without a new sighting.
 0 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

During these lulls newspapermen and monster hunters tum to the brethren. Those that are left seem to be genuine sea creatures of
Indians for the real facts. some kind, inhabiting a few random deep water lakes.
Lake Walker in Nevada has a resident monster. High school The most authentic of the American lake monsters may be tiv-
athletic teams in the nearby town of Hawthome call themselves ing at the bottom of Flathead Lake, near Poison, Montana. What-
"The Serpents." On Febmary 3, 1965, the Mineral County, ever it is, it has been seen by a great many people over a long
Nevada, Independent-News revealed that early Indian setders stretch of time. Mr. Paul Fugleberg, editor of the Flathead
around the lake became annoyed because the monster occasion- Courier, has a standing offer of twenty-five dollars for the first
ally dined on members of the tribe. They decided to launch a photo of the creature. "Nobody who sees it ever seems to have a
major effort to trap and kill the creature. But, somehow, thel swim- camera," he says.
ming sneak overheard the plot, surfaced, and held a powwow with The Flathead mystery has been solved several times by Type B
his pursuers. A bargain was stmck. If the Indians promised not to scientists. One says it is a homemade submarine. Others have
kill him and tum his hide into moccasins, he would promise to eat defined it as "an overweight skin diver." A local real estate broker
only white men. For some odd reason, Indians are prejudiced has offered to pay one hundred doUars a foot to thefisherman that
against white men so they accepted this deal with glee. catches the thing. This could cost him a pretty penny if it is as big
In the fall 1969 issue of Old West, a nonfiction magazine, a let- as some of the witnesses beheve it to be.
ter from a couple who lived in Babbitt, Nevada, was reprinted. Back in the 1920s, fishermen on Flathead Lake complained
This couple claims to have seen the Lake Walker monster late in that some giant unidentified swimming object was tearing their
April 1956. They said it first looked "hke a high powered motor nets to shreds; even nets designed to withstand forty-pound bull
boat" and that it actually outswam their automobile as they drove trout. In September 1960 Mrs. Gilbert Zigler heard waves crash-
along the edge of the lake at thirty-five miles per hour. ing against the shore and saw water splashing high over the end of
"It started straight from us at a great speed for about a hundred a pier. Moving up for a closer look, Mrs. Zigler and her husband
yards," the couple reported, "and there it whipped to the left and were amazed to see a huge black something mbbing up against
submerged. We watched this happen three times, then it disap- the pier, tike an animal scratching its back.
peared around the point into deeper water. We are sure, we "It was a horrible looking thing," Mrs. Zigler recalled, "with a
watched it for all of ten or fifteen minutes. It must have been head about the size of a horse . . . and about a foot of neck show-
forty-five tofifty feet long and its back stuck up above the water at : ing."
least four orfive feet when it was swimming fast. We think in our Mr. Zigler ran back to his house for his rie but by the time he
own minds that it was feeding on the mud hens which were plen- retumed the creature was swimming nonchalantiy out of range.
tiful on the lake at that time . . . " There was a rash of sightings in 1963. A dozen persons report-
When we embarked upon our scholarly safari into the never- edly saw the Flathead monster on the single aftemoon of June 15
never land of monsters we planned to collect and catalog all the that year. Two high school teachers. Miss Heather McLeod and
known lake monsters in the United States. It quickly became Mrs. Genevieve Parratt, said they saw it at 11:30 A.M. on Septem-
clear, however, that many of these cases were really Sasquatch- ber 8,1963. It was "a dark gray object with three humps" about ten
type sightings. Others were paraphysical one-time-only appear- feet long. It undulated, submerged and surfaced again,, and left a
ances of Abominable Swamp Slobs and their enigmatic luminous boat-like wake. Most of the close-up sightings describe it as mov-
 0 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

ing very fast, too fast for a giant sturgeon (one of the more popular New York three times in the past ten years, but always when there
explanations), and it creates waves two and three feet high. was an electrical storm in progress."
"If you're like most folks," Paul Fugelburg wrote a few years "... always when there was an electrical storm in progress"
ago, "you'll listen to reports of superfish sightings with tongue in We cll your attention to Chapter Three and the various monster
cheek and one eye winking at your partner. events which seemed to occur during electrical storms. It has been
"But after the third or fourth go 'round, you'U suddenly realize suggested that some of our paraphysical monsters can materialize
that these folks aren't just flapping their gums, trying to amuse a only during electrical storms; that they somehow draw upon the
tourist with tall tales. By golly, they've seen something that really energy in the air during such storms. In occult lore there is con-
does defy description and explanation in the shimmering blue siderable hterature on "water elementis," bizarre hfe forms
Flathead Lake." which manifest themselves temporarily in and around water. The
Lake Waterton, also in Montana, has produced a stream of stories of "water elementis" are endless, and the theories to
monster reports over the years, too. At least two of the witnesses explain them are weird and complex. But we can not exclude the
(A. G. Baalim and Captain Ron Boyce) have described the Water- possibihty that some of our Swamp Slobs and lake creatures
ton critter as being thirty-five or forty feet and having two horns might be temporary psychic projections; mindless manifestations
on its head! of energy. Such projections could take almost any form when
Then there is Payette Lake in Idaho, the Paint River in Michi- viewed by limited human perception. They could appear as "little
gan, and Lake Champlain on the border between New York and men," as in flying saucer lore, or gmesome beasts as in the 1965
Vermont, all of which have been the focal points for reports of episodes around Sister Lakes in Michigan. The "reflective" factor,
elongated, ugly-headed, undulating swimming things. Lake discussed in Chapter Fifteen, could even play a part and the entity
Champlain, of course, runs up to the Canadian border and is might constmct itself from images in the witnesses' minds. Thus,
linked to the St. Lawrence River. There have been sea serpent when the proper witness (percipient) is in tiie right place ("win-
sightings in the St. Lawrence, too. Plattsburgh, New York, is right dow") at the right time ("flap" period) ahnost anytiiing could take
on the edge of Lake Champlain and has been a very busy UFO place. If this is the case, then the percipient actually sees what he
"window" for the past twenty years. A little further south, in the later describes. It was very real to him. But it did not really exist at
Adirondack Mountains in New York State, bilious bogeymen have all and all the bloodhounds, hehcopters and sheriff's posses in the
appeared periodically in the Black River, about two hundred miles world would not be able tofind the creature.
north of New York City.
However, we still have plenty of apparently real monsters to
Back in 1951 a man named Wash Melhck was fishing in the worry about. There are other lakes and other sea serpents.
Black River when a fifteen-foot monster rose up out of the water Not to be outdone by the capitalistic propaganda generated
near his boat. "It was dark brown in color," he reported, "and had around American lakes, the Soviet Union claimed to have several
a round, tapered body. It had fins like two hands, and its eyes lake monsters of its own. Naturally, theirs are bigger, better, and
stuck out like silver dollars. I threw stones at it, but it only stared morefierce than ours. One hves in Lake Vorota in Siberia. He is at
at me." least twenty-five feet long, has a broad, flat head, and makes a
Newspaper stories recounted other sightings and noted, "The loud roaring sound. A team of divers equipped with sonar instm-
monster has been reported seen in this isolated section of northem ments explored tiie bottom of Lake Vorota in May 1966, but all
 0 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS

they found was mud. Three other Siberian lakes in the isolated The residents around Gabriola Island in the same area call thek
Oimyakon Plateau are said to be inhabited by our silly sub- monster Cadborosaurus. Mrs. R. A. Stewart is among the many
mersibles. who have seen it. She had her experience in 1963 while fishing
Other teams of scientists laden down with fancy gadgets have with her husband from a boat near the island. "I honestly saw the
plumbed the depths of Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, strangest sight," she recalled. "A large brown-headed animal
Canada, searching for the legendary monster known as Ogopogo. swimming a few feet away from our small boat. It had a huge
The Ogopogo has been surprising and alarming Indians and head, but it was its horrible wide-open jaws which terrified me.
hunters for nearly a century. Apparently it is a cross between a But by the time I screamed to my husband to row quickly to the
dragon, a serpent, an alligator and an Abominable Swamp Slob. beach, the creature had vanished."
And that is some combination! Lake lUamna in Alaska harbors a sea serpent of some sort, and
Ogopogo seems to have a lot of company up in Canada. Sev- there are lakes in Sweden which are also supposed to be infested
eral other bodies of water, such as Lakes Sushwap, Cowichan, and with silly submersibles. Ireland has half-a-dozen deep-water lakes
Pohengamook, have generated a torrent of monster reports. Dr. which have produced sightings for centuries. In June 1968 the
Vadim Vladikov, Dkector of the Quebec Department of Games Dublin Evening Herald reported that teenager Gay Dever was
and Fisheries, described the thing in Lake Pohengamok, Quebec, bicycling along the edge of Glendarry Lake on Achill Island in
as "an animal between twelve and eighteen feet long, brown or County Mayo when he saw a freakish creature stride out of the
black in color, with a round back two or three feet wide, and a water and disappear into a woods.
sawtoothfin down the center. Any time anyone approaches close, "It was about twelve feet long, much bigger than a horse, and
the animal shthers away and sinks below the surface." dark in color," Dever said. "It was moving in a jumpy way like a
Quebec is in the eastern part of Canada. Over in the western kangaroo. It had a long head hke a sheep and a long neck and tail.
part, in British Columbia, home of the Sasquatch, folks have been The hind legs were bigger than the front ones."
seeing unidentified swimming objects for years. On December A thirty-year resident of the island, John Cooney, also claimed
28, 1962, Mrs. Robert Guy and Mrs. K. B. Holland reported see- a sighting of a strange amphibian that June. "My friend Michael
ing "a large hump that which came out of the water followed by McNulty gave me a lift and as we came round a bend we saw it
the creature's head or neck" near New Westminster, British just in the middle of the road," Cooney testified. "It was between
Columbia. It was the size of a horse, they said, and dark brown in eight and twelve feet long, with a long neck like a swannot
color. It appeared to swim with an undulating motion, giving the much bigger. The tail was very thick. It was moving at an angle to
impression of a long body following behind the head. They us and we couldn't see exactly how long it was. And it was weav-
watched it with binoculars from a distance of about two-hundred ing and curving.
yards and noted that it seemed to have "exaggerated" or protuber- "It was a dark brown color and was shiny and scaly. The eyes
ant lips. were ghttering. It disappeared in an instant into the thick under-
Another creature, or perhaps the same one, has been seen growth. We didn't stop to make any further inquiries."
around Shelter Point, British Columbia. In 1963, witness Mrs. When you weigh all of the descriptions compiled over the past
J. C. Durrant described it as looking "like a dragon." The locals two centuries, plus all the legends going back into the Middle
have an affectionate name for it. They call it the Klamahsosaurus. Ages, author Wilkins' sighting of a prehistoric animal in a quiet
 0 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 11

stream in Cornwall, England, in 1949 (outlined in Chapter Five) nesses from the 1920s and early 1930s, for his book The Loch
does not seem so preposterous, after all. WiUdns said that the Ness Monster and Others (1934). That book probably revived
thing he saw resembled a plesiosaurus, and maybe he was right. general interest in the Loch Ness mysteryan interest which has
Many of these other eyewitnesses descriptions also sound hke a continued unabated for nearly four decades.
plesiosaurus. Of course, we all know that the dinosaur-like ple- Historical references dating back to the sixteenth century have
siosaurus has been extinct for milhons of years. Our Type B sci- now been uncovered. In a feature article in the New York Daily
entists tell us that the big, long-necked creature which has News, July 9, 1967, George Nobbe offered this quote without cit-
frequently been sighted ambling overland from one lake in Scot- ing his source: " 'He did overthrow huge oaks with his tail and
land to another could not possibly be a plesiosaurus. Obviously it therewith killed outiight three men.' "
was just something that had escaped from a zoo. Nessie has obligingly posed for photographs several times, but
Scotland does not have many zoos, but it does have several most of these have been a bit disappointing, showing only a blob
deepwater lakes teeming with unclassified animals. The most or hump sticking out of the water. One picture, however, does
famous is a band of murky water twenty-eight miles long called reveal the classic long neck and flat head jutting high above the
Loch Ness. It is the home of "Nessie," the most celebrated and surface.
most hunted unidentified swimming object of them all. In 1954 the fishing trawler Rival picked up an unusual sonar
Hundreds of popular books, magazine articles, and newspaper signal while crossing the lake. Something huge was swimming
features have been pubhshed about Loch Ness in recent years. In along at a depth of 540 feet. It was too big and too fast for an ordi-
1969, alone, we collected over forty news articles and wire ser- nary fish. The sonar was in perfect working order and the signal
vice stories. For the past six years a well-financed scientific effort that bounced back was apparently accurate and legitimate. There
has been taking place at Loch Ness. Sonar and other modem have been other sonar retums since. In 1960 a group of signals
gadgets have been plumbing the depths and anxious cameramen indicated that as many asfive monsters were moving about under
have been posted around the lake, eagerly awaiting Nessie's next the lake. That was also the year in which Tim Dinsdale pho-
appearance. tographed a blob chuming up Loch Ness. His pictures were ana-
Most of the Loch Ness literature erroneously claims that the lyzed by experts from the Royal Air Force and they concluded
monster's first appearance was in the year 1934. During a visit that he had snapped "an animate object" not less than six feet
to Atlanta, Georgia, we stopped by the offices of the Atlanta Con- wide, five feet high, and possibly as long as ninety-two feet! The
stitution and, as is our practice, we spent a couple of hours scan- RAF report was released in 1966 and set off a scientific stampede
ning microfilms of old issues. We were amazed tofind a full-page to Scotland's legendary lake. There was definitely something
article on Loch Ness published in November 1896, complete with down there and Dr. Roy R Mackal of the University of Chicago
a woodcut which resembled exactly the modem drawings of was one of those who was determined to find out exactly what it
Nessie. The creature had been seen frequently throughout the was. He visited Loch Ness, talked with witnesses, and studied the
nineteenth century and then had lain low for a few decades. In various photographs. Then he scratched his head and suggested
the early 1930s Rupert Gould took an interest in Loch Ness, and that perhaps it was mollusk known as the giant sea slug, a distant
he tracked down and interviewed over sixty independent eyewit- relative of our friend the squid. Later, Dr. Mackal reconsidered
 12 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

and speculated that maybe it was a form of manatee, also called a A couple of months earlier two British businessmen found a
sea cow. The sea cow is a bulbous beast that looks something hke huge bone on the edge of the lake. It was four feet two inches long
a seal. and porous. At first tiiey thought it was a log but when they real-
In the mid-1960s the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation ized they may have discovered the remains of a monster they
Bureau Limited (LNPIB) was formed. The pubhshers of the tumed it over to the LNPIB.
World Book Encyclopedia coughed up twenty thousand dollars The summer ended with the weary monster chasers gathering
and a new, carefully planned investigation was launched. around the bar in Glenurquhart Lodge in Dmmnadrochit, Scot-
An oceanographer named Dan Taylor arrived at the Loch in the land. The guest hst at die lodge read like Who's Who. It included
summer of 1969, bringing along a twenty-foot fiberglass subma- newspapermen, novelists, actors, and scientists from ati over the
rine painted bright yetiow. Earlier divers had found the waters of world. Clem Lister-Skelton, an ex-Shakespearian actor, was often
the lake so murky that they could not even see a foot in front of the center of attention since he claims to have seen Nessie no less
theu- face. But Taylor planned to chase the creature(s) by sonar than nine times. He keeps coming back for another look. Dr.
and other sophisticated instruments. There was even talk of firing Mackal was there, no longer so certain about his theories of giant
tranquitizer darts at the poor creature. These plans raised cries of sea slugs and sea cows.
protest from all sides. It seems that the Scots had developed a spe- And somewhere out there in the night a sound rings across the
cial fondness for Nessie. glassy surface of the lake. It is not the sound of a woman scream-
"I'm all for observing the monster, but I'm against molesting ing or a baby crying. Listen very closely. It sounds tike laughter.
it," Lord Lovat, the head of a Scottish clan declared. "I think it's There has also been a great deal of laughter deep in the former
just damnable to bully the creature. Belgian Congo, land of die pygmies (or, to be potitically correct,
"I should hate to think of Nessie being captured and perhaps stature-unpaired people). Throughout the 1970s and '80s expedi-
taken to some zoo or to America like the liner Queen Mary. It tion after expedition has plunged into tiie jungles to the remote
should be made a punishable offense to do that." Likouala swamplands in search of the fabled Mokele-Mbembe.
As it tumed out, Nessie had nothing to fear from the yetiow This is a kind of dinosaur that allegedly lives tiiere. Early explor-
submarine. As soon as tiie Viper Fish, which is what it is catied, ers reported native stories of the creature and the pygmies have
was launched onto the lake it displayed a puzzting reluctance to happily confirmed the tales to each succeeding expedition, result-
submerge. A rather embarrassing trait for a submarine to have. ing in a profitable tourist trade of greenhorns whofight their way
Then when it was towed to a pier it suddenly sprang a leak and through clouds of hungry insects to stand on the shore of a murky
sank altogether. lake. Weti-financed groups from Great Britain, France, Japan, and
While Mr. Taylor was desperately trying to make his subma- the United States have made the tiek in recent years, never
rine lake-worthy, others were out viewing the monster. In July glimpsing the beast but paying out a great deal of money in bribes
1969 two men working for a movie company on the lake were in to the local bureaucrats and pygmy leaders. Dr. Roy Mackal has
another midget submarine when their sonar picked up something led two expeditions to this remote area, retuming empty-handed
forty feet long travehng at a depth of about five hundred feet. It except for the excited testimony of pygmy residents who swear
moved too fast for them to pursue it. the critter is stiti loose in the swamp.
 1 JOHN A. KEEL

Other forms of saurians have been spotted throughout South

America. In 1922, after dwellers in the Andes Mountains reported
seeing a plesiosaur-like creature near a lake, an expedition from
TWENTY-FOUR
the Buenos Aires Zoo searched for it in vain. In 1933 an adventur-
ous Swede claimed he fired shots at a twenty-foot-long dinosaur-
like beast in the Matto Grosso. Another such creature was spotted
near Lake Wenbu in Tibet in the 1980s.
A dinosaur is said to have run a car off the road in Texas in the Something Else
early 1970s, around the same time that people in the Italian Alps
were chasing a similar creature.
Are there really dinosaurs out there? Fortean publications such
as the INFO Journal and the Fortean Times dutifully record new
sightings every year. And, every year, new expeditions settle on
the banks of Loch Ness. In the past twenty years, large organiza-
tions such as liquor distillers and Japanese TV networks have
financed lavish expeditions to the Loch. Fleets of sonar-equipped
boats have explored every square inch. In 1992 a large, well-
equipped team of real scientists conducted a study of all the living
things in Loch Ness.
mere two hundred years ago, when sciencefirst began
What did they find? You guessed it.
the task of classifying animals systematically, only
The late Ted Holiday, a British author, spent many summers
k808 reptiles, mammals, birds and amphibians were
there but tossed in the towel when he investigated sea
known. By 1900 a total of 21,000 had been classified. Since then,
serpent/dinosaur reports in Ireland around lakes which were only
an average of 15 previously unknown reptiles, 220 mammals,
a few inches deep.
and 400 birds have been discovered, studied, and entered into the
I'm betting that some enterprising pygmy will soon open a sou-
scientific records each year. Today science has formally recog-
venir stand in Africa, similar to the souvenir places around Loch
nized the existence of approximately 70,000 creatures. Many of
Ness, Roswell, New Mexico, and a thousand other places where
those creatures were nothing more than myths and legends in
laughter rings out whenever the moon is full.
1700. Men have dedicated their entire lives to collecting and
cataloging beetles or mosquitos. Others are now founding a
rather shaky science called "exo-biology"; the study of life on
other planets. We have sifted the red loam of Mars for microbes,
and before too long we, may be chasing lizards on Venus and har-
pooning Globsters in the red spot of Jupiter. But from what we
are now learning about the planets in our own tiny solar system, a
 1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

mere dot on the edge of the Milky Way, it looks as if the Earth our museums. Canada may establish a Bureau for Sasquatch
alone is hospitable to Ufe. By the laws of probabihty there should Affairs similar to our Bureau of Indian Affairs. Boats and fisher-
be other planets in other galaxies, perhaps billions of them, and men may be forbidden to venture onto Loch Ness so that Nessie
life may exist somewhere out diere far beyond the range of our may frolic about in peace. Anything is possible on this impossible
telescopes and rockets. We can only guess. world of ours.
America's greatest UFOlogist is Dr. Frank Drake of the Uni- We have tried to separate the Unbelievables into two main cat-
versity of Cahfomia. He has spent over thirty years listening to egories. Group 1 are genuine animals of land and sea but still
the cosmos with radio telescopes, hoping to hear an inteUigent unknown to science. They include at least three (probably more)
signal from some far-off planet. He has worked with all the types of Abominable Snow Persons, and at least seven large
world's best biologists, astronomers, and scientists on the prob- amphibian mammals and reptiles. Overall, they seem to be a
lem of finding and communicating with extraterrestrial Ufe. AU harmless lot. They avoid us and prefer that we leave them alone. A
his waking hours have been spent studying and thinking about small group of dedicated monster hunters are slowly accumulat-
this problem. He has not ignored the claims of the UFOphiles, ing evidencefootprints, bones, photographsthat Group 1
either, but has interviewed and dealt with a huge number of con- exists and deserves recognition.
tactes, abductees, and flying saucer buffs. He has also investi- Group 2 is another story altogether. They are the phantoms that
gated many UFO reports personally and sifted through all the come crashing out of the bushes late at night. They seem to be part
available evidence. It would be terribly important to his work, his of something else. Something sinister and even hostile to us. This
career, his whole life to find something affirmative in the UFO nucleate phenomenon has always existed on this planet and has
maze. Instead, he offers this conclusion: "No tangible evidence taken many forms. Some of the Unbelievables we have described
exists to suggest that we have ever been visited by an aUen space- may have been transmogrifications or disguises for the central
craft. As sti-ongly as I believe tiiat inteltigent Ufe exists elsewhere phenomenon. They materialize when hghtning courses across the
in the universe, I maintain that UFOs are not extraterrestrial visi- sky or certain magnetic conditions prevail in "window" areas.
tors. They are the products of inteUigent Ufe on this planet."^ They are not real or physical in the usual sense of those terms. But
But this much we do know: Earth is the most splendid of all they are real enough while they last. They are paraphysical and
places within our reach. The beautiful blue orb covered with can assume the forms of one-eyed giants stepping out of magnifi-
white clouds is more than just "home" to our wandering astro- centflying machines, or long-fingered Orientals driving around in
nauts. It is also home for thousands upon thousands of creatures black Cadillacs which can melt into the air. Their shennanigans
who have leamed to thrive in the skies, die oceans, the jungles, the - over the past several thousand years have spawned many of our
deserts, and deep within the earth itself. Twenty years from now religious and occult beliefs. In trying to record their activities, we
some of the creatures we have commented upon with some mysti- have buUt up a titerature based upon nonsensical manipulations
fication may be neatly catalogued, labeled with Latin names, and and induced hallucinations. Cults and small groups of indepen-
they may be pacing the cages of our zoos or standing stuffed in dent researchers have spmng up, each dedicated to one minor
group of manifestations, each unable to view or grasp the whole.
The demonologists have been studying the same thing as the
'Is Anyone Out There by Frank Drake and Dava Sobel, page 126. UFOlogists. Demonomania (possession of a human mind or body
 1 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 1

by an outside force) produces classic patterns and symptoms well- documented examples. There is archaeological evidence fliat
known to psychiatry. These patterns appear in many cases of UFO entire ancient cities were suddenly deprived of their populations
contact but have gone unrecognized. In psychical research the on a single mysterious day.
same patterns are repeated. When a psychic or medium experi- The flying saucers are merely another frame of reference to
ences these symptoms they say they are "overshadowed." All of provide us with an acceptable explanation for some of these
these diversified groups are victims of the same phenomena, but grotesque events. An invisible phenomenon is always stalking us
they all see it from a different frame of reference and accept dif- and manipulating our beliefs. We see only what it chooses to let
ferent explanations for it. us see, and we usually react in exactly the way it might expect us
In the fourteenth andfifteenth centuries "vampires" ran amok in to react. Every culture on earth has legends and stories about the
central Europe while "fairies" and "httle people" hterally engulfed same thing, even the completely isolated tribes of the Pacific
all the territory between Germany and Ireland. Animals vanished islands and the remote inland villages of South America.
or were found drained of blood. People vanished, too. The irascible Charles Fort was aware of all this when he com-
People are still vanishing. Over 100,000 people disappear piled his book Lo! back in the 1920s. He stated:
every year in the U.S.A. alone. Of course, a majority of these are
merely fleeing creditors, the law, and unwanted spouses. Some There may be occult things, beings and events, and there
meet with foul play and end up in the bottom of the river. But may be something of the nature of an occult pohce force,
about 15,000 vanish under the most incredible circumstances. A which operates to divert human suspicions, and to supply
family man steps into his backyard to mow the lawn. He is never explanations that are good enough for whatever [minds]
seen again. A waitress steps out of a restaurant to put a dime in a human beings haveor that, if there be occult mischiefmak-
parking meter and disappears forever. A family of five in a suburb ers and occult ravagers, they may be of a world also of other
melt into nothingness, leaving behind all their clothes, bank beings that are acting to check them, and to explain them,
accounts, the family car. We have dozens of puzzhng cases in our not benevolently, but to divert suspicion from themselves,
files. because they, too, may be exploiting life upon this earth, but
And the animals! Something has always been slaughtering our in ways more subfle, and in orderly or organized fashion.
dogs, cats, horses, and cows. We have cited many examples in this
book. The slaughter is senseless . . . and very mysterious. One group of flying saucer cultists does beheve that some great
These things are happening in every country on earth. Today intergalactic police force is watching over us. But, of course, all
we are beginning to blame such events onflying saucers, particu- " religions teach the same thing in somewhat different terms. Even
larly in South America. A few years ago we blamed Abominable in the Bible we are told that UFOs are earthbound and designed to
Swamp Slobs, fairies, and vampires. There really is a Hamhn in spy upon us. This is spelled out rather plainly in Zechariah
Germany and there really was a Pied Piper who lured away a large (5:1-5) and in many other sections.
group of Hamlin children in the Middle Ages. Back in 1212, fifty In this book we have tried to present a sampling of the more
thousand children marched off on the Children's Crusade and physical events which fell into specific categories. If you review
vanished. the thousands of available books on psychic phenomena you will
Whole villages have disappeared. There are many well- find many starthng and precise parallels. We are not coping with
20 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 21

ghosts or extraterrestrial visitants. Rather, we are facing, and have thousands of people have seen exactly what they have reported.
always faced, denizens of some unseen world which surrounds us. We do not question their retiability or their sanity. But we do feel
Ancient man was very conscious of that world. In the original text that research into these matters must be all-inclusive and much
of die Bible the word "sheol" was used frequently, and it meant more systematic than it has been. We hope that more people wiU
"invisible worid." Somehow this was ttanslated into "hell" and come forth with their stories in the future so that we may have
given an entirely new meaning. an even larger volume of data to work with. Most important of all
In May 1969 Sir Victor Goddard, an air marshal in the Royal we must begin the job of isolating and examining the subjective
Air Force delivered a speech to British UFOlogists. In that speech psychological factors which sometimes produce confabulation
he stated: "The astral world of illusion which (on psychical evi- and comphcated hallucinatory effects. The central phenomenon
dence) is greatly inhabited by illusion-prone spirits, is well- seems to have tiie abiUty to contirol tiie human mind and instead of
known for its multifarious imaginative activities and exhortations. ridicuUng and condemning the people who suffer from this, we
Seemingly some of its denizens are eager to exemptify 'principal- should be studying them carefully. Through such people we may
ities and powers.' Others pronounce upon morality, spirituality, eventually be able to untangle the many hidden aspects and prob-
deity, etc. All of these asttal exponents who invoke human con- lems. Again, we must sfress that we do not beUeve these witnesses
sciousness may be sincere but many of their theses may be framed are insane or that they require medical and psychiatric treatment.
to propagate some special phantasm... or to indulge an inveter- We are interested in the paranormal experience as induced by
ate and continuing technological urge towards materialistic abnormal conditions and influences.
progress or simply to astonish and disturb the gutiible 'for the We have cited scores of incidents in which "monster mania"
devti of it.' " has gripped whole counties, and even whole states. In recent
In recent years thousands of people have been confronted by years, the flying saucer waves have created "UFO mania" with
strange entities who did, indeed, "exemplify principalities and diousands of people pouring into "flap" or "window" areas night
powers." They talked of great super-civtiizations in the sky and after night in the hopes of glimpsing the mysterious objects. Both
carefully nurtured die cultish behefs, but actiially they were merely "monster mania" and "UFO mania" are the same tiling and have
promoting "some special phantasm" designed, perhaps, to divert never been studied by sociologists and psychologists. Only one
us from suspecting that they were exploiting us in some fashion, study of titis type has been conducted. In 1939 a group from
as Fort suggested. Princeton carried out a study of the panic produced by Orson
The phenomenon has created cults, and the cults have created Welles' famous "Invasion from Mars" radio broadcast. Similar
foolish causes. A great deal of harm has been done by amateur studies should be conducted in-deptii in places lUce West Virginia.
investigators and their organizations. They have blundered about Our guess is that psychologists wiUfind that curiosity far exceeds
the landscape, branding innocent people Uars and fools. They actual fear and panic in the "flap" areas.
have gone on radio and television to spread the subversive To recognize the full nature of the phenomenon you must care-
antigovemment propaganda so cunningly implanted by the "astral ftitiy study all of the parts. Witchcraft, Voodoo, SpuituaUsm, and
world of itiusion." These iU-equipped, bewildered, over-emotional Black Magic are as important as "little green men" and biUous
pseudoinvestigators have been the real victims in this game. giants with glowing green eyes. Once you begin to understand
We know from our own experiences and investigations that how the many parts dovetail together you will discover that the
 JOHN A. KEEL

"invisible world" has exercised a pecuhar influence over the

affairs of man. This will lead you into a study of human history
and, eventually, into philosophy. Over two hundred years ago stu-
dents of phenomenology began to recognize these hnks, and
abstract philosophical concepts have slowly developed. Hundreds Afterword: 2002
of leading scientists and physicists, from Thomas Edison to
Albert Einstein, grasped these broader problems. Thousands of
long, carefully thought out books have been pubhshed fully defin-
ing what we can only hint at here.
No one can claim to know all the answers. But we are finally
learning to ask the right questions.
There are things on this planet, and around it, that are far
beyond anything you can imagine. The monsters stalking our
highways and farm fields are only part of that "something else." It
is time for us to bring all of the nonsense to an end. Time to smoke
out the real culprits and tell them we do not much enjoy having
our blood sucked and our brains boggled.

uman curiosity has done us in. We have spent many

bilhons of dollars in a ihiitless search for intelhgent
life in outerspace. If some modem astronomer should
peer into a complex electronic, hydrostatic, uranium voltaic,
rocket-loaded, hydrogen propelled telescope and confront another
eye staring back at him we would all be ecstatic. We would forget
about our wars and manmade ecological disasters while we
danced and sang: "There's a big eyeball out there!"
Our biggest fear is that we may be alone.
Alone on a httle bubble filled with worms and monsters that
want to eat us . . . or give us a really good scare.
Eight out of nine planets in our solar system have proven to be
devoid of life, even lacking essentials such as air and water. The
distant star systems have ceased to exist long before then- light has
reached us. Everything out there is exploding, colliding, burning
out, compressing into black holes,flaring andflying apart. We are
 2 JOHN A. K E E L T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO M Y S T E R I O U S B E I N G S 2

left sitting in a Jacuzzi of cold darkness, trying not to think deep cells began and if it is even possible for this process to begin else-
thoughts while we wait for our tender torsos to be blasted into where. This problem has produced many arguments, grandiose
oblivion. theories and wars but no real solution. We don't know how we got
The whole universe consists of the dead shards of a giant fire- here and we certainly don't know where we're going.
cracker. Sparks wrapped in a mysterious black material that does In 1957, a young college graduate gave a speech in New York
not produce or reflect hght. This is the fifth of July and we are to a rather eccenfiic group calhng itself The American Rocket
watching the sparks dying away. We still call it the universe and Society. He proposed that the first people on earth came from a
gaze at it with awe. But it's really not there anymore. We are truly distant planet and started reproducing like crazy, eaming the title:
alone. "Fomicators from outerspace." A reporter from the New York
One living planet out of nine is better odds than the game of Times was there taking notes and the speech launched the career
roulette (whose odds are about 30-35 to one). This speck in of Carl Sagan who, at that time was an ardentflying saucer enthu-
space, a sodden, smoldering ash, is teeming with all kinds of hv- siast. Years later, a hotel clerk in Switzerland wrote a book on tiie
ing cells assuming many preposterous forms from tube worms same hackneyed theme called Chariots of the Gods. His name was
that hover around boihng geysers deep under the oceans to three Erich von Daniken. His book sold 25,0(X),000 copies worldwide.
highly intelhgent mammals . . . whales, dolphins and elephants. Whatever happened to Carl Sagan? He bored his friends for
Human beings don't really count in the roster. We kill each other years with his UFO theories, caught up in a form of obsession that
on a regular basis, chop down all the vegetation and expel vast has tumed many people into Withering idiots. After investigating
quantities of methane gas from our bodily orifices. The others had many sightings and working hard on the science of exobiology,
a tough time teaching us to communicate with them. We couldn't which he invented, Sagan dropped ufology, promoting, instead,
leam to sing like a whale, chirp Uke a dolphin or mmble hke an the notion that some of the planets in otiier galaxies could be gen-
elephant until the closing years of the last century. The poor dol- erating life. Simple logic. Maybe if there were also nine planets in
phins actually managed to launch a world wide campaign to con- Andromeda, one of them could also be inhabited by dolphins and
vince us that they were smarter than tunafish and shouldn't be tube worms. He was a charismatic speaker and a good writer
fished for and canned. Wefinally got the idea and now accept dol- highly trained in astronomy and science. He was the godfather of
phins as feUow tellurians (earthhngs). We're stiU pretty dumb, the space sateUite that carried the cartoons of naked humans into
though, and actually think we can taUc by radio (electromagnetic space. By the time of his premature death in 1996, Carl Sagan was
frequencies) to some hypothetical being on another world mil- a major force in the world of science as well as a famous teacher,
hons of light years away, assuming that he or it can hear, think, lecturer and TV star. Witii his wife Ann Dmyan, he produced a
perceive and also knows about radio. We have even sent cartoons novel that became a major motion picture: Contact. His last book
and phonograph records into deep space to confound any crea- was a collection of essays. The Demon Haunted World, largely a
tures that mightfind them. A miUion years from now we may get critical view of theflying saucer phenomena.'
a batch of drawings back from some distant world thus estabUsh-
ing an outerspace comic network.
Does any of this make real sense?
'Carl Sagan: a Life in the Cosmos by William Poundstone. 1999. Henry Holt & Co., New
Before we can search for hfe we must figure out how hving York.
 2 JOHN A. KEEL THE COMPLETE G U E TO MYSTERIOUS BEINGS 2

Dr. Sagan kept the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) alive, even verse. We are corporeal cells and find it hard to visualize energy
managing to make a few million dollars from it, while stirring forms, invisible to our hmited perceptions, capable of toying with
hope among those who desperately hoped that a fleet of space- our electrical brain circuits and instilling upon us those phantasms.
ships would appear one day bearing a large book titled: "How To Occasionally we glimpse the Ughts and shadows of their world. We
Serve Man." There were superabundant hghts in the sky and accept "old red eyes" with the same fear and misinterpretations
blazing red orbs in the woods. But the spaceships would never that we apply to ghosts, goblins, and "aliens" from space ships that
come. dissolve in front of us. There is nothing in space but blackness and
Others cherished die same dream, founding SETI (Search for nothing but carefully scrambled signals in our discombobulated
Extraterrestrial InteUigences) and spending a generation of long, minds.
cold nights hstening to the stars with very expensive radio To keep us going in what is basically a sad, hopeless situa-
receivers. One, Dr. Frank Drake, a close associate of Dr. Sagan, tion we need belief. We need to beUeve that man is more impor-
summed up his frustration diusly: "No tangible evidence exists to tant than the cockroach and that we will fulfill some terribly
suggest that we have ever been visited by alien spacecraft. As important destiny. The frivolous entities that dance all around
strongly as I beheve intelhgent hfe exists elsewhere in the uni- us have been supplying us with such beliefs for thousands of
verse, I maintain that UFOs are not extraterrestrial visitors. They years while setting absurd mles for the games they play. But
are the products of intelhgent hfe on this planet!'^ remember they must also share our fate. If the world ends, they
will end, too. If we set off our atomic bombs, the creatures
Film director Stephen Spielberg, a longtime promoter of the composed of energy will be fissioned and fusioned first. This
ETH, donated big bucks to SETI but Congress finally mixed the could be why blinding balls of tight have constantly appeared
whole project, unimpressed with expensive static from outer over our nuclear facilities and military installations. They don't
space. tmst us even though a segment of our population worships
Private milhonaires and bilhonaires have been pouring large them.
amounts of currency into these rat holes in recent years, hiring There are entities on this planet, and around it, that are far
hobbyists and assorted con artists in the endless search for things beyond all efforts to translate them into understandable cellular
that aren'tfliere. Hollywood, occultists and science-fiction writers creatures. They are not real in the sense that we are animals
teU us about "shape-shifters" who can appear in any form to luU motivated by sex and emotions. They are part of the energies
us or terrify us. The ancient Egyptians and Indians knew all about that were scattered into space billions of years ago. Their intel-
this. Tibetan scrolls explained it. ligence is so vast and so mthlessly inhuman there is no way for
Particle physics and modem astronomy are bringing us closer to us to comprehend it or communicate with it as we talk to dol-
the once faraway tmfli. There may be nofliing out fliere at all phins.
except deep blackness as we plunge towards some unknown desti- In the beginning of this book we said that someone within two
nation, surrounded by die glimmerings of an ancient and lost uni- hundred miles of your home, no matter where you Uve on this
earth, has had a direct, often terrifying, personal confrontation
'Is Anyone Out There? by Frank Drake and Dava Sobel, page 126 with a shape-shifting. Unbelievable. Our world has always been
 8 JOHN A. KEEL

occupied by these things. We are just passing through. Belief or

disbehef will come to you from another direction.
Next week, next month, or next year you may be driving along
a deserted country road late at night and you round a bend you
will suddenly s e e . . . .
Index

Among the Himalayas (Waddell),

60
Abductions by UFOs, 191, by Amphivena, 13
Satanic cults, 211 Angelology, 3
Abominable Snowman (ABSM), Angels, 208-210, 213
4, 59, 85, 135; In China, 71; Animals, disappearances of,
footprints of, 60, 63, 71; 179-180; mutilation of, 185
general descriptions in reports, Animated tin cans, 4
139-140 Annates Francorum, 17
Abominable Snowman: Legend Apparitions. See Ghosts and
Come to Life (Sanderson), 61, Hallucinations.
73,79 Arachnids, fear of, 14-15
Abominable Swamp Slob Archaeopteryx, 227
(A.S.S.), 95, 138, 304 Argentina. See South America.
Aborigines of Minnesota, 56 Argosy, 91
Aerial Phenomena Research Or- Arriba (Spanish newspaper),
ganization (APRO), 149 134
Africa: leopard cult of, 29
Alabama, sightings of giant ape,
101-102 B
American Journal of Science, 56
American Rocket Society, The, Baron of Frankenstein. See
325 Frankenstein.
 INDEX 331
330 INDEX

Chronicon of Denys de Tell- Demonology, 318

Battles with Giant Fish (Mitchell- Denmark, troll sightings in 163
Mahre, 20
Hedges), 290 Deutsche Sagen, 19
Chronicon Saxonicus, 17
Bermuda, sea creature sightings, Calapalos Indians, 54 Dictioruiry of Angels (Davidson),
Classified Directory of
285 Califomia Big Foot, 86, 138; Spontaneous Phenomena, 205 222
Bestiary, The, 12-13, 61 evidence of, 83; first Cobras. See Snakes. Dinosaurs, 314
Bible, 61, 209, 213, 282, 319 photographs of, 88; sightings, Coelacanthfish, 7 Disappearances of cattie, 179, of
"Big Foot." See Califomia Big of 82, 84, 103 Colorado, creature sightings, 105, pigs, 180
Foot. CaUfomia, sighting of Big Foot,
UFO sightings, 177, 184 Ditmars, Dr. Raymond Lee, 11,
Big Foot Bulletin, The, 87 102-105 16
Common threads in stories, 2-3
Black holes, 323 Canada, Abominable Snowman Compleat Practical Joker, The Dobbs, Arthur, 15
Black Lagoon, creatures from the, of, 72; creature sightings,
(Smidi), 38 Dogs of unknown origin, 17-18
95 132-122; Royal Canadian
Condon, Dr. Edward, 152 Dogs, 17; vampire dogs, 23; wild
Black Magic. See Witchcraft. Airforce, 147; sightings of Big
Connecticut, creature sightings, dogs, 24;
Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), Foot, 84
105-106 Dolphin (ship) 52
213-215 Cannibahsm, 29 Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 219
Contactes. See Witnesses.
Boa Constrictors. See Snakes. Cat cemetaries, 29 Drake, Dr. Frank, 316
Cornell University, 37
Book of Days, 20-21 Cats, 17, 29-30, 32-33, winged Du Chaillu, Paul, 2
Cousteau, Jacques, 282
Book of Enoch, 213 cats, 35 Cow by the Tail, 55
Book of Revelations, 282 Cattie, disappearance of, 179 Cows, disappearance of, 185;
Book of Saucers, 235 Cavallucci, Dr. Luigi, 55
mutilation of, 185 E
Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Central America, vampires,
Creature from the Black Lagoon,
48 10-11
The, (movie), 96 Earth, exploration of, 8
BookofZacharias, 209 Central Intelhgence Agency
Cro-Magnon man, 67 Earthworms, 41
Brazil, UFO sightings, in (CIA), 169, 174, 220, 278, 279
Cyclopean giants, 3, 144 Edge of the Unknown, The
162 Ceme Abbas giant, 49 (Doyle), 219
British Columbia. See Canada. Challenger (ship), 288 Eels, giant, 288, 294
Bronx Journal News, 285 Chariots of the Gods, 325 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 218
Bulletin of the Royal histitute of Cherubs, 208-210 Eltanin (ship), 274
Natural Sciences of Belgium, Child abuse, 211 Enigmas (Gould), 53
92 Dana (Ship), 287
Child witnesses, 144 Enrico Fermi Atomic Power
Darwin, Charles, 52
Bureau of Indian affairs, 317 China, Abominable Snowman of,
Davidson, Gustav, 222 Plant, 114
Burma, creature sightings, 71
Dawson, Charles, 50, 51 Evolution of the Dragon (Smifli),
131-132 Chinese Dragon (Hayes), 229
Demon Haunted World, The, 325229
Burning Man of Germany, 19 Christ. See Jesus Christ.
 INDEX INDEX

F G Heuvehnan, Dr. Bemard, 90, 92, J

285
Fairies, 213 Gagarin, Yuri, 166 History and Antiquities of Jadoo, 67
FATE magazine, 100 Georgia, creature sightings, Allerdale, 49 Jesus Christ, 25
Federal Bureau of Investigations 108 Hohnes, Sheriock, 219 John Hopkins University, 71
(FBI), 93, 182, 168, 182, Ghosts, 206, 253 Homines Sylvestris, 61 Jupiter, 198
220 Giants, 3; Canadian sightings, 3; Homo pongoides "ape-like man,"
Flathead Lake monster, Cyclopean, 3; footprints, 129; 92
305 earthworms, 41; eels, 288; fish, Hong Kong University, 284
Fleming, Ian, 97 18;flying snakes, 13; goriUas, Hoop snake myth, 12
Florida, creature sightings in, 2; hair-covered, 144; pigs, 18; Hoosier National Forest, 110 Kennedy, John R, 221
106-108 snakes, 3; squid, 285; two- Horses, phantom, 21 Kentucky, creature sighting,
Flying animals, cats, 32; horses, headed snakes, 13 Humanoids, reports of, 145 110-111
18 Glenn, John, 166 Humanoids. The, 240 Khakhov, V.A. 74
Flying creatures, 233-236 Gooney Birds, 12 Humans, abductions 85, 191; King Louis XV, 27
Flying machine, 58 Gorilla Swamp, 112 mutilation of, 188; vampirism Klamahsosaurus, 308
Flying Saucer Conspiracy, The,GoriUas, giant, 2 of, 28 Komodo dragon, 9, 15
165 Greenfeld, Allen, 9 Hyneck, Dr. Allen J., 168, Kosmarov, Vladimir, 166
Flying Saucer Review, 152-153, Greys, 210-213 202
158,167,240 Grissom, Wgil, 166
Flying Saucers. See Unidentified L
Hying Objects (UFOs).
Flying snakes, 13 H Leontiev, V.K., 75
Footprints, 18; 129, Identified Flying Saucers (Loftin),
Leopard Cuh, The, 28-29
Forbidden Planet (movie), H.M.S. Daedalus (ship), 286 169, 169 Leopard Men, 28
208 Hair-covered giants, 144 Dlinois, creature sightings, Leprechauns, 163
Fort, Charles, 21, 55, 226, 319 Hairy creatures, sighted in US, 109-110 Limbaugh, Rush, 105
Fortean Times, The, 100 78, 82, 83, 289 Inca Indians, 53, 54 Little Men, 141, 163, 164
Frankenstein, 20 Half-man-Half horse, 141 Indian legends, 225 Lizardman, 142
From India to the Planet Mars,Half-man-Half-goat, 141 Indiana, creature sightings, Lol, 21, 319
214 Hallucinations, 218, 317 110 Loch Ness Monster and Others
Frozen sea monsters, 289 Haunted houses, accounts of, 200, INFO Journal, 100, (Gould), 311
Furred Animals of Australia 254 Intelligence of creatures, 142 Loch Ness monster,
(Troughton), 40 Hermit of Siskiyou, 102 Invasion from Mars, 321 310-311
334 INDEX INDEX 33

Loch Ness Phenomena Montana, creature sightings, 0 Pterodactyl, 225

Investigation Bureau Limited 117-118 Puerto Rico, mutilation of
(LNPIB), 312 Morristown National Historical Oarfish, 287 animals in, 186
Lycanthropy, 2, 5 Park, 118 Odors, 107, 142; of apparitions, Pursuit (Sanderson), 92, 100
Mosasaur, 43 219; associated with ghosts,
"Mothman." See West Virginian 253; of Big Foot, 82
M Mothman. Ogopogo, 308
Mount Everest, 69 Ohio, creature sightings, 120-121
Maclaine, Shirley, 212 Musee de Palontologie (Paris), Okapi, 15 Queen Mary (ocean liner), 312
Martians, 199, 221 See also Little 50 Oklahoma, 12
Men. Mutilation of animals, 186 Operators and Things (Maccoby),
Maryland Bigfoot Reference Mutilation of human beings, 216 R
Guide, 111 188 Opisthoglypha, 12
Maryland, creature sightings, Oregon, creature sightings, Rattlenakes, 42
111-112 122-123 REAL magazine, 123
Maylasia, sightings of giant Outer space, 160 Roe, William, 83-84
gorilla, 2-3 Roosevelt, Theodore, 81
Megascolides, 40-41 National Investigation Royal Canadian Air Force, 147
Men in Black, 221, 254 Committees on Aerial P Russia, Abominable Snowman
Metoh-Kangmi, 59 Phenomena (NICAP), 145, 184 sightings, 72
Mexico, sea creature sightings, Neanderthalers, 66-67; footprints, Paranormal apparitions, 142 Russian Imperial Academy of
293-294; UPO sightings in, 66 Paraphysical apparitions, 142 Sciences, 74
149 New Jersey, creature sightings, Passport to Magonia (Vallee), Russian Information Service, 75
Michigan, creature sightings, 118-119, UFO sightings, 163 147
112-113, UFO sightings, New York Times, 74, 173 Pasteur, Louis, 22
113-114, 161 New York, creature sightings, Patagonians, 51, 53, 62
Milk snake, 12 119-120 Pennsylvania, creature sightings,
Minnesota Geological Survey, New Yorker, The, 160 123-124 Sagan, Dr. Carl, 48, 325
56 Newsweek, 74 Pied Piper, 318 Sanderson, Ivan T. 7-8, 44, 61,
Mississippi, creature sightings, North American Bigfoot Pigs, disappearances of, 180 73, 75, 90, 135, 145, 186
115-116 Information Network, 116 Plagues, 19-20 Sandy Hook Marine Laboratories,
Missouri, creature sightings, 117 Nova Scotia, lake monster, Plesiosauras, 43, 310 288
Momo, the Missouri Monster, 281 Poltergeists. See Ghosts. Sasquatch, 82; evidence of, 83,
142 Nova Scotia, sightings of gorillas, Popular Science magazine, 229 general descriptions, 139-140
"monster mania," 1 3 Project Blue Books, 160 Satan, 235
 336 INDEX INDEX 337

Satanic cults, 211 Spiriftialism, 322 U Vampirism, 22, human

Saucer News, 197 Squid, 294 vampirism, 28
Schizophrenia, 216 Squid, giant, 285 UFO Warning (Stuart), 189 Vampyrotouthis infemalis, 11-12
Scientists, types of, 6-7 St. Patrick of h-eland, 42 UFOlogy, 3, 146 Venus Flytrap, 15
Scoliophis atlanticus, 287 Star Trek (TV program), 208, 213 UFOnauts, 157, 160, 161 Viper Fish (submarine), 312
Scorpions, 16 Strange Harvest (documentary), Umfiih (ship), 286 Voodoo, 322
Sea creamres, 284ff., hairy, 289 187 Unidentified Flying Objects, 138, Voyage of the Beagle (Darwin),
Sea monsters. See Sea Serpents. Strange Mysteries of Time and 144, 146; and animal 52
Sea Serpents, sighting of, 285, Space (Wilkins), 44 disappearances, 181; accounts
295, 295ff., 300-302 Stubb, Peter, 26 of sightings, 105-106,
Sex and the Supematural Sunken saucers, 282 122-123, 145-146; w
(Steiger), 28 Swamp creatures, 95-98 descriptions of occupants, 155;
Shakespeare, William, 208 Sweden, gnome sightings in, 163 electro-magnetic effect, 138; Walking Fir Cones, 45
Sheep-killing, 22 sightings in Mexico, 149; Washington, creature sightings,
Sightings, of giants, 3 sightings in South America, 127
Sikkim territories, 64, 67 161; telepathic communications Watusi Indians, 49
Silver Lake Sea Serpent, 300-302 with, 198; psychological We Almost Lost Detoit (Fuller),
Silverfish, 8 Tasmanian Tiger, 40, 42 reactions to, 217 115
Siskiyou Mountains, 85 Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 208 Unidentified Swimming Objects, Welles, Orson, 321
Sister Lakes Monster, 307 Tennessee, creature sightings, 273 ff. Werewolves, terms for, 25;
Six-toed man, 57 125-126 Uninvited Visitors (Sanderson), sightmgs of, 25-26
Slaughtering of, domestic Texas, creature sightings, 145 West Virginia University Biology
animals, 1 126-127 United States Air Force, 136, Department, 250
Snakes, 3, 13-14; boa Things (Sanderson), 292 160 West Virginia, creature sightings,
constrictors, 15-16 Thunderbird, 229-230, wingspan University of Michigan Zoology 129-130
Society for the Investigation of of, 230 Department, 113 West Vuginian Mothman, 244 if.;
the Unexplained (SITU), 294 Tibet, sighting of Big Foot, 87, descriptions of, 262; sightings
South America, accounts of UFO sightings of Abominable of, 4, 244-246, 256, 267-272
sightings; 161 creature sightings, Snowman, 87 "Wild Men of die Woods" 61, 67,
124; vampires, 10-11 Time magazine, 74, 114 80, 83, 125
Soviet Union, UFO sightings in, Today Show, The, (TV program), Vallee, Dr. Jacques, 147, 192 Winged cats, 35
173 33 Vampire bats, 10-11; attacks of, Wisconsin, creature sightings,
Spaceview magazine, 276 True magazine, 135 24; feeding habits, 11; 131; werewolf sightings, 142
Spain, creature sightings, Two-headed sand boas, 42 hibernation of, 227; in Puerto Witchcraft (Seabrook), 30
134-135 Two-headed snakes, 13 Rico, 186 Witchcraft, 29, 220, 322
338 INDEX

Witnesses, 5, 106-107, 122-123; Y

children, 144; general
descriptions, 139-140; hostility Yale's Bingham Oceanograhic
toward, 137; pyschological Laboratory, 12
reactions of 217;ridiculeof, Yeti, of Canada, 73; of the
136; to UFO sightings, 145; of Himalayas, 63; of Japan, 69; of
little green men, 170 Tibet, 70; South American
Wolves, 23 sightings, 65; stories of, 66
World Book Encyclopedia, 312

z
Zdorick, B.M., 74
Xchitl Elena (ship), 291 Zechariah, Book of, 319