The Jogging Suited Hawkmen and the Faceless Woman of Montvale

 

The Jogging Suited Hawkmen and the Faceless Woman of Montvale

By Cole Herrold

Paranormal resources come in all shapes and sizes; most Fortean researchers will be familiar with the classics like Charles Fort's Book of the Damned or Bernard Heuvelman’s On the Track of Unknown Animals, and while these epic tomes are mandatory for any Fortean library, there is a selection of works that tend to for more mature researchers go uncollected. As someone who has been the "library kid," I know the importance of collecting as many resources as possible, and at times, this truly plays out, and you can come across some cases that only appear in the most obsolete books. A side collection of mine is children's books on Fortean subjects; they were my gateway, and I collect them for both a nostalgic and practical purpose. Now in some of these books, there are accounts that appear nowhere. In a previous article on the Veggie Man (an entity similar but different from the Vegetable Man), I described a single encounter that the author had and included in the book this account appears nowhere else. This sort of shows the importance of collecting resources some would define as childish or immature as sometimes they do have important additions to already famous cases or altogether bizarre cases that apparently have not been covered elsewhere.

I was perusing through Jersey Devils, Bizarre Beasts, and Other Creatures of Weird NJ for research on some other cryptids when I came across this bizarre case that they transcribed entirely from a children’s book on UFOs known as How to Catch a Flying Saucer by James M. Deem. As soon as I saw the title, I knew I had a copy, but it was one that I had not had the chance to read; but upon reading the title of the section in Jersey Devils, I knew I had to follow up on the account. The account was almost exactly as what was in the Weird NJ spinoff, but it included illustrations of some of the extraterrestrials seen as well as some other interesting cases from the area.

The account occurred one cold winter day on January 31, 1978, when three young boys were playing on the now frozen field of the Montvale Elementary School. The boys were brothers Eddie and Michael Hargrove and their friend John Cummings; the group had gone out to the ice-covered field that day to go boot skating, and the group had enjoyed the activity for some time when they noticed something flying in the sky near the school. The boys were confused at what this object was, for its appearance was unlike anything they had ever seen before. The object was square in shape, but it had a kind of rounded corners beneath the object; it seemed to glow red as if it was on fire. As they watched the object, they soon noticed that the object had started to slow to a stop and began to hover near where they stood; from there, they could see that at each rounded edge was a bright yellow light and that the red light from underneath actually projected down from the craft like a beam.

The boys realizing that this object was nothing contemporary, soon began to be frightened as this now stationary object stayed in place for some five minutes. The boys talked amongst themselves, arguing as to what this object was, and it was at that point they all agreed that this had to be a UFO. The boys knowing some of the stories associated with such craft, attempted to run away from the craft heading towards the dugout near the school's baseball field. This, however, seemed to simply draw the attention of the craft as once they began to move, the object proceeded to fly overhead of them, ultimately disappearing from the boy's view.

The boys thinking, they were safe from some sort of alien interaction, began to clamor out of the dugout and stand in the baseball diamond discussing the event that just transpired. As they stood talking to themselves, they saw a bright yellow blur in the field next to where they stood. The boys looked and saw a person standing in the field, and they instantly thought that it was their neighbor Mr. Johnson. They had figured that the neighbor who had a penchant for going on long jogs around the area in the evening had simply started early on this day. The boys wanting some confirmation of their sighting, hollered over to the yellow man and asked, "Mr. Johnson, did you see that UFO?".

Sketch of Humanoids from both book and website article on encounter

The figure who was not facing them started to turn around, and it was at that moment they realized that this person was clearly not their neighbor. There standing in the field was a peculiar figure; its head was oddly shaped with a long crease down the head that gave the head the appearance of a hawk rather than a human's. Before the boys could react or say anything about these falcon fiends, another ten in similar yellow jogging suits came clamoring out to join the lone figure. The entities moved in a military-style, and John later would say to the Ufologists who interviewed him on this in the following "Have you heard of Hitler's army? You know how they walked kind of stiff, with their arms straight? Well, that's . . . how they looked”.

As the group watched the entities, they noticed some other bizarre features that, at the spotting, they did not pick up on. Each of the entities was completely bald, and that as they walked, they did so in a bizarre goose-step style, moving back and forth. This, however, was not the most haunting feature as these entities' eyes were nonexistent. This is not to say that they did not have some impression of eyes, but instead of a fleshy mass of cells, they had large black square holes instead.

The boys out of the dugout watched the militaristic Martians continue on their bizarre drill exercise and watched as some of the entities started to work their way down the road in single file. The entire area as they did so was beginning to permeate with a horrific sulfur smell that smacked the boys' face's on the breeze. As they were still looking at the collection of avian aliens, they noticed that one of the figures was something entirely different. There standing amongst these Hawkmen was what appeared to be a strange woman.

This woman the boys now laid eyes on they first thought was normal; she seemed to be human-like but was wearing a very short dress, something that seemed ill-advised in the weather they were currently standing in. Yet as the boys looked up at her frame, they reached her head and realized that this woman had no face. Where the eyes, mouths, lips, and ears should have been was a fleshy blank state. The boys, in some ways, were more terrified by her than the army of avian anomalies that accompanied her. This female creature seemed to, even without the aid of eyes, see the boys and turned around towards them; she walked down the road where a low fence was placed as her cohorts continued their motions and sat down on the frozen ground. She stared at the boys and began to point at them as if in some way to signal to them or beckon them, and then she proceeded upwards. As she did this and as the boys watched, the squarish craft once more began to return to the area.

The woman, as if this signaling had summoned an Uber, proceeded to get up and walk away towards the general area of the craft. It was around this time and almost perfect timing that a police car had arrived onto the scene and was beginning to drive very close to her, but the nearer the car got to her, the more a peculiar thing began to happen to this entity. She slowly seemed to disappear, vanishing altogether when the vehicle was almost on her. Apparently, the officer on duty did not see her when initially driving or simply could not comprehend the figure and felt it best to drive on but as soon as the car was far enough away, the woman returned to visibility.

The woman entity continued to walk away from the boys, and as she continued to walk away, the boys would later describe, "Parts of her, kept going away - disappearing - and coming back again." The boys continued to watch the woman as she approached a nearby building and, waiting for her to hit the wall or go around the building, watched in amazement as she seemed to phase into the building and ultimately disappear from view. The boys who were more focused on the female entity had almost forgotten all about the eyeless Hawkmen, but when they turned towards the direction of where they were marching, they discovered that they too had disappeared from the area. The group then looked up into the sky, and the UFO was also gone as if it, too, had never been there.

The boys taking in every detail of what they had just seen and now feeling it safe to return home, began to sprint towards the home of John Cummings and, in frantic cries and spasmatic breaths, told the parents all about that which occurred even before the boys entered the home. John's Brother Hilton looked out the window after hearing his brother and friends' cries and noticed that there was a bizarre spinning object with red and yellow lights. The parents, unable to make what had happened but feeling that the boys were telling the truth in what they had seen, proceeded in calling the police and retelling the account over the phone. The police, unsure of what to make of the case, soon got ahold of UFO researchers Budd Hopkins, Ted Bloecher, and Patrick Huyghe, who after arriving in Montvale on February 5^th, interviewed each boy independently and in this manner tried to see if this was some elaborate prank or if the boy's stories matched. They, in this process, determined that the boys were truthful and that all their accounts matched up. The researchers attempting to see if possibly the boys mistook some natural aircraft they called the local airports, specifically the New York Air Traffic Control Center and Newark Airport, and found that no unusual craft or normal craft was supposed to be in the area at that time and date.

Ufology Researchers Patrick Huyghe (Above) and Budd Hopkins (Bottom)

The researchers then investigated the possibility that what the boys saw was nothing more than a bunch of joggers; they proceeded in talking to Officer Pelsang of the Montvale Police Department, who had been on duty the evening the event took place but stated that no joggers were seen. He stated that joggers were rare in Montvale, stating that he had never seen more than two people ever jogging at a time, and stated, "No one jogs after dark. They'd have to be crazy." The officer, however, did feel something of note did occur that day, stating, "Twelve-year old boys don't call the police unless they're really upset about something."

The researchers then felt that perhaps it was not joggers the boy had seen but perhaps neon-colored workers from the Department of Public Works, but when talking to Lewis Bradley of the DPW, he claimed that on that night all workers had gone home around 4:30 that evening and that none were in the yellow uniform the boys claimed to see. The interview apparently struck a nerve with Bradley, who would later wrap up their inquisition with "there are only six men who work here, and I'm the boss. I just finished handing in their time sheets.". Thus, the researchers concluded their investigation. They left Montvale scratching their heads and wondering just what happened in this borough. Budd Hopkins would later write, "It became clear to all three of us by the end of the day that the boys were not perpetrating a hoax” and “The story is interesting but, alas, the amount of value from a case of this kind . . . is doubtful”.

This case is extremely interesting for just how bizarre it is; this account features two kinds of entities, one that seems intent on communicating the others that seem to be engaged in some bizarre military display, interpretive dance, or extraterrestrial exercise. This case reminds me of several others where there is a high concentration of high strangeness of phenomenon that maybe connected/ most certainly is that seems to just come from nowhere and is just downright insane. This case, much like the various others, is a one and done as these ostensibly extraterrestrial entities have never been seen again, at least in connection to UFO-related phenomenon. The faceless woman entity is something that has been reported on occasion but almost always in demonic or haunting-related phenomena.

The overall feel of this case is just like that, as though these entities are some spectral force briefly unleashed and the faceless entities flickeringly disappearing form is something that almost smacks of a non-physical paranormal entity. Yet while it may seem to be this is the case, there are tons of cases, such as the Voronezh aliens, who seem to have some ability either naturally or through technology to be able to disappear at will. So, there is the chance that the faceless female might have had some sort of phasing tech or disappearing tech to help in some way or another.

This account is incredibly bizarre, and very little is written on it, so when it comes to the purpose of the entities seen, all we have to go on is the small bits written and speculation. The entities don't seem to be doing anything meaningful, just some sort of bizarre walking. These aliens are not collecting soil samples or performing some sort of cattle mutilation for scientific purposes; they almost seem to be sightseers, or maybe they simply stopped to stretch their legs on what could be viewed as a universal pit stop. Again, all this is speculation and something we will perhaps never know the true answer to.

This case is incredibly bizarre for how brief it is. There is nothing truly like it and the entities reported are ones that seem indicative of other phenomena rather than the typical extraterrestrial varieties said to visit earth. I think that this case which has several huge researchers attached to it, is more interesting when one thinks of how this case did not become as famous as some of the other weird cases out there like the Pascagoula abductors or the Brooklyn and Long Island Cases. This case could easily be up there with the Hopkinsville Goblins or the Zanfretta Reptilians in range of both infamy or bizarreness, but due to the lack of publication and wide attention, it seemed to of been added to the ever-growing stack of extremely interesting yet hidden cases that only with time seem to be unearthed.

Quick Facts:

Species: Extraterrestrials

Location: Montvale, New Jersey

Sighted: January 31, 1978

Works Cited:

How to Catch a Flying Saucer By James M. Deem

Jersey Devils, Bizarre Beasts, and Other Creatures of Weird NJ By Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran

Deem, James M. “A UFO Possibility in Montvale, New Jersey” James M. Deem. https://jamesmdeem.com/stories.ufo.montvale.html. Accessed September 21, 2021. 

 

Anza-Borrego Desert Lantern Skeleton

 

The Anza-Borrego Desert Lantern Skeleton

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to expeditions in desert environments, there are a lot of things to worry about. From having enough resources to making sure one stays safe are all challenges that can be planned for and worked on with some success. One thing that such pioneers do not anticipate is a colossal skeleton that is seemingly lit up like a macabre living decoration. Yet in the Anza-Borrego Desert of Arizona, that is one such concern those in the area, particularly at night, need to be concerned with.

The story of the Anza-Borrego Desert Lantern Skeleton actually begins with, surprisingly, the mad rush for gold. Throughout the Anza-Borrego desert are several old, abandoned mines and dilapidated shafts that, at one point in American history, people would spend countless hours attempting to find riches beyond their wildest dreams. Now it would appear that during this time, several individuals had managed to lose their lives in the harsh environment of the Anza-Borrego Desert, and it wasn't until after the end of the gold rush that the need and desire to go out into the wilderness and mine practically died out. Searching for the gold, however, to this day is still something some driven individuals choose to do, and it was around this time of resurgence in the search that tales started popping of a bizarre entity roaming the desert and allegedly chasing miners from the area. This phantom seemed to be something entirely different than one would expect to see as an apparition, as one would expect maybe the lost soul of some unfortunate miner as opposed to this nightmarish figure that supposedly roams the mines and sandy terrain.

The First person to witness the bizarre entity was a man by the name of Charley Arizona; he was a desert hand who one night had traveled to the Western edge of the Badlands. He was only four miles from Borrego and had taken several of his donkeys with him as he proceeded in setting up camp. Everything went well that night, and after getting comfortably snug by the fire and making sure his animals were secure in the location, he managed to fall asleep. He remained asleep until the early hours of the morning when he was awoken by a strange sound coming from the distance. The donkeys also woke up after hearing this sound, and they too began behaving antsy as if they could sense that something was extremely wrong. Charley stood up and armed himself, half expecting to find someone enter his camp. He peered around the area, and there out in a certain spot of desert some distance away was a bright glow that seemed to be moving. His initial thought seeing this is that perhaps some man was lost in the mountains and seeing his campfire was working his way over. The shadowy figure did seem to Charley to becoming closer towards his site, and he waited, waving his arms to try to flag down the potentially lost traveler.

As Charley looked, however, he could tell that something didn't seem right; the figure seemed to be very tall, bigger than him at least, and that the light seemed to be much higher up as well and burned with an intensity that he thought could not have been a traditional torch or lantern. The figure continued to move drunkenly around, and as he listened, he could hear a sick metallic thud as the figure stepped and a bizarre sound he could not place as if several pieces of wood were being smacked together. He stopped waving and stared at his soon-to-be visitor, but when the figure got within 200 yards, it was close enough for him to get a good look at the stranger; his blood ran cold. There walking towards him, was a creature that could only be described as a colossal skeleton, its form being over 8ft tall. It was from this skeletal frame that the sound came from the wood sound was really the sound of bones connecting reacting to its environment. This would have been terrifying enough, but as he stared, he realized that the creature did not have a torch or lantern in its hand but there hanging in the creature's chest swinging back and forth was a kind of lantern that appeared to be connected by some manner to the ribcage. The glow of the light illuminated the entire form, including the creature's eyes which shined so brightly they looked like they were on fire. This living Halloween decoration proceeded in walking towards Charley's camp, and all Charley could do was stare in pure terror, unable to move or ready himself for defense. As the creature was only a couple feet from the campsite, it seemed to not notice the man standing watching it. The creature's colossal footsteps continued past the man and past his site, and Charley regaining his mobility, turned his head to watch the creature meander its way beyond the site and eventually completely disappear from behind a row of rocks some distance away.

About two years later, two other would-be prospectors had decided to go out and search for gold in the desert. It was getting late in the day after the two had been traversing the dusty terrain the entire day, and they, much like Charley, had decided to set up camp in a rocky outcropping in the desert. It was getting late, and the two had been enjoying their dinner by the campfire when they noticed a glowing light with a shadowy skeletal shape shimmering in the darkness. One of the witnesses, having heard the rumors of the giant skeleton, had begun getting up, proclaiming to the other that they had to get out of here or the entity might harm them. The other prospector, more levelheaded, simply told his friend to sit down and that all that the light was, was the reflective glow of the fire on nearby rocks. The friend, however, felt that the glow was too high off the ground and that the skeletal frame did not seem to match what his partner proposed but unable to stir him to leave, he settled back down and stayed up the entire night waiting for the entity to return.

A year later, another man out in around the same location and in almost an identical set of circumstances also would claim to of seen the entity traveling back into town; the witness told of the illuminated ghost at Vallecito Station, and their encounter and the legend of the lantern ghost spread like wildfire. Countless would-be monster hunters and curious sightseers traveled to the desert in search of the eerie glow and the phantom that appears with it. On the third night of one such hunt, on one occasion, a group of monster hunters had happened upon seeing a bizarre glowing object seemingly walking in the same awkwardly stumbling manner that the apparition allegedly had been known for. They followed this skeletal figure for about three miles, one man even attempting to take a shot at the entity until they eventually lost sight of the creature once it ended up in a particularly deep valley.

Modern Sightings of this particular phantom are nonexistent, and this could be because of the lack of prospectors and gold miners as opposed to in the past. Without this scourge of would be fortune seekers, the entity has no reason to scare or warn people away from the location anymore. Yet even before the dawn of the 21^st-century, sightings of this anatomical apparition seemed to dwindle; maybe it was the effect of such encounters or perhaps it was some mandatory reaction to some natural event we may never know the answer but tales of the colossal skeleton while sightings are no longer reported still exist in a variety of books and media, but it is from this varying sources that may be a bit of either confusion or evidence of the truth behind the case might have been revealed.

When this case hit the books chronicling Fortean studies, two things became very clear, the first being that there was either some confusion when transcribing these accounts or two that these accounts were pure folklore created to keep people out of the desert. One of the elements of confusion or mis-recording is that most sources claim that the entity is from Anza Borrego, Arizona and that the entity frequently haunts the area from the Superstition Mountains to the Seventeen Palms. This version of the legend states that the entity was once a prospector who worked the Phantom Mine and apparently died protecting the site. This version of the tale appears in Reader’s Digest’s American Folklore and Legend, Barton M. Nunnelly’s The Inhumanoids, and Neil Arnold’s Monster! The A-Z of Zooform Phenomena. However, in another area of the West in California, the legend has been reported there as well with the same accounts being used the area that the spirit is said to roam in the Borrego Badlands and that it frequents an area known as Supernatural Hill; this account shows up in Mysterious California By Mike Marinacci. In Mysterious California, the account and identity of the apparition are often interconnected with another local legend known as the lost Pegleg Smith's gold mine. This gold mine was allegedly located somewhere in the Borrego Badlands, and that this entity was one of the prospectors who went searching for it after dying in the desert his body was completely picked clean by the wildlife, and so his spirit took the form of a colossal skeleton as he continues his search for the gold and also to scare away any in the area. Realistically I think that there was just some misinterpretation when it came to chronicling the source; it happens surprisingly frequently, but there's also a more folkloric explanation for this as well.

A less fun take on this is that both areas have the same stories to fit their alternative lost gold mines legends. I say that this is less fun because this spawns off down the trail of folklore and not into a potentially real encounter. There is an Anthropological phenomenon where cultures that are essentially non-connected create stories and archetypes that are almost identical now; this phenomenon grows and changes, especially with the use of technology, so there is the chance that that is what we see here.

With that said, this apparition is very different than typical entities reported, even those of a skeletal nature. The sheer size of the entity alone is far different than one would expect since ghosts, typically at least from what is reported, tend to maintain the size they were when alive another thing is typically ghosts do not have objects inside them unless that was part of the item that killed them. This entity almost seems like it made either the practical or fashionable choice to put the lantern inside itself, something that if this is the case means we would really need to reassess the can and cants of what spirits are able to do.

My final thoughts on this case are much like most paranormal entities. I want it to be a true creature that stalks the deserts scaring people that come too close, yet I wonder why we don't have more constant reports from the area. A search for Spook Lights in the area almost always turns up more UFO-style events over the area and not something like a glowing humanoid form or even an amorphous ball some 4 to 6 feet off the ground. While some could argue that without the drive, there would be no need for the entity to manifest, or perhaps it found the treasure it so longed for putting the apparition at rest, there's no guarantee for this and its mere speculation. Ghost entities are perhaps the most frustrating bunch of paranormal entities out there for most of the time, they're very human in their motives and behaviors, whereas other times they seem to be doing things that are kind of pointless it makes investigations of the phenomenon more accessible as opposed to bigfooting or UFO hunting where you need to be in the right place at the right time. Ghosts are everywhere, and some are supposedly trapped in locations, so the same should be said for this entity; we should have modern reports of something unless this entity is not a ghost but some other bizarre Fortean phenomenon that we don't even have a name for yet. Perhaps there are reports of this entity, and people are unaware of the legend giving them no reason to report or even a frame of reference, or perhaps there are witnesses, but because of the stigma of such sightings, they do not report on them, all of which if true is understandable. Yet, I have a feeling there won't be a follow-up anytime soon for this case even though it is truly fascinating even though it has a lantern; an answer or further details to this mystery will have to for now remain in the dark.

Artwork of Entity from Reader's Digest's American Folklore and Legend

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Apparition

Location: the Superstition Mountains to the Seventeen Palms, Anza-Borrego Desert, Borrego, Arizona or Borrego Badlands, Borrego Springs, California

Sighted: Unspecified

Works Cited:

American Folklore and Legend By Readers Digest

The Inhumanoids By Barton M. Nunnelly

Monster! The A-Z of Zooform Phenomena By Neil Arnold

Mysterious California: Strange Places and Eerie Phenomena in the Golden State By Mike Marinacci

Pegleg Smith's Gold. Desert USA. https://www.desertusa.com/treasure/lost/pegleg-gold.html. Accessed September 18, 2021.

 

Eerie Erie Sheepman of Waterford

 The Eerie Erie Sheepman of Waterford

By Cole Herrold

Half-human creatures are a constant occurrence in the worlds of Cryptozoology, Ufology, Demonology, and other Fortean studies. Some are constantly pegged into their appropriate categories, whereas others seem to cross the boundaries forming new and difficult to determine classifications. Bigfoot, for example, is generally accepted to be a large unknown ape that resides in the forested regions of the state, yet there are some reports where bigfoot is in fact either directly or coincidentally connected to UFOs or other anomalous phenomena. Other creatures like dogmen, frogmen, fishmen, and lizardmen are regularly reported, and some do teeter in that gray Keelian world of joint phenomenon. But of all the unknown creatures out there, there is one that has brought many to the brink of terror and, in some cases, their own demise and ventures of into both a cryptozoological, Fortean and demonological phenomenon. This unknown group of creatures is referred to as Goatmen.

Goatmen are a peculiar bunch of creatures that exist almost universally around the United States, the most famous cases being the Maryland Goatman and the Pope Lick Monster. These creatures are described as humanoid in form, typically 6-7ft tall with features reminiscent of goat-like horns and hooved feet. These creatures are a mixed bagged phenomenon as they are researched by folklorists, Cryptozoologists, and paranormal investigators. These creatures are considered extremely aggressive some varieties have supposedly been known to carry axes or lure individuals to perilous locations. These creatures are also reported to attack cars, pets, and livestock, leaving dismantled corpses or bloodless bodies behind.

While reading J. Nathan Couch’s book Goatman: Flesh or Folklore? I stumbled upon one particular beast I had never heard of and was very near in location to me. This creature was tucked away in a short chapter called "The Pennsylvania Sheepman". The creature was described in very much the same universal way as the classic Goatman type figure, yet to me, it was interesting as it added another feather in Pennsylvania's already remarkably gaudy cryptid hat.

Waterford is a small town located in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Waterford has a rich early history predating both the English and French arriving in the US. The site where Waterford now stands was at one point a Native American village. The area had some remnants of this previous civilization all the way up to the 1860s. The area was home to two forts created by the French, and a wagon road was developed that interconnected the two. This fort and roadway led to an increase in commerce, which eventually helped build the town. The area had a rich history, some violent and some peaceful between settlers and the native inhabitants. In fact, the first death that occurred on the land was of a boy by the name of Rutledge, who died of wounds from a native American skirmish in 1795.  Waterford today is a sleepy town, not unlike the vast majority of towns and boroughs that exist around the country, has a current population of 1,517 and possibly one sheepish citizen.

The Pennsylvania Sheepman or the Sheepman of Waterford is a beast that made its debut in the town in the70s. America, it seemed, was reaching an all-time high at this point in weird creature sightings, including those of Goatmen like beasts, and Pennsylvania was no stranger to such beasts. Trying to research information about this peculiar creature is very difficult as a lot of sightings were not reported to the police or any other media source. All documented knowledge of the creature comes from later accounts, particularly in October of 2012 when such tales tend to be reestablished by local sources. Before that point, however, the tales of the beast were spread orally in the town's schoolyards and playgrounds and homes, spoken only just above a whisper to keep the beast at bay.

The vast majority of this enigmatic entity's sightings occurred on what is known as the Waterford Covered Bridge or, as it's known locally, the Old Kissing Bridge, which is located on Niemeyer Road. The creature is said to frequent this location, and some of the most violent encounters have been reported to of occurred by this hoofed hooligan. The most famous being a tale told by Herb Kinney, who had a friend who would come face to face with the monster one rainy night. His account would be included in both J. Nathan Couch's Book as well as an article entitled "The Legend of the Sheepman of Waterford, PA" found on the now-defunct Examiner.com website. Attempting to find the original article proves impossible as the site now is linked to a website that sells concert tickets.

Herb Kinney’s friend was out one summer night enjoying a nice little drive with another individual he knew. The night was growing darker as the two traversed down the old road in his dark blue ford mustang convertible. The sky began to swarm with an amass of clouds, and as the two reached a certain point in their journey, the heavens wept. The rain was beating down on the young men's heads due to the fact that the two decided that since it was such a nice night to drive around with the top down a decision, they would most certainly regret it. Herb's friend saw the possible air of protection from the elements in the Old Kissing Bridge and proceeded to go and drive inside. Putting the car in park, the pair left the vehicle and began to lift and adjust the collapsed roof back into place.

 It was at that moment that the sounds of heavy footfalls emanated from the bridge. The two men, probably thinking it was some kind Samaritan who noticed their plight or someone who was annoyed by their halted presence on the bridge, began to turn around unperturbed by the sounds. As the men turned, they realized that this was by no means something that seemed heaven-sent but something that to them seemed to of ascended from the bowels of Old Scratch's lair. The two men stared at this strange anomaly taking in the foul apparition in every detail. The creature was a 6-7ft tall beast covered in wet, dank grayish-white hair on its body, and atop its head, the beast was adorned with large, curled horns like a goat or rams. Its maw was adorned with long sharp carnivorous fangs, and the beast walked upright on hairy goat-like haunches, and its human-like hands were adorned with long sharp claws. Before the duo could even comprehend the strange caprine creature that clambered before them, the beast began to rush toward the men. Herb's friend reached out as he was assaulted by the beast hitting and smacking the creature until it let go. The two rushed back to the safety of their car, but the creature was in hot pursuit. The creature continued its aggravated assault on the top of the vehicle beating its fists and scratching its claws on the roof of the car. The friends struggled to get the car moving, but in a quick motion, the engine roared to life, and the two sped out of the bridge, leaving their unknown attacker behind as it unleashed a series of guttural sheep like sounds.

 The two returned to town, and Herb's friend returned home. He sat in his car for a second, his eyes reeling from the ghastly horror show he was plunged into and, with a sigh of relief, got out of the car. His roof, which was the whole reason for his pause in coming home, was decimated, its frame bent, and rooftop clawed and beaten. He went inside and told his parents all about his encounter with the horned hellion on the bridge. The parents proceeded to go outside and see the carnage. When Herb's friend said about calling the police, the two adults looked down at their offspring and said that nothing of the sort would happen. The idea of their son's brush with the goateed nightmare to them would be embarrassing and not something they would want to be advertised in town. So, the story stayed quiet until Herb would recount his friends' perilous encounter with the beast some thirty-forty years later.

This account is by far the most aggressive and detailed account of the Sheepman in the very scant cases on it. In several sources, there are claims of over one hundred sightings of this creature from the sixties to at least 2012. Yet finding anything about a vast majority of these other sightings has proven fruitless. This tends to be the case with a lot of cryptid sightings, though. For everyone sighting of a strange animal, chances are there are another ten that goes unreported partially out of fear of ridicule and partially out of a lack of places to submit an encounter. While the internet now has countless sites where people can submit their reports like Phantoms and Monsters, Cryptopia, BFRO, Singular Fortean, and with us now at the New World Explorers Society. Back in the seventies and sixties, while there are countless UFO newsletters, magazines, and bulletins, monster or cryptid encounters really only got reported to individual investigators, police, or the local newspapers. These options go back to the reason’s reports went unwritten.

While cases of the Sheepman are difficult to come across, Herb's friend is not the only one to claim to come into contact with this malicious faun. A woman named Marilyn had actually seen the satyr on more than one occasion. Marilyn claimed to grow up on Baghdad Road, which is another area that is a hotspot for Sheepman sightings. Some claim the Sheepman lives in a cave located along the road. Her accounts are interesting, for while they lack the sensationalism that Herb's friend experience, these accounts point to something more biological in origin as opposed to some heinous beast. Marilyn had claimed that she had seen this allegedly horned beast crossing the road twice in her lifetime. The second and most recent sighting occurred on one dark night as she had just pulled into her long stretch of driveway when there in front of her a gray form sprinted in front of the car it looked at her as it ran and without stopping returned to the wild wilderness it called home.

In my research on the subject, I came across one other scant account that appeared on The Pennsylvania Rambler of a boy named Eric who claimed one night to of encountered a tall and hairy beast with horns under the Old Kissing Booth who the boys whom the author of the article heard the account from claimed lived under the structure to come out at night to harass those on the bridge and nearby woods. This account is probably the most recent account if authentic, but the boys who regaled the author with the story also made claim Eric was drunk at the time of his sighting.

Another witness called Sally B. said that the Sheepman had lived along an old dirt road near her family’s farm. She claimed that the creature was part man part sheep much like the other cases reported yet in a strange turn of events claimed that the beast also carried a hook that it would use to scare people out of the areas it would call home as well as presumedly kill anyone it could get its hairy hands on.

This last report tends to shred some of the authenticity of the creature. Goatmen type creatures are often discussed by folklorists for the fact that in many ways, they behave and enact in many of the same or similar manners as other urban legends such as the Hookman or Cropsy. These figures are essentially immortal serial killers rumored to come out of their wooded locals to kill and frighten teenagers stupid enough to venture or make love in their areas. The Maryland Goatman case has many of these same attributes, including coming out to accost teenagers making out in cars. The Maryland Goatman is said to attack vehicles, pets, and teens with a large hatchet or ax. The Pope Lick Monster of Louisville is another supposed ax and lantern wielding Goatman that lurks atop a train trestle. Many who have climbed the trestle either led by the siren song of the beast or by their own curiosity have actually lost their lives, making it a legend with actual danger. These ax wielders are not dissimilar to the Sheepman and his hook in this respect. In Massachusetts and New York, legends of Cropsy and the Hookman reign supreme, and in the legend of the Hookman, the story goes that he was an escaped mental patient who had a hook for a hand and would come out to attack lovers, usually scaring them by scraping his hook along the side of their car. The Pennsylvania Sheepman, in this way, seems to be a weird barrier between the two areas of legends. This makes this creature more than just a physical chimera but a folkloric one.

Another element that seems to point to something folkloric as opposed to Cryptozoological or paranormal is an anonymous email claiming to know the origin of the Sheepman. Paranormal researcher and folklorist Heidi Kirclich LaDow received this email from a local after she was investigating the legend of the beast. The email goes as follows:

“I will let you know that the Sheepman story, as far as I know, started in the vocational agriculture student's heads, and the fable grew until the general public adopted it as a local legend. I heard of Sheepman in the 1970, and as a seventh grader it awed me and others. [the story was] that a man could have sex with a sheep [and produce a sheep-man]. What started as a dirty little story grew into a small town legend. I ain’t telling no more!”

This email is not an original idea. Many times, in the world of folklore, there are countless beasts that were supposedly the offspring of man and animal. In Greek culture, for example, the god Zeus in the form of a great white bull seduced Minos's wife Europa, and the two in a union produced an offspring which would become known as the Minotaur. Many times, in folklore, the idea of two totally separate species producing an offspring is common in places where cryptids are reported. There are several ideas of separate species like alligators and a monkey crossbreeding to form the creature that is seen or terrorizing the area. While we know this is a ridiculous idea, it is not unheard of for separate species to create offspring ligers, zonkeys, and mules; for example, are some common varieties that zoos or sideshows would purposefully create. In human history, our species co-bred with other hominids like Denisovans and Neanderthals resulting in the wide genetic diversity we have today as a species. There even was an attempt at one point where a scientist had tried to create an ape-human hybrid by inseminating a woman with orangutan semen. The results were unsuccessful but possible. There are even reports of the Almas Zana who supposedly had given birth to a half-human half Almas offspring in Russia. Now a man breeding with a sheep, however, is an entirely different ballgame and not possible to occur.

While the Sally B. account does match and points towards a more folkloric kind of beast, Marilyn and Herb's friends' accounts, if authentic, definitely point to something other than the oral traditions that all cultures share. What this creature or creatures could be, those are difficult to determine. Most Cryptozoologists often lump these kinds of reports in with Bigfoot cases as bigfoot is frequently known to attack cars and the sprinting type figure is a common behavior described by witnesses. While Marilyn's account is rather vague as she described it simply as a dark gray form that streaked across the road, so there is the possibility she did see a bigfoot like creature. Herb's friend, even though it's told from a secondhand source however seems to point to something entirely different his liminal space Sleepy Hollow-esque account is something that clearly depicts a half-human half goat-like beast and not a traditional bigfoot like creature. With that said, what could this creature be?

A bear or bigfoot would be the most likely explanation for this creature seeing as the height would be about the same as the creature seen, and it wouldn't take much to think that in the darkness that a bear's ears could be in the right light look like horns. The problem with this hypothesis, though, is, of course, that while bears will walk upright if their front paws are injured, they do not have the fluid movement as seen in creatures that are described as walking bipedally. As sasquatch would be the next possibility, but again there's nothing that would appear as horns on a bigfoot, and while it may be the answer to a select amount of sightings, it cannot be the answer to the creature Herb's friend reported.

One cryptid that does bear a striking resemblance to the Goatman is the Sheepsquatch. These creatures are almost a direct match for the beast seen in Waterford. The color, height, fangs, horns, aggressive behavior are all features that are the same as the Sheepsquatch. Now one feature that is reported in some Sheepsquatch accounts is that of a possum-like tail, but a tail is something not described in any of the accounts. Another possibly misleading aspect that could point to a different kind of creature is Goatman accounts typically are described as a thin creature, not a big hulking monstrosity like what is seen typically in Sheepsquatch accounts.

The idea of a Goatman type creature as an undiscovered species is unlikely but of all the hypothetical answers seems to be one of the only possibilities that could explain biologically what this creature could be. True, there is no evidence for such a creature in the fossil record, but at one possible point in our history, the ancestors of sheep were carnivores. Andrewsarchus was a large animal found in China, which has some debate around it. This animal was at one point believed to be the ancestor of sheep, but some are thinking it could be related to whales.  If the original hypothetical origin is correct, though, it is possible that this could be the great grandfather of the Goatman. As evolution would take its course, the creature’s ability to stand upright for a short period could turn into longer and longer periods and ultimately freeing up the front paws, which could extend the phalanges to the point of fingers. Resulting in what we now know as Goatman and even possibly Sheepsquatch. Yet, as with everything when it comes to hypothesizing this kind of phenomenon, the evidence for this is basically nonexistence.

Interestingly this is not the only time PA has seen a strange goat hybrid beast. A group of sightings from late summer of 1973 of a strange creature described as a goat horned, white-maned, tiger fanged, bipedal beast was seen attacking Amish farms. This creature was seen rampaging from farm-to-farm, devouring wooden tools and grabbing geese with its hands, which it later threw at a brave Amish woman who pursued the beast. J. Nathan Couch hypothesizes in his book that this creature could very much be the same beast and that it managed to move from Erie to the southern section of the state where these sightings took place.

Another article argues that this creature might, in fact, be extinct or if it was a singular entity dead, seeing as how the average life span of a sheep is around a decade. This to the author could explain why sightings after the 1970s were essentially nonexistent. This is interesting if accurate because if this animal is advanced in every other element as it seems to be, it would be unique for it to maintain this primitive aging quality.

A demon is a common answer for this mystery for a lot of people who have researched this phenomenon. While the Sheepman of Waterford does seem to be a physical entity in many regards' creatures like the Pope Lick Monster appear as something more phantasmagorical. Supposedly many mediums have linked these creatures to the infernal realms or as negative entities whose only goal is to kill and destroy humans. I personally do not agree with this assertion into this phenomenon as a lot of our depictions of demons are the culmination of the church taking various cultures' gods and spirits and converting them into the cloven-hooved beasts we see now. While I suppose it is not outrageous for maybe if these spawns of the dark one do exist that one or a few of them could look like a Goatman.

The final possibility is that what is seen is something like a faun, Pan, or satyr. In Greece, there were several myths of half-human half-goat animal and nature spirits. These creatures were a paradox as they were loud, rowdy creatures that would have sexual encounters with humans and have drunken bouts with the god of wine Dionysus but also passive, peaceful creatures who would play music on the panpipes and walk peacefully in the woods. The leader of the satyrs and fauns was the god Pan who could create a sound that would result in humans running away in absolute terror hence the origin of the word panic. These creatures are tied into the faerie world and folklore of a variety of European cultures, and some Fortean researchers believe that some reports of cervine and caprine type humanoids could be these creatures returning to our world to either protect nature or some other as yet undetermined reason.

While I'm open to the idea for a lot of creatures to exist, the Sheepman seems to me to be a heavy mixture of folklore and some potentially real encounters with an as of yet unknown animal. Just what that animal is, is to be debated. It seems that all the answers to what this creature could be are shrouded in mystery. Unfortunately, most of the accounts we do have are from secondhand sources or from online interviews, emails, and comments, so trying to interview the witnesses even more thoroughly is almost impossible. This creature, if real, would be an evolutionary discovery that could change the fabric of what we know about the ancestry of a variety of creatures and how evolutionary change occurs. Yet there are too many folkloric variables to ignore as well and this, of course, just pushes this creature deeper into the shadows of fable and out of the light of science. But perhaps someday we will find the answer to this mystery down Baghdad Road.

 Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal/Hominid/Primate

Location: Waterford, Erie County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Throughout 1970s

Works Cited

Couch, J. Nathan. Goatman: Flesh or Folklore?. CreateSpace Independent Publishing. 2014.

Styn, Rebecca. “Eerie Erie: Seven Tales to be Told After Dark” Erie Reader. October 17, 2012. https://www.eriereader.com/article/eerie-erie-. Accessed December 23, 2020.

Wanna See Something Weird?. February 7^th, 2019. https://cryptids-of-the-world.tumblr.com/post/182627376451/the-waterford-sheepman-is-a-goat-like-creature. Accessed December 22^nd, 2020.

Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society.http://fortleboeufhistory.com/about/waterford-erie-county-pa/. Accessed December 22^nd, 2020.

“Andrewsarchus”. https://walkingwith.fandom.com/wiki/Andrewsarchus. Accessed December 22^nd, 2020.

“Weirdness in Waterford”, The Pennsylvania Rambler. August 5, 2018. https://thepennsylvaniarambler.com/2018/08/05/weirdness-in-waterford/. Accessed December 22^nd, 2020.

The Cookie Monster

 

The Cookie Monster

By Cole Herrold

It was during October of 1972 when a family would have a nightmare experience with a large hairy creature on their property. The creature frequented their property, frequently peering from the nearby woodlands at their home. The family apparently felt the beast was nothing inherently dangerous as it seemed to simply be curious of the family and would always keep its distance. The children of the household felt that the creature bore a resemblance to a classic children's program character, and soon, everyone in the family came to call the creature the Cookie Monster. While the household felt that the beast was not a hazard to their health, they had ultimately let their guard down whenever the creature was around. This, however, would change when on one particular night, as they returned home late, they heard the sound of yelping from the back of their house.

The family drove up to their driveway and there sprinted out a large hairy creature. The Cookie Monster was coming right at them. The family stopped the car, and the beast began grabbing the car lifting it up and attempted to shake it from side to side. The family was absolutely terrified, trying to cower in their seats from the massive hulking man-beast. The creature continued this for some time before ultimately dropping the car and running off into the woods. The family waited in the car as the creature left from sight. The parents could hear the children cry in the back and attempted to calm them. This took some doing, but ultimately this was succeeded enough that the parents felt that they could keep them safe from attracting the creature's further wrath. The family waited in the car just a little bit longer as a way to guarantee that the creature had left the area.

The family slowly opened the door to their car and began to meander their way towards the safety of the house. As the family worked their way towards the door, they could hear a slight whine. The family huddled close together, expecting the worse, thinking perhaps the creature had gone and did a U-turn in the woods coming around on the other side of the property. The group looked cautiously at the forest but soon realized that the sound was coming down low to the ground. The family looked near the porch, and there was the family dog. The family called to the animal to try to get him to approach, but it would not. The father soon began to approach the animal but as soon as he saw the four-legged member of the family proceeded to tell the family to get into the house. The wife seeing the seriousness in her husband's face, escorted the children back inside. The father continued to be bent over the animal, slowly trying to pick it up.

He hollered to his wife that he had to run to the Veterinarians Office fast, and as she came out, she could tell why. The animal was severely mauled to the point that it was almost ripped in two. The father began to slowly lift the dog up, trying to keep the creature's intestines inside as best he could, and slowly worked his way back to the now dented vehicle. The man gingerly put the animal down in the back and, hopping into the front seat, began to drive out towards the closest veterinarian. The Vet stared in horror at the extensive damage done to the animal and instantly began trying to save the animal's life. This was unfortunately not to be the case, and the animal died on the operating table.

It is unknown after this terrifying ordeal whether the family continued to have experiences with the Cookie Monster, but clearly, none would have rivaled the violent assault of that October night in 1972. However, I am sure that while there may not have been a continuation of sightings, the family was much more cautious around their property, especially at night. The Cookie Monster, unlike other Bigfoot cases, is one version of the phenomenon that I certainly would not like to encounter, for it is perhaps the most aggressive PA bigfoot I've ever come across, and I shudder to think of what would have happened to a person as opposed to the family's dog.

Species/Potential Species: Hominid/Primate

Location: Champion, Somerset County/Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: October 1972

Works Cited:

Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology By Michael Newton

Humanoid Encounters: 1970-1974- the Others Amongst Us By Albert S. Rosales

Strange Pennsylvania Monsters By Michael Newton

The Fetalvero Mermaid

 

The Fetalvero Mermaid

By Cole Herrold

Merfolk are a surprisingly common phenomenon in Fortean history; most accounts are held in antiquity, appearing in tales from the beginning of when man sailed the seas. Yet, these aquatic anomalies are not solely confined to the musty journal ledgers of pirates and conquistadors but have occurred up to modern time. Many of these encounters are not like how Disney portrays the phenomenon as these creatures tend to be aggressive at best-chasing humans and at worst drowning them, but in the Philippines, an entirely benevolent version of this creature was reported and that it not only was pleasant but even aided in the work of a local fisherman.

It was in the summer of 1978 when successful fisherman Jacinto Fetalvero It was on a moonlit night as the maritime man was out fishing on his boat attempting to acquire an aquatic bounty that would help him not only feed himself but also help him financially. He had been struggling for some time as he had no real luck with fishing of late. The area he knew was filled with fish, but for whatever reason, they refused to bite onto his lines. On this particular night, he was waiting on his boat rod in hand when he noticed a strange bubbling out further in the water.

Fetalvero continued to watch this churning until he noticed a form that seemed to slowly rise out of the water; as he watched this form, he expected it to be some naturally large native fish or even a shark, but the more he looked, the more he realized that this was not a typical fish. The form soon began to approach his boat, and as he watched, he could see the form clearer and clearer and could tell that this creature was nothing less fantastic than a mermaid. The mermaid was absolutely beautiful, and he would go and describe her as having “amiable blue eyes, reddish cheeks, and green scales on her tail."

The entity approached the man and, seemingly out of either pity, attraction, or some other mindset we do not know, began in helping the man in acquiring a hoard of fish which it would throw into the man’s boat. This continued until his entire boat was filled with the sloshing and flailing forms of countless fish. The entity, seemingly pleased with how the man reacted to its aid, began to return deep down into the water, disappearing from the man's sight. The man, no longer seeing the creature, left the area leaving his newfound marine friend behind, and began to clean and sell the various wares. This interaction seemed to of gone on for some time, and Fetalvero gained some noticeable wealth from this aquatic aid.

Fetalvero eventually, either from being pressed for how he suddenly became so successful or out of his own willingness to share his experience, proceeded to tell several people about his encounter with the marine maiden. The result was unfortunate, to say the least. His story became the talk of the town as everyone began to talk of his encounters, but instead of praise or acceptance, he was treated with disdain and ridicule. This occurred for a long time until Fetalvero ended up refusing to talk about his encounter and assumedly became a recluse because of this.

While Fetalvero assumedly never had an encounter with the entity after this time, but the Philippines are no stranger to this phenomenon. The Philippines have a long-standing tradition of mermaid-like creatures known as Sirena; these entities are similar to the classic Greek Siren in that they are said to be violent creatures that drown and hypnotize men, yet the terror of those who would befall those captured by a Sirena would not end there. The Sirena apparently have a culture, and legends claim that a sailor who is captured would be taken down to the kingdoms that they live in and would be sacrificed to the Sirena's water deities.

Now while there is a rich history of mermaid lore in the Philippines, the Fetalvero account appears to be very different from what the lore says the entities are supposed to behave. While there is no clear indication as to whether the creature could communicate, it does appear to be intelligent enough that it might have human or above human intelligence. If this is the case, the creatures possibly have developed some sort of empathy or other emotions, and in this one particular case, the merfolk showed this as opposed to following the behavior of its swimming sisters.

As a huge fan of faerie folk and the coexistence of the humanoids we share our planet with, this encounter is extremely interesting and one of the few times I could argue it would not be an entirely bad thing to meet a mermaid. With that said, it is important to remain skeptical as this account could have been some elaborate Scooby-Doo style cover-up to possibly some illegal or hazardous fishing methods or simply some story that was created to give Fetalvero some fame in the town. Yet I cannot deny that this account could also have occurred as stated the area is rich with aquatic humanoid lore and also with the constant stream of reports from around the globe of these kinds of entities that there is a chance that this account and the phenomenon, in general, is real.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal/Fish/Amphibian

Location: Philippines

Sighted: pre-September 1978

Works Cited:

A Bestiary of Filipino Fairies By Mga Engkanto

The Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology By Maximo Ramos

Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Physical Phenomena By Jerome Clark

Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena By Jerome Clark

Ghost Werewolf of Northumberland County

 

Ghost Werewolf of Northumberland County

By Cole Herrold

During the span of the 1800s, a ton of bizarre accounts occurred. These accounts are filled with all manner of creatures, from yellow-skinned horned creatures to merfolk. One of the most prevalent creature accounts were reports of hairy upright dogs that seemingly were supernatural in origin. These entities, known colloquially as werewolves, have a tradition beyond time, and memorial tales of these entities can be traced all the way back to ancient Greece with tales of King Lycaon. Most of these accounts describe a human either condemned to shift in form from a man to a wolf-type creature. Other versions of this transformative beast describe a deal with the devil for power. These accounts were prominent in Europe, but when people immigrated to America, tales of werewolves came with them. These accounts unsurprisingly managed to continue on in Pennsylvania. The most famous case of a werewolf in Pennsylvania is sometimes known as the Line Mountain Werewolf or the Northumberland Werewolf, but this lycanthrope is different from other cases as it not only features a horrific shapeshifter but also the existence of the creature after its death.

During some time in the 1800s, May Paul, a 12-year-old farm girl who lived in the Schwaben Valley in Northumberland County. May, due to the fact that she lived on a farm in the country, had several chores that were more than just important for her to do. One of these tasks was to watch and tend over the sheep that her family had for the sole purpose of sheering for wool. This wool helped clothe as well as pay for the necessary supplies that the family needed to make it through each day. The area around the farm was not fenced in, and there was not a neighbor for miles, so oftentimes, she would take the herd and travel around looking for ideal patches of grass for the animals to graze in. Now while there were large areas of pasture, it was bordered by dark, secluded shadow shrouded woodland, and there in the woodland area lived a local hermit.

The hermit was very much disliked in town, and the man tended to keep to himself as he lived in a shanty shack in the forest. Now the man had no contact with just about anyone on the outside, but he did slowly develop a relationship with May. Now this relationship was nothing intimate, the two barely spoke a word to each other, but they did share some company on the times when the man would leave the dark embrace of the forest and would sit on a set of fallen logs that appeared as a natural fence from his property to hers. The man would watch the girl as she worked, and this would continue for the entire day until she ultimately would return home with her livestock.

May, as the time went on, soon started to speak to the man, and he would be both respectful to her and talk to her admiringly. The hermit and her continued to do this for some time until, eventually, the two became very close and ultimately became friends. The man was relatively new to the area, and even though Mary and him were close, the townsfolk could not help but gossip about the man. The people were extremely concerned for unlike May, who spent time talking to the man, so all they could think was that this man was outside of the natural order of what they felt was normal in their world. They knew not the man's name, where he lived, what he did for a living, and so the townsfolk were very suspicious about this man.

The townsfolk, however, while curious about the man, had other fish to fry as their area had been besieged around the same time as the man arrived a huge mass death of livestock in the area. The animals were torn apart, their flesh chewed and gnawed as though some large predator had come through the land decimating all that was in its way. The townsfolk expected the usual predators, mountain lions, bears, coyotes, but as time went on, they had their answer. Over the course of several nights, many of the farmers heard the eerie sound of their animals being slaughtered they would run out, and there standing near the bleeding husk of their livelihood, was an incredibly large wolf. This wolf which appeared to be the leader, was not alone as several other smaller wolves were also running around aiding its siege on the farms. The townsfolk were obviously concerned, and they seemed to be unable to stop this onslaught.

It was around this time that whispers of gossip became combined, and the memory of werewolves flashed in everyone’s mind. The townsfolk soon returned to the old hermit and felt that it was odd that the old man and the wolves seemed to of occurred at the same time. This connection was added to when it broke that the Hermit and May had a kind of friendship and that her livestock were the only ones spared from wolves assault. Rumors spread; some felt he was a witch, causing a curse on the area. Others felt that the old man himself might have been a lycanthrope. The villagers became on guard for the man, and word of the rumors reached May's parents.

One night when May arrived home from grazing her cattle, her parents were waiting for her. The group entered the farmhouse, and her parents strongly urged her to cease her friendship with the old man. The girl, however, could not see how the sweet old man that she befriended was the monster that the rumors seemed to indicate, and so she continued their friendship. May, however, could not shake the rumors from town and had information that the others knew not. She did have some experiences with the wolves in the area. On several occasions during the day when out her herd had been encircled by wolves, their forms skittering between the trees in the tree line. They were circling her and ready to pounce on multiple times. May had gotten her herding staff ready to protect herself and her livestock on multiple occasions as she waited for the worse, but she thankfully never had to. The wolves always would slink back and then disappear as if startled or spooked by something she was unaware of, and then almost instantly after that point, the old man would come from the woods.

These carnivorous attacks would occur for some years after they began, and no wolf hunt seemed to stop the almost coordinated assault. All the while, May and the old man continued to be friends, and her sheep remained unblighted by the creatures. All this would change, however, when one dark night, a tired old farmer had arisen from sleep after hearing the sound of something large in his barn. The old farmer grabbed a rifle and lantern and headed out towards the barn to investigate the sound. The farmer started to move the heavy doors and as he peered into the darkness with a lantern in hand and there in the barn was a huge grizzled grey wolf. The wolf began to charge towards the farmer; the old man could not even get the rifle to his shoulder by the time the creature was in front of him. The old man braced himself for the worst expecting the long fangs to pierce his flesh and render him asunder, but instead, the wolf ran straight past him. The old farmer, seeing he could live another day, regained his wits and, lifting the gun to his shoulder, took aim at the great grey form. The man taking a shuttered breath pulled the trigger, the projectile skimming through the air before ultimately taking root into the beast. The farmer could hear a loud whimper and knew that he had hit the beast as it ran off into the woods.

The farmer, now revitalized by the scent of the hunt, ran towards where he hit the creature and, shining his lantern, noticed a dark crimson on the green grass. The crimson was a trail leading him towards his quarry, and so he pursued; he followed the blood into the shrouded darkness and continued to do so for some time until his wits caught up with him. Realizing that it is overly dangerous to track a wounded wolf in the dark, he decided that he should return home and continue the search in the light of day. The following day the farmer returned to the spot where he shot the wolf and refollowed the still crimson carpet through the woods. During this time, there was a bounty on wolves, and a sum of 25 dollars a wolf was being paid for each brought in, so the farmer was more than driven to find the beast. He traveled the area for some time before ultimately finding that the trail ended in a large thicket. He could not make out anything detailed in the thicket, but he could see that a large still form was there. Holding up the gun on the chance that the animal was still alive, he cautiously moved the brush to the side, waiting for a head to turn or for the sound of a menacing growl, but instead, he got the shock of his life. There lying in the grass was the form of a man completely naked.

The farmer bent down, seeing this, and began to roll the man over. He recognized the man right away; it was the hermit everyone in town was talking about. He looked at the man's body, expecting to see claw or teeth marks thinking maybe after he shot the wolf in its wounded state, it attacked this man. This he found was not to be the case, for there in the man's chest was a large gaping bullet wound and around his body a pool of blood. He had bled to death. As the farmer stared at the man, he did notice that there were some unusual features that seemed different from when he saw him last; the hermit's body had hair on his palms and beneath his feet and on his ears. The farmer stared in disbelief and also noted that as he began to move the man's body, the corpse's mouth opened, revealing that the man had several large wolf-like teeth. The farmer, unbelieving what he saw, lifted the remains up and took it to a spot near the mountain ridge in the area to bury before ultimately returning and telling the town of the man's death.

Word spread around the town of the event that occurred the following night, and when May heard the news, she was completely overcome with sorrow. This sorrow, however, was soon replaced by hate as she heard that people still claimed that the old man was a werewolf and responsible for the events around the area. May continued to deny this even to her death, claiming that the man was kind and certainly not a horrendous monster. The villagers, however, did not care for her assertions as after the hermit died, the attacks from the wolves also began to dwindle to relatively normal rates as opposed to the sheer savagery that occurred over the years. While wolf attacks did occur after the hermit's death, May and her family continued to never have a problem with the canines, and whenever there potentially was a problem, a large gray wolf would appear from the woods near the area where the old man used to come from, and the other wolves would back down. Whenever May would look back over towards where the wolf was, however, it would simply vanish.

To this day, people still claim that the hermit's spirit resides in the woods and the area where May and him used to frequent. People will say that spectral old man will sit in the exact spot where the man used to, and on more frequent occasions, a large grey wolf will also appear in the area and will sit in the exact same spot. The area where the man was buried and where the apparition is said to still be seen has even been named after the event as the area is now known as "Die Woolf Man's Grob" or "the Wolf Man's Grave." 

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Spectral Transmogrified human

Location: Schwaben Valley, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Sometime in the 1800s

Works Cited:

Hunting the American Werewolf: Beast Men in Wisconsin and Beyond By Linda S. Godfrey

Monsters of Pennsylvania By Patty A. Wilson

Supernatural Lore of Pennsylvania: Ghosts, Monsters, and Miracles By Thomas White

The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings By Brad Steiger