Breckinridge Fishman

 Breckinridge Fishman

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to Cryptids, most seem to be almost pulled straight from the pages or film reels of both horror and science fiction films. Mokele-Mbembe, for example, seems to be a creature pulled from Land of the Lost or the Lost World. One case in Kentucky, however, seems to be of a far more exotic cryptozoological creature that appears to of been pulled straight from either Universal’s Creature from the Black Lagoon or Roger Corman’s classic Humanoids from the Deep. This case is pseudo-famous as the case has made its rounds in the works of Lyle Blackburn in his book Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster and whose image was featured as the cover of the Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that Can’t Exist! By Barton M. Nunnelly who also was the first individual to write about the case in his book Mysterious Kentucky Volume 1: The History, Mystery, and Unexplained of the Bluegrass State.

This encounter occurred in Breckinridge County near Stephensport sometime during the early fall of 1966. The witness, a man named Joseph, who was 9 years old at the time, was sleeping late one night when around 1:00 in the morning he was suddenly awoken by a large noise that seemed to of come from outside. The noise seemed to come near his bedroom window, and the noise was almost as though something had hit the side of the house. The boy, sluggishly and no doubt tired by this rude awakening, began to arise out of bed and went over to the window and, looking around the area, noticed that there was nothing in the area or nothing that would have noticeably made the sound. So, the boy, with an incredible amount of courage, proceeded to wander to the living room and began to head towards the front door. Just before opening the door, however, he pulled back the curtains in front of the door's window and peered out into the darkness. As he looked into the darkness, he noticed a bizarre figure moving out front of his home. At first, when he saw the figure moving, he thought it was some sort of person, but as he stared at the figure, it then looked over at him. He then could see that the figure was by no means human. The figure was 5'6" to 6' tall and was walking on two legs, and what Joseph thought he was looking at once some sort of Lizard-man. The figure he saw in the darkness he would describe thusly “it was “very amphibious looking" with scales covering its entire body. I could definitely see that this creature had webbed feet and webbed hands. Its color was dark, brownish-green. What I remember the most about its face were these huge rows of gills which flared out on both sides of the face. Its face was very "hard" looking with little dark eyes, similar to a snake or lizard. I can't recall a nose or lips as the face-to-face encounter only lasted a second or two. There was this ridge-like feature which started on the forehead and ran back over the top of its head, kind of peaked at the top". He watched the creature for some time and realized that the creature had seemingly run into the side of the building or at the very least was responsible for the loud commotion he had heard earlier. As he stared at the creature, the creature seemed to notice him and gave him an exceptionally surprised look as though it was startled by him. The creature, then realizing it was spotted, turned and began to run towards the nearby creek known as Sinking Creek, which was 75 yards from his house. Joseph jumped from the front door window and ran towards an adjacent window which was pointed towards the direction where the creature was running, and he continued to watch the creature until he lost sight of it in the darkness. The boy then returned to bed and spoke not a word about the encounter until September 13, 2006, when he told the full account to Barton M. Nunnelly and later interviewed by Bigfoot investigator Charlie Raymond who would write the following of Joseph “Joseph appears to be very credible. He is now 49 years old, married, with two children in college. The details of his encounter remain true to his online report. He kept stressing how "amphibious looking" the creature was and that it definitely ran on two feet. He added that its body was proportionate to a man's, but neither muscles nor genitalia were noticed. What struck him the most was how quick it was! Still to this day, he can't imagine someone having a costume "that life-like," not today, not 40 years ago, especially in the remote parts of Breckinridge, Kentucky".

Thus ends the case of the Breckinridge Fishman; to me, this case is particularly interesting as it is one of the few cases of a seemingly fish humanoid on the books. There are, of course, other examples, such as the infamous Thetis Lake Monster, which I will discuss later, but reports of semi-aquatic fish humanoids are rare as opposed to encounters with fully aquatic fish humanoids such as mermaids. Other encounters with entities that are semiaquatic of a more amphibious or reptilian nature are much more common such as the Loveland Frogmen, the Riverside It of Riverside, California, or the Lizardman of Scape Ore Swamp, which many point to all being interrelated in some fashion, however, each case has features that seem to reflect specific taxonomic species that fit more in the categories of Amphibians or Reptiles the Breckinridge case even though Joseph called it a Lizard-man when he first saw it has glaring features that seem to be more of an ichthyo-humanoid if such a term can be used as the creature he saw had more noticeable fish features as gills. Something reptiles and amphibians typically do not have.

When attempting to rationalize this entity, the best way to do so is to go down the Fortean ladder of possibilities and try to see where it would best fit. Going from the most skeptical, the first place to look is a possible hoax. With this case, there is a higher probability for a hoax than many other cryptids, and the only reason I say this is simply the description; if one was to remove the head fin or crest, the creature is a mirror image to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. A similar issue comes with the Thetis Lake Monster when one compares the description to both Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Beach Girls and the Monster, and The Horror of Party Beach. With this case, Horror of Party Beach came out 2 years before the sighting, the Creature from the Black Lagoon came out 12 years before the sighting, and if this kid was as interested in monsters or had the same amount of access to such films as I did as a kid, it is not impossible that he too could have fabricated the whole encounter. However, I will say that this is unlikely as Joseph, unlike the kids during the Thetis Lake Monster case, waited many years after the fact to report his sighting, which seems sort of a bizarre time to of claimed to report such an encounter. The witness also has only released his first name, so it's not like he's trying to profit off his encounter or even gain any sort of notoriety or attention from his sighting, so the motive behind a hoax is unlikely.

The next conceivable category is that this is a cryptid. This is perhaps the theory I agree the most with, as aquatic humanoids are a rather constant cryptozoological phenomenon. Merfolk sightings have been reported since time and memorial, and there are some incredibly famous cases of semiaquatic anomalies. The most famous, of course, being the Loveland Frogmen from Ohio, which was a large frog-like being reported near the Little Miami River. The Charles Mill Lake Monster of Ohio and The Armless Horror of the Susquehanna of the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, are both seemingly bipedal humanoid fish-like entities that, while similar to the Breckinridge case, have one distinctive difference both don't have arms. The region that these cryptids are reported, it is interesting to note, is a hotbed for such sightings, and in relation to the Breckinridge Fishman, there might be a reason as to why. Joseph, as a follow up to his report, said the following about the Creek that the creature was seemingly running towards and the location of his house: "Our house is located on an acre where Sinking Creek meets the Ohio River. Sinking Creek originates 15 miles "upstream" in Big Springs, Ky. An interesting fact, this creek is the only natural trout/spring-fed creek in Kentucky. Just past the town of Sample, it disappears 12 miles underground (thus the name "Sinking Creek") and then resurfaces in an area further upstream in an explosion of bubbling water. As far as I am aware, nobody has ever dared to dive far enough down to determine its true origin. This creek is believed to connect to the vast underwater system which connects the many caverns of Western Kentucky; the most noted being the caverns of Mammoth Cave." Now for those unfamiliar with the Mammoth Cave system, it is an alleged hotspot for Fortean phenomenon such as Bigfoot, underground alien bases, other cryptids as well are said to of been seen in and around the caves, and the reason these underground streams are of note is that perhaps they lead much like in Creature from the Black Lagoon underground grottos where these organisms may hideout or live. A famous case known as the Green Clawed Beast which involved a woman being clawed and dragged underwater by a mysterious scaly yet hairy-handed creature; when she was rescued, she had several scratches and a green stain in the shape of a handprint from the aquatic assailant. A sample of this green substance was tested, and it was later revealed that a bluish mud that was intermixed with the handprint comes from the deepest of rivers that have access to caves; all of this was revealed on the "Black Swamp" episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America. With this case, it seems to add to the possibility of pockets of these organisms living deep in caverns and using the waterways that are interconnected to hunt or go from cavern to cavern.

With all that said, these cryptids, however, do not exactly match the Breckinridge Fishman, but the creature does have two very distinctly similar creatures; the first of this variety is the Thetis Lake Monster of Vancouver, British Columbia; this creature was described as being about 5 ft tall with silver scales and a noticeable spiny frill that a topped the creature's head. Another Cryptid I recently covered and compared to this creature was the New Kensington Green Thing which bears many similar features to the Breckinridge Fishman except for the following traits while the creature was a vibrant green in color and did have some sort of cranial frill, it did have a long tail, and seemingly mammalian features namely a pair of nipples and what some researchers claim are floppy rabbit-like ears. While there are some noteworthy differences between the Thetis Lake Monster, Breckinridge Fishman, and New Kensington Green Thing, there is a lot of noticeable similarities between them all as well; all the creatures are either Reptiles, Amphibians, or Fish or some intermediary evolutionary step in between the three or perhaps even examples of sexual dimorphism or stages of development. Evolution is a bizarre mistress, and when one looks at the phylogenetic branches of organisms, there are often these creatures that are often a mixture between two noticeable Taxonomic Classes; the main example would be the Synapsids which include organisms like Dimorphodon. These organisms have features very much like those of a reptile but have a temporal fenestra, a feature that is only associated with mammals, as well as other more intricate features that are clear indicators of being more closely related to mammals than reptiles. Perhaps this is what we see with these organisms; they are an intermediary stage where we are seeing organisms which are returning to land or evolving to be a kind of super amphibian where they can regulate their internal body temperature better, utilize both the resources in water ecosystems as well as land ecosystems, and possibly might develop migratory patterns which could explain the incredibly elusive nature of these creatures. However, all of this is complete speculation.

After the Cryptid possibility for the Breckinridge County Fishman could be some sort of extraterrestrial or interdimensional being. The fact that encounters with these creatures are practically nonexistent in both the fossil record and even inconsistent Cryptozoological or folkloric lore does not exactly bold well for them being an earthbound species. Even though I will be the first person to say that a small relict population of any creature can easily remain elusive to the point that sightings would be nonexistent, the fact that these creatures are sighted even less than Bigfoot, Eastern Mountain Lions, Black Panthers, and Lake Monsters does not exactly point to a native species. If these creatures, however, are from outer space or from another dimension, then these encounters, or should I say lack thereof, would be much more understandable. Now the only problem, of course, with this possibility is that these creatures are never, at least to my knowledge, seen in conjunction with UFOs, vortexes, or portals, and while the lack of this direct connection does not always mean they do not come as Lovecraft and Stuart Gordon would say From Beyond be it space or another dimension it makes it just as difficult however when looking at these cases as one cannot automatically assume that they do because it would simply be the “easier” answer even though we cannot take it off the table either.

 In this case, there is a clash with traditional biology, which is something that makes many scientists turn their noses up at cases like this. Yet in the millions of years of evolution, species, including our ancestors, evolved from aquatic life, and as organisms evolved to live on land, others decided to once more return to the sea when looking at cases like this to me, this is evolution once more creating creatures that are returning once again to land or that are surviving the dual life of an aquatic and terrestrial organism. Science has examples of this with organisms such as amphibians, and back when Palkicetus, the ancestor to whales, was starting to return to the water, it evolved into Ambulocetus, which was very much an amphibious creature as well, so such organisms have occurred and still do occur today. The existence of a biped on the planet other than us is not unheard of either birds, and carnivorous dinosaurs were and are all bipeds; several species of ancient reptiles also ran bipedally, such as Eudibamus, and even to this day, there are over 50 species of living reptiles that partially use bipedalism while running such as the Basilisk Lizard who takes this running to the extreme as it also can run on water through surface tension. So, the idea of other bipedal species, even to this day, is not something out of the ordinary. It's from this that this case and the countless other bipedal cryptid cases to me seem to have some plausibility through evolution; it's just figuring out exactly why they came about that's the mystery. Even with all that said, however, there is no denying that this case, as with most cryptid and Fortean encounters, will probably never be solved but at least from this sighting and the countless others, we have a place to start looking and maybe just maybe we might some day discover something that science at one point thought was impossible.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Amphibian/ Fish

Location: Stephensport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky

Sighted: Early Fall, 1966

Works Cited:

The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that can't Exist! By Baton M. Nunnelly

Mysterious Kentucky Vol. 1: The History, Mystery, and Unexplained of the Bluegrass State By Barton M. Nunnelly

"The Kentucky Lizardman". Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization. http://www.kentuckybigfoot.com/cryptids.htm. Accessed January 26th, 2022.