J'Ba Fofi

 J’Ba Fofi

By Cole Herrold

Arachnophobia was never something that I experienced growing up; in fact, as a child, I've always loved spiders. As a boy, I used to collect the various wolf spiders and orb weavers that existed around my house in old jars and containers and used to feed them and keep them as pets. One of my father's friends used to raise tarantulas and, on occasion, would give me the molted exoskeletons for show and tell, so spiders never disturbed me growing up. So, when I became really involved in researching Cryptozoology, one of my personal favorites was the J'ba Fofi. Now the J'ba Fofi is a colossal cryptid and tends to go rather under the radar as opposed to the other infamous cryptids said to live in the Congo, such as the Mokele-Mbembe or Emela-Ntouka. This cryptid lives primarily in the jungles and is said to be a large spider-like brown tarantula in description but with a diameter anywhere between 3-5 ft and with a leg span rivaling that to even exceeding to that being larger than a human being. The range of this cryptid is traditionally associated with the region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon, yet sightings of the same or at least a similar type creature have been reported in areas outside of the Congo Basin, such as Mozambique and Uganda.

The J'ba Fofi was first brought to the attention of the Western world through Cryptozoologist William J. Gibbons, who became aware of the existence of giant spiders in the Congo through Ms. Margaret Lloyd of Potters Bar, England in 2000-2001 for she was the daughter of two such witnesses of the creature. In 1938 Reginald Kenneth Lloyd and his new wife Marguerite Lloyd, who was from Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), had decided to go to the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to engage in a safari for their honeymoon. While they were driving down an old bush trail, they noticed a large dark figure in the middle of the road ahead of them. They at first thought that this object was some large jungle cat or a large monkey hunkered down on all fours. Yet as they proceeded to get closer to the oddly shaped figure, they soon realized in abject terror that what they were seeing was not a primate or feline but a monstrous spider with a 4-5ft leg span. This spider was dark brown in color, and that it also was eerily reminiscent of a tarantula in form. Marguerite screamed in abject terror at this colossal critter, and this caused Lloyd to stop the old Ford truck that they were seated in. Lloyd seeing the naturalistic importance that this creature signified, reached down to grab his camera in an effort to document this surprisingly sized specimen, but as he looked up with camera in hand, he could see that the creature had quickly begun to scuttle away into the dense underbrush. Eventually disappearing completely from sight all in a matter of a few seconds. This encounter so shook Marguerite that she instantly demanded to cut the honeymoon short and return to Rhodesia. Once the Lloyds had returned home, they told only a selective group of friends about their run-in with this absurd arachnid. This encounter is often cited as the very first encounter of non-natives seeing the creature, yet interestingly enough, there have been reports of colossal spiders from the general vicinity predating it by some 40 years.

The earliest encounter with the J’ba Fofi by non-natives occurred in 1890 by English Missionary Arthur Simes as well as the rest of his company. As the group was traveling through the dense forests of Uganda, they came into an area near Lake Nyata that was filled with dense webs. These monstrous webs were extremely bizarre, and the group was completely unsure as to what they were as there was no way these were normal webs due to their colossal size. The most notable of these webs were so large that it stretched between two massive standing trees. As the group continued to maneuver through the area, several members of the group became ensnared in the webs and began trying to cut the strands in an effort to free themselves. The webbing, however, was extremely strong, and seeing that they could not cut the webbing with any of the objects on their persons, they immediately began to cry out for help. As they did so, however, at least two colossal spiders that were larger than 4ft began to come near the captured men. Simes seeing his comrades ensnared, attempted to reach his pistol in an attempt to fire at the creepy crawlers. He, however, was not able to grab it in time, and he and the rest of the party could only watch as the spiders proceeded to bite the men. Simes eventually was able to get a hold of his weapon and proceeded to fire it, yet he was unable to hit any of the creatures; instead, the spiders began to retreat back from whence they came. They were then able to run over and slowly managed to free the men, yet as the day progressed, the men began to feel feverish and delirious; this then escalated to their extremities swelling up, and a short time later, all of the men who were bit died.

Aside from the 1890 missionary encounter with the J'ba Fofi, other non-natives did have encounters or at the very least know of the existence of giant spiders in the area. One such explorer who went to the Congo in the 1960s met tribe members who told him to be careful on the path that he traveled, for there were giant flying reptiles like creatures as well as giant spiders about 3ft in diameter in the area he was headed. The tribes also told the explorer to be wary as these colossal spiders laid countless eggs and that you could tell the hatchlings from the adults because they were bright yellow with a purple abdomen.

These hatchlings would also be brought up by other tribes to William J. Gibbons in November 2003 while he was in Cameroon to search for Mokele-Mbembe. On this particular trip, he had decided to ask the Baka pygmies and bushmen about whether they knew of any colossal spiders like the ones R.K. Lloyd and his wife witnessed in 1938, and the tribes said that they did and that they called such animals J'ba Fofi. They claimed that this animal, due to its size, typically makes a ground lair from leaves and webbing and that its lair makes the same shape as one of their huts. These spiders are master web builders and also have a unique way of acquiring prey; they will create tripwires from their webbing and will attach them between small trees to cause large prey to fall into more sturdier web structures around. This method has allowed these spiders to capture animals as large as a duiker (a kind of antelope). These spiders will also string webs in-between trees to capture birds, and that one of Gibbons informants, Bruno Abolo, did a drawing in the dirt of a life-size web of the creature and stated that on the drawing that he did that the body of the spider could take up the entire size of the web and that the threads of the web were extremely strong. The tribes also brought up how these spiders laid white peanut-sized eggs that yellow spiderlings with purple opisthosomas (the posterior part) and that as these spiders age, they darken and turn brown in color. The tribes also claimed that these spiders were once extremely common in the area but that they now have become rather rare for several reasons, some of which is due to deforestation and the other is that these spiders are frequently killed by the Baka as they are extremely dangerous due to their venom. Yet the natives, as they were telling him, stated that they were in the area as recently as July 2003.

Sketch of the J'ba Fofi based on the eyewitness descriptions. This sketch was photographed and collected by William J. Gibbons

No further sightings of the creature have since gone unreported, yet this is not the end of the story, and in fact, this is one of the few cases that actually might have some sort of evidence of its existence. The piece of evidence I am referring to is a brief piece of footage that was claimed to of been captured via trail camera in 2014 in an area around the Maptualand area of Mozambique by some campers who had heard stories from locals in the area about giant burrows and webs in the area. The campers proceeded to, before going to sleep in the area, put up a trail camera in a way of seeing if there was anything strange in the area. This footage was released only originally by CryptoDragon UK and was uploaded to YouTube on September 12, 2018. Now I need to stress when it comes to footage, this is one of the most incomprehensible pieces out there, and when I first came across CryptoDragon UK's video, it took at least four views of it to even get an idea of what I was supposed to be seeing. Thankfully a better and more detailed analysis of the footage was done by Crash Course Cryptozoology, and they were able to salvage the footage and bring up some interesting points to the creature captured in the footage. The footage shows a forested area with some sort of water source, and at around 40 seconds in, a strange scuttling figure comes in at the far right corner between two trees that then abruptly stops and then quickly scuttles towards its left, ultimately disappearing from view. The figure is interesting, to say the least, and does seem to be some sort of arthropod, and I feel that's the best way of putting it if the figure in the footage is real and not some sort of photoshop or edited in image. There is some issue as to just how the figure enters the frame, for if it enters facing the camera, then when it turns left, it does a sidestep which is something most spiders cannot do. If the creature, however, is seen from the side, however, this is in the range of normal spider mobility. This gets into some of the other hypotheses as to just what the J'ba Fofi is, which I will get into in a little bit. I have included both the original video source and the Crash Course Cryptozoology video in the works cited section of this article and really encourage anyone to check out specifically the Crash Course Cryptozoology video for an excellent breakdown and enhancement of the footage.  

Now, of all the various hypotheses that exist for some of the other topics that I’ve covered on this site with creatures like this, there are really not many possibilities that it could be. Going off the most skeptical possibilities, these tales of the J'ba Fofi could be some sort of mythical tale by locals to offer as a warning of the danger of the jungle or that these are stories created by cryptozoologists or other explorers as ways of raising money for their expeditions. Yet while certainly there are and has been issues with researchers misinterpreting at best or causing cultural appropriation at worst in regard to these creatures with the J'ba Fofi, this does not seem to exactly be the case, nor does this creature have the same draw or pull as say other creatures in the area like the Kongamato or the Mokele-Mbembe or Ngoubou cryptids that researchers already use to get people to fund their expeditions so to use a J'ba Fofi as a kind of bait or claim to get more money simply seems a bit overkill. Also, there is confirmation from the natives as they, when asked about the creature, proceeded to make images of the creature and its web, implying that they have a true belief in the animal.

Now aside from the skeptical side, the only real possibility for this creature is that they are an undiscovered species. Now from this hypothesis, there are two possibilities; the first is that this is an as of yet undiscovered species of spider that is something akin to either a Goliath Birdeater or something like a trapdoor spider or getting into one possibility seen with the Mozambique footage even though it’s unlikely a new and if so groundbreaking new species of crab spider since if the footage is of a spider moving sideways it would have to be some kind or a relative of crab spiders. Now, of course, there are some problems with this hypothesis; the biggest deals with the fact that spiders now do not grow to the size reported with the J'ba Fofi.  Spiders have a tracheal respiratory system which is a respiratory system that consists of a network made up of small tubes that carry oxygen to every cell in the animal's body. This system prevents insects and other arthropods of this kind from growing to colossal sizes mainly because the trachea does not transport oxygen well enough for a creature of colossal stature. Yet with that said, history has had colossal insects for during the late Carboniferous period and early Permian period, there were giant insects like the Meganeura, a colossal dragonfly with an almost 3-4 ft wingspan. The problem, however, is that during this time in earth's history, the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere was far greater than what it is today, and because of this, spiders and other insects became unable to continue to grow to such sizes. The tracheal respiratory system is commonly seen in the larger spiders, whereas an alternative form of respiration is seen in smaller spiders which are book lungs which are flattened organs that allow passive respiration. Currently, neither system would be able to allow them to grow to the colossal sizes; however, if these species are, in fact, spiders, then they are revolutionary for clearly, they evolved vastly different and with a completely far more complex and advanced respiratory system.

The other possibility with this species is that what is being seen is not a spider but, in fact, a kind of crab. Now while webs are not associated with crabs, there are several species of crabs that do bear a strong resemblance to a land crab. There are a group of crabs known as terrestrial crabs that can grow to incredibly large sizes. One of the most likely in connection with the J'ba Fofi is the Coconut Crab; these crabs are reported on islands of the Pacific and the Indian Ocean and can reach a leg span of three feet with a body length of a little over a foot. These species are known to be highly opportunistic and aggressive and have been known to eat kittens and were also believed to be responsible for the disappearance of Amelia Earhart or simply her body after her plane crashed. When one looks at these creatures, there is a very strong similarity to reports of the J'ba Fofi in description so perhaps what is being seen is some species of Coconut Crab or a similar species that is landlocked in the jungles of Africa. If this is the case, much like the giant spider hypothesis, this would be revolutionary and perhaps has developed features or abilities that might be reminiscent of what one would compare to a spider's web, which could explain the conflation with a spider. However, as with the spider hypothesis, this is mere speculation.

Giant spiders are something that are frequently reported around the world and have appeared particularly in areas of jungle locations such as South America and Papua New Guinea and reported by tribes and pygmies and cultures extensively removed from excessive contact with the outside world. It's from this that one has to wonder why cultures isolated and removed from “society” would all have tales regarding similar creatures that in many ways are extremely similar. If these reports came from, say, the united states or England post-1960, I would be more skeptical as to these reports as one could easily recreate such a story from pulling from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit or The Two Towers. Its from this, I tend to feel that this is one of the few cryptids that most likely exists as a true species now just how and why it came to be one can speculate, but until that day that one is captured or killed, we can only hope that they only dwell in isolated pockets of the jungles and away from where children and pets are.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Arachnid, Crustacean, or similar Arthropod

Location: Cameroon, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique

Sighted: Native encounters- July 2003

Works Cited:

Mirabilis By Karl P.N. Shuker

Mokele-Mbembe: Mystery Beast of the Congo Basin By William J. Gibbons

Brent Swancer “Mysterious Giant Spiders of the Congo” Mysterious Universe. September 2, 2015. https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/09/mysterious-giant-spiders-of-the-congo/. Accessed July 21, 2021.

Dr. Karl P.N. Shuker “Giant Spiders- Monstrous Myth or Terrifying Truth” Shukernature. July 30, 2014. http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2014/07/giant-spiders-monstrous-myth-or.html. Accessed July 20, 2021.

"J'ba Fofi" Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology. https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/J%27ba_fofi. Accessed March 20, 2021.

Crash Course Cryptozoology. “The Mozambique Footage” December 10, 2021. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTVN2-nJ0MY

CryptoDragon UK “J'BA FOFI CAUGHT ON CAMERA! {ENHANCED VERSION/SHORTENED}” Sep 12, 2018. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgGEeDPWBeo&t=0s

Unexplained Mysteries “3 Mysterious J'ba FoFi Giant Spider Encounters From The Congo That Can't Be Explained” April 22, 2021. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwCW4uJ30FY

MonsterQuest.” Monster Spiders” Season 2 Episode 17. October 22, 2008. History.

 

Ljubovija Phantom

 The Ljubovija Phantom

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to accounts from the Eastern portion of our world, there are countless Fortean cases that seem to fall through the cracks of Western research. Part of this can be attributed to the poverty of a country or the overall disinterest of cases outside of the researcher's home country. As someone who actively searches for weird cases or cases that aren't mentioned, I tend to at the very least have a specific interest in cases that occur outside of the United States; it's from these cases that some of the most bizarre entities are reported. One such report came to my attention from Darwin’s Deviations, a great podcast and overall great guy who has informed me and gave me a ton of information on a practically un-talked-about case from his home country of Serbia. This case which many had compared to the Mothman, is something that is definitely in a category all its own as it seems to be a blend of several different kinds of flying humanoid cases that have occurred over the years.

On Monday, August 22^nd, 2005, during the most unassuming of days, Milos Dokic was doing some work in front of his house. The neighborhood was particularly quiet, all with the exception of a group of children engaged in a game of soccer. This slight silence would eventually be broken by these children when they shouted, "A man flying!". As Milos turned, he saw that the children were focused on the roof of a nearby yellow building, and as he looked up to the roof, he saw a small man walking on the edge of the roof. This man was wearing a kind of dark cape or cloak, and his entire outfit was dark in color. Milos did not understand just what the fuss was about as the man he felt was most likely installing a television antenna and continued to go on with his business. However, just as he had started to go back to work, he heard the boys shout and become excited once more. This cry not only alerted him but also his wife Slavojka, who left her home to investigate. As soon as she left the confines of her home, she saw what the boys were excitedly talking about. There floating in the air, was the same man-like figure that her husband had seen. This figure proceeded to move between the Yellow-building towards the "Ljubovijatrans" building. As they watched the being, they noticed that the entity had a faint glow surrounding the being and that they were able to now distinguish that this figure had a strange set of eyes that seemed to shine or glow red. Curiosity seemed to get the best of them as opposed to fear, and as the pair left the safety of their property, they began to approach the entity. Yet a peculiar thing happened, for as they approached this being, the entity soon began to move away from them, keeping away at the same distance it previously was. This did not stop them from attempting to get closer, and so they continued trying to get closer, and each time the entity would move away, maintaining the same distance away almost as if it were playing a kind of game with them. For whenever they would stop, the entity would stop moving as it loomed high in the sky, hovering in midair. This continued for some time until eventually, the entity, either bored with their game or simply tired of being observed or observing them, began to turn and fly at an extremely fast speed towards the "Ljubovijatrans" building, ultimately disappearing behind a series of poplar trees. Milos and his wife then ran over to the kids to discuss their sighting further since they had seen the bizarre being before him; it was from this that the children told them that they had first seen the being standing on a roof on Karadordeva Street and that it then proceeded to fly off that roof to the roof of the yellow building.

Word of this encounter soon reached the media, and on Wednesday, an article entitled “Mysterious phantom alarms citizens of Ljubovije ."Yet the papers were not the only feature of the phantom to occur that day. On that Wednesday, the 24^th, sightings of the entity were through the roof. The wave of these sightings started at about 3:00 in the evening and the anomalous apparition. Ljubovije was extremely active that day due to the fact that businesses were open and other functions were going on, and certainly, this had something to do with the number of witnesses, which led to the hundreds. Witnesses walking on Drin Street claimed to of seen the being, and there was an entire bus full of people who claimed to of seen the entity, and then crowds of people that were waiting for a soccer game to commence also saw the entity fly overhead. All of the witnesses' descriptions were almost identical to what the children and Milos and Slavojka. There was one major difference that was reported in some of the witnesses' description of the entity, and that was that some described the entity as being stooped over and that while the being still wore its cloak or cape, it also seemed to have some sort of mechanical device strapped to its back that aided in its flight and ability to defy gravity. The anomalous entity seemed to have a clear path as it traveled from Drin Street and was observed flying towards the Kik Hill and then seemingly changing its flight path towards Nemic. These sightings would be extensively covered in the article "Love Stories About the Phantom," released the day after.

The following day the local newspaper got word of a sighting of the being that occurred in the summer of that year by two children named Dejan and Lazar in the village of Lokanj near Zvornik, which is approximately 32 miles from Ljubovija. The account was brought to the attention of the paper by the children's father, Dule Lazarevic. During his family vacation, his children, along with several others, came up to him and told him that they had seen a dark man-like figure flying in the sky for three nights in a row. The children were so terrified by this flying fiend that they refused to play after dusk. The father, after hearing about the encounters currently going on in Ljubovija, felt sorry that he did not believe his children because they to him now seemed to be telling the truth and that perhaps their sighting might be connected to the current flap of sightings in Ljubovija.

Also, another woman from New Belgrade would come forward claiming that she saw a similar dark-colored flying entity that flew over her building on Arsenij Carnojevic Boulevard in 1995. She said, "In February 1995, I was returning from work at the Horgos Customs House. I reached the building around 5 in the morning and saw a man with a black cloak overhead. He looked at me with glassy eyes that I will never forget. I bowed my head, and when I raised it again, it flew over the building. He was a real man, not a puppet. I ran into the apartment and woke the children, but by the time they got to the window. Batman, so to speak, had disappeared. Nobody believed me".

During this time, a strange case occurred that many associated with the entity. Zorka Milutinovic, on her way to the store near the village of Javor, saw a bizarre entity in front of her and saw a bearded, long-haired creature. She could not make out the entity's face and could only watch in horror as the entity began to walk towards her with its arms outstretched. She was completely scared to death by this hairy anomaly, and she, in a fight over flight reaction, proceeded to run towards the entity armed only with her umbrella. The being proceeded to back away from her and walk past her, and upon passing her, it never turned to look back at her and continued to walk towards the top of Kika.

The police during this time did not have an immediate interest in the case only because no one had officially reported the entity to them. Yet, with the excessive rash of sightings as well as Zorka's close encounter, they immediately began to conduct an investigation. They started by questioning as many of the witnesses as possible, including Zorka. The witnesses were also brought to the mayor to discuss their sightings as well. The police from Zorka’s testimony eventually discovered that the entity which scared her so terribly was nothing more than a hoax created as a means of getting in on the overall hysteria that broke because of the initial sighting. It was also revealed that during the day of mass sightings that around 2:00pm, a large helium balloon was released that more than likely was the answer to just what was seen in the skies that day. The Monday sighting, they felt that was seen by Milos Dokic, his wife, and the children was some sort of motorized flying doll. This seemed to be the final word for the encounters as while believers and children watched the skies for a chance sighting, no further sightings were reported in the area.

Now, this officially ends the account of the Ljubovija Phantom, yet it, of course, was not the final word on the case. Some felt that the entire affair was created as yellow journalism as a way to sell newspapers; this hypothesis was especially supported by Miodras Isakov, the former deputy prime minister of the government of Serbia, who said, "Of course, this is someone's invention and its part of an attempt to increase the circulation of newspapers. There have been gullible people who like to hear, read and impress with such things". However, Jelena Petrovic, editor of the Blic Correspondence, which published most of the accounts, said in response, "We received serious information, the colleague who wrote the text is one of the best correspondents of Blic. We do not intend to increase the circulation of such texts at any cost. Already several journalist teams, including one German, became interested and went to Ljubovija. This is like the story of Mr. Goluza, a small environment where something is happening, and people are adding things that have nothing to do with each other; everything that happens is tied to it. People have seen something, and the question is, what is it. Then the imagination of others works, and it is a small environment in which nothing else happens.”

Now while the paper confirmed that this case was not an example of yellow journalism, which of course is something that one has to entertain when they look at older newspaper-centered cases. Yet even the Blic newspaper was fairly certain that this could be a case of misidentification or a case of mass hysteria, or people attempting to be apart or join the bandwagon in claiming to see the entity/ or seeing multiple things and believing it to be the same thing. Now certainly, with the sightings on the 24^th, it does seem to indicate that there was a misidentified balloon. Yet the overall description seems to be completely different from a balloon. Now while this might be the correct answer or the simplest answer to the sightings on the 24^th, one has to wonder just what the position of the winds were and whether it matched the path of the creature seen, because there is the possibility that the path of the balloon and the entity could be completely different.

Now, if one goes the route that the hundreds of eyewitnesses on the 24^th were those of a misidentified balloon, then that still leaves the 1995 sighting, the summer of 2005 sighting, and the first sighting on the 22^nd. Now looking at these sightings, there are still a few possibilities on the skeptical side. The first possibility that comes to mind is, of course, a human-shaped kite. Kites are a unique artform one I certainly am not a master of, yet they appear in several forms, and people have utilized them in a variety of different ways, including Kite fighting. Perhaps that is what the witnesses saw as a human-shaped kite with a cape is not impossible it also could explain why the entity was claimed to both hover and fly. Now, of course, this theory has problems as well; for one thing, the entity seemed to glow a bizarre color that was from what can be gathered from the articles noticeably different from what was reported. If it was simply the eyes which also glowed, I would state that it was from some sort of reflectors, but with the whole form glowing not from a noticeable point, this does not clearly work.

Another possibility regarding the sighting is that this creature could have been some sort of misidentified bird. The reason I mention this possibility is that there is never a detailed description of the entity outside that it is humanoid with some sort of cape. Perhaps this cape is actually wings. Some of Serbia's native wildlife, such as the Purple Heron or Great Cormorant, are darker in color and could, due to the light and walking on the roof, be mistaken for a human in a cape. While this might seem a ridiculous theory, the same idea has been used to explain other Fortean entities such as Mothman, the Flatwoods Monster, and the Jersey Devil. Also, when one thinks back to the being Milos claimed to see on the roof, he did describe it as small, which is much more in the ballpark of a bird than these other Fortean superstars. Now I will say the main problem with this theory is that the entity was seen both flying and hovering; this implies that there was no noticeable flapping wings which are mandatory for birds to propel themselves through the air. The only time birds do not require their own wings to propel themselves is if they are utilizing a thermal, which is something that most predatory birds do, and even still, this form of movement is akin to gliding and not hovering.

Now the next possibility gets into something I rarely cover, and that is a conspiracy or government mission. Now one of the major thoughts on this being was that some of the people of Serbia felt that this entity was a person, most likely an American agent or some sort of soldier with some sort of as of yet unidentified or new technology with the sole purpose of attempting to bring down Radovan Karadzic who was accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of being responsible for numerous war crimes against Bosniaks. The United States became involved with attempting his capture by offering five million dollars. Throughout 2005 NATO troops had begun to arrest members of his family as Karadzic had remained elusive until then, and it was during this time that perhaps the man seen was some sort of soldier searching for Karadzic in Ljubovija. Now with all that said, I will say that if there was some sort of covert operation, there probably would be more than just one of these entities reported. When looking at just how the US has conducted other attempts to arrest other criminals or politicians, there are usually way more people involved, and typically, in these cases, the soldiers involved are either more or less more discrete than a floating black-caped glowing eyed entity.

Now another thing that one needs to also breakdown is the sightings that allegedly occurred before Milos, his wife, and the group of soccer-playing children saw the entity. Now the first and clearly most skeptical look is that the earlier sightings which were reported after Milos’s sighting were simply people trying to join the bandwagon after interest in the creature came out. The big problem with these reports is that there is no way to verify these reports; however, that, of course, does not mean that these encounters did not happen. If this is the case, the reason that these reports came out later is that these witnesses could tell their stories as there is now a kind of validation that others had now seen the same being. These sightings are, of course, if the latter is true, then just further evidence that this is more than likely not just a misidentification but rather something bizarre.

Now getting out of the realm of skepticism and into the Fortean, there are several possibilities that could explain this being. Clearly, this entity is not a cryptid. Cryptids by and large are natural animals in nature and range from the mundane such as the Eastern Mountain Lion to the believed to be extinct species such as the Mammoth or Tasmanian Tiger to the relatively believable Bigfoot or Yeti to the downright exotic such as the tri-legged winged water horse the Beast of Barrisdale. This entity would be a cryptid in the broadest sense of the word as a currently unofficial animal either undiscovered or extirpated but seen in the location, it no longer is said to roam, yet even this is only if what was seen was biological in some way, shape, or form. For the sake of simplicity, however, this entity does not fit the traditional cryptid as an undiscovered animal due to the fact that it wears clothes and has possible technology.

Now, this feature of clothing specifically seems to imply some sort of intelligence which, of course, leads into some of the other Fortean categories. The very first and one that was embraced by some researchers is that the entity seen could be extraterrestrial in origin. Extraterrestrials with capes are not a unique phenomenon. There have been several reports of such cases, but one, in particular, comes to mind that I mentioned in connection with the Gnome Aviator of Hertford case. This case which occurred on November 1^st, 1954, in Cennina, Arezzo, Italy, involved small, diminutive ETs with leather aviator helmets and gray overall doublets with a kind of cape or cloak along their backs. These entities were three feet tall, and if one compares the being seen by Milos to these entities, there are slight yet noticeable similarities. Milos claimed that he saw a small man with a cloak on the roof but never got into a noticeable description except that the figure was dark in color with illuminated eyes and body. Aside from the overall lack of facial description, exact height, and of course the glowing eyes, the dark clothing, cape, and small stature are something that the Ljubovija phantom has in common with the Cennina case. Now, of course, that's about also the end of the similarities, and also it is important to point out the glaring problem with the extraterrestrial hypothesis in regard to this being, and that is the lack of reported craft in the area. While there is always the chance that the craft was located in some other section of the area, and this being decided to stray from the object to sight-see or whatever it does, of course, make it difficult to automatically assume this creature has an otherworldly origin.

Now while one cannot rule out the extraterrestrial possibility, it is certainly not the only possibility out there, and this, of course, includes the supernatural. In attempting to find something similar to this entity, my first thoughts were actually of a case I had recently covered in connection to the Cannock Chase Slenderman. This case which, much like the Ljubovija Phantom, was lumped in with a completely unrelated phenomenon simply because of the time frame and the popularity of the case connected. In this case, there was a report regarding a flying/hovering black entity that bore a long coat or cape and had a glowing set of red eyes that flew up and hovered over the witness late one night in Cannock Chase. Now, of course, there are some differences, just like with comparing the Ljubovija Phantom and the Cennina Aliens for one, when comparing the Ljubovija Phantom to this Cannock Chase entity while both figures are black, have glowing red eyes, and have some sort of long draping clothing there are significant differences between the two for while the Ljubovija Phantom is not described in detail the witness to the Cannock Chase being got a clear look and noted that this being had a homburg style of hat as well as a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and compared the entity he saw to that of the notorious Spring-Heeled Jack. Now with the Ljubovija Phantom, there is an ambiguousness to its description to the point that even if the figure had similar features, it went unreported, yet in cases like these, we have to go off what the witnesses report, and so from the information gathered we must assume that these two while similar are separate entities. Yet while the Cannock Chase entity is most likely not the same as the Ljubovija Phantom, there are other similar cases, many of which came out around the same time.

In 2009 the History Channel’s show MonsterQuest created an episode based on a rash of bizarre sightings that were reported throughout Washington, Wisconsin, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico from the late 90s to the mid-2000s. These sightings were of humanoid figures, either silver or black in color, that flew, hovered, or glided over cities and desert these entities known as Unidentified Flying Humanoids or Flying Humanoids are extremely varied in description and many of which are extremely different in description yet there was a steady string of sightings of entities as ambiguous and similar to the being reported. For example, in 2006, near Chicago's O'Hare airport, there was a report of a large black figure with a cape or cape-like wings. Another case which occurred on February 14, 2004, involved three individuals in Mexico City witnessing a large craft, a strange, winged creature, and a flying black covered humanoid with a kind of cape or cloak on its back. Now during this time, there were tons of videos of strange shapes floating in the sky. Most of these turned out to be balloons or kites, yet there were several cases that remain unexplained that match the description seen in Ljubovija.

With the Flying Humanoids of this type and variety, they tend to be lumped into either Ufology or into the realms of witchcraft, Ultraterrestrials, or interdimensional beings. Witchcraft as the origin of these entities is primarily centered around the Latin American cultures and communities as often these entities are believed to be witches or some similar entity. It is important to note, however, that when discussing witch-flying humanoids, there usually is some bird element such as a bird-like body or wings with the head of a human, something that is not reported in this case. Now the possibility of this entity being an interdimensional being is something that, of course, is possible perhaps if this entity came from another dimension or plane of existence, it could have an entire biological structure that could make it airborne or could have some special technology or cultural garb that could result in the floating/hovering effect and cape. The Ultraterrestrial angle as well is something that this entity could be, but its purpose would seemingly be to mess with humans or some other reason like that and not to feed off of fear or another emotional response. The fact that the entity seen could be described as a kind of superhero-type figure would point more towards this type of Ultraterrestrial logic as opposed to if this was an Ultraterrestrial changing into, say, a dragon or demon.

With cases like this, there is a great difficulty in trying to sift through the real encounters and those that might be involved in a misidentification or as a way of joining a bandwagon. Much of this seems to be from a lack of interest of the Fortean community in reaching out to the witnesses and cataloging their encounters as well as any further detailed investigation, at least from what I've been able to find. It's from this and the overall ambiguous description of the entity and its actions, at least beyond what Milos and his wife encountered, that makes deciphering any clear picture of just what was seen in Ljubovija. Yet while a clear answer to just what the Ljubovija Phantom was cannot be officially claimed, it is important to note that chances are the entire flap was more than likely a mixture of a variety of factors such as a released balloon and an original unexplained sighting; however, as mentioned earlier, there are so many outlets to look at in regard to this case its mind-boggling. These possibilities and outlets I offer almost as a "choose your own answer" for this case as any of the possibilities in any string of choices are just as likely as the other. Once again, I really must thank Darwin from the Darwin’s Deviations and Tracing Owls Podcasts for giving me the information on this case. Its been a fascinating dive into an entity that has not outside of Albert S. Rosales been covered in the West and a fascinating case from a country that does not often get mentioned in most of the Fortean literature, so I’m so glad that I could dig a little deeper on it and if at the very least bring this case to a wider audience.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Human with as of yet undisclosed technology, Extraterrestrial, Interdimensional, Misidentification, Ultraterrestrial

Location: Ljubovija, Serbia

Sighted: 1995/Summer 2005/ August 22, 24, 2005

Works Cited:

Darwin's Deviations Podcast Episode 15. “Serbian Mothman, Yugoslavian UFOs & Balkan Alien Crap”. December 08, 2020.

Tracing Owls Podcast Episode 5. “Phantom of Ljubovija: Serbian Mothman!”. May 8, 2021.

Humanoid Encounters The Others Amongst Us- 2000-2009 By Albert S. Rosales

“Mysterious flying phantom seen over Serbia after 38 years” Index HR. August 24, 2005. https://www.index.hr/magazin/clanak/tajanstveni-leteci-fantom-nakon-38-godina-vidjen-nad-srbijom/279787.aspx. Accessed March 06, 2022.

“Mysterious Phantom Alarms Citizens of Ljubovije” ASI-ACN. August 24, 2005. https://inicijativa.org/tiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=110. Accessed March 10, 2022.

“2005: August UFO & Alien Sightings”. Think About It Docs. August 17, 2016. https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/2005-august-ufo-alien-sightings/. Accessed March 10, 2022.

 

The O’Briens’ Banshee

 The O’Briens’ Banshee

By Cole Herrold

Banshees are a bizarre breed of Faerie as Banshees are not one specific variety or species of fae but instead more of an entity that holds a position. This position which is to be a faithful servant to a noble Irish family, holds an important position as these spectral apparitions appear, wail, and keen before the death of a family members death. The word Banshee comes from both Bean si or Bean Sidhe, which translates to "Faerie Woman" however, as previously stated, these omenic figures are not always elven women or some other member of the Seelie or Unseelie court but on occasion tend to be apparitions from a specific family line usually those who died an untimely death or were murder victims. It's in cases like Banshees that we see an overlap with another Fortean phenomenon, such as hauntings and spectral apparitions. In classic faerie lore, there is a kind of muddying in the water when it comes to the origins of the fae, and one of the most famous was that the fae are the souls of the dead or that the souls of the dead could become enslaved to the fae or continue to live with the fae after they died. So, where the Banshee exactly fits in this complex otherworld or faerie realm is not exactly clear; in fact, faeries are often taxonomically categorized by kind, and some of the major categories include Trooping Fairies and Solitary Faeries the Banshee, Dullahan, Phooka, and Leprechaun are placed into the Solitary faerie category but there’s always a major distinction between them and the more traditional fae like the Leprechaun, Red Cap, Far Darrig, and Clurichaun thereby implying that they probably belong in their own category altogether.

Now with all that said, I had mentioned that some of the reports of Banshees are not of a fae attached to a household or family but of a deceased person performing the exact same behavior as the faerie woman. The Banshee of the O'Briens is one such case. The apparition of the Banshee began when a young woman was seduced in the garden of the House of Lady Honora O'Brien by one of the O'Briens. The young woman who in the blinding throws of passion in the green was after the romance ended murdered right there at the same spot by the murderous O'Brien and, in an effort to hide the crime, flung her body from an open window on the property where it sank to the bottom to never be found. The crime went unpunished, and so now the poor maiden haunts the property as an apparition who behaves as a kind of malevolent Banshee. Reports of her were kept tightly by the O'Briens until a sighting, and consequently, death occurred after the apparition was seen by Lady Fanshawe and her husband, who was staying on the property during a visit. Lady Fanshawe's husband was an ambassador at the Spanish Court throughout the reign of both King Charles the First and King Charles the Second (sometime throughout 1625-1685) and, having it grown late one night, retired to bed. The Lady Fanshawe was then awoken at around one o'clock in the morning by a strange sound that permeated outside by one of the windows in their room. She, getting out of bed, began to walk towards the old antediluvian window, and upon moving back, the curtains began to look out and around the perimeters of the property, searching for just what could have made the sound. As she looked, the light of the moon was not the only source of illumination on the property; as she peered down, she saw a pale white glow coming from an open casement. As she stared at the seemingly self-illuminated casement, she soon noticed that there leaning in through it was the figure of a woman. She was very beautiful, but something she could tell was very off about her; she seemed to be very pale and sickly, and this was offset by her bright, vibrant red hair, and the skin was just one tone darker than the white gown the woman wore. The woman seemed upset as she paced to and fro, and as she listened closely just over the sound of the wind, she could hear that the woman was weeping and seemingly talking to herself. The few words she uttered were in a loud strange tone, but she was unable to decipher just what the girl had said. Then suddenly, the girl sighed, and as she did, so a massive rush of wind seemed to come from her. Upon this, the Lady watched and saw that the girl began to dissipate before her eyes as though she was made up of some "dense air." The Lady realizing that she had seen an apparition, was truly disturbed and so proceeded in fainting only to be found sprawling on the floor the next morning.

Upon being revived in the morning, she proceeded to tell the Lady of the house about the apparition she witnessed, but Lady O'Brien looked unsurprised by her tale. Lady O'Brien then began, "My Cousin, whose ancestors owned this house, died at two o’clock this morning, and as is the case with the rest of my family, the Banshee was heard wailing every night during his illness. The individual who utters the caoine (cry) for this branch of the O’Briens, is supposed to be the ghost of a woman who was seduced and murdered in the garden of this very house by an ancestor of the gentleman who died this morning. He flung her body into the river under the window, so the voice and appearance of this wailer causes more terror than those of other spirits, with whose grief there is no blending of revenge". As the nights went on, there were no other reported sounds or sights of this apparition, but the experience haunted Lady Fanshawe and her husband so much that they each wrote down about their experiences. These experiences were almost completely forgotten until they were collected by Folklorist Patrick Kennedy of Co. Wexford, Ireland and was included in his Fireside Stories of Ireland book of first and secondhand tales of faerie encounters and folktales. This story and other similar first and secondhand accounts have later appeared in several other books of Irish Fairy Tales and Folklore, such as Barnes and Nobles A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales.

Now I’m sure that there are those out there that will automatically place this account into folklore and fiction, which I can completely understand however It is important to note that the witness to this case is a historical figure, and there is alleged documentation of the sighting implying more or less the figures did see something. Banshee accounts interestingly, unlike most Faerie stories that are out there are usually first or second person accounts, but due to the fact that these accounts are usually put into tomes which feature oral stories that date back to time and memorial such as Teig O'Kane and the Corpse a story about a foolish youth who becomes partially enslaved to the fae one night and to be freed has to bury a corpse of a man who the fae were friendly with. To me, the fact that so many of these accounts are first-person and even second-person to me seems to indicate that this is a phenomenon worth investigating and taking seriously now, just what it is; we're up for speculation.

The first and clear place to put this phenomenon is actually not fae but as a traditional spectral apparition. This case has all the earmarks of a ghost case and not what one would typically associate with the fae. While the fae can be vengeful upon those who insult them or tread upon their land, this is more akin to cases such as the Greenbrier Ghost, where the murdered apparition is seeking some kind of post grave justice for the crimes enacted upon her. Vengeful apparitions or ghosts are common in countless countries, especially in places like Japan, the Philippines, and Africa, and in these cases, these apparitions do cause the death of those who did them wrong and those that might not have directly done them wrong. These vengeful ghosts are not exactly people but more released emotions in the form of those who have done wrong; they seek one purpose and one only vengeance. This particular Banshee seems to be one of those varieties it unlikely other traditional murdered spirits seeking justice does not seem to show intelligence in the same way as again the Greenbrier ghost did and seems to only manifest either to cause or as a way of viewing the demise of the line that ended her life. This behavior seems to go against just what a Banshee from the traditional faerie world would be as Banshees, while frightening, seems to be more as a warning and do not cause death but portray the important and ancient tradition of the Keening Woman. The fae seem to mimic our world in various ways, from creating wealth and having royalty but at the same time, they seem to have no real purpose for it; it's almost something they do solely for imitation the Banshee as a keening woman seems to be very much a mirror image of this but on their own term. This clearly does not seem to be the case here as there is a main reason for this entities actions and not in the same way that a Banshee is almost a part of the household like a Brownie would be, which is the only discernible reason the fae banshee does what it does.

While I strongly feel that the entity seen at Lady Honora O'Brien's house is not a traditional Banshee, I also cannot rule it out entirely either. The main reason the Fae Banshee hypothesis does not work with this case is that it is assumed that the apparition seen is the murdered girl of legend; however, there is a possibility that the murdered girl and the Banshee might not be connected at all. There's a lot we don't know simply because nothing from a member of the O'Briens was written about their Banshee, so there's no ancient relative who can point directly that this spirit seen on the property was the same that was murdered; perhaps it's a totally different entity that over the years was connected to the story of the murdered girl but in reality could just be a Banshee that is connected to the family. A lot of this is pure speculation, but from what is known about Banshees, they do connect themselves with ancient Irish families, especially those with Mc, Mac, or O at the beginning of their last names, something the O'Briens clearly have. Upon Digging into Lady Honora O'Brien, it is also revealed that she is the daughter of Murrough O'Brien, the 1st Earl of Thomond, and interestingly enough, is descended from the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru. From this, it does seem that her family would fit the bill into having their own family Banshee; however, again, all of this is pure speculation.

Another outlet to examine is the idea of a death spirit while Banshees are known as; thus, I have often wondered if Death Spirits are their own separate entities. In the Bible, there was the Angel of Death who God sent to murder the firstborn of the Egyptians; the Grim Reaper has almost always been depicted as the spirit that comes to end the lives of humans and take them to the next life, I wonder if there are a variety of entities that are essentially the bringers of death they are neither good nor evil and can be either connected to families in the case of Banshees or in an alternative spectral figure of death case the Oxenham White Bird of Doom which was a spectral bird with a white spot on its breast that would encircle those about to die in the Oxenham family before dematerializing. If this is the case, perhaps death is more complex than most of the currently accepted beliefs, and that death may be more akin to the Greek underworld or the faerie realm or perhaps the intricate mandala-type death dimension that has appeared in a few near-death experiences.

Just what Banshees are exactly is a mystery in itself. They seem to be more apparition-like in most cases than fae, but then there are those early accounts where the Banshee was something more tangible and simply could disappear as it would wash the bloody clothes of those about to die in rivers and other waterways or with their own basin. Banshees have always been one of my favorite figures in Irish folklore, along with the Dullahan, Leprechaun, Phooka, and Changeling, and so I'm always fascinated whenever I come across a potentially authentic case of an encounter with one. The realm of ghosts and fae are something that even though we have so much evidence for once, we have practically scant for the other, so I think that is one of the most interesting things about the Banshee as it’s one of the closest researchable fae out there due to its connectivity to ghosts. In fact, Ghost Hunters such as Zak Bagans and Josh Gates have gone and searched for Banshees in several locations where they are said to roam. Both cases came up fairly empty-handed in regard to getting proof of an actual Banshee, and a lot of the reasons I think is that they went in more as ghost hunters and less as someone searching for a death spirit or a fae. If evidence of a Banshee is captured by a ghost hunter, I often wonder if that would open the flood gate to more serious research into other fae reports such as Trolls, Gnomes, and Pixies as accounts of them are still reported, or would it instead simply just focus more on the study of what all spirits and ghosts can do and how do they seemingly do things without physical form? With all that said, however, we are still no closer to capturing a glimpse of or understanding just what people are seeing and hearing before their demise in the castles and cities of Ireland.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Human Spectral Apparition

Location: House of Lady Honora O’Brien, Ireland

Sighted: Sometime Between 1625 -1685

Works Cited:

Fireside Stories of Ireland by Patrick Kennedy

“ The Banshee of the O’Briens” collected by Patrick Kennedy for A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales By Barnes and Nobles

The Marrtown Banshee

 The Marrtown Banshee

By Cole Herrold

Banshees are traditionally only associated with Ireland, but their range is far greater than just the Emerald Isle reports of a female spectral omen of death or washerwoman are common throughout Scotland, Wales, France, and England and goes by several names other than Banshee such as Lavandière de Nuit, Lavandière, Laveuse de Nuit, Kannerez Noz, Cannerez Noz, Gannerez Noz, Bean Nighe, Bhean Nighe, Caoineachag, Nigheag Bheag a Bhroin, Washerwoman, Night Washerwoman, Washer of the Ford, and Little Washer of Sorrow. When many of these European countries with Banshees immigrated, they either brought their tales of Banshees with them or the vast ships that carried these travelers also brought several faeries aboard with them for while this may seem like a purely European phenomenon beginning by the early 19^th century America too began having reports of Banshees.

One of perhaps the most famous American Banshees is the Marrtown Banshee. Now before we get into the old girl, let's set the scene with the family that the Banshee seemed to align itself with. For while the name is slightly misleading as one would think that this Banshee is actually associated more with a place than a person, this is not to be the case and that this entity is, in fact, associated with one particular family. Thomas Marr, a Scottish immigrant and founder of Marrtown, came to the area in 1836 and, along with several other Scotts, developed the community as best they could in the hills of West Virginia. Marrtown today is a small community that is only almost a mile and a half away from Parkersburg, the scene of another famous West Virginia Case in 66'. At the time, Thomas Marr, as his community grew, came to fall in love with a local West Virginia gal by the name of Mary and eventually got married. The pair was happily married and had several children, but as was the misfortune of the time out of the nine, she gave life to only three survived to live to marry and have a full life. These trials, however, were simply steppingstones and elements that made Thomas and Mary enjoy their life to the best of their ability and to succeed as best as possible. Then the Civil War hit. The war between brothers caused a great stir all over the nation but especially in West Virginia as the state seemingly created itself after breaking out of the Confederacy as the land was a part of Virginia. Times were tough, and Marr attempted to raise his children as best he could until the conflict was resolved. He succeeded in this, but after the war, he suddenly realized that he now was struggling financially and needed to find a better way to gain some finances; from here, he took a job as a watchman.

As a watchman, the now 66-year-old Marr would have to protect the borders of the town at a given time in the evening at the nearby bridge that gained access to Marrtown. As he took this position, he soon began to notice a bizarre figure that would appear around the bridge as he was on his way to and from work. The figure was a cloaked person who road a bright white horse. Marr was never able to officially make out the gender on his time as a watchman but strongly felt that whoever this person was, was most definitely female. He had seen this figure and its mount on more than one occasion and several times came surprisingly close to her, but whenever a time would come that he would approach the figure, it suddenly would disappear before his eyes. Seeing this on almost a daily basis disturbed Marr, and eventually, he broke down and told his wife about the bizarre apparition he kept seeing near the bridge. His wife was unsure of what to make of the story her husband told her that is until the date of February 5, 1876. On this particular day, Thomas left to work like any other, and as the time for him to return was about to approach, a bizarre figure began to approach his property. His wife seeing that someone was coming, came out to see just who it was and noticed that it was a woman wrapped in dark-colored clothing and that she was approaching the house on top of a pure white horse. The figure remained quiet and seemed frozen to the spot for some time before finally speaking and said, "I am here to tell you, Mary Marr, that Thomas Marr has just died. Say your prayers, lady. I bid you well". The figure then turned and rode off until it disappeared into mist. A short time later, a coworker of Thomas arrived at Mary's home and confirmed what the being had said. Just how Thomas had died is varied; some claim he was shot by an assassin's bullet, others claim he drowned into the river, but the State Journal and Parkersburg Examiner would go in their obituary of Thomas to say that he was that he fell from a ladder of a distance of ten feet at his job site and upon impact died most likely from a broken neck and that he was found near the platform of the freight drop. Regardless of the method, the Banshee did come at the exact moment of when her husband had shuffled off this mortal coil. Some years later, Mary too would be prognosticated by the Banshee as cries would be heard around their property, and these cries would be heard by many upon when she too passed away at the age of 90 at her viewing in her home. The Banshee wailed, cried outside of the property as the procession went on, and also dropped and rattled spectral chains in the attic all while the procession went on.

While it is unknown whether the Marrtown Banshee prognosticated or appeared before or during any of their children or descendants' deaths, it is rumored that the apparition does still appear. There are claims that people to this day will see the faerie woman riding on horseback out in the hills and fields or into the woodlands of Marrtown very close to the bridge and home where both Mary and Thomas had lost their lives. Yet no one at least has reported any similar encounter with this kind of oracle of demise in the same way as Thomas and Mary did in the area.

When looking at Banshee cases, typically, there are two possibilities as to the identity of the entity; the first is that the entity is the classical fairy woman that appears in the traditional tales, and the other variety would be that of a spectral apparition, in this case, there are a lot of factors that seem to point towards a fae version of the Banshee than an apparition. The entity riding a horse is very similar to other accounts of the fae, but this is very different than almost every Banshee account I've come across as Banshee, at least from the research I've read, do not ride or have mounts. Banshees frequently will appear near rivers and streams and will be seen with washing basins and blood-stained clothing from those who are about to die, so the fact that this entity is seen very near a river is interesting, and the same goes for the fact that the entity also later appeared at the home of Mary and Thomas both during and after both of their deaths is indicative of traditional Banshee behavior. The fact that the figure was also described as being robed is a feature that has also been described in the crone version of Banshees, and of course, the fact that this entity appeared to a Scottish family and seemed to be connected to them specifically seems to indicate that it is a familial fae.

While the overall description and behavior of this entity do appear to be that of a fae, one cannot remove the possibility off the table that the entity observed was a traditional ghost. There are countless cases of apparitions of typical ghosts appearing before family members of death. Many times people will claim to have experienced ghosts of this variety tend to simply be ways of guiding the about to be deceased to the afterlife, but on occasion, they warn or tell of a family member's death. These cases, however, are particularly rare in the realm of classical ghost encounters but do, in fact, happen.

Ghosts associated with animals are rather frequently reported the ghost of Anne Boleyn for example, the most famous of King Henry the VIII's wives is said to be the most traveled Ghost in all of London was said to at Blickling Hall appear with a set of headless spectral horses and a headless horseman that pull her carriage. These accounts of Headless horsemen and headless horses are an ancient spectral tradition that, much like the Banshee, can be traced back to another fae known as the Dullahan. The Dullahan is an incredible figure in Irish folklore, and he is the original Headless Horseman; he is seen usually as a male figure (though females are reported) riding a horse and in one of his hands is his severed head, and in the other a whip made from a spinal cord. The Dullahan, much like the Banshee, was an omen of death but unlike the Banshee seeing a Dullahan was not a guarantee of death; in fact, one would be more likely to get their eyes whipped out of their skull by the skeletal whip or have a basin of blood thrown in your face by the fae than be killed by the entity. If someone was being chased by a Dullahan or sees a Dullahan, if they had a piece of gold on their person and showed it to the entity, they would be safe from impending doom as the entity has an intense hatred for gold. The Dullahan also is associated with leading a spectral procession of the dead and is at times known as the coachman to the afterlife, which includes a spectral cart with wheels made from human thighbones and skulls that are filled with fire to help light the way and that features headless horses and a headless rider. Much like Banshees, Dullahan also are both described as fae and spirits of the dead, and Headless Horsemen, similar to the Dullahan, are seen in other countries such as Ewen of the Little Head from Scotland, who also is an omen of death. Even the fact that the horse is seen as white is something that has appeared in many cultures; a pale or white horse was the mount of one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, specifically the rider Death. So, the horse riding apparition is something that is heavily associated with similar types of cases.

There are also cases of people seeing spectral apparitions of themselves known as Doppelgangers traditionally, these copycat ghosts are in almost every case an omen of death as there are several legends that simply seeing a Doppelganger instantly leads to death in the same way as seeing a black dog three times or hearing a Cu Sith's bark three times instantly causes one's demise. It is important to point that in this case, there is no definitive description of the apparition aside from the fact that it was conceivably female and that from this lack of description, perhaps the figure might have been the Doppelganger of Mary or some other family member. Many times, in Doppelganger cases, members of the family will report seeing duplicates of their family members even though they could be in alternative places of the country or right next to them, and just as seeing one's own Doppelganger these cases usually lead to death.

While just what the Marrtown Banshee is, we can only speculate. I do think that it is particularly interesting that this case is one of the closest to a classical encounter with a faerie Banshee in America. Faerie encounters in America, while not particularly uncommon from a native standpoint, are particularly rare when it comes to faeries typically associated with European folklore and fairy lore. I had discussed the idea that faeries do have connections with people and will follow them to new locations, such as in the Trolls of Sorenson's Woods Case, where several reported Trolls seemingly followed Norwegian and Swedish immigrants over to a Minnesota community. Banshees typically, when one reports them in America, they seem to be more apparition-like and less like what one would expect from a traditional fae. I think again that this is overly interesting and something that the Fortean community needs to do more research on. The fact that such accounts exist is mind-boggling to me as the fae seem like something from before the dawn of technology, and while the late 1800s is not exactly modern, it is interesting that in a time where the world was seemingly developing away from the old ways and traditions that such beings were still being reported. Is this evidence of their existence? I can only stand to guess, but I hope so for who wouldn't like to have a being with you as a kind of lookout or warning something that not only could prepare oneself but also their family that something bad would happen. Until the day that this case and the phenomenon is either validated or debunked, I'll definitely keep an eye out for any bizarre figure and an ear open for any cries or sobs that might permeate some dark mist-filled night.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Faerie, Ghost, Supernatural Entity

Location: Marrtown, West Virginia

Sighted: 1875-1876

Works Cited:

Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Haunted West Virginia By Patty A. Wilson

The Magick of Faeries: Working with the Spirits of Nature By Cassandra Eason

Monsters of West Virginia By Rosemary Ellen Guiley 

Tar River Mills Banshee

Tar River Mills Banshee

By Cole Herrold

Banshees associated with areas are a part of the phenomenon, although mostly this is due to a specific person or family line, so it's rare when we see a Banshee case that seems to not specifically point towards an individual person or familial line. However, the Tar River near Tarboro, North Carolina, allegedly has one such Banshee that not only appears to frequent the area but also appears to be vindictive as it appears to of been responsible for the deaths of several British soldiers toward the end of the American Revolutionary War. This version of vindictive Banshee has occasionally been reported, such as The O'Brien's Banshee, but this case seems to be of a less directly vengeful entity but one that seems to simply be just a Spirit of Vengeance. 

Along the Tar River, a man by the name of David Warner had opened up a mill that would be his source of livelihood, his undoing, and a future prison. David was a Whig and, as a member of the Whig party, was one of countless American Patriots during the Revolutionary War. David would use his mill to feed the countless troops that would come into the area corn and wheat and was known to absolutely hate the British. As the war raged on, he was still hard at work, but all that would change one August day in 1781. Word had reached the town that was near the mill that the Redcoats were indeed on their way towards the community, and so they all began to pack up and flee to avoid being caught in the onslaught. All of the town evacuated except for David Warner and his assistant. The following day the British had come to town, and almost instinctively, they worked their way to the Mill. Five of the British platoon had entered the premise, and Warner pretended not to notice them but instead began to speak to his assistant, saying, "Try to save every precious ounce of it my lad, and we'll deliver it to General Greene, I hate to think of those British hogs eating a single mouthful of gruel made from America's corn." The Redcoats, enraged by this comment and seeing him as a traitor, proceeded to seize the miller and took him outside, where each one began to hit and kick the man. After they had their fill of beating the life of him, they bent down and said that they would drown him in the river. Warner, bruised beyond recognition, looked up at his captors and said with a smile, "Do it, but if you do, the Banshee will get you all." Warner knew that the river was home to a bizarre female apparition that he had heard several nights crying; it seemed to always be there, and Warner seemingly knew more about it than anyone else in the area. The men looked at each other after this warning and hesitated; legends of such entities were not lost to them, and they knew well enough to avoid such beings at all cost. However, one soldier who had "evil eyes and a cruel mouth egged them on." The soldier proceeded to pick the beaten Warner up, and two of his still slightly unnerved companions began to chain him to several large stones by his back, neck, arms, and legs, and upon feeling that he was heavy enough to not resurface threw the miller into the river and watched as the throshing turned into small ripples and then only a few a bubbles till nothing appeared on the water at all. As soon as the water was placid, however, a haunting scream broke out over the stillness of the water. They could not see what was making the sound, but they could hear it as it seemed to bounce from one riverbank to the next. 

The men were terrified by this auditory manifestation and, realizing at that moment the terror they just unfurled on themselves, began to run into the only conceivable place of safety that they knew, namely the Mill. All was calm for some time after hearing the inevitable Banshee's Cry, but the men refused to go out and search the area. The hour grew late, and so the men decided to bunk down in the Mill until the first light of dawn. That night the Commander of the Platoon and the rest of the troops arrived at the mill and found the men who said nothing about the murder that they had committed or the eerie cry and the Banshee said to accompany it. The Commander and the troops began to set up a perimeter around the mill and set up camp. All was quiet, and soon almost everyone fell asleep in tents, but this would not last long. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, while the world was the blackest, a rain crow was seen flying which the few troops who were awake knew that rain was coming. As they began to find some preparation to stay dry during this oncoming storm, a loud hideous cry rang out from the river. This cry woke everyone in the camp, and as the Commander began to leave his tent, he saw what the disturbance was. There forming just above the water was a pillar of gray mist that slowly changed into the form of a woman. She was exceptionally graceful with long flowing yellow hair and a veil that obstructed her facial features from the soldiers. She continued to let out countless cries and sobs and continued to do this over the stillness of the water before vanishing without a trace. While the spirit was gone from sight, the cries continued for what seemed like hours until the soldiers raced from the mill and threw themselves at the feet of their Commander, where they confessed their crime upon which the crying stopped. The Commander realizing the evil the men did, proceeded to rule out sentencing in this impromptu trial and stated that the men would have to work in the mill for the rest of their lives, upon which he told the rest of his troops to start packing as they would leave as soon as possible. 

The soldiers, now millers, continued to live in the abandoned mill but took up the same duties as Warner; they would grind corn and wheat during the day and attempt to sleep at night. Sleeping was almost impossible for the soldiers as now whenever the darkness came, so too did the Banshee who would keep the men awake all night with the sounds of her keening. This continued for countless nights until one fateful night, the Banshee appeared at the door of the mill; two of the soldiers saw the spirit and began to creep away as she sobbed, but then the spirit did an odd thing it lifted the veil before its face, and the men seemingly seduced or entranced began to approach the entity as it beckoned to them. They followed the spirit to the riverbank, where the entity continued to float above the ground, going so far as to go above the water of the river where the deepest pools were. It hung there like some saintly figure, and the men still followed as they walked down the bank and walked towards the figure as their bodies slowly disappeared beneath the currents until they were gone. The Banshee would do this same Pied Piper-esque trance to the second set of men a short time later, with the result being the same. Leaving only the soldier with "evil eyes and cruel mouth." 

The soldier, now stricken mad from the lack of sleep and constant wailing at night, began to search for his friends. Over the course of the days since their disappearance, their bodies were never found, and in his delirious mindset, he had the hopes of them still being alive, so on one night, he walked into the surrounding wilderness by the mill calling out their names, and when that didn't work, he switched to the name of David Warner he did this for some time until a voice answered him. He ran to the voice, thinking it might be one of his colleagues, but as he approached the bank, he soon saw the misty form near the riverbank and knew the truth. Sometime later, his body was found floating in the river face up his face in a horrible expression, but the spot that he was found was eerily enough, the exact same spot that the soldiers had thrown David Warner to drown. It is reported now that the Banshee still does haunt the river and that on August nights, in particular, people will still hear the spirit's cries and that they will see a misty female figure either over the water or on the nearby riverbanks. 

This account seems to be very reminiscent of other alleged sightings and encounters that have been recorded over time, as most of the telling of these tales seem to be much more as a kind of folk narrative than a first-person account. I’ve covered several of these cases over the years, most notably those of the Red Dog Fox and Ghost Werewolf of Northumberland; these cases also date back to the Revolutionary War or a little after, depending on the variation, and also deal with ghostly apparitions. Such tales are rampant in Fortean literature as ghosts, and other strange figures are constantly associated with wars, but the problem with these accounts is that very few can be authenticated. These encounters tend to overlap with traditional Folklore and Folk Tales which, while interesting and a crucial part of life, make it difficult to assess whether these accounts are genuine and not as something created to entertain or pass the time during times of strife. Now with all that said, I do need to explain that Folklore, while it is the traditional telling of tales and customs and other forms of art, these tales are often cited as true accounts or at the very least are believed to be true and so with that as a researcher we have to keep an open mind with such tales as well while it's easy to paint these tales as explanations for drowning or some Creepshow-esque moral tale all of which is very important as a storyteller there is also the possibility that this case as with almost all cases of Folklore could have been formed by some true Fortean encounter albeit over time they might be dramatized or altered, but the main points possibly did happen and if so just what was seen?

When discussing the possible Identity of the Tar River Mill Banshee, it is important I feel to point out that it seems connected more towards a location and possibly was in the location before the formation of the community. If this is to be the case, then this entity is not the traditional Banshee as it has no connection to anyone specific nor any connection to any of the fae from Europe, which is seemingly where all these entities originated from. It's from this that the entity more than likely is some kind of traditional spectral apparition like a ghost or a death entity if such beings are their own category. The ambiguous nature of the entity in the report is bizarre; the face is covered by a veil, and it has a gray, misty form with yellow hair and seems to be interconnected with the location of the river. My first thought would be the traditional white lady accounts which are often women in white who died on their wedding day or through suicide; the veil instantly to me seems to be reminiscent of this, but of course, the problem with this is the vengeful nature of the entity after Warner's death as well as the fact that there is no clear indication that someone died in the river matching the description of the entity. Traditionally in antediluvian ghost cases such as this, there is some assumed identity of the entities seen, such as the spirits of two ghost boys in the Tower of London being associated with Princes Edward and Richard with this case, we have no frame of reference for this entity aside from the fact that the entity is only known as the Banshee. 

When looking at the Banshee, in this case, another figure immediately comes to mind, and that figure is La Llorona. La Llorona is very similar to other apparitions such as Bloody Mary and the Women in White figures but very unique when examining the full range of tales involving her. La Llorona is the apparition of a woman who drowned her children in life and now in the afterlife proceeds to weep bitterly as she searches for her children. Now that’s not the end of the story. La Llorona now is a sort of boogeyman figure that has been prominent in Mexican and Southern United States Native and Latin cultures and is believed to go after children who misbehave. La Llorona, also much like Bloody Mary, is a figure who features in a sort of summoning game that is often played at sleepovers. The goal of the game is to repeat her name a set number of times depending on the version you choose, and after so many times, the spirit will come from the mirror and kill you. Now the reason I mention this spirit is that she is said to appear wearing a wedding dress or simply veiled; she also is associated with rivers because of the fact that she drowned her kids in one and allegedly those who have encouraged her wrath or are singled out by them will be drowned. La Llorona also is said to seduce men, and interestingly enough, any who succumb to her charms will, of course, be drowned. This is almost exactly what happened to the soldiers, and there are a lot of parallels with the La Llorona legend and the Banshee as both are associated with death and water, but of course, the big problem with this connection and the case is that the entity seen by the soldiers was blonde. La Llorona is very much a Latin phenomenon; she is prominent in their beliefs and Folklore, and her story actually goes all the way back to the Aztecs and their weeping goddess of motherhood and fertility Cihuacoatl these stories seem to be interconnected or at least the origin of the entity either authentically or folklorically and if authentic La Llorona should look more akin to someone from Mexico and not a blonde-haired apparition so more than likely she is not the entity seen here even though variations of how La Llorona looks have been reported as some Latin communities in California will describe her as having the head or face of a horse or mule on a woman’s body with long flowing black hair so perhaps she can change her appearance depending on location or that there are a variety of similar entities altogether.  

As stated earlier, a lot of this seems to not fit the traditional Banshee category; however, one cannot take the fae off the table. One of the problems with this case is that the Banshee's history pre-David Warner's death is never stated or mentioned, so one can only speculate when the apparition appeared. While Warner is not exactly the kind of name one would expect to be connected with a Banshee, it does seem that the Warner had a lot of knowledge of the entity before his death, so perhaps the Banshee was his family Banshee and that he could have inherited it from some clearly Scottish, French, Welsh, or Irish parent or ancestor and that the Banshee being loyal to the family it was apart of proceeded in dealing with those who attacked its family. Fae are reportedly very protective of those who they become attached to, so a violent confrontation is not impossible and actually probably happens more than we are aware of. However, all of this is pure speculation, but I will say Warner does seem to be some sort of key in this case, just how or why I can only guess, however. 

Banshee cases are some of my favorite Fortean phenomena because of two main reasons; the main is I love diving into tales involved with cultures that I'm descended from, and two because the more one researches them, the weirder and different each case seems to be. Banshees are a bizarre bunch of beings as with every case, there are elements that are identical to those reported in Ireland and other European countries, but then there are those little details that have you scratching your head and wondering, well, that's not in the traditional literature so what is it or why is it appearing in that way or doing that? Personally, I would love to investigate a case like this because of the love I have for such entities but also because now there does not seem to be a multifaceted look into these cases; they almost always are lumped in with Ghost hunting, and I would love to try something new or different when researching a case like this and if possible have some sort of contact. Needless to say, however, Id have to be armed with iron, salt, or, if all else fails, a snorkel. 

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Faerie, Ghost, Supernatural Entity

Location: Tar River, Tarboro, Edgecombe County, North Carolina

Sighted: August 1781, Augusts since the initial sighting 

Works Cited:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ghosts and Hauntings By Tom Ogden

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Ghost Stories from the American South By W. K. McNeil

Haunted Bridges By Rich Newman

Mysterious Tales of the North Carolina Piedmont By Sherman Carmichael