The Judy Kendall Abduction

The Judy Kendall Abduction

By Cole Herrold

On November 26, 1972 28 year old legal secretary Judy Kendall and her younger sisters Danon and Becky were driving home to Zamora from their mother’s house in Bodega Bay. The sisters had left at and were planning to get home by 10:00 pm as the trip should have taken about 2 ½ hours but they had allowed themselves at the most three hours to get home and left their grandmother’s house at 5:30 pm for the trip home as they got near Zamora there was a certain section of road that crossed Interstate 505 and upon taking this road they reached an area that had a flashing yellow light and a sign that read “road narrows”. From there they had to take Cache Creek bridge which crossed Cache creek. It was when the sisters had crossed the bridge and headed for the turnoff to their home yet curiously they noticed that they were not getting to the turn off. They had no idea as to why, but they just were not getting to the turn off and in this drive the sisters began to get tired. At this point Judy and one of her sisters said almost in unison “I wonder why were not getting off the turn off”. It was in that moment that they suddenly noticed that they had somehow got turned around as they saw the same flashing yellow light and sign and upon recrossing the Cache Creek Bridge they could barely keep their eyes open.

They eventually managed to get home but upon entering and expecting to be home by 10:00-10:30 they instead discovered they got home at midnight. This means that the group had lost 4 ½ hours from when they should have been home. Their parents concerned at the fact that they had not gotten home by the time they intended were surprised by their lateness asked what had kept her and she was not sure just what had happened. Their father thought that they had been drinking or partying and made up the story of them recrossing the bridge and the missing 4 ½ hours.  Danon and Becky backed up their sister as they too remembered the second trip over the bridge and insisted that they left straight from their grandmothers house and did not stop at all. Their father then proceeded to get a map out to see if there was some way the girls could have made a big circle. Judy proceeded to tell her father that this was ridiculous as she was familiar with the area especially since she had lived there her entire life and no way that she could have ended up in a circle. This was added to the fact that she was going in a straight line on a familiar road. Her father upon checking the map found that she was right as there was no road that would have led back to the yellow light and sign let alone the bridge. The strangeness of the night was also added to the fact that Judy’s car did not have enough gas put in it to allow for a 6 hour trip and yet she was still able to make it home with the intended amount of gas remaining. Her family decided to just let it go then with the exception of calling the girls grandmother to see if they did leave at 5:30 pm which the woman confirmed, and they forgot about it that is until three years later when Danon and Judy were watching television when an inkling of what happened to them that night seemed to permeate in their minds.

 They were watching the film Escape to Witch Mountain specifically a scene where an RV was being lifted up off the ground and upon watching the scene both Judy and Danon began to feel uneasy as if there was some sense of Déjà vu at the scene. This was the start of her coming to the realization that something strange happened to her. Some time after this Judy had seen a UFO in Yolo, California which is 10 miles north of Woodland where Judy was visiting friends at the time. It was 11:30 pm and she was on her way back to town when she saw a strange object that was changing colors. The object was originally a deep white light that was incredibly bright. It then proceeded to change to a deep orange color. The object hovered over some powerlines near a gravel pit and her first reaction was “Gee, they must have gotten new lights at the gravel pit”. She watched as the object changed in color from white to orange and back to white again three times and upon it doing it the third time the object rose up and shot straight into the sky and disappeared from sight. She was shocked by this and upon returning home instantly called her girlfriend who she had just left from and told her about her UFO sighting. Her friend responded after the tale saying, “Oh I believe it, Did you and your sisters ever figure out what happened to you when you lost your 4 ½ hours of time?” Judy replied “No” and thought it odd that her friend brought it up but then realized that it was because of her friend’s interest in UFOs. Her friend during this conversation then suggested that her and her sisters had gone through a “time warp” but Judy had no idea what she meant and so her friend told her to get a hold of J. Allen Hynek.

Judy took her friends advice and told him about her experience and asked what he thought and inquired about “time warps”. Hynek replied to Judy and explained that the proper term for a time warp was a time lapse and that he did not think this is what she had experienced and said hed like to send some investigators to come talk to her. Hynek then proceeded to get Paul Cerny of the Northern California Branch of MUFON to come investigate. Cerny first proceeded to talk to her boss Joe to get an idea about her character and specifically to see if she was a “flake” which her boss replied that she was not. From this and from talking to her he told her that he would need to get a hypnotist to come help investigate as there was a chance that she was abducted. Cerny said “one way we can find out for sure is to regress you and find out what happened at the time”. Judy said that upon hearing that her heart jumped into her throat and that she thought “oh no he’s got to be kidding no way!”. Cerny contacted Dr. Alvin Lawson an English professor at Cal State, Long Beach and after talking with Cerny, Lawson got a hold of hypnotist Dr. W.C. McCall who joined him as they flew up to Woodland to visit Judy at her apartment. Carol Judy’s girlfriend was there along with some other people who were there to make sure that things were on the level with the investigation and soon Judy discovered that things were and that all the researchers involved were polite and professional in their conduct.

It was here that they then proceeded to regress her. When they regressed her she remembered the trip down the road and upon doing so she noticed that there was a sudden coldness and void around the car. Then she remembered that the car suddenly was lifted straight up off the road and into a UFO. Once the car was in the craft she seemed to pass out and she had the feeling of being floated out of the car and placed in a room. Upon waking up she found herself lying on a hard seemingly stainless steel table and covered with a sheet in a round room with a ring of windows through which she could see stars. The feeling of cold even with the covering of the sheet was intense for her. Her sisters were gone seemingly placed in other rooms. As she attempted to move she soon discovered that there was something that was restraining her head which stopped her from moving around. From her surroundings she was able to see two bucket seats with three lights overtop each seat facing a console with a panel that had a gear like shift and that to her left was a table with instruments like probes similar to those seen in hospitals as well as a black box with speaker holes. As she looked around she saw her captors at the end of the table there were three short beings which wore grey colored suits that completely covered them. On their faces they wore masks which to Judy were similar to the ones worn by pilots during World War II yet from them she was able to see the beings eyes which were big and round and orange or yellow in color. To her left she was surprised to see a being that looked very much like a human girl. The girl was 5ft 4”- 5ft 6” and had shoulder length black hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and a medium build.

To her right she saw a long hallway and as she stared in that direction she saw the most terrifying part of her abduction an entity which slowly approached. This being she would call the Witch Doctor. This being to Judy was hideous and terrifying it was about 6-7ft tall and its head was bulbous and larger compared to the rest of the body. It was shaped similarly to a light bulb albeit broader and rounder at the top. It had eyes that to Judy were insect like specifically like those of a grasshoppers they were long and took up a good portion of the face specifically from where the eyebrows of a person should have been to where the cheeks of a person should have been. These eyes were also transparent, and Judy could see that the creature had long red pupils like slits and could see various red veins scattered in the jelly filled ocular sockets. The creature had two large and long holes for nostrils. Where the creatures mouth and chin were was a kind of mask that covered the creature. The creature had five fingered hand and this being wore a turtleneck type outfit that covered its full albeit human like form except a portion of the neck. The creature was hairless and the skin of the creature was pale white and translucent, and Judy could see all of the creatures veins and arteries. Judy at this point was not afraid during her abduction but once this entity began to approach her she began to cry and become hysterical.

During the hypnotic regression the researchers had brought her through this moment several times to glean more information, but it created so much terror for her that she finally said “I don’t want to see that guy anymore!” and refused to say anything further about the encounter until they let her go past that point. During her abduction the witch doctor however could not have been skipped over and while she began to cry out in fear the human looking girl to her left began to say “Its Ok, Its Ok”. The Witchdoctor at this point also began to communicate to Judy and he did this through telepathy. He told Judy no harm will come to her and as he spoke the voice sounded machine like and like it came from a megaphone. The Witch Doctor approached Judy and put its hand on her head repeating the phrase “Its Ok, Its Ok”. As the Witch Doctor continued to talk to Judy the female entity continued to say “Its ok Judy, Its Ok”. Judy in that moment thought “How did she know my name? I didn’t tell her my name. I Couldn’t understand why they knew my name.” She then thought “well shoot, if they know how to pick me up off the ground or take my car off the ground, they certainly probably know our names or knew a way of finding out”. She was then examined by the entities in which the entities looked in Judy’s ears, intently studied her feet, and removed urine from her through a catheter. Judy had one arm or hand bound so that she could not move it and at times the restrictions from her head were gone. At one point the female being passed the Witch Doctor a container filled with a colorless liquid that she couldn’t see through. At another point during the examination the beings placed a heavy metal machine over her eyes so she could not see and upon doing this she was able to hear a quiet motor running inside she had thought that this device might have been a brain reading machine. The feeling of extreme cold which she felt at times was alleviated but while being poked and prodded she felt shaky and also experienced pain in her side and had incredible headaches as well as difficulty in breathing. During the examination the three entities in WWII masks never left the foot of the table and that during the examination she had the feeling that someone was behind her that she couldn’t see. The Witch Doctor was noticeably the entity in charge and seemed to lead the examination Judy would notice that the beings would look up at each other as if they were talking but she could hear nothing it was from this that she felt that they were communicating telepathically to each other. Judy would describe this experience thusly “It was like I was a guinea pig. They just wanted to see what was going on with our bodies or something. I thought that it was maybe a scientific physical examination type of thing. They treated me like I was… like we have the apes, we have mice and rats and such that we use for experiments. I felt like I was being treated as a lower level or lower class or lower form of life than they were. It was like I was the dog and they were the master type of thing”.

It was during this examination that suddenly she thought she heard one of her sisters calling out in distress from another room on the ship. She was incredibly concerned but not certain that both of her siblings were in rooms but could do nothing to find out. Once the entities were done examining Judy she was lifted up by four of the WWII masked beings which were much smaller than her. They grabbed her one for each arm and leg and proceeded to carry her back to her car. Upon reaching her car the beings proceeded to throw Judy back into the car in a way that was so perfect she ended up completely upright behind the steering wheel. When she was left in the car she noticed that her sisters were not there and so she proceeded to sit there for a long time and began to get worried. Soon she looked over into the passenger seat and there sat her sister who seemed to of materialized from nowhere. Her other sister in the back seat was also there seemingly materialized. They did not enter the car through the door nor did she see them coming. The next thing Judy knew she was back at the sign with the flashing yellow light.

Judy’s encounter was kept quiet for some time known only to a few select and eventually Budd Hopkins later heard about the encounter through Ted Bloecher and found similarities to the Witch Doctor to the entity reported in Steven Kilburn’s encounter. Judy would also be apart of a panel of abductees at the 1979 MUFON UFO Proceedings where she discussed her abduction.  In her written account of the events in The Road to Strange: UFOs, Aliens, and High Strangeness Judy describes a deep desire to be re-hypnotized and to find out more about what occurred that night. She now has mixed feelings about the event as sometimes she’s glad she went through it and at other times not. She since the encounter has developed the feeling of somebody watching her as well as that she has since become “jittery” because of it. She also wonders if she has had any other encounters since that time. Her sisters however want nothing further to do with the event and are terrified to the current day.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Extraterrestrials

Location: Zamora, California

Sighted: November 26, 1972

Works Cited:

APRO Bulletin Vol. 28, #10

Canadian UFO Report Volume 4 #4

Humanoid Encounters 1970-1974 By Albert Rosales

Missing Time By Budd Hopkins

The Road to Strange: UFOs, Aliens, and High Strangeness By Michael Brein and Rosemary Ellen Guiley

UFO Abductions: A Dangerous Game By Philip J. Klass

UFO Verdict: Examining the Evidence By Robert Schaeffer

UFOS and Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery By Robert Bartholomew and George S. Haven

UFO Report, December 1979

Bee, Fresno, California- November 3, 1979

Daily Collegian, Fresno, California- November 6, 1979

Riverside It

 The Riverside It

By Cole Herrold

Many people want to see cryptids. I'm included in this camp how I'd love to see Mothman flying overhead, or while camping encounter, a sasquatch silently wander in the woods. The idea of encountering something unknown is what most of us in the field of Cryptozoology want to experience at least once in our lives. Yet, the thing most of us seem to forget is that there is a dark side to the world of Cryptozoology. Whether it be Nessie attacking early villagers in Loch Ness or Bigfoot carrying off women and children to eat in its dark abodes, this notion of aggressive animalistic cryptids has almost disappeared due to the pop media, tourism, and Amblin style films that paint these creatures as cute, cuddly, friendly, and shy critters that are just trying to make their way in the world. This is unrealistic for many who have had an encounter with a cryptid can seem like a waking nightmare. This is one such case.

On a dark rainy night on November 8^th, 1958, in Riverside, California, Charles Wetzel was driving home in his 1952 Buick and listening to K.F.I. Los Angeles on the radio. While crossing North Main Street where the Santa Ana River is located, he proceeded to in a wise way to slow his speed to avoid a potential accident, for there was an area of the road that had a habit due to its construction to result in the river flooding the road. As approaching this area, he noticed that his radio began to receive only static. Obviously frustrated at the lack of tunes or simply missing his favorite radio host, Wetzel continued to change and go from station to station to find that every station is flooded with static. Glancing up, Wetzel noticed what he thought was a sign, but as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he realized how wrong he was. There illuminated by his Buick’s headlights was something that has never been seen before.

A creature that stood six feet tall was wadding in the overflow of the banks, standing there just obscured by shadows as it slowly began to move in a strange gait. The car approached the unnatural abomination, and at that moment, the creature turned and glared inward at the occupant. The creature Wetzel saw had a largemouth that protruded out of the face; its rounded head bore no features like ears or a nose but instead had two deep-set glowing yellow eyes. The creature was as tall as a man in its stance with incredibly long arms with large, clawed hands. The legs of the creature stuck out from the side of its waist as opposed to the bottom like a person giving it almost a crab-like stance and appearance. When it walked, it appeared not to use its knees as though they were there only to help balance the strange anomaly. Its body was covered in scales that were leaf-like in pattern and humanoid in form. As the creature stared into the Buick, a swift motion from the creature's arm sent shivers up the startled motorist's back as the creature proceeded to claw at the windshield. Its long claws screeching and scratching at the glass. The beast let out hideous gurgling sounds while continuing its assault on the machine.

Wetzel reached throughout the cacophony of screeches, gurgles, and rain to his glove box, where he kept a .22 high standard pistol. He felt the cool metal in his hand, his eyes never leaving the site of the monstrous beast still wreaking havoc on his car. His finger wrapped around the trigger, yet at that moment, he thought if he shoots the glass, the barrier between him and his enigmatic aggressor would be severed, resulting in a more physical confrontation which may result in the end of his life. Wetzel's mind changed gears, and returning to the wheel, pushed his foot down on the gas. The startled creature still continued its assault as it was knocked down to the street pavement. The creature, as Wetzel would later describe, "Screamed like a Fucker" as the heavy automobile ran the unknown entity over. The creature under the vehicle continued its din under the car, screaming and gurgling while scratching at the oil pan under the car, almost as though it was trying to hold on to the moving vehicle. Wetzel left the creature in the road and continued to drive on, not stopping until he reached the police station. The police took notice of the damage done to the vehicle, and later on, tests of the undercarriage noticed that the "grease had been scrubbed off" by something.

Bloodhounds were later sent to go and search for the creature that had created such a problem for this Riverside resident. Yet arriving at the site, they could find no trace of the monster that should have been a bloody mess on the side of the road. Wetzel never saw the creature again, and I'm sure never traveled that section of road ever again.

This account of what has been dubbed as the Riverside Bridge Monster, Riverside It, and the Riverside Brain Tickler, the latter which according to The Weird U.S. Website's article "The Riverside Bridge Monster” received this name because of a free paper that retold the tale, is one of the most frightful and aggressive cryptid encounters on the books. It’s a situation no one wants to be in. This account has been written extensively by Loren Coleman in his necessary Fortean research tome Mysterious America. Coleman describes the bare bones of the case as well as material brought up in his interview with Wetzel some years later.

This creature is by far one of not only the most aggressive but bizarre beasts reported from a cryptozoological standpoint. There is nothing that officially matches it, not even when looking at other cryptids. Lizardmen appear more reptilian and do not have the kind of protruding beak seen in this case. The same goes for frogmen, armless aquatic humanoids, and just about every other obvious suspects in the cryptid ark. Everything about it seems wrong; the way it moves, the size of it, and the description of its face and scales make it one of the most enduring mysteries I've ever read.

The appearance of the creature zoologically speaking matches no known animal, not even from a fossil standpoint. Some features like a protruding mouth could be something beak-like, which is similar to what some dinosaurs did display, like an Oviraptor but to say that this is a surviving dinosaur is even more ridiculous. This animal displays features that appear both reptilian, mammal, and bird-like, but most of its features can be lumped into a reptile or reptilian style. Yet again, nothing that we know of matches. So where can we go from here?

In most of my articles, I can come up with a list of potential possibilities that range from the most mundane, like a native species, to something more exotic like a surviving relict. Yet, with this case, even the idea of saying it was somebody perpetrating a hoax is extremely unlikely. The damage done to the car and the damage specifically tested by police under the car show that something was hit by Wetzel and did attack his car. If it were a person hoaxing it, that person would be severely injured or dead, and I'm sure the newspapers would have recounted the individual's "prank," and this would no longer be the mystery that it is. If Wetzel had done the damage to the car himself, it raises the question as to why for no sane person would deliberately damage their own vehicle for the chance of some publicity. The idea of Wetzel doing this damage is on the point of it being just ludicrous, and if you go down that route, it can easily turn conspiratorial.

The most plausible option, it seems, is that this is a new undiscovered species. As bizarre as that concept might seem with a creature like this, there are no mundane answers that don't come off sounding ridiculous or so far out in right field that it's not even worth discussing. With cases like bigfoot and lake monsters, there are countless reports of multiple individuals. With this creature, there is only one official sighting, no evidence of a breeding population at all, so it's hard not to view this creature as a single entity. Viewing it in that terms, we should have some physical evidence, some road smear for its existence. While with most cases of vehicular accidents on animals, the poor creatures usually do not survive. The Riverside It clearly should be lying near the bank or floating in the water if it even was able to move slightly. Yet a body was never found. There are some evidence and reports that the creature managed to survive or that another member(s)of this species is still seen residing in and along the Santa Ana River.

The first of these cases occurred the night after the events between Charles Wetzel and the beast. The first being that almost another vehicular accident with these beasts occurred as a couple driving down a similar stretch of road watched as a large dark form ran across the road. While the form is not described as anything more substantial, this encounter because of timing is deeply connected to the Riverside It because of the timeframe and location of the beast.

An interesting find connected to this case comes from a strange source, the A.P.R.O. Bulletin. The A.P.R.O. or Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization is an organization whose primary focus is on U.F.O. s and extraterrestrial oriented research. When doing research for another topic, I came across an interesting article in a book by Coral E. Lorenzen that collected a good majority of the issues from 1958-1959. In the November 1958 issue of the Bulletin, an article entitled "Monster," the article is about the Charles Wetzel case. The article says that there were around twenty-eight calls to the sheriff in regard to the monster. This itself is ambiguous whether it's journalists, concerned neighbors, or as in the cases of most monster flaps, other eyewitnesses. The way the article is written; however, it seems to be implying the latter. These accounts, to my knowledge, have been uncollected, and I'm sure that there are tons of encounters that went unreported, as is the case with most cryptid encounters. While the police reports on other sightings have yet to be either released or accounted there were other encounters that occurred along and near the Santa Ana River and appear to be of a similar creature.

In the ever-invaluable book The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings That Can’t Exist! by Barton M. Nunnelly, he describes the Wetzel encounter and goes on to describe three separate occasions of creatures similar in appearance. This first sighting which occurred several years after the initial Riverside encounter occurred near the town of Corona. This account has been referred to as the Lemon Grove incident as this was the general area where a lot of these sightings took place. These sightings took place approximately 10 miles from Riverside but occurred during the 60s and 70s, approximately 5 to 15 years after Wetzel’s infamous encounter.

Dave Wilson and Tom McKelvy were out driving on a full moon in Dave's truck one night when they decided to head up to the Lemon Grove area. Driving the old dirt roads, they were encapsulated in the serenity of the darkness around them when one of the duo noticed some movement in the tree line. Wondering about their mysterious observation, they proceeded to go and put their truck in park. Sitting in the darkness, they proceeded in lifting and turning on a large flashlight and scanned the forest's darkness for what has captured their attention. When there about 75ft in front of them, they saw a form. The form was a creature standing 9ft tall and covered in shaggy gray hair. The creature bore a round head described in shape, not unlike that which Wetzel reported. The creature's round head was attached to the shoulders as no neck was visible. Its round head was filled with a pair of bulging eyes, front teeth that pointed outwards, and a nose that looked pushed in. The creature's arms were insanely long, and its hands were tipped in long claws. The two men stared at this unholy abomination for what seemed like an eternity when the creature began to move in an odd fashion; it seemed to lurch as it moved before letting out a long metallic-sounding screech. The men's eyes widened, for this was a call to war; the creature began to charge the stopped truck. Dave and Tom knowing their encounter most likely was going to turn deadly, proceeded in putting the truck in reverse and, like a bat out of hell, spun the truck around and drove 70 yards away from the monstrous beast. The two men breathed a sigh of relief as they believed they were in the clear, but it had not. Looking in the rearview mirror, one of the men could see their monstrous assailant still charging, and by the time the men were pulling away once again, the creature had begun to stretch its disproportionate arm into the tailgate of the pickup truck as though it was trying to grab it. Luckily before any connection could be made, the men sped off, leaving their strange antagonist behind in the Lemon Groves.

The next day the men returned to the scene and there discovered a large track with three long-clawed toes. The print was eighteen inches long and seven inches across. The men proceeded to go to the police with their encounter, but the officers, after hearing their encounter and seeing the print, believed that this sighting was the work of some prankster. About a year later, however, Dave and another friend, while driving in the same area, saw the same creature south of Chase Drive in the Lemon Groves. While seeing it a second time, he noticed the area smelled of a horrendous smell like that of a dead animal.

These accounts are often included in books on bigfoot. Yet this creature seems to be a composite of the creature seen by Charles Wetzel, and interestingly, a lot of the features like the round head, hair, long arms, seem to bear a resemblance to some types of bigfoot like creatures like Momo the Missouri monster. This creature, while slightly mammalian, behaves and has features that are extremely similar to what was reported by Wetzel and I feel should be included as part of this case. Could it be that the leaf-like scales reported by Wetzel was actually wet muddy fur that had dried, giving it that scale-like pattern? This idea has been proposed for other reptilian creatures, most notably the Honey Island Swamp Monster and the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. I personally don't feel this to be the case seeing as the creature was literally on top and underneath Wetzel's car, and he got an excellent look at it, seeing as this creature was only feet away from his face. Clearly, in a situation like that, someone can tell the difference between a lizard-like monstrosity and something apish.

While this is all the written accounts of a creature similar in appearance to the Riverside It in California, while researching the account, I came across the website Weird California and its article “Wetzel's Riverside Monster” while the article itself poses nothing new in regard to information. Upon reaching the bottom of the page, I found an anonymous commentator who claimed to of known others who had encountered similar beasts. While it can easily be dismissed by skeptics due to the anonymous nature, the simple fact of it being a comment, and not as worthy in regard of evidence as opposed to the researchers who spent time interviewing Wetzel and writing about the case for the sake of completion I decided to include it in the article.

This is the account in its entirety: “I know some people that live at the Wetzel River, currently known and called The Riverbottom, that has seen that creature and saw two more of those creature. A total amount of three creatures which they seen those creatures hovering over the River water and watching the people and as soon as the people go closer to it they run off into the bushes. In addition to the story, those creatures still exist and still is unknown what it could be. They come out at night. Many people who live there has seen it and tried to stab it with a long spear but it got away. Also there are demon entities who also come out at night. They have powerful forces that they imprint their face onto the side of the tent. Some people who believe in Jesus Christ will tell those entities to leave them alone. They only come to the weak minded people who don't have faith and believe in Jesus Christ. His name protects us people who have belief and faith in him. He is the one who can and will save us. Be aware if you go take a trip to the River Bottom. Be safe.”

This account, if accurate, offers an interesting patina for a case that is deeply rooted in Cryptozoology. In contrast, I take a lot of the spiritual aspects of this particular creature with more than a grain of salt. Personally, I would say an entire bag of salt. I do find it interesting that there is a consistent amount of supposed accounts that occur along the Santa Ana River. Could it be that these creatures use this river to travel from a different locale or as a major site for spawning if they are instead of reptilians more akin to fish in origin and behavior?

A fish humanoid is something that has occurred from time to time. The Thetis Lake Monster, for example, is a creature described as a semiaquatic fish or lizard-like creature. Now this creature seen in the 70s in Vancouver Island is described as much more ornate in the face and head than what is reported in the Riverside It case. There was a case that occurred in Breckinridge, Kentucky, that also featured a fish-type humanoid that ran into the side of the witnesses' house. How similar or different these animals would be to already known fish is something yet to be determined. Yet there is the possibility that these animals retained through the millions of years of their evolution some of their habits such as migration. This idea seems even more plausible with a species that is bipedal. This feature would help these creatures to travel from one lake, pond, river, bayou, etc. this could explain why we have one-time encounters or encounters of the creatures several years or decades down the line while other areas have reports of the same or similar creatures. A study to try to determine a pattern has at least to my knowledge not been explored.

Following this idea of a migratory aquatic species, there is one account of a creature bearing an intermediate resemblance to what was seen by Wetzel. The same year as Wetzel's encounter, there was an encounter of a similar beast in San Luis Valley in New Mexico. Priscilla Garduno Wolf and two other friends encountered a strange figure which came out and stood outside her house for several nights near her home. The figure stood by a ditch which was full of water. The dogs around her property had become upset about this creature. This continued for several nights, but the creature was gone by the day. Now on one occasion, the group of friends had decided to go and use this aquatic path to cool off from the hot summer sun. While traveling, they noticed a dark figure standing in the tree line. As the girls passed this silent creature and proceeded to walk a decent distant past it, they never looked away from the shadowy form. Without warning, the figure picked up speed, plunged into the water, and began to swim at a fast pace towards the young girls. They could make out its blurred form as it swam menacingly in this irrigation canal. The girls realizing the potential danger they were in, ran out of the water and did not stop until they got home. The next day they returned to the location where their semiaquatic admirer had been, and they found three-toed lizard-like tracks. that was the end of her horrific account with what she called the Lizard Man.

While I thoroughly believe that in this case, what we are seeing is a rare aquatic humanoid or reptilian humanoid of some kind, there are several alternative ideas that push this creature into more fringe topics. I mentioned the supposed demonic nature of these creatures in the account written by the anonymous commentator. While I sincerely do not support this idea and believe it to be one of the least likely, it is one that does, for the sake of argument, need to be brought up. The idea of reptilian creatures being devils or demonic forces is something that is continuously mentioned by many who are of an entirely religion-oriented mind. While these creatures are unknown, and it is tempting to jump on the supernatural bandwagon for things that we do not understand, it is also important to mention that some of these individuals claim that dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals were created by the devil to trick mankind, which is truly nonsensical.  As a man with a mind more towards science than supernatural, I bury these claims to be on the par of almost impossible. In my mind, there is a more scientific understanding of these creatures.

Another hypothesis is that these creatures are, in fact, from another dimension or, as John Keel would call them, an Ultraterrestrial. For those who don't know what an Ultraterrestrial is, it is an organism made up of energy or some other form of matter that can appear and change into different things for a variety of different purposes; some claim these creatures feed off our energies like fear, depression, etc. whereas others seem to simply be tricksters not unlike the various spirits, and gods seen around the world but most famously known in Native American lore. These creatures have been described to take a variety of supposed forms and are the singular explanation to every kind of phenomenon from bigfoot, U.F.O.s, ghosts, and even religious figures for those who follow this school of thought. It is worthy of note that during Charles Wetzel's encounter before he saw the creature, he reported that his radio received nothing but static on every radio station. This is something Keel had noted with a variety of these Ultraterrestrial encounters, and this kind of event occurred during sightings of the Mothman during the 66'-67' flap. This phenomenon has also been reported in connection with those that have supposedly encountered portals into other worlds or dimensions.

My standpoint on this is that this is too extreme of an answer for the data that is given in the account, and it requires no thoroughly complex thought or critical thinking to really come to this conclusion. Now that’s not to say that there may be something to some cases where this is the most likely answer, but there needs to be a hierarchy of thought when it comes to these topics. When researching any topic, I always try to eliminate the mundane answers first; if nothing mundane makes sense, I go into the field of Cryptozoology, followed by Ufology, then spectral research and the world of multidimensional entities and Ultraterrestrials, this is then followed by demonology and what some would call divine. The range goes from most likely and most testable or hypothetical to least likely and least testable. The case of the Riverside It is unique because it is mostly a biological case, but it has some features that could enter on some of the fringier sides.

The Riverside It case, however, seems to not fit nicely into any of the fringier topics. For those dedicated to these studies, many of which I do find worth, like Ufology and spectral research, I feel would agree for the most part that this particular case seems to indicate something that is of a more biological standpoint, especially with Wetzel's encounter. There were no U.F.O.s reported during the account, so the idea of this creature being some kind of extraterrestrial is extremely unlikely. The creature clearly had some physicality to it, especially with the reaction to being hit by the car, so clearly, it is not a demonic or ghostly entity. So that really leaves one main plausible option.

 This creature, while often viewed as a singular entity, is something that appears to be some kind of reptilian hominid or icthyohominid creature that, due to convergent evolution or parallel evolution, developed bipedal features. While there is nothing in the fossil evidence to support the development of such a feature or creature, we do know that many species like dinosaurs and birds walk bipedally, and reptiles like the Basilisk lizard run bipedally. So, the existence of something other than a man doing so is not out of the ordinary.

With this particular case, we are left with way more questions than answers. There is no cut and dry answer while I feel this creature is a flesh and blood organism that possibly travels or migrates to other watery holes for some as yet unknown reason and timeframe. It is still a hypothesis that requires much more study and testing. Yet while there is so much uncertainty to the origins of this particular beast, there is one thing that is perfectly clear. The creature had upset the life of one particular man that rainy night and, in doing so, certainly changed his viewpoint of the world. How does one prepare for an encounter with the unknown? it is something that many want, but few realize the possible repercussions of such an encounter. In Charles Wetzel's case, the overall end was of a traumatic encounter that, when interviewed, was so ingrained in his memory that even the most minute detail was saved. I have great sympathy for those who have encountered the unknown and have problems coping with it, for it is something that can totally change not only their perception but their lives.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Reptile

Location: Riverside, California

Sighted: November 8, 1958

Works Cited

Bishop, Greg, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci. Weird California: Your Travel Guide to California’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Sterling. 2006.

Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation’s Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures. Paraview Pocket Books. 2007

Guttilla, Peter. The Bigfoot Files. Timeless Voyager Press. 2017.

Lorenzen, Coral E. “Monster”. The A.P.R.O. Bulletin. November 1958. Saucerian Publishing. 2020.

Nunnelly, Barton M. The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that Can’t Exist!. Triangulum. 2017.

“Riverside Bridge Monster”. Weird U.S. http://www.weirdus.com/states/california/bizarre_beasts/riverside_bridge_monster/index.php?fbclid=IwAR0YNI5ZLYUs1Z6buTGkaPVUbrzmCEm2NCb45HaZk39f6GNCcZx_Vhb7ry0. Accessed December 15^th, 2020.

“California Screaming? Dark Tales And Legends From Otherwise Sunny California” Me Time For The Mind.  https://www.metimeforthemind.com/california-screaming-dark-tales-and-legends-from-otherwise-sunny-california.html?fbclid=IwAR1U2WkbvOAgtyHekprHYBDrg9rfkbYL6VUZK7pKtLb6jMa0VqHt5RoCA_0. Accessed December 15^th, 2020.

“Wetzel's Riverside Monster” Weird California. http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=119. Accessed December 16^th, 2020

The Billiwhack Monster

 The Billiwhack Monster

By Cole Herrold

Around the United States, there are various reports of creatures described as being half man and half animal. The most famous of these accounts being Bigfoot, the half man half ape that has been reported in every state as well as in Canada. Bigfoot is often depicted as a shy lumbering giant that is curious of man but also very fond of running away from humans; however other manimals are much more violent and aggressive in their behavior. Perhaps the most aggressive of these creatures are the entities known as Goatmen. Goatmen are reported in a variety of different states, with the most famous versions being reported in Maryland and Kentucky. While most of these creatures are found in desolate forested areas, one creature is said to of taken up residence in an old dairy farm in sunny California.

The Billiwhack Monster, also sometimes spelled Billiwack Monster is a muscular and powerful grey or white-furred ram-headed humanoid with yellow-green cat-like eyes. This creature reportedly is approximately 9-10ft tall with hands tipped in razor-sharp talons and is said to dwell in the crumbling Billiwhack Dairy Farm. The farm is located on a back winding road in Aliso Canyon, which is in Ventura County and about 6 miles West of Santa Paula. The creature reportedly never leaves the compound except to travel to the nearby citrus orchards to feed on rabbits and other small animals.

The origins of this creature are assumedly interconnected with the founder of the Billiwhack Dairy. The dairy was opened by August Rubel in 1925 and was a struggling dairy farm that ultimately closed its doors after Rubel’s mysterious death in 1943. It was right after his death when the creature began to make its residence in the old dairy building. Some have come up because of this several hypotheses as to why this occurred; one theory was that Rubel had created a mutant offspring from breeding experiments to better the output of milk. Another more governmental conspiratorial hypothesis is that August Rubel, who died while fighting in WWII, was, in fact, a member of the Office of Strategic Services or the OSS, which was a precursor to the CIA. There is a belief that Rubel while being in the OSS, had several Nazi Scientists under his control. These scientists were forced to attempt to conduct experiments that were similar to the Marvel Comics Super Soldier ideology. The results of these experiments are believed to be the Billiwhack Monster.

While there is certainly tons of early lore attempting to explain how the creature came about and allegedly encounters that appeared all the way back in 1943. The very first reported encounter with the Billiwhack Monster comes from the 50s when a 9-year-old boy who, along with a group of friends, had decided to go and check out the reportedly haunted Billiwhack Dairy themselves. The group proceeded in entering the dilapidated structure; as they trespassingly traversed therein, they entered a particularly dark shadowy section. As the group moved around searching at the old cartons and production line, they noticed a pair of glowing eyes peering from within the shadows. The group proceeded to stare into the darkness at this set of glowing eyes, holding their breath. As the group stared, the eyes started to move and approach the group; it came closer and closer the sound of clicking on the tiled floors. The eyes seemed to stop before it hit the light, and it was only a short bit away. The group started to back away, slowly inching their way back. Just as the group felt that this form might be trapped by the darkness, it jumped out from the shadows a mere foot away from the group revealing the horrifying man goat creature. The group, not stopping to see what this creature might do, proceeded in running as fast as they could. As they were running, the 9-year-old felt a sharp pain in his back. This did not stop him, however, and he continued to run all the way home. When he arrived home, his mother noticed his shirt was torn, and upon removing it that his back was covered in large scratches.

In November 1964, several boys would encounter the creature while out hiking in the canyon. The creature, enraged at their intrusion into its lair, proceeded to chase the boys. The boys began sprinting as fast as they could away from this horned beast; they managed to make their way out of the area, and as suddenly as the creature came, it disappeared. On another separate encounter, a boy claimed he encountered a “snarling hairy man in a hole” in the property. Others who would travel up to the road would have encounters with the creature outside in the safety of their cars; the creature would allegedly throw 50lbs rocks at any who would travel up the road.

While there are very few official detailed accounts of interactions with this creature, it clearly did sweep up the community. Police were constantly traveling to the road and picking up various trespassers and would-be monster hunters. One such monster hunter was ready to face the Billiwhack Beast in a pure medieval showdown as the individual came prepared not with a gun or with any classic mob-based weapon like a pitchfork but instead one of the most mighty of weapons, a sword. The sword-wielding boy intended to smite the beast down in its lair and bring the remains back to free the town from the cantankerous caprine. Yet even this encounter is mild compared to what would transpire in almost a classic Universal style. Dorothy Renterra, a leaser who had kept tabs on the property and had tried to stop any further trespassing on the property, would be caught up in the monster mania when she had to hold off a group of 43 would be monster hunters with a shotgun until the police arrived to remove the mob. The angry mob had sought to capture and dispel the cursed beast from the plant to stop the assault on those who enter therein.

After the 60s, sightings seemed to dip down, and no major accounts were published. The creature, while sightings allegedly occurred sporadically and at night, primarily became a major focus on ghost hunters. In fact, the creature was in a contest won, being the best ghost in the area. Ghost hunters to this day often write about this creature and some contest that this creature is completely supernatural in origin, citing it as a demonic entity or some curse that was connected to August Rubel as there have been whispers of several ill-fated tragedies that have occurred to him. Another more skeptical hypothesis is that these reports are entirely the fabrications of young minds as most reports come from younger witnesses.

While rumors of the creature's origin are fiercely debated, there are allegedly sightings to this day. While these modern sightings are not exactly specified or even detailed, there is an increasing cultural growth with the legend. Due to the ever-increasing Latin culture that is being more embraced and expanded, so too is interest in the legend. The creature has been embraced by those of Latin descent and heritage, and they have given the creature its own name Chivo Man. The figure has been used as a more boogeyman type figure in that older generational figures like parents and grandparents will tell their children and grandchildren to behave, or Chivo Man will get you!

The Billiwhack Monster is one of the oldest American Goatmen in the books and is one that does seem to be a mixture of folklore and fact. Perhaps this creature is a deformed bigfoot or a supernatural entity, or perhaps it is just a case of mass hysteria, for some of the elements seem to be a dual of a real creature seen and the mass hysteria-oriented hype of others reporting the encounters. Yet while the jury is out on this particular creature, it is extremely interesting to see how the legend grows and the cultural effect it has on the community. It's a legend that I'm sure will last for a very long time.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal

Location: Billiwhack Dairy, Aliso Canyon Road, Aliso Canyon, Ventura County, California

Sighted: From 1943 to Modern Times

Works Cited

Goatman Flesh or Folklore? by J. Nathan Couch

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

Weird California by Greg Bishop, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci

The Los Angeles Times November 4, 1964

Ventura County Star-Free Press November 2, 1964

“THE BILLIWHACK MONSTER”. Rikki Rockett. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iltev1bG69k

Tick Canyon Giant Rabbit

by Cole Herrold

Rabbits are one of the most beloved pets that people get. While children year-round want an actual bunny for Easter as opposed to the nightmare that is the Easter Bunny for those not traumatically scarred by watching the not-so kid-friendly Watership Down, it can be a fun and loveable furry addition to the family. When people think of rabbits, they, outside that Lovecraftian Easter Bunny, tend to imagine tiny, sometimes overly fed, long-eared animals that have a hardcore urge to eat vegetables. In this way, we often feel that because we keep them as pets and for the avid outdoorsmen hunt them that there is nothing new regarding these animals, especially in the world of Cryptozoology. However, in California, there was a case of a rabbit whose proportions would have made it fit in with the other colossal kaiju creeps in the cult film Night of the Lepus.

It was in March of 1969 when Stephen P. Alpert, a geologist working towards his Ph.D., was out in the Northern part of L.A. County near Vasquez Rocks State Park is an area known as Tick Canyon. He was deployed to this particular area as part of a UCLA Geology project which focused on mapping the various rock kinds in the surrounding area. It was during this particular day, as he scanned the horizon mapping certain points down, that he noticed something bizarre on the landscape. A large dark form that seemed to almost blend in with the rocky terrain. He got closer and got to about 7ft from the figure when it raised up, and he could see that what he had been looking at was a kind of bizarre animal. The creature stood about five and a half feet tall, had large ears and a long face, and a dark brown body with muscular forepaws. He estimated that the bulky yet slender animal was about 150-175 lbs. Stephen stared at the anomalous animal as he stared back and thought, "that looks like a kangaroo! What is a kangaroo doing out here?". As he scanned the body, however, he noticed that the creature was missing something that seemed to indicate that what he was looking at was not a marsupial, and that was the lack of a pouch. He watched as the animal proceeded to turn and bound away. As the animal turned, he got his official confirmation that this was nothing of the classical marsupial variety, for instead of the classic long tail seen in kangaroos, wallaroos, and wallabies, this animal had in its place a white cotton ball tail as seen in rabbits and hares. He watched the creature until it finally managed to hop out of sight.

Napa Rebobs

by Cole Herrold

California is one of the most famous areas when it comes to Fortean phenomenon. The state is home to Bluff Creek, where the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film was shot. The state is home to the Winchester Mansion, one of the most haunted and unique buildings in the United States. A sea serpent was allegedly beached and photographed in Santa Cruz, and a bipedal reptilian monster attacked a man in his car near a Riverside, California Bridge. It is surprising that a state we often associate with high population density would also seem to be a major mystery hotspot. While the state is home to classic phenomena like Bigfoot, ghosts, and sea serpents, it is also home to one of the most bizarre and downright ridiculous creatures in the books.

I first came across the creatures known as the Napa Rebobs while watching an episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America. These creatures were described as mirror images to the flying monkeys from the classic children book and fantasy film the Wizard of Oz. These creatures allegedly reside in a particular section of the Napa Valley known as Partrick Road. However, some sources, when researching the phenomena, do misname the road Patrick Road. The creatures allegedly have been in the Napa Valley area since at least the '50s, or 60's yet upon digging in newspaper archives, paranormal books that mention or focus on the region, and deep-dive Google searches, I have found no mention of these creatures at least officially prior to 2008.