The Vegetable Man

 The Vegetable Man

By Cole Herrold

Some cases are classics, and then there are cases that, even though they are rarely mentioned by the Fortean community, are destined to be such. The case of the Vegetable Man is one such case. As the years grew, more and more became aware of this bizarre, monstrous mutant freak flora. It has gained both love and jeers from those who have heard the encounter and, interestingly enough, may be interconnected with a wider phenomenon reported cross-culturally and not just in the hills and hollows of West Virginia.

It was a warm summer day during Mid-July 1968 when Jennings Frederick had begun to traverse through the woods near Rivesville and Fairmont in West Virginia near his father's property. His intent of being in the woods on this particular day was to hunt woodchucks with his bow and arrow. After almost a full day of searching for the game of his choice, he had decided to return back home before nightfall. As he was traveling back the path, his thoughts were troubled, and so he proceeded to stop under a set of Red Maple trees to adjust his 45lbs bow before moving on, but his deep contemplation would soon be broken by a bizarre sound. The sound he heard to him sounded strange; it was not an animal call or something he was familiar with, and the closest he could explain as to what it sounded like was akin to a record played at an extremely fast speed. This sound caught his attention, and as he listened, he soon was able to decipher that this was some sort of words or communication which seemed to say, " You need not fear me. I wish to communicate. I come as a friend. We know of you all. I come in peace. I wish medical assistance. I need your help!" Jennings proceeded to reach down into his pocket for a handkerchief because during this whole excursion, he had become rather sweaty, and as he reached down, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his hand, and as he looked over to see if his hand had been caught in a brier brush, he saw that there was a strange green form grabbing onto him by the wrist. Following the green form up, he noticed that this was not a typical brier brush but instead a colossal creature that defied explanation.

There standing exceptionally close to him, was a 7ft tall creature bright green in color with features that were eerily human in its face. The most noticeable feature of this creature's face, however, was its bright, piercing yellow eyes and its long ears. As he scanned the creature's body, he noticed it was carrot-shaped but was green, almost like a plant stalk. The body had noticeable shoulders and arms, but these arms were only about as thick as a quarter. The arm's eerie thinness was not the most disturbing feature of this portion of the body; however for, the creature's hands stretched down into three incredibly long fingers with 7" needle-like protrusions that were enveloped by a kind of suction cup. It was the right arm of this peculiar creature that had encapsulated his arm, and as he watched, the creature seemed to grip even tighter, and he noticed that through this, the creature punctured one of his blood vessels. As the creature continued to do this, he could hear a sound almost akin to sucking that instantly told him that this creature was draining his blood. Pain from this motion shot up his arm, and as he continued to stare at the creature, a peculiar thing began to occur; the creature's yellow eyes suddenly began to swirl with red creating almost a spiral type effect and where the two colors would meet in the center orange circles appeared. This sudden change in eye color and motion had a hypnotizing effect on Jennings, and he soon realized that he no longer felt any pain from the creature's grasp as it did this. As the creature did this, it once more released its message that Jennings had heard before, but he was unsure if the creature was communicating telepathically or whether the creature was speaking it audibly. This otherworldly transfusion lasted at least to Frederick's for only a minute, but the drainage could very well have lasted much longer. After the creature seemed to have its fill, it suddenly released him extremely quickly, and the creature then, at incredible speeds, began to jump away and sprint up a hill in jumps or leaps that were 25ft in each leap. Jennings was able to estimate the height of these jumps after he watched the creature clear a 5ft tall fence with still 3 ft to spare.

Sketch of the Vegetable Man which appeared in Time Life's UFO Phenomenon

Once it reached the hilltop, it ultimately disappeared, and as he stared in the direction of where the creature left, the pain in his arm suddenly returned, and as he stood there holding his arm in pain, he then heard a high humming and whistling sound which he instantly felt was the creature's UFO coming back to pick it back up. Jennings, after no longer hearing the sound, began to work his way home and, after washing his wound and bandaging it, decided to not speak a word about his encounter or go to a doctor for fear that no one would believe him. Yet as time went on, he began to develop a friendship with Gray Barker and told the tale to him, but this would not be Jennings' last brush with the unknown. Sometime before or after this event, Jennings' mother would encounter a strange entity that was seen around the house.

Image of the Vegetable Man encounter from Gray Barker's Newsletter

While Jennings was still in school, his mother would have a bizarre encounter with a tethered entity from a UFO. This she experienced after she had dropped her husband off at work, and as she was washing the breakfast dishes, she glanced out of the family's window and noted what she at first believed to of been a child playing in the field on the hillside by their house. Her motherly instinct kicked in because she was concerned the child might go and touch the nearby electric fence on their property, and so she began to head out onto her porch to warn the child. Once she got onto her porch, however, she noticed that what she initially thought was a child was not a child but a strange creature that was small and black or dark green in color. The creature bore the appearance of almost a little devil to her as it had long pointed ears and a tail, but she was unable to see a face on the creature. The strange entity as she watched was as she watched grabbing clumps of dirt from the hill and shoving the clods into a bag in its hand, and as she looked over, she noticed that beyond the creature nestled in the grass was a large cream and silver-colored craft on the ground. The object was about 10ft in diameter and about 5ft tall and had several windows under the dome of the craft. The creature was seemingly connected to the craft by some sort of cable or wire, and the object seemed to rotate in a clockwise motion and seemed to release a humming sound. Mrs. Fredericks was deeply disturbed by this apparition and the potential satanic origins that she rushed back inside and jumped into bed, covering herself up and hoping for the entity and its craft to disappear. She waited for some time until finally gathering enough courage to peek out of the cover and out the window upon which she just caught sight of the craft leaving and noted that the object made an even louder humming sound before it finally departed. Mrs. Frederick told no one about what she had seen until Jennings came home from school because Jennings had either before his encounter with the Vegetable Man or afterward suddenly developed a keen interest in UFOs and had an idea of just what to look for.

Jennings, upon coming home and hearing his mother's account, proceeded to go out onto the hill and investigate upon which he found a depression on the ground and, based on the impression and soil consistency, was able to estimate that the craft weighed a ton. As he searched the area, he also found claw-like tracks from which he was able to gauge that the creature weighed some 45lbs. As Jennings observed the area, he also found hair samples that he managed to collect as well as managed to make plaster of Paris casts of the creature's tracks. He proceeded to send all of this evidence to an unspecified sect of the air force, which, upon analyzing the data, claimed that it came from a weather balloon, and they never proceeded in returning the samples he sent to them.

Sometime later, Jennings would later join the air force, and after his discharge, he was living with his parents once more in their family home where his previous encounters had occurred. One morning sometime between one and four in the morning, he was awakened by a bright flash of red light. Jennings, instinctively and certainly concerned after his previous excursions with the unknown, withdrew his .38 service revolver that he kept under his pillow and left his room to investigate the strange illumination. At first, he believed the source may have been caused by the gas furnace. Yet suddenly, a small canister about the size of an apple dropped to the ground and began to bounce around the living room floor. Suddenly as he was watching this strange device, he felt a hand grab him as well as the prick of a needle in his left arm. Afterward, he was confronted by three bizarre men wearing black ski masks, turtleneck sweaters, and slacks. Upon which they began to talk amongst themselves, saying, "the dogs have been darted, and everybody gassed!" "what about this one?" "he's going out soon- he's half asleep" "don't worry about the needle; it'll make his arm sore for a day or two, that's all." Just as the canister was about to reach Jennings, the strange men proceeded to put on gas masks, and the last thing Jennings remembered was that one of the men put the jumping canister into his pocket. The men then began to put something over Jennings' head and began to ask him about UFOs and exactly what they were. The men also asked what time it was and also what he had thought of the future, but after that point, Jennings remembered nothing and was sure he had passed out. Jennings remembered nothing and slept soundly until the next morning and no one else the following morning seemed to remember or comment on anything strange.

Thus ends the strange tale of Jennings Frederick, which is more or less what this tale is about. Now breaking down this case, I'm only going to focus on the Vegetable Man portion of his encounters since that is arguably the most important and easiest to break down. Now going fully skeptical, there is a lot to point out. First up would be the source, and that is that this case is given to us by Gray Barker. Now Gray Barker was a hoaxster, and there's no denying that even though he has covered other seemingly legitimate phenomena like the Flatwoods Monster, Mothman, or Grafton Monster and, in part, the Men in Black but still one must recognize that as with all of his writings one needs to take it a grain of salt. Especially with a case like this, since there's no peer review of the case as in the others, it's literally just his account, so we have to either assume he's being honest or fabricating a tale.

Now upon initial reading of this tale, there are a lot of similarities to films that would have been easily accessible to Barker, and if we go, Jennings fabricating the tale access to. The most recognizable is Howard Hawkes the Thing From Another World. While most are familiar with the John Carpenter reboot, the original based on the short story "Who Goes There?" is still a classic and important in regard to this case. In the film, the extraterrestrial being who goes on a murderous rampage in the frozen environment that serves as the setting of the film is a tall humanoid shape with strange knuckle protrusions akin to thorns or claws. Yet as the film discusses the morphology of the entity, it is revealed that the alien is, in fact, a kind of humanoid plant that feeds, and this is the most important part of blood. There's a scene where the creature kills several of the outposts dogs and hangs the bleeding carcasses over the plants in the greenhouse to essentially feed them all off-screen, of course. The features on the creature's hands (granted, they’re on the wrong section) and the creature's need for blood and vegetable connection are very similar to the Vegetable Man. Add this to the films of Dracula and even the 60s Batman, namely with the villain the Mad Hatter, where hypnotism is utilized through the eyes to stop a person from feeling or being easily manipulated, and it would be so easy for someone to be influenced by these films and shows to create a false story that seems believable. Now it must be said that while this is very likely, the creature's overall description does not exactly match anything, at least that I'm aware of, that would match the description of the creature given, especially with such specific lengths and measurements as a quarter thick arms or 7” long fingers.

Now with that said, perhaps this creature is a cryptid. Clearly, there's nothing in the known botanical or zoological categories that would match, but there are a few different possibilities that I think need mentioned. The first is that perhaps this creature is a highly evolved version of insectivorous plants. These species of plants like the Venus Flytraps, the Sundews, Cobra Lilys, etc., developed this need to consume other organisms as a way of getting their mandatory need of nitrogen to survive in the environments that they reside in. These species are extremely fascinating, and perhaps over some million years of evolution, one became more mobile, no longer needing the nutrients of the ground as much, and, in turn, crossed the line into a species almost akin to an animal. Now granted, this is pure speculation, but there have been other cryptids reported of the plant variety that are similar; the Ya-Te-Veo, for example, is an alleged south American tree sort of like a short tendrilled tree that does attempt to capture humans, a similar type of tree is also reported to exist in Madagascar. Now obviously, there's a big issue with this; for one thing, neither the Ya-Te-Veo nor the Madagascar equivalent, which seem to be megafloral versions of insectivorous plants, have been found, and again, the lore of these plants is that they grow in the ground and do not move in a sentient way like the Vegetable Man.

Now while this creature might not be a plant, it may be an animal. We know in nature that there are insects that mimic plants, there are beetles that look like leaves, there are stick insects, and so on. So perhaps the creature that was seen was some sort of colossal equivalent of such a creature. In nature, animals always find unique ways to camouflage themselves or find ways to better their chance of survival, such as through Batesian Mimicry. A creature that could essentially blend in so well with its environment that it would appear part of the natural flora would be perfect for catching any number of prey as well as remaining elusive for countless years. Now, of course, the problem with this is that this creature, if real is far more advanced than an insect, and its abilities and features are, in fact, more plant-like than animal, so it simply could not be a traditional animal as far as we know it or even from a speculative standpoint unless its that this creature is something altogether new from everything we currently know that somehow managed to evolve.

It is also important to note in regard to a potential undiscovered species of plant-like humanoid in West Virginia that this is not the only report. I had written about a case that appeared in Monsters and Ghosts of West Virginia by one of the authors who, while working in his/her garden, encountered a strange stalk-like entity with yellow eyes that was lurking in a field of sunflowers. The author watched the anomalous two-fingered green entity run through the flowers before ultimately disappearing in the surrounding woodlands before ultimately disappearing. The author instantly compared his/her sighting to Jennings Frederick's, and perhaps this entity might be a juvenile or male/female version of the species since it did not have the same number of digits or the long ears as reported by Fredericks. Or perhaps this is something altogether different and a part of a wider belief of moving plants reported from most countries.

Now the next possible option to this is the same assumption that Gray Barker and Jennings Fredericks came up with, and that's that this creature was, in fact, an extraterrestrial. Now a lot of the interactions one could compare with that of an ETS. Aliens seem intent on causing pain, and then once they realize that they are doing so, the witnesses stare helplessly into the eyes of the beings, and in doing so, the pain goes away. Another thing is the possible telepathic interaction between Jennings and the creature, as such interactions are common in extraterrestrial lore. The strange sounds described two of a high pitched record, and whistling is also something frequently described in UFO reports. Now the thing about this that seems to not point to such a possibility is that there is no UFO reported. There's plenty of noise associated with UFOs, but no craft reported, and whistling sounds are very ambiguous; they're seen in hauntings and in cryptid accounts as well as from people, so perhaps such sounds are totally unrelated. Plus, in alien cases, encounters that involve transfusions are not done in the wilds but again on a craft unless this entity was actually in some dire distress, as his message stated. Yet again, there's nothing to indicate that this being came from outer space. Barker, it is important to note, made a similar comparison to the Grafton Monster case, which also involved a whistling noise, but again no UFOs were reported directly in that case.

Now there is another possibility with this case, and that is that what this entity might be is a faerie. Now the fae are often described as humanoid plant elementals, the most famous example being the Green Man, which is often described as a humanoid figure with a man-like face that symbolizes rebirth. The fact that this creature was humanoid in almost all aspects aside from its obvious plant-like features is important for this possibility for unlike cryptids, this is an intelligent creature (non-animalistic intelligence) that has plant-like features, is aware of us as a species, and appeared and disappeared at superhuman speeds these are all things associated with the fae. Now, much like any Fortean topic, the fae has never been viewed as a plausible or even worthwhile subject, but I do find it interesting, especially when comparing the overall description of the entity to reports of plant-like fae that there are some stark similarities. Yet, of course, it's not the only possibility.  

The final possibility of just what this entity could be is that it could be either an interdimensional being or an Ultraterrestrial one. Now, these are sort of the catchall theories as if everything Jennings Fredericks and Gray Barker said is true and that none of the other hypotheses turn out to be accurate that they still allow for this creature to exist. If this creature popped in, for example, another dimension that opens up countless possibilities not only for evolution to work but also for why it has never exactly been seen since or why we don't have further evidence for it. The same goes for Ultraterrestrials, yet with Ultraterrestrials, they are supposed to be tricksters or entities that exist amongst us manifesting for the sole purpose of either feeding off our emotions or to mess with us for some purpose we have yet to see or understand. Now with this creature, it did leave alleged physical traces of itself via wounds to the wrist; if Gray Barker is to be believed so, chances are this creature would not be an Ultraterrestrial as they are more akin to less violent Pennywises from IT. If this creature is from another dimension, though, it would fit all of the boxes, but again, with how extensive our universe is and the universes around us, if String Theory is to be believed is accurate with at least one planet or dimension some entity like this would have to exist.

Now there are a ton of ways to interpret this case, and those who know Gray Barker's personal life will notice some Freudian elements to this tale that they can interpret as being examples of a fictional story. Yet there are so many intricate details that if this is a piece of fiction and not an actual account and was perpetrated in the mind of Barker, it is incredibly detailed, and he belongs up in the annals of one of the greatest Science Fiction-horrors writers. Yet as with all encounters, there is a chance of reality, and so I leave it to the reader to decipher their own ideas of just what Jennings Fredericks encountered on that warm July day in 1968.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Plant/ Carnivorous Plant, Extraterrestrial, Faerie, Paranormal entity

Location: Near Fairmont and Rivesville, West Virginia

Sighted: Mid July 1968

Works Cited:

Alien Meetings By Brad Steiger

Humanoid Encounters: 1965-1969 By Albert S. Rosales

The UFO Phenomenon by Time-Life books

Gray Barker’s Newsletter March 1976

Farmersville Green Man

 Farmersville Green Man

By Cole Herrold

Our planet, over the course of countless years, has been home to tons of bizarre anomalous beings. Many of these entities tend to fall in one category or another, but as one delves headfirst into the mire of monster encounters, we find that there are so many different creatures that are completely unique or heavily inspired or pulled straight from the works of horror and science fiction. One such creature that appeared on a Texas farm in 1913 seemed to be a cross between Kermit the Frog and Galwyn the wizard/mushroom from the 1986 Horror Fantasy film Troll. While this creature sounds adorable, it, unfortunately, suffered terribly due to its chance sighting. It, unfortunately, did not make it.

In Farmersville, Texas, three boys were chopping cotton on a farm in May 1913. The boys were alerted by the sound of barking coming from the family dogs and, after listening to the ruckus for some time, proceeded to investigate just what was upsetting the dogs. The boys saw the canine companions encircled near a section of the property continuing to bark at a structure on the property. The boys, curious just what about the structure was upsetting the animals, peered beyond the animals, and as they looked, they saw a bizarre green figure. The figure appeared to be like a little person, but the being turned out to be something so different from what would traditionally be associated with a person. The being was only about 18 inches tall and was dark green in color with rubbery skin. The creature was completely nude; however, attached to the top of its fleshy body was a kind of hat-like structure that was reminiscent of a sombrero that seemingly grew from the skull. The boys watched in both awe and horror as the creature further caught the attention of the dogs and watched as the carnivorous canines began to run towards the strange creature tearing into the rubber skin with their fangs and as the horrified boys watched as human-looking organs and red blood came pulled out of the now-deceased creature. Afterward, the animals backed away, and the dogs avoided the spot where the remains continued to lay rotting in the sun. The dogs behaved this way the rest of the day and seemed to be frightened by these strange remains. The next day when the boys returned to the spot again to see what was left of the creature found that the remains were gone, and at the spot where the creature died, there was not even a bloodstain. It was as if someone had come and cleaned up the location.

This encounter was held up as a kind of family secret as well as a tradition that would be passed down from generation to generation that is until, in 1978, one of the grandsons wrote to CUFOs about the encounter. Silbie Latham was one of the main witnesses to the being and the attack on it, and it was specifically his grandson who wrote about the encounter. The grandson wrote, "My grandfather has a most solid reputation for truth and honesty but has never told of this because of fear of ridicule…He has agreed to tell this only after much prompting and encouragement from me, his history-oriented grandson. He would take a polygraph or be hypnotized or whatever you need. There is no question in my mind that he is telling the truth.” following the letter, Latham was later interviewed by Larry Sessions of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History who would describe the grandfather as "a remarkable man" and commented on his story thusly "There's no doubt he believes it happened, but that doesn’t mean it did happen. Maybe he has an overactive imagination. Or maybe his brothers played a trick on him, and he’s sort of unconsciously embellished the story over the years”. One of the things Mr. Lesson asked Mr. Latham was that could the creature have been some sort of frog, but Mr. Latham vigorously rejected this hypothesis and stuck to his guns about the description of the creature.

Now while bizarre green-skinned beings are frequently common in Fortean encounters, be it Cryptozoology, Ufology, or in Faerie encounters, this kind of entity seemingly has never been reported again. Yet that does not imply that there are no answers as to the identity of the enigmatic entity. When one starts off skeptically, there are several ideas as to just what they could have witnessed. Obviously, the one that was most embraced by Mr. Lesson was that what the boys saw that day could have just been a very large bullfrog or something similar. I personally think that this is a little bit of a stretch since Frogs do not have any sort of head structure that one would compare to a sombrero. Now it would be more plausible for a kind of reptile if one was to take this route for species of reptiles like Iguanas or Basilisk Lizards, for if the crest slants over it might give the appearance of a hat like structure, but even still, these structures are extremely flat and fold-like, so if one was to point to them as a possibility there is still that problem of blowing the description way out of proportion as a folded over crest just does not give off the appearance of a sombrero.

Cryptozoologically speaking, there's never been an exact match to the Farmersville Green Man. My first thought would be to compare it to one of the known semiaquatic cryptids reported as these entities are humanoid in form and bright green in color. Yet the most obvious suspects such as The Loveland Frogmen, The Mill Race Monster, Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp, Breckinridge Fishman, Charles Mill Lake Monster, but none exactly match. There is one which could, with a stretch of the imagination, be the same or similar, and that is the New Kensington Green Thing. The New Kensington Case describes a bipedal creature green in color with a human-like form, but the reason I mention it as a possibility is that the New Kensington Case involves both a head crest and two large floppy ear-like structures that one could describe as sombrero-like. Now the problem, of course, with this is that again, if we take a literal look at the description, it still does not match up. The New Kensington Green Thing has a tail, and also, the ears and crest are not the same as a sombrero-like structure growing from the skull of the creature. This, however, does not discredit the Cryptid hypothesis as this species is clearly biological in nature since it has internal organs and blood. Perhaps this organism is an incredibly rare species that only was chronicled at least once, and chances are now it is probably extinct. Yet all of this is speculation, and on the counter side of the coin, there's a chance this is not a cryptid since with cryptids, there is a history of sightings such as with lake monsters, Bigfoot, Thunderbirds, etc. even though that could just mean these species have a higher population number or that they exist in more accessible areas to humans allowing sightings to be reported, but if this isn't the case then this is a completely one-off encounter and therefore something else instead of a cryptid.

The next most plausible explanation is that perhaps this is an extraterrestrial of some kind. This could explain the biological aspects of the creature and could also explain why such a creature could have been reported only once. There are several reports of small, diminutive green-skinned or suited beings such as the Hopkinsville Goblins, Space Penguins of Tuscumbia, and the six to eight fingered green men reported at several different cases but most famously in the 1947 Villa Santina encounter. So, perhaps this entity was a species similar to it but with some particular growth or tech that could explain the sombrero shape feature. However, the main problem with this encounter being an extraterrestrial one is that there is no craft seen in connection to the account. While there is the possibility that a UFO could have landed, and this was its occupant, one would think that there should have been others seen in the vicinity or in a more morbid thought that the craft would still be lying in some field waiting to be discovered as its driver no longer lived.

A note that I feel should be included deals with the possibility that this entity could be connected to a group of creatures occasionally reported in both the annals of Cryptozoology and Ufology. The shape of the sombrero like head is not too far off from a mushroom shape which could imply that while this creature's internal structure is fleshy and something akin to a human's, the fact that this being is green and relatively mushroom-like could indicate either some super camouflage or that it is some kind of animal-plant. In the pages of Ufology and Cryptozoology, there are many examples of creatures that blur the line from animal and plant. The most famous of which is the infamous Vegetable Man. The Vegetable Man was a creature assumed to be an extraterrestrial from West Virginia that drained the blood of a man through its long needle-like fingers after communicating with him in a high-pitched record-like voice. Another case also hailing from West Virginia, which was called the Veggie Man as a way to distinguish it from the Vegetable Man, was a semi-tall figure that was green stalk-like with a big round head and arms that extended into two curling tendril-like appendages. These beings, especially the Veggie Man, is not too far off from the Farmersville Green Man and raises the question that perhaps there are organisms either from our own planet or another that intentionally or due to the course of evolution evolved either some super camouflage that they developed as a way to capture prey or that they are the next step in plant evolution organisms that possibly gained both sentience and mobility. While all this is possible, there currently is no specific species of this variety known to science, so again it makes this possibility just speculation.

Another possibility that one can offer up is that this entity is a member of the Fae. This same idea can be pointed to for other plant humanoids and bipedal plant organisms such as the veggie Man, Vegetable Man, and Moss Man. In the domain of the Fae, there are several plant-like organisms that have been cataloged over the years. The most famous example of the plant Fae is the Green Man. The Green Man is a forest spirit that often appears as a humanoid made up of or covered in leaves and acts in many ways as a kind of guardian of the forests and the seasons, specifically that of Spring and Summer. These beings are reported and inducted into many cultures around the world, some of which have had no discernible communication or connection to each other. Another example of a plant-like fae is the Stray Sod. Stray Sod is a lump term for two kinds of phenomenon that behave identically; the first is plain old grass that becomes enchanted by the Fae and causes those who step on it to lose their way. The second variety is a kind of entity that camouflages itself with grass and hides on the ground waiting for someone to step on it so that person loses their way. These beings frequently are reported in Ireland, France, and the United Kingdom. Yet again, as with aliens and cryptids, there's no matching variety of Fae to the Farmersville encounter reported, at least that I am aware of. It is important to note, however, that mushrooms are very important to the Fae as circular patches of mushrooms are believed to be gateways to the Faerie Realm. These circles known as Fairy Rings are constantly reported or claimed to be major areas of Faerie encounters and other anomalous phenomena. Perhaps there might have been a fairy ring on the farm that nobody seemed to take note of, and then on this day, the gate was open, or the veil was dropped, and this being was able to enter our world or be physically seen by humans.

The final possibility is that this entity is an interdimensional being. Much like that of an extraterrestrial or a Faerie, there is this idea that this creature could have come from some other place as currently there is no known creature that evolved on our planet in the same way the Farmersville Green Man did. Now with that said, there is the possibility that this creature could have popped in from whatever original dimension it came from and, unfortunately, either intentionally or unintentionally picked the wrong place and time. Perhaps this could also explain what happened to the body. I had not mentioned the mystery of the body's disappearance as that could be rationalized by being taken away by predators or scavengers or that if it was an alien or a fae, they picked up the remains and took them home or if it was a more earth oriented fae it could have simply returned to the earth that bore it. However, in the same vein, if this creature was an interdimensional being, perhaps this popping in and out is of dimension deals with the structure of the cells, and so if something is even torn apart or spilled out, it will when whatever controls this ability or force take every piece back to where it came from. Of course, all of this is speculation.

Just what this creature is, I'm sure we will never get an answer to it. This being, however, is interesting as it raises the question of whether other creatures of the unknown potentially were killed, and due to an unthinking mind or the body not being found, evidence for their existence goes completely unaccounted. I think it's important that we stay vigilant not just to check the skies for UFOs, thunderbirds, and Mothmen and the surfaces of the lakes and rivers for aquatic humanoids and monsters but also the ground around us for who knows what might be buried below us or on the ground rotting around us.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Reptile, Amphibian, Mammal, /Faerie/Extraterrestrial/ Paranormal Entity/

Location: Farmersville, Texas

Sighted: May 1913

Works Cited:

Fairies: Real Life Encounters with the Little People By Janet Bord

The World's Strangest True Stories By The Editors of Fate

Alex Evans “Encounters with Little Men” FATE Magazine November 1978, pp. 83-85

“Farmersville Green Man” Obscurban Legends Wiki. https://obscurban-legend.fandom.com/wiki/Farmersville_Green_Man. Accessed February 13, 2022. 

Key West Seaweed Beast

 Key West Seaweed Beast

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to bizarre entity encounters, there are tons of accounts, many of which come from the hay days of the 1800s and from the golden era of the 1950s-1990s. These accounts, which are as varied as the infamous Flatwoods Monster to the flapping monstrosity the Jersey Devil to the grinning enigmatic extraterrestrial Indrid Cold, it seems that these accounts are trapped in an era where we were more open to the mysteries of our world and the surrounding space as very rarely it seems that we have the completely unique and downright bizarre creatures and figures nowadays. These unique entities seemed to of completely disappeared and in their place, the mundane overly accounted creatures such as the Grays, Reptilians, Flying Humanoids, and even Bigfoot as the various subspecies such as the white-haired mud-covered Murphysboro Mud Monster or the Watermelon headed hair covered Momo seem to of either been bred out of extinction or simply those traits had been bred away. While it does seem that these bizarre entities are gone either through extinction or some other reason, every once in a while, a case does pop up of something that rarely has been recorded or has never been reported. This case which appeared on the Phantoms and Monsters website, is one such case.    

A Florida man, while vacationing on Key West, would experience one such bizarre entity in a biome that is very much open to holding something elusive, namely the Atlantic Ocean. The man was out bobbing in the ocean with several of his friends one warm day. The group was on a beach near the Southernmost point of the Key. After a long day of frolicking in the froth and foam there, his friends began to work their way out of the water and wandered onto the shore. The man was extremely far out yet did not yet realize the vast distance he was from the shore but did start to notice that the sun was beginning to dip down below the sky. The water began to get darker in color as the lack of the sun made the bluish-green liquid into an olive green, and the ocean seemed to come even more alive as those animals that were nocturnal and more active at night began to come to life. Realizing that it was probably best to leave the water, he began to slowly swim back towards the shore. The water was almost up to his chin, and as he scanned the beach, he noticed that it was abandoned; only his friends remained, and they were preoccupied with drying off and packing up their gear for their car.

The shore was 20 yards away as he moved slowly, working his way. The ocean, which was warm during the day, slowly began to become cooler, making the return to shore more refreshing. As he looked around him in the ever-expanding abyss, he noticed that not too far off a dark form below the water. This patch, he was unsure of its origin, thinking perhaps it could be some school of fish or some cloudy patch caused by the reflection from the sky. The man was disturbed by this form and proceeded to move a little bit quicker towards the shore. He kept looking back each time, noting that the dark form seemed to be heading straight towards him. As the dark object approached, he seemed to be able to tell that this form was not a school of fish or some atmospheric reflection but a large patch of seaweed. It was around the time that the water was up to his chest when the ocean began to push him towards the shore. This oceanic propellent, however, proved to be more of an issue for a man, for not only did it aid him, but it also helped the seaweed in coming closer until it seemed to wrap around the man.

The amorphous form seemed to encircle his body almost how one might imagine an amoeba preying on other single-celled organisms. It was at that moment the man felt a slimy and cold yet firm grip around his calve. He proceeded in slight terror to call out to his remaining two friends on the shore proclaiming, "Something is grabbing my leg!" his friends believing this is some comical joke, began exclaiming in a gleeful and joking fashion that he had better start swimming faster all the while laughing. The man did not want to yell for fear of agitating the strange Creepshow 2 meets Creature from the Haunted Sea esque blob. His mind raced as did his heart; he was petrified to cry out for fear that this leafy creature might, in turn, drag him below the frothing surf, never to be seen again. The man waited, yet the form and its cold, clammy grip seemed to continue; the man decided that he needed to get to shore. So, he proceeded in moving slowly towards the safety of the sandy shore, all the while trailing the bizarre beast much like a parent whose child has clung to their leg. He stared straight at the shore, only occasionally looking down to see if he could make out any clearer definition of the figure, which as it moved below the surf obscured anything other than the hulking seaweed-like mass which he assumed was the body. He could not, however, make out the color or texture of the creature and could only make out an approximate size that went unreported.

He would continue to move towards the shore, watching as the water slowly receded from his body; the figure still latched on, however, only losing its grip whenever he seemed to tense up during this encounter. As he got to an area where the water only reached to his waist, he figured enough was enough, and the man, in a spawn of agitation and fear proceeded in jumping up and down in an attempt to shake whatever was attached to his leg off. The creature soon let go as it either became annoyed or simply tired of its escort of the man and proceeded to hover a short distance away while he trudged at a breakneck pace to the shore. As he reached the shore, he looked back, half expecting the strange creature to rise up out of the water again, almost in a Creepshow 2 style effect. To his surprise, however, the dark form slowly began to move out towards the deeper water, moving against the tide and ultimately disappear into the briny depths. Thinking maybe he imagined the sentience of the seaweed, he looked around him but looking at driftwood and other debris which came towards the shore, he knew that this creatures' movements were maneuvered by itself.

The man proceeded to return to his hotel and later his home, not once speaking about the aquatic anomaly he had witnessed. Yet, it would not be short-lived. Soon on a chance day, he was out with his twin brother, and almost in a therapeutic rant, he came forward with his story. His brother, who also was living in Florida, stared at him for a moment and went on to follow up on his brother's encounter. The Twin would describe a similar encounter while on a relatively remote beach in Miami. The brother was in an almost identical situation; he was out in the deep ocean water up to his chin in the evening, and he too noticed a dark form below the waves. The form, however, as it approached the brother, was something that made the bizarre beast experienced in Key West look like a reject from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. The dark form reached out to the twin brother, and as it grabbed him, he could make out the form all too clear. The figure was pale and bloated; it had extremely large hands and a form that looked like a dead human. Seaweed was wrapped around the entity almost like some cthulhuian tentacles, and the creature seemed to of arisen from nowhere.  The brother managed to escape his grabber and make his way to the shore, never to see the entity ever again.

While the Florida man felt comforted knowing that he was not alone in experiencing such an entity, he was still affected by it. After experiencing this entity, the man began having anomalous effects when near the ocean. He has the habit of staring out at the water, and while he stares out at the crashing waves, an overwhelming sense of peacefulness fills his body. This feeling is not alone, for it comes paired with the sound of whale song that seems to come from the water, yet some of the areas where he hears the noise are in areas where such sounds should not be possible. The feelings and the noise give him the almost siren-like lull of wanting to jump overboard or run into the briny deep. He has experienced this on three cruises since his encounter and has managed to, even though the sensation extremely tempting, and alluring proceeded in staying on the ship and shore.

This organism is certainly bizarre and is, to me, a mish-mash of several cryptids and bizarre entities that have been reported through the years. The first that comes to mind is the Moss Man; its form is an assemblage of plant-like structures not unlike the Moss Man. Both creatures are found in Florida, which is another connection and something that may imply that they are either one and the same or of a similar origin. Another element that points to this is that while most of the Moss Man sightings did occur in forested areas, there was one beach Moss Man sighting. Perhaps Moss Man and the Key West Seaweed Beast are one and the same they are amphibiously moving from the aquatic biomes to the forested sections for different resources, be they nitrogen, oxygen, or some other mineral necessity.

The behavior of the creature also is similar to a creature reported in Indiana known as the Green Clawed Beast. The Green Clawed Beast is often depicted as a scaly hairy lizard-fish man, yet interestingly enough, an actual depiction of what the creature looks like was not recorded or able to be due to the darkness of the water. There was a feeling of a hairy and scaly sensation on the witness's leg as well the feeling of several fingers wrapped around tipped with what can be assumed are claws. Now there is a possibility that maybe the Green Clawed Beast and the Key West Seaweed Beast may be related to the feeling of something prickly or scaly in the Green Clawed Beast case could be another way of describing some irritation or texture of vegetation. Yet this is just speculation.

The Key West Seaweed Beast, while bearing a resemblance to other cryptids in some ways, does not answer how this creature could exist and, more importantly, what the creature could be. Currently, in nature, outside of the carnivorous plants, there are very few plants that one would think of as sentient, let alone mobile as the Key West Seaweed Beast seems to be, yet we can not rule it out. It is a possibility that a species of aquatic plant branched over into the realm of animal slightly, creating a species that has the same intelligence and capabilities as an aquatic organism while at the same time still relying on photosynthesis and nutrients from the surrounding environment to continue thriving. The fact that this is an aquatic organism makes this even more likely for who knows what could have evolved in some remote lagoon or abyss.

Another possibility is that this creature might not actually be some kind of vegetation or cross in between but a kind of protist. The way the creature moves and the way the witness felt a hand around him could be a way of describing a pseudopod. Organisms like amoebas are very amorphous. They seem to be undefined blobs that have unique limbs for feeding and moving. It could be the seaweed beast might be one of these and that the untrained eye of the man mistook the gelatinous body of a gargantuan amoeba for a seaweed creature. Now the only problem with this is that amoebas are microscopic organisms, none reaching the size that the seaweed beast was. So if this was something of that caliber, it would be the discovery of the century and something that would change microbiology forever.

Another possibility is that this creature could be a giant invertebrate, possibly some sort of jellyfish or hydrozoan. These species are very blob-like in form, and much like protists, do have extensions that could be used to grip or grab a potential food source. Now many of these species are extremely venomous or have painful stinging cells that, if this is the identity of the seaweed beast, would be more painful than just the sensation of being grabbed. Making this highly unlikely to be the case.

Skeptically speaking, and perhaps the most unfun possibility is that the man simply was wrapped up in seaweed. There's currently nothing in the countless known members of flora and fauna that appears and behaves like the creature in question. So, while one can speculate as to what the creature could be, there's also a glaring possibility that does need to be brought up. People can be incredibly observant to the point that they can retell entire accounts from memory or quote a film from front to back. People also, however, are extremely oblivious to the world around them; countless times, people walk out in front of moving cars because they do not see them or zone out. Another thing people are great at is interpreting things that are not connected or not there; our brains are our best asset and worst enemy all in one, and it's something we need as researchers to keep in mind when researching phenomena. Sometimes people mistake or miss certain things that reveal exactly what they are seeing; with this case, it's possible that the witness might have missed a change in the wave-making the beast move out to sea as opposed to coming to shore or that a certain segment of the seaweed was wrapped around his ankle or even some debris connected to say seaweed was the culprit. While I personally do not feel this to be the case, it is something that is a possibility.

This aquatic anomaly is something that can be speculated on quite easily, mainly since it does not have a definitive form. What the witness was able to describe makes one able to point out some very plausible answers based on organisms we already know exist in nature as well as those creatures that have been reported but are not currently accepted by science. To my current knowledge, there is nothing else like this creature that has been reported. One element that I had not covered is the creatures’ anomalous effects to those who interacts with it, mainly the bizarre auditory whale song and sense of jumping into the ocean. Is this creature some sort of entity that can implement or suggest ideas into either prey or experiencers' heads? Is this entity something not of a cryptozoological realm but something of a supernatural world such as perhaps some sort of water spirit? It's difficult to say since while there are similar tales with the Greek Sirens, which were creatures with the head of a woman and the body of a bird whose songs lured sailors to drowning, but this is very different from the entity reported in Key West. I'm not at liberty to say if this creature is something from the same cloth, so to speak, but it is an interesting parallel and one that hopefully is not as malicious.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Vegetation (possibly a kind of sentient seaweed), Giant invertebrate (organism could be some sort of colony organism like a jellyfish, hydrozoan, etc.), Unicellular organism (could be a giant variation of Amoeba or other Protist).

Location: Near the Southern Most Point, Key West, Florida

Sighted: Exact date unknown- account recorded in 2021.

Works Cited:

Strickler, Lon “Underwater 'Seaweed Creature' Grabs Witness' Calf in Key West, Florida” Phantoms and Monsters. June 19, 2021. https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2021/06/underwater-seaweed-creature-grabs.html. Accessed August 6, 2021.

The Veggie Man

by Cole Herrold

In the pages of the unknown, there is a constant stream of cases or accounts that indicate multiple origins to the phenomenon. Bigfoot is a classic example as there is the cryptozoological approach of a physical animal, the Ufological approach where there appear to be reports of bigfoot and UFOs at the same time or in some connection to each other, and then there is the interdimensional aspect where some individuals have claimed that bigfoot has phased out of reality, turned into a ball of light, or cloaked itself. The Loveland Frogmen are another case that mixes both Ufology and Cryptozoology as the 55' reports of wand tech-wielding, and baggy pants-wearing creatures are connected to reports of very biologically behaving humanoid frogs. These cases are often confusing when trying to look at them from a physical cryptozoological standpoint, and most researchers who do tend to take these accounts seriously often claim that they are separate entities bigfoot, bigfoot type aliens, frogmen, and aliens that look similar, etc. This tends to be where I stand on this phenomenon as often there are extreme differences in appearances and behavior compared to the earthbound phenomenon.

Often times a cryptid case is later on included into Ufological or some other Fortean lore, but on occasion, the opposite will occur. One particular case of this variety is a cult favorite Ufological topic known as the Vegetable Man. The original account came from Gray Barker and was covered in Brad Steiger's book Alien Meetings. The Vegetable Man was a bizarre, assumedly extraterrestrial visitor that communicated in a bizarre high-pitched whining recordesque telepathic manner and had an extremely bizarre appearance. It had large ears, big, slanted eyes that had yellow and red swirls in it, similar to a stereotypical hypnotist tool. It was extremely thin with long arms which had fingers tipped with stingers and suckers. IT had large feet capable of making great distance and, in many sketches of the beast, a long carrot-like body. The creature was allegedly wounded or suffering from some need and proceeded to use its sucker-like fingers to drain the blood of a Jennings Frederick before running off at high speed.